This is the Truth Network. One of the busiest jobs in the world is being a pastor. Yet, how could a pastor of a pretty good sized church have time to go on a missions trip? much less to a whole nother time zone. to Thailand.
Well, pastor Jeff Johnson just did that. Mount Pisca Church, Greensboro, sir, why would you take time out to go on a missions trip like that? And are you glad you went? I was blessed more than you can ever imagine. I went to Asia in nineteen ninety three to Indonesia.
And here I found myself going back to Asia and Thailand 33 years later. Why did I go? Across America, we have many churches that have a lot of age on them. and I serve one In Greensboro, called Mount Pisca, that last year we celebrated our 180th year. And when we celebrated our 180th year, we thought about how we could bless.
how we could bless our community, how we could bless the world.
So we looked and we raised one hundred eighty thousand dollars. We had a one hundred eighty thousand dollar challenge and we said that we were going to give one third of our money raised to another country, and we ended up giving sixty thousand dollars to the Global Methodist Church in Thailand. And so when I went over there, I was going over there to bless him with 60,000. to plan a church. in Thailand that's only 1% Christian.
I knew the missionary over there. His name is Anut Rai. Him and Darcy, when they graduated from Asbury just a couple of years ago, they moved to Greensboro, North Carolina. And of all the places, they decided to attend Mount Pisca and they became under us. He is a global Methodist pastor in Thailand.
And when we did the $60,000, I said it was time for me to go. Little did I know, and I had forgotten how long the trip was, being in Asia 33 years. And I took my son Cody, who's a pastor at Pine Valley Methodist Church in Wilmington, North Carolina, with me. And um we had an unbelievable time. I could not have planned it more perfectly And there's a part of me that says I'll never go another mission trip because I know that we Americans we like to compare, and if I compare it to what I saw in 10 days there, I'll never go back again.
It was unbelievable. It was surreal. I had a lot of experiences that people would not believe. But it was just simply amazing and I felt that God God went before us, and I take absolutely zero credit for what happened. The only thing I can figure out is me and Cody were faithful to want to go.
Well, we're at a coffee shop here in Greensboro, where I was able to pull you away. I like... I figure if you have time to go on a missions trip as a pastor, you have time to interview real quick and challenge the rest of us to go on mission with God, whether it's across the street or around the world. Pastor Jeff, people are firing up their cars here in the parking lot. What is it like?
What is it?
Well, let me ask it this way. What are some things that you would come back? You're still fresh from the field, and say, We as the American Church. We need to wake up in this area. We need to learn from these dear saints over there.
What were some of the things that you took away from that trip? We here at America, we always ja gauge and we always say that bigger is better. And so what happens when bigger is better, we're never satisfied with where we're at. And one of the things that when we went over to Thailand, that we had a couple of things that I told Cody that if we were going to go, we had to agree to. And I made the mistake of looking at the weather forecast, and I found out that the hottest month of the year in Thailand is April.
And it was 95 to 100 degrees. It was red all the way. And I told Cody we went over there no matter what condition, we cannot say we are hot. The second condition that we had to say, we were with the missionaries, we were out in the villages, we had to say we need to be flexible, flexible. We didn't have everything time program.
And the other thing that we really needed to do. Is we really needed to not really give suggestions. We needed to go and do what they want us to be.
So that means eating their food, going where they want to go, and we needed to move with them. We were not there to tell them how to do it better. We were there to enjoy the moment and offer them Christ. But I do think here in America, you know, we always think that if it, you know, it's so big, and I saw so many things. That they're so big at planting churches.
But see, when we plant a church, we got to say, God, we want to plant the next megachurch. All they were wanting to do is plant a group of believers in hard neighborhoods where Christ wasn't there. They were so focused on Christ and Christ and Christ. that um it it was so refreshing to see that.
So you're refreshed, you're encouraged as a pastor, you come back. Why is it you think more folks need to go on these kind of trips, Pastor Jeff? What is important about this? For speaking to pastors and churches and people everywhere about going on missions trips. You know, the Bible says, How are they going to know if you don't go?
And one of the things it says at Romans: all those who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. And I felt every one of us needs to be challenged. And I know that for me, it really stirred my heart to go. If I would have thought about being on a plane for 44 hours, if I'd have thought about all the times that we were stopped by the police, if I'd have stopped about how hot it was and eating the food and all that, all those obstacles would have knocked me out. But really, what I wanted to do is, I just want to go and bless and experience the Holy Spirit.
And I was with my son, which that means I just wanted to be in the Spirit. And enjoy it, and I think when you do something and you're faithful and you go, you're blessed. Um it had zero to do with me. I just wanted to follow the Lord and was really open to His will.
So I didn't go with how to do anything better. I just came to say, where was God at work? And it was everywhere. Tell us how we can be praying for Thailand specifically. That country in Asia.
What percentage of the country is Christian, would you say? And what should be our burden for that specific country? Maybe if folks want to go there, or called to go there, or want to pray for the churches there? It's like anything else here in America. We like to control things.
Find somebody in Thailand, find an Indigenous person who loves the Lord, and support them. If you're interested in supporting somebody from Thailand, please reach out to me at Mount Pisca Church in Greensboro, North Carolina. I'd love to talk to you. But when you had the Indigenous people on the ground, it was amazing. It took me into juvenile prisons.
We were in Muslim neighborhoods. We were in places that in landfill places, we were in places that nobody would ever imagine the gospel. See, here in America, we plan a brand new church. We want the prime real estate, prime location, prime this, prime that. They did not see it that way.
They went to where the gospel needed to be. And a 1% Christian, and it was amazing. There were statues of statues everywhere, but I just. I just but when we went out and these people came out And they, I had people sit there and say, I hadn't walked in 10 years, I had this going on in 10 years, all these needs. And I'll never begin the first night that I did that, it was hard to sleep.
And this is what I was asking myself. Did I really believe the prayers I was praying? Was I really praying for healing, or was I just saying words? Because these people, all they had was a prayer. All they had was a prayer.
And I saw deliverances, I saw some healings, I saw some unbelievable, I saw some shrieking on the floor, just people convulsing. I saw all kinds of things in Cody and I saw it. And when you go and you see things, you become a witness. But we have we have become very callous to the gospel. And the gospel in America is one of convenience.
And the gospel and the people for Thailand, it's all they have. Truth to I
