Missionaries – One Family, One God Dream

This post, I have a guest blogger, Keisha Lennon, who, along with her family, is going to Thailand as a missionary. I know this family, and they are godly people who are worth supporting.

One Family, One God Dream

The Lennon’s Call to Thailand

Our lives are but a story, line upon line being written by those who influence and change us, but even more so by those who we influence and change.  Simply put, this defines the desire of our lives—to bring hope to those who had none before coming into contact with us, through the love of Jesus Christ.  Come and be a part of our story, and allow us the privilege of becoming a part of your story!

Meet the Lennon’s

We—Ryan and Keisha—have been married for seven years and have been blessed with two children—Hannah (age 5) and Noah (age 2 ½).  Participating in the fulfillment of the Great Commission has been a passion of ours, even before we were married.  In fact, our family mission statement is “To know God: His Heart and His Character.  To be on the front lines of communicating the Good News to the lost by building a ministry that effectively reaches out and evangelizes.  To disciple, equip, and motivate believers of all ages to willingly abandon their own lives for the salvation of every tongue, tribe, and nation.”  Within the past few years, God has refined this desire and focused our hearts on Northern Thailand, more specifically the city of Chiang Rai, which is located in The Golden Triangle.

Our entire marriage has been a season of preparation!  Between the two of us, we’ve participated in or led 14 mission trips, all of which deposited something different within our hearts for what we are about to embark on next.  In terms of education, Keisha has a bachelor’s degree in English, and Ryan will soon have a bachelor’s degree in Bible and Theology, both of which will be useful tools in Thailand practically and spiritually.

In light of all this, our family plans to move to Chiang Rai, Thailand during the early fall of 2010. Our home church, Canton Temple of Praise Church of God will be sending us out to serve with Emerge Missions (www.emergemissions.org).  Emerge is an “innovative missions outreach to young people in emerging nations,” primarily Asia.  While Emerge’s influence is far reaching, in Chiang Rai, we (the Emerge team) will be focusing on university campus ministry, community and tribal outreach, orphanage ministry, and the establishment of a discipleship school. In focusing on young people, we hope to influence not just one generation, but the face of an entire nation!

About Thailand

Thailand is located in Southeast Asia, in the 10/40 Window, where 95% of the world’s unreached peoples live.  While Thailand is not hostile to proclamation of the Good News, it is surrounded by persecuted nations: Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Cambodia, and Malaysia.  Most Thais (95%) practice Buddhism, with Islam (4%) and Christianity (0.7%) also represented.  About 66 million people live in Thailand, including many hill tribes, who originate from Myanmar, Laos, and China.  Due to growing socio-economic issues and the AIDS epidemic, the number of orphans in Thailand continues to increase.  In fact, within an hour’s drive from where we will live, approximately 60 orphanages exist do to handle influx of unwanted children or children whose parents have died as a result of lifestyle choices.

As a whole, Thailand has a sexually-oriented culture.  Prostitution and homosexuality continues to affect this developing nation, as they have for years.  Undoubtedly, the most heartbreaking aspect of Thailand is the ever-growing child sex-trafficking industry.  Men from all over the world come to Northern Thailand to engage sexually with little girls as young as eight or ten years old.  As a result, these young sex slaves often die before adulthood due to disease or other misfortunes due to the lifestyle handed to them.  Most times, these children die without ever hearing the name of Jesus. 

Thailand & Faith

Thailand is predominately Buddhist (94%) and is located in a region of the world known as the 10/40 window.  The 10/40 window is defined as 10 degrees north latitude to 40 degrees north latitude, stretching across northern Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia.  Ninety-five percent of the world’s unreached people call the 10/40 window home.  To be unreached simply means that one does not have access to the Good News.  In other words, the lost in Thailand is different than the lost in the U.S. because while many Americans need Christ or may even need to hear about Him, physically and geographically they have access to many churches and Christians, essentially giving them opportunity to make a decision for Christ.  Because Thailand is less than 1% Christian, most Thai live and die without ever having that chance. 

