While OneVoice27 is mobilizing Seventh-day Adventists across the Southern Asia-Pacific region to use digital platforms to reach people with the gospel, three churches in northern Thailand are demonstrating another side of the strategy: sometimes the most important connection happens face to face.
Members of the Kamphaeng Phet, Phitsanulok and Phetchabun Seventh-day Adventist churches gathered Sept. 5-6 for the launch of OneVoice27 in Thailand’s Lower North region. Rather than centering their activities primarily on digital engagement, members took the message directly into their communities through literature distribution, education, health ministry and relationships built over time.
The two-day initiative illustrated a central principle behind OneVoice27 — while methods may differ according to local circumstances, each touchpoint can help move people from initial contact toward meaningful relationships with Christians, connection with a local church and, ultimately, a growing relationship with Jesus.
Mission Begins With Understanding People
Hosted by the Phitsanulok Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Sabbath gathering brought together members of the three congregations, collectively known as the KPP Cluster.
The program began by preparing members to better understand the communities they hope to reach. Pastor Reben Huilar presented “Cross-Cultural Holistic Health Ministry,” while Chaplain Menel B. Huilar addressed “Intercultural Ministry and Language Pedagogy.”
Both presentations emphasized the importance of understanding culture, language and community needs when communicating the gospel in Thailand’s multicultural setting.
Children were also included in the mission emphasis. During their program, Teacher Maygin presented “Too Good to Keep,” encouraging children to see the good news of Jesus as something meant to be shared.
During the main worship service, Huilar, pastor of the KPP Cluster, presented “All Things New,” based on Revelation 21:5. The message focused on Christ’s promise of restoration and renewal and invited members to participate in sharing that hope with others.
But the launch did not end with the worship service.
That afternoon, participants left the church building and entered the surrounding community. Organized into six teams, members distributed 800 copies of Secret of Happiness, the Thai-language edition of Ellen G. White’s Steps to Christ.
The activity gave members an opportunity not only to distribute Christian literature but also to meet people personally — turning the OneVoice27 message into face-to-face encounters within the community.
A Relationship Two Years in the Making
The following day showed another dimension of the same strategy.
Eighteen Adventist volunteers traveled to Lankrabu Wittaya School, a government school, where they conducted an English program for approximately 120 students in the school’s Science, Mathematics and English program.
Their presence at the school, however, did not begin with OneVoice27.
It began with a relationship.
Two years earlier, Adventist volunteers conducted a free English camp at the school as part of Global Youth Day. That initial act of service created a connection between the school and the local Adventist community that continued long after the event ended.
This year, a school department head approached Shekinah Lel, a teacher at Lankrabu Wittaya School and member of Kamphaeng Phet Seventh-day Adventist Church, to ask whether the Adventist volunteers could return and conduct another English program.
The invitation provided an opportunity for the church to continue a relationship already established through service.
During the program, volunteers used interactive English activities, songs and values-based lessons to engage students. Students also received copies of Secret of Happiness in Thai.
For Lel, the experience demonstrated how ordinary professional and personal relationships can become opportunities for ministry.
“Being a teacher is truly a blessing and a privilege,” Lel said. “Sometimes, we may think that we are simply doing our job, but God can use even the simplest things to touch lives.”
One Voice, Different Touchpoints
The experience in northern Thailand reflects a broader dimension of OneVoice27: mission does not begin or end with a particular technology.
A social media post can become one touchpoint. A radio program can become another. In another community, the touchpoint may be an English class, a health program, a book handed personally to someone or a relationship developed between a teacher and a school.
What connects these approaches is the intentional effort to create opportunities for people to encounter the message of Jesus and build relationships with a community of faith.
For the KPP Cluster, that meant bringing together three congregations around a common mission while using opportunities already available within their communities.
The Sept. 5-6 activities also demonstrated the value of sustained engagement. The invitation from Lankrabu Wittaya School came because of a relationship established two years earlier, showing that community outreach can continue creating opportunities long after an individual event concludes.
The three churches plan to continue developing initiatives involving Christian education, holistic health ministry, literature evangelism and personal outreach throughout Thailand’s Lower North region.
In a movement increasingly using technology to extend the church’s reach, the experience in northern Thailand offers another picture of OneVoice27: the screen may begin a conversation, but mission ultimately moves through people.