Dear Ministry Partners,
Soli Deo Gloria. Glory to God alone for New Heights Ministry. New Heights ministry is a product of God’s grace. God has guided this ministry and provided for this ministry. But please know we recognize and value your partnership in New Heights Ministry (NHM). We praise God for your prayers and generous giving, and we ask God to bless each of you.
2025 has been a time of expanding opportunities and refocusing for NHM.
Our Focus:
- Sharing Christ with villagers in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia
- Meeting people’s physical and spiritual needs in the love of Christ
- Opening doors to villages with community development projects
- Employing well-trained and dedicated native evangelists to overcome barriers of tribal cultures and languages
- Providing Bible training and spiritual growth opportunities in the villages
- Preparing the next generation of church leaders, pastors, and evangelists
Myanmar Refugee Update. Throughout the year, Mission Director Jung Dangshing and all of our ministry evangelists have been ministering in Myanmar refugee camps along Thailand’s northern and western borders with Myanmar. Our efforts on meeting physical needs of the refugees encouraged the Thai refugee camp authorities to permit NHM to enter the camps to evangelize new Christians and conduct Bible training for existing believers. Along with Bible training, NHM conducted Christian leadership training to help the Christian refugees begin church groups in the camps. We are praying that one day in the future, God will close these refugee camps and send these Myanmar Christians home to start churches that will minister and carry the Gospel throughout Myanmar.
NHM Evangelism. We praise God for our dedicated Karen evangelists who are sharing the light of Christ with villagers throughout northern Thailand. You can now meet each NHM evangelist on our ministry website: https://www.newheightsministry.org/evangelists/. All our evangelists live in villages where they farm, and when not in their fields, are evangelizing in the villages in their districts. Along with one-on-one evangelizing and ministering, our evangelists organize special Bible training events and baptism services. Working with the evangelists, Mission Director Jung will lead one or two of these special events each month. The photo below shows Jung leading Sunday worship at the Beroa Church in Nong Pak Nam village. NHM evangelist Sukchai Kiatdee translates Jung’s Thai message into the Karen language. They are joined on stage by NHM evangelist, Pastor Charkapan Chairaksapan.
After the service, NHM food donations are distributed to the villagers. The food is an unexpected blessing for the villagers (see photo below).
During the fall, we had two evangelists contract Dengue Fever. Having lived in the jungle all their lives, their cases were mild and did not require hospitalization. However, our mission director, Jung, was infected while visiting a village and had to have ICU care. The word was sent out to the many villages where our evangelists have ministered to pray for Jung. Praise God, Jung was released from the hospital after five days and returned home to Chiang Mai. After two months, Jung has mostly recovered from the fever.
Along with evangelizing in villages without a Christian presence, NHM works closely with established Christian churches in districts like Mae Chaem, Mae Sariang, Tha Song Yang, Mae Ramat, and Mae Sot. We conduct in-depth Bible training for church members, provide guest pastors for worship services, and contribute food to the villagers. Supplying food is a blessing in every community, regardless of size, especially in the months leading up to the harvest when money is scarce and food supplies are low. The work of NHM has spread to many areas in the Golden Triangle. News of our rural community development projects, such as our concrete freshwater storage tanks, has spread to non-Christian villages and even to villages across the border in Myanmar.
2025 Youth Camp. The highlight of this quarter was being contacted by a Christian youth ministry in Myanmar. The Christian youth leaders were planning a five-day youth Bible camp. They knew the Myanmar authorities would not allow such an event to take place, so the youth leaders coordinated to have a Christian church in Thailand host 200 Myanmar Karen youth, ages 12-19 years old. The children came from two neighboring Myanmar states, Karen and Kayah, that have been ravaged by the war. The children and their families were sworn to secrecy concerning the Bible camp. The children and their youth leaders travel by trucks to designated points, then walk several hours on foot to reach the border. They then cross the river separating Myanmar from Thailand to reach the Thai church that hosted the Bible camp. The Thai Christian church members, also Karens, opened their homes and provided food to house the youth.
The Myanmar youth leaders made a request for NHM to lead the Friday night service and Sunday worship services. Many of the attending youth had parents back home who had not yet accepted Christ as Lord and Savior. So, this was a wonderful and meaningful outreach to help the children share Christ with their parents. Jung was honored to provide the Bible study and the worship service message. None of the children spoke Thai, so Jung brought two NHM evangelists to translate his Thai messages into the Karen language. The day the Myanmar youth returned to their homes and families, NHM was able to bless them with an ice-cream send-off. Please see the photos below.