While 95% of the world’s unreached peoples live in this region, less than 5% of all monies ever given to world missions make it to the 10/40 window.  In other words, the church as a whole continues to sow (and sow and sow) into regions where the Good News is available locally, but we are leaving the unreached untouched.  For so many reasons, this does not make sense, but unfortunately it continues to be the case.

Getting Involved

In an effort to change the reality in Thailand through the love and blood of Jesus Christ, our family plans to relocate to Chiang Rai, Thailand in August or September of 2010, but we cannot tackle such a huge task alone.

Our heart is to see ministries and individuals link arms with us to change the face of a generation worldwide.  We invite you to go on this mission to Thailand with our family, either as a prayer partner or a support partner.  Because our ministry is fully support-based, we need churches, ministries, and families to give financially.  To meet our family’s living expenses, we need $3000 per month, which covers housing, utilities, phone, internet, food, transportation, educational costs, health insurance, and finances to return to the States every two years.      

Financially, our family’s need  can be met in a number of different ways.  The following examples provide a few options for your consideration:

• 120 ministries/families giving $25 monthly
• 60 ministries/families giving $50 monthly
• 30 ministries/families giving $100 monthly

If you feel led to invest in to the youth of Northern Thailand, please consider sponsoring our family monthly or giving a special offering.  Please keep in mind that all gifts are tax deductible when given through Emerge Missions.  To partner with us financially, you have two options.

1.  To begin partnering with us by check:

1. Just make the check payable to Emerge Missions.
2. Write “Ryan and Keisha” in the memo line.
3. Mail to the following address,

Emerge Missions

c/o Ryan and Keisha Lennon

3444 Hampreston Way NW

Kennesaw, GA 30144

2.  To begin partnering with us online: 

1. Go to our website at http://web.me.com/ryankeisha.
2. Click the “Getting Involved” link.
3. Click the “Donate Now, Just Give” icon, and follow the prompts.

Contact Us

We would love to hear from you and remain in contact with your ministry.  If you have any comments and/or questions about our family’s ministry, please feel free to e-mail us at onegoddream@gmail.com.  Too, check out our website and blog at http://web.me.com/ryankeisha.

Kairos of Ohio Prison Ministries

My nephew Roy is in Marion Correction Institute in Ohio for murder. He never broke a law until he was twenty-three years old and murdered his best friend. The police investigated and he confessed before it went to trial. He was sentenced to 18 years to life. He’s now 37 years old and has been in prison for 13 years.

Roy went to church when he was younger and knew about God, but he never made a commitment to serve him. For the first three years at prison, Roy stayed in his cell and watched television. Finally he started routine prison life but was depressed. He figured he was doing good for being in prison. How could you not be miserable? Then five years ago, he attended a Kairos week-end for prisoners.

Roy surrendered his life to God that week-end. Now he’s happy. He says he had to go to prison to be set free. He regrets his crime and believes God wants him to be in prison, but he’s content. Roy meets with the Kairos group of prisoners once a week, goes to chapel once a week, and attends an intercessory prayer meeting every evening. That intercessory prayer group made up of prisoners prays for ministries all over the world.

Roy is not the only prisonor to be changed after a Kairos week-end. Roy is in a cell block reserved for prisonors who never get in trouble. Many of the prisonors in his cell block are Christians who were converted at a Kairos week-end.

Marion Correctional Institute has changed because of Kairos, and became the first prison to have Promise Keepers come into the facility and televise a crusade.

Here’s a testimony from the Kairos brochure.

Kairos at Marion Correctional Institute: (excerpt from their brochure)

In 1996, the state’s Marion Correctional Institution was a dark, dangerous, foreboding, and unGodly place. Although it is a medium-security prison, it was a place everyone – prisoner and professional alike – tried to avoid. The Arian Brotherhood, The Bloods, the Crips and a host of other gangs ran the inmate population. More prisoners filed lawsuits against the state than at any other institution. Labor-management relations were at an all-time low, with multiple grievances being filed nearly every day.

