Editor’s note: This July, we are praying for the Chinese diaspora throughout Asia. This week we are praying for Chinese migrants in Thailand. Pastor Joshua shares about his journey to plant a Chinese church in Bangkok while living in Thailand for his children’s education. He says the biggest challenge is building a stable church among a transient community.
Challenges of Ministry in Thailand
China Partnership: Please introduce yourself.
Pastor Joshua: I was in bi-vocational ministry in northern China for more than 20 years, running a business while serving the church.
In 2023 we came to Thailand for our children’s education. We could no longer continue under the conditions in China, and moved to Thailand to pursue Christian education for our three children. After arriving, we looked for a new ministry. Back in China, I planted a church. When I came overseas, I still had a burden for church planting. I hoped to begin ministry among the Chinese community in Thailand, and our church network and sending church in China were willing to support our journey. We are still in Thailand, serving together as a family in this church plant.
CP: What are the needs of the Chinese community in Bangkok? What struggles and hopes do local Chinese commonly face? And what kind of challenges do they have as they try to adapt cross-culturally?
Pastor Joshua: We primarily engage Chinese nationals whose home base is still China. They are in Thailand simply for their children’s education or as a temporary transit point.
The Chinese community in Bangkok falls into several categories: businesspeople, or those sent to Thailand on short-term assignments; international students and their accompanying parents; and older retirees. Their challenges differ by group.
Families usually arrive as parents with children, or a mother with children. Their biggest challenge is education, and it is a considerable challenge. Some left while children were young, because they didn’t agree with China’s education system. Others came because the child couldn’t adapt in China and they had nowhere else to turn, so they came here to try a new educational path. As there are significant differences between Chinese education and international education, many children struggle to adapt. International education generally covers grades one through 12, but families have to look to another country for university.
We primarily engage Chinese nationals whose home base is still China. They are in Thailand simply for their children’s education or as a temporary transit point.
Another big challenge is the visa and legal status. Thailand is a non-immigrant country, so it functions as a stepping stone rather than a destination. Many families have significant financial pressure, and people are often unable to find stable, long-term jobs.
There are also spiritual challenges. When believers arrive in Thailand, they are separated from their previous church community, and their faith often becomes unsettled and adrift. When they step into an unfamiliar church in Thailand, many are spiritually tang ping, “lying flat.”
Never miss a story
Another challenge is marriage and family strain. Almost universally, the mother accompanies the children while the father earns money back in China. Families might visit during holidays, but separation creates a real threat to marriages. In our church, parents don’t put much emphasis on passing on the faith to their children. They come here for academic success, not faith formation.
Most people want family stability, but reality doesn’t allow it. They hope their finances can cover the long-term costs of education, and they have great hopes for their children’s futures.cThere is also a longing for a sense of belonging and community identity in a foreign land.
Most ordinary Chinese have no burden for cross-cultural mission; they clearly know their time here is temporary. Unless they put down permanent roots, there is not much cross-cultural engagement. In international schools, the environment is mostly English-speaking. Chinese people tend to have a faster pace of life, and the slower pace in Thailand is hard to get used to.
There are also cross-cultural faith challenges. Many people in Thailand practice polytheism and idol worship. On the surface, when we present a monotheistic faith, they smile warmly – but inwardly they are deeply resistant. Cross-cultural missionary work in Thailand is extremely difficult, and the challenge is enormous. After 200 years of missionary activity in Thailand, only a fraction of one percent of the population believes in Jesus. The Thai church is very undeveloped, and Thai churches are quite immature.
Planting a Church in Thailand
CP: Could you share about your church and other Chinese church plants in Bangkok? What are your hopes for the development of local Chinese church plants?
Pastor Joshua: Chinese church communities generally cluster around Christian schools, which serve as their base. In Bangkok there are three Christian schools, all within 15 kilometers of each other.
There is also a longing for a sense of belonging and community identity in a foreign land.
