Letter 1

Hi Guys,

As my friends and family, I'd like to let you know that I am going on a short term mission trip to Thailand this summer from November 27th till December 23rd. I will be going with a TSCF/OMF team and we will be working with one of our sister student groups in Thailand TCS, helping them get established and bringing together the other Christians on campus.

At this stage in my life, I really have a heart for student ministry, and also for God's work overseas, especially Asia. As I'll be working for the next 3 years, I see this as a really valuable time to combine these two passions and to start seriously looking at what life might hold for me after I fulfill my contract.

I will be travelling with a team of 5 other students and one TSCF staffworker (James Allaway), and look forward to a retreat with them in Wellington on Oct 27-29.

It would be so encouraging to me if you guys were keen to support me while I'm on this trip. It will be a new culture for most of our team and a pretty intense month of ministry. There are three things that you could do which would be really encouraging.
___________________________________________________

Reply to this email and tell me you would like to receive more emails, updating you on our progress in Thailand.
___________________________________________________

Pray for us, especially for:
1. Our retreat together next weekend that we will grow together for the sake of advancing the gospel. (Philippians 1:27-28)
2. God would prepare the hearts of the people we meet in Thailand that they will respond to the gospel. (2 Thessalonians 3:1)
3. That we would gain an understanding of the culture that we are going into, in order that we may share the gospel effectively. (Acts 17:22-32)
4. That God would give me a greater understanding of the truth that his gospel is for all mankind, and that I would see the opportunities to take part in this work.

_____________________________________________________

Support me financially: As I will also be visiting my parents in Thailand, I don't think it's right to ask for money for my plane tickets there and back, but I would really appreciate it if you would like to partner with me financially in the ministry side. The cost of training/accomodation/outreach/shots will roughly be $1000, so that is my 'fundraising' target. My plan is to have 50 people, each contributing $20 each (but i think my church is keen to support me a bit more than $20 so will probably need a bit less than 50 people), so if you are able to contribue $20, that would be really appreciated. You can pay online at:

P B McIvor
National Bank
06 0529 0683200 18

or even better, pay directly and come and chat to me, and ask me more questions about the trip. I'm always happy to talk about God and Thailand!!! :)
_____________________________________________________

Sorry that this post has been so long!

In conclusion, reply to this email now saying that you would like to receive further updates about my trip to Thailand. If you don't reply to this email, you won't get anymore emails about my trip.

God bless,

Philip McIvor

What I Believe

I think it is important what people believe, especially if we are going to support them in 'ministry.' So, a little bit, here is what i believe. Mostly it is just the TSCF doctrinal statement. I'm really hoping that during this mission trip I will be able to develop more of a statement of belief for 'global mission,' so pray that God makes his word clear to me. Thanks.

# There is one God, who is three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is the Creator and Sustainer of all things.
# God in revealing himself inspired the Holy Scriptures so that they are entirely trustworthy and have supreme authority in matters of doctrine, faith and conduct.
# We all were made for fellowship with God, but disobeyed him. So we all have become sinners, guilty in God's sight, under his wrath, and alienated from him.
# Jesus Christ, God's own son, became truly human. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
# Jesus Christ took on himself the sin of the world when he died on the cross as our representative and substitute. God thereby showed his love for us and provided the only way for us to be forgiven and reconciled to Him.
# Jesus of Nazareth was raised by God from the dead.
# The Holy Spirit brings us to trust Christ and repent of our sins, lives in us, and develops our new life in Christ in the fellowship of the Church.
# Jesus Christ, the living Lord, will return in person as Judge and King.


This is pretty dry stuff, but I'm not really enthusiastic enough to make it more personal just yet. I guess it comes from the underlying assumption that the Bible is the inerrant word of God, and that it offers us a source of absolute truth.

I was at a mini missions conference last week and it really boiled my blood when one of the missionaries up front quoted "preach Christ at all times, and if necessary, use words." Hopefully i'll come up with an intelligent response to that soon. I'm really keen to get my mits on John Piper's "Let the Nations be Glad." To have read that is one of my goals on this mission trip. Anyway, i'm really selling myself short by kicking this blog off with such a long, boring, unthought out post but oh well. that's the beauty of blogs. noone reads them.

Post 1

thanks everyone for actually taking the time to look at this post. i hope it reminds you to pray for our team as we head over to thailand. hopefully i will be onto it and post photos here and also all those regularly updated prayer letters i will be sending out.....or history will repeat itself, and i will get lazy less than halfway through the trip and give up completely (see last summers blog).