August 2025 Prayer Letter

Written by: Karl Dahlfred on 03 August 2025.

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Dear Family and Friends,

We’ve had a busy few months, full of teaching, preaching, kids outreach, and more. Praise God for the opportunity to be involved in what God is doing in Thailand, both 1) training and leadership development, and 2) grassroots evangelism and discipleship. Our prayer to God is that people not only come to faith in Christ, but also grow in their faith and go on to build healthy church community.

Chinese Seminary Intensive Course

As pressure on the church in China has intensified in recent years, Chinese believers have had to find alternative avenues for leadership development, including relocation to sites outside of China. In May, Karl traveled to another city in Southeast Asia to help teach an intensive course in global missions for a mainland Chinese Reformed seminary. I had students both on-site and online from churches that had never sent out missionaries and needed to know how to get started. The church in China has huge potential to impact the world for Christ. Pray that God will raise up workers for the harvest from among the multiplying churches of China.

teachcnsem1000px

Grace Church Baptisms

In June we were delighted to celebrate 5 adult baptisms with Grace Church Chiang Mai: 2 Thai sisters, 1 Chinese sister, and 2 Chinese brothers. It was exciting to see them profess their faith in Christ and formally become part of the church body. I’ve asked you to pray for these two Thai sisters previously. They are the wives of a couple men who’ve come to faith in our church in the past couple years. God is really moving among Chinese in Chiang Mai. Tons of mainland Chinese have moved to the city in recent years and we’ve seen many profess faith. We praise God for what he’s doing here. Rejoice with us and keep praying for God to bring more people to faith here in Northern Thailand.

I have used AI to “cartoonize” a couple photos from the baptisms in order to protect the identities of our Chinese brothers and sisters. Even outside of China, there are security concerns.

Weekly New Believers Meeting (Grace Church Chiang Mai) Weekly Thai New Believers Meeting (Grace Church Chiang Mai)

Developing Leaders at CTS

The new academic year at Chiang Mai Theological Seminary began in mid-June and we have 114 students, the most we ever have! Thanks for praying for our seminary! Some students are full time, some part-time, some already in full time ministry, and some have full time work elsewhere and are lay leaders in their churches.

Teaching classes is not as flashy as grassroots evangelism in the community, but it is essential in growing leaders who have the breadth of knowledge and depth of faith to build healthy churches and meet the challenges of a world hostile to Christ. Not every church that gets planted stays planted or stays biblically faithful (!)

Among other courses, I am teaching “Historical Theology of the Church 1” where we’ve been looking at the early church, discussing worship practices, persecution, early creeds, and the relationship between church and state before and after legalization of Christianity. Whether we’re talking about the origin of Sunday worship, early baptismal practices, or the reasons for persecution, I am always connecting what we’re learn to today. My conviction is that church history should not just good stories and fun trivia, but also should give insight into how we worship and make disciples today.

Please keep praying for the biblical education and spiritual formation of these current and future Thai church leaders.

responses to emperor worship ppt slide Powerpoint Slide from Karl's church history course

VBS and School Outreach

This past month, Sun and our younger two children were volunteers helping run a Vacation Bible School at Refuge Fellowship, an international church were we worship on Sunday evenings. About 200 children attended, 7 of them expressed interest in believing in Christ, and many more wanted to know more about Jesus. Sun, our kids, and a bunch of other volunteers had a great time teaching, serving, singing, and having fun with kids from many nations. Click here to watch a 2-minute video of highlights from VBS.

On August 29, Sun and our kids will help with another Refuge Fellowship outreach for 300 students at a local Thai school. Pray for this outreach and the potential involvement of some Thai believers from Grace Church where we worship and serve on Sunday mornings.

Thank you for praying and supporting us to be involved with what God is accomplishing in Thailand!

by Christ's grace,

Karl & Sun Dahlfred