Prayer for Frontier/Never Reached Groups

Biblical Calling

Matthew 28:19–20 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””

Romans 10:14–15 “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!””

Matthew 9:37–38 “He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.””

Who they are!

We are called to not only go but keep going. Keep going means searching for those groups of people that have yet to be engaged with the gospel. We should identify who they are, where they are, and how to reach them.

Today is about, “Who they are!”

UPG’s and NRPG’s

An unreached people group (UPG) is a “people group among which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians with adequate numbers and resources to evangelize the rest of its members without outside (cross-cultural) assistance.” according to Boundary-Breaking Mission: The Gospel in a Diverse and Fragmented World

unreached peoples — a people or ethnic group without a community of believing Christians. according to AG

But we are going a bit further than UPG’s. We live in a country where the vast majority are considered UPG’s. The only groups that are considered reached are the tribal groups in northern Thailand and that is not all of them.

Today we are considering Never Reached Groups or as defined by others Frontier people groups.

So, “Who are they?”

Frontier people groups subset “where there are no movements to Christ, no breakthroughs of indigenous faith, and less than 0.1% of the population is Christian.” according to Apostolic Imagination: Recovering a Biblical Vision for the Church’s Mission Today

This means that less than 1 out of a 1,000 are believers. Us asking the Thai church to reach these groups is asking an unreached people group to reach a never reached group. The definition of a unreached is a group that does not have adequate numbers and resources to evangelize the rest of its members without outside help. I am not saying they can’t but I am saying we need to commit to this task and not forget about the Never Reached groups.

We are here to help the unreached people evangelize the rest of its members with an eye and heart to groups that have no members.

Never Reached People Groups

According to the Joshua Project in Thailand we have 25.

Here is a map of these groups:

Here are the groups named and their population size:

Aheu Luang 1600

Cham, Western 4700

Dawei, Tavoyan 600

Huay 600

Hui 91000

Jewish, Thai-speaking 200

Lao Krang 59000

Lao Lom 29000

Lao Ngaew 36000

Lao Ti 200

Lao Wieng 59000

Malay, Kedah 1000

Malay, Pattani 1567000

Mpi 1600

Nyahkur 1600

Punjabi 64000

Rohingya 5100

Saek 21000

Tai Bueng 6700

Tai Gapong 2200

Tai Kaleun 9000

Tai Wang 20000

Thai Islam 1363000

Thai, Tak Bai 22000

Tonga, Ten'edn 400

This is a list we can start from. I am sure there are more and some of these need to be researched if they are actually present. We can add a group if you know about them and want us to join in prayer for them.

Remember this group is less than 1-1,000.

We also have UPG’s in Thailand like the Deaf, Issan, and Mon…Etc.

Maniq

For Example:

Tonga, Ten'edn 400

Also, known as Maniq live as nomadic hunter gathers. They live in two different mountain ranges and the two groups have diverging languages. Tonga is the language of the Mani people of Thailand. They are the only Negrito people in that country; they look more like Africans than Asians. They have lived in what is Thailand for thousands of years. They prefer the name "Mani" which simply means, "jungle dwellers." The Mani people live in the Manung district of Thailand's Satun Province.

The primary religion is an ethnic religion. This religion is a basis for their own identity. They cremate their dead and ask the spirit of the deceased to not follow them home. They do not bury their dead because someone might walk over the place where the corpse is buried, which would be a sin.

We need to pray for them.

Pray for workers, Thai, Pacific Islanders, Souther Americans, Africans, and maybe Americans to be sent.

Pray for ways of engagement because they are a very shy people group.

Pray for one person out of this group to become a believer.

Pray if God would lead you to organize a trip to visit them.

Cham

Cham, Western

The precise origin of the Cham is unknown, but they are the survivors of the Champa Kingdom, which flourished from A.D. 2 until A.D. 1471. When the Vietnamese invaded their kingdom, most aristocrats fled to Cambodia; whereas, the poor peasants remained in Vietnam. Evidence still remains of this once flourishing civilization;-grandiose temples and sanctuaries, irrigation systems, woven cloth, sculpture, and jewelry. The Western Cham are a mixture of Cham and Malay, with whom they traded during the time of their powerful kingdom.

The Cham in Thailand are Muslim.

Pray for workers.

Pray for ways of engagement.

Pray for the couple of known believers for boldness to evangelize their own group.

Pray if God would lead you to organize a trip to visit them.

Huay

Huay

Huay, the name this group calls itself, means "forest stream." The Thais call them Kha Hor, a term that the Huay consider derogatory. Most likely they were taken as slaves or war prisoners from Laos to Thailand in the middle of the nineteenth century. They were well-known for their ability to walk fast through jungles and mountainous areas, so the Thai authorities used them as messengers. They walked so quickly that the Thai gave them the name Kha Hor, which means "flying slave."

The Huay living in Ban Nam Lieng, Ban Pang Hok and Ban Huey Kohn villages all share the family name of Taukam, while the Huay of Ban Peen have the name Hoom Doog.

Prayer Cards

I have prayer cards for those of you that want to take them. I have made prayer cards of all the groups but not enough prayer cards for each of you to have every group. Pick a group or a few groups to have targeted specific prayer.

Specifically ask God to put some actions to your prayer.

Ask if you should at least visit them so that you can remember their faces and names.

Go and claim the ground they are on for Christ.

The Light

In our first term here when we didn’t even know how to ask how much something cost very well, we were discouraged by the lostness of this nation. We prayed to God in lament for the Thai people and for our own terrible language ability. God reminded us that we host His presence. While we had no ability to speak we were taking the Light of the Holy Spirit into dark places that had never had a walking presence before. We brought the Temple of God into a land that was ruled by darkness. Light your lamp and put it on a hill, don’t hide it.

Draw a line.

Thank you all for your faithfulness!