The Myanmar youth leaders planned a wonderful agenda with plenty of time for fun activities, singing praise songs, prayer, and learning more about God. It was a blessing for the children to be loved on and ministered to, even if only for five days.
This Bible camp was an act of amazing faith and obedience. The Myanmar youth leaders had great faith in organizing the event. The Myanmar parents had great faith to allow their children to cross the
Myanmar border to attend the Bible camp. The Thai church had great faith to host the event. The church members had great faith to give what little they had to provide for the youth during the camp. Everyone involved obediently responded to God’s calling to make this Bible camp happen despite great personal risk. God completely covered this event with His protestion and all were blessed.
God has provided many such opportunities for New Heights Ministry. We are winning souls for Christ and are making a difference in the lives of the Karen people. We praise God and thank Him for you, who enable NHM to serve so many. We are humbled by your prayers and financial support. You make the New Heights Ministry possible.
Next Step of Faith. A year ago, NHM evangelist Charkapan Chairaksapan was called by a Christian village church to become their full-time pastor. This was a milestone for NHM and led NHM leadership to consider what might be the next step for our ministry in serving the villages of Northern Thailand. We believe God is leading NHM to provide villages with a growing number of Christians, with a church building that will also serve as a community center for the village. Along with the construction of a church building would be the provision of a well-qualified pastor. The NHM board of directors approved to begin the process of building a church.
It is the vision of the board that the church building would serve the entire village community as well as become the center of fellowship for the village Christians. This building will be designed to serve all the villagers and the body of Christ every day. In addition to a worship center, the church building will house a nursery, a kitchen, meeting rooms, and an office for the pastor and church staff. The building will also have a covered pavilion for community events and bathrooms. The building will be suited to the village culture but will also be designed to honor God.
The graphic on the right is a
depiction of what the church
worship center might look like. It
will be a structure built with
materials that will last many
decades with minimal
maintenance. We have spoken
with an architecture firm in
Chiang Mai and have an estimate
of the cost to design such a
church/community center. The
cost for the design and complete
construction drawings will be
approximately $15,000. NHM
will raise this money separately
and will keep the full financing of
the ministry as our highest
priority.
God’s Calling. If God is leading you to go on mission with New Heights Ministry. Please know that our greatest need is your prayers. Please pray that all our ministry actions and decisions glorify God. Please pray that God will graciously give wisdom to our ministry leaders. Please pray that our ministry leaders will be sensitive and obedient to God’s leading.
If you are led to participate with New Heights Ministry through financial support, you have three areas of ministry that you can support. You can give to the ministry itself that provides all the funding to operate the ministry, as presented through our newsletters and website. A second area of giving can be to sponsor a specific evangelist. Your gift of $35 per month and daily prayers enable an evangelist to afford food, lodging, and travel expenses needed as they visit villages each month. The third area of giving is to contribute to the design of the church/community center.
Your financial gift of any amount can be made securely online using the link: https://www.newheightsministry.org/donate/.
- On this web page you will find a button that reads: Donate Online
- Click on this button. You will be taken to the New Horizons Foundation donation page for “Project: New Heights Ministry”
- At the top of this webpage is the button that reads: Use Where Needed Most
- Click on this button. You will have three options
- Select your choice of: “Use Where Needed Most,” “Evangelist Outreach,” “Thailand Hill Tribe Community Church”
- The “Use Where Needed Most” is the general fund for the annual operations of NHM
- Select your choice and then complete the rest of the form.
If you choose “Evangelist Outreach,” you can give a monthly amount or an annual amount. If you would like to designate a specific evangelist to support, you can identify an evangelist using the link: https://www.newheightsministry.org/evangelists/. This link provides the name and photo of all our evangelists. On the New Horizons Foundation donation form, write in the name of your evangelist in the “comment/request” box at the bottom of the donation form. For your information, New Horizons Foundation is the nonprofit organization that provides our donation services and ensures strict adherence to all legal requirements for nonprofit ministries.
You can learn more about NHM at our website, https://www.newheightsministry.org/. If you have any questions, please contact Ron Oholendt at ron.oholendt@newheightsministry.org. God bless you.
In His service,
Ron Oholendt
Board of Directors, NHM Pastor
Jung Dangshing
Director, New Heights Ministry
Del Giddings
Chairman, Board of Directors, NHM