In response, Reginald Wilkinson, then Ohio Director of Rehabilitation and Correction, asked Christine Money, the Warden of the Ohio Reformatory for Woman in Marysville, to transfer to Marion.

Mrs. Money thought about, and prayed about, the opportunity. Based on her faith, and her 3-year experience with Kairos at Marysville, she finally agreed to the transfer, but only if she could take Kairos with her.

The first ministry weekend was held in the Spring of 1997. Forty-two care-fully selected residents were chosen to participate. They were ministered to by a team of 55 Christians from a variety of churches in Ohio. The weekend went well, and the graduates formed the bulwark of a new Christian movement inside the walls of M.C.I.. Other practicing Christian inmates were encouraged in their faith walks, and additional weekends were scheduled.

Today, more than 800 men have completed a Kairos weekend at M.C.I.. Many of them have been released or transferred, but a core group remains and they are visible in everything that goes on in the prison. A large group of men spend hours preparing posters and letters of support for Christian Renewal programs held across the country and in some foreign lands. An intercessory prayer team prays for the needs of a wide variety of men and women every-where. Protestant and Catholic chapel services are bulging at the seams, small Prayer and Share groups have taken the place of gangs, and Kairos volunteers return frequently for special programs and monthly Reunions.

The Marion Choir, their special Christmas and Easter pageants, and the Silent Choir (signing in unison) are popular programs enjoyed by insiders and outsiders alike. The Promise Keepers program was invited to visit Marion; and, after a thorough investigation, responded by holding their first-ever rally inside prison walls. The program was televised nationally.

Kairos Outside, a 3-day program specifically-designed for the wives, mothers and daughters of prisoners who are active in Kairos, began in 1999. The program actually moved into the Prison Chapel in 2001, becoming the first-ever Kairos Outside Inside. Kairos Torch, a program designed for inmates age 16 to 22, where young men are paired with older inmates who serve as mentors, was added in 2000.

Warden Money was moved in 2005 to the troubled Department of Youth Services, and Mrs. Margaret Beightler, another solid Christian who is dedica-ted to Kairos, took her place.

Marion Correctional Institution re-mains a prison today, to be sure; and bad guys are arriving every day. But it is no longer a dark, frightening and foreboding place. Most inmates are grateful, safe, mutually-supportive and as happy as they can be. The staff is relieved, and no longer must resort to grievances to express their frustration, and Christ-ianity actually flows out the doors of M.C.I. and into the world of which Marion is a part.

 

But Marion isn’t the only place where Kairos is ministering.

Kairos of Ohio Prison Ministries (exerpt from their brochere)

There are 8 Ohio institutions at which the Kairos 3-day “short course in Christianity” is provided twice per year. The Kairos Prison Ministry has been active in the following prisons since the indicated startup dates:

Lebanon Correctional Institution-1991

Ohio Reformatory for Women (Marysville) – 1994

Marion Correctional Institution – 1997

Ross Correctional (Chillicothe) – 2000

Trumbull Correctional (near Warren) -2002

Toledo Correctional – 2003

Richland Correctional (Mansfield) – 2004

Southern Ohio Correctional (Lucasville) -2004

The purpose of the Kairos ministry is to help grow and nurture strong Christian communities within adult correctional institutions.  

Through a systematic structured program, God helps Kairos volunteers provide residents the opportunity to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and/or to renew that relationship—–starting with the 3-day Kairos “short course in Christianity.” During the weekend and subsequent follow-up spiritual growth activities facilitated by Kairos volunteers and prison chaplains, residents are challenged to accept God’s call to a life of Christian witness and service to one another and to staff during their stay in the institution and beyond.

As the mission of Kairos is accomplished in an institution, there is a positive impact on the total environment of the institution.

 

 

To out more about the Kairos of Ohio Prison Ministries, click here.

Kairos Prison Ministry isn’t only in Ohio. For more information, click here.

To become a penpal to a prisonor, click here.

Roy’s Penpal profile page.

God is moving in our prisons.