My church plant is about 50 kilometers away from that cluster. The advantage is that it is a blank spot on the map for Chinese churches. God led me there in a very specific way. Originally, I went to one of the Chinese churches in the cluster I just described. One day a seeker showed up at our service. When it was over, he told me he lived about 50 kilometers away, and said, “It would be wonderful if there were a Chinese church over there.” When I heard that expression of gospel need, I was burdened to find out more about the Chinese community there.
There is an international school in the area, but not a Christian school. There are about 40 Chinese households in that community, of which three or four are Christian – but none of the Christian families were attending any church. After seeing the “lost sheep” and the opportunity to reach Chinese families through this community, God moved me to go there. He also provided a precious co-worker who we partnered with to establish a Chinese church.
The reality is quite difficult. Most of our church are seekers; there is no established Christian base as a foundation. Building a leadership team and stabilizing church development is very hard. My hope is that Chinese churches in other areas with Chinese communities would develop a gospel burden and plant churches [in other places], not just concentrating around Christian international schools.
Last year was our church’s first year, and we grew from 20 to 30 people. But then, three families left Thailand. Two of those three had come to faith with us, and their faith had grown more serious. The third was a seeker family. All three left this year, so now our attendance is 15 to 20 people. Turnover is entirely because people leave for another country when their children’s educational situation changes. This year it’s been departures only, no arrivals. That’s a major challenge. As older children gradually come of age and prepare for university, the accompanying-parent phase ends and they leave, too. If God doesn’t bring new people into our midst, this church plant will face real difficulty.
We also have a group of seekers who can’t come on Sundays because their children have extracurricular activities. They come to our small group every Wednesday, but won’t come on Sundays. Their hearts are soft and open; they are thinking about faith. But their rational minds can’t make the leap. They say, “I hope I could believe, but I can’t rationally talk myself into it.” God is at work, but they aren’t ready to pay a cost, to give up their children’s extracurriculars in order to come and worship God on Sundays. So, our community is predominantly a seeker community.
How to Pray
CP: How can we pray for your family, your church, and you personally?
Pastor Joshua: At the church level, stability is really important. Because we’re planting among a non-Christian community, we’re doing relational ministry and Bible study. Church stability is genuinely difficult. We deeply hope the seekers who have been walking with us will come to faith.
What happens at the church level directly affects our family. I’m willing to serve wherever, even after my children graduate and go to university. But, if the ministry continues to be this hard, the road is very difficult. Thailand is a non-immigrant country, so church planting is inherently harder than in immigrant countries. In a non-immigrant country, your church may grow, but then visa restrictions tighten or an education issue hits, and people leave overnight. You are back to square one. It’s hard to maintain church stability. We need prayer in this area.
Because we’re planting among a non-Christian community, we’re doing relational ministry and Bible study. Church stability is genuinely difficult.
In our family, my wife’s and my visa is based on accompanying children for school. I have two children studying now, but when my middle child leaves next summer, our visa situation will become complicated. Probably only one of us will be able to get a visa. If our church is not able to stabilize, grow, and build a leadership team, and if we are also facing visa challenges, I may begin considering whether there’s another base from which to start fresh in a new ministry context. Financial support is also a long-term challenge.
Over the years, God has given us some affirmations. Every year, there has been once clear fruit of conversion, one person who has definitely committed to faith and been baptized. Each year there have been seekers who have remained in our community with soft and open hearts, and we’ve journeyed with them.
But it’s limited; they’re with us for such a short window and then they leave. When they return to China and we try to connect them with a church there, they don’t fit in and fall away entirely. This grieves us deeply, and I often pray for these seekers who have left us.
Pray for my family as we seek direction and ministry placement going into next year.
Pastor Joshua (a pseudonym) ministers to Chinese in Thailand.
Pray for God to help Chinese Christians in Thailand to develop a heart to share the gospel with their neighbors — those from China as well as Thai natives.
