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MBMS International
Team 2000: God still calls


Six people and their families have accepted God’s call to be a part of Team 2000, a new MBMSI church planting venture. They are making a 10-year commitment to share the hope they have found in Christ to an unreached people group in Thailand.

Andy Owen:

I took a youth group to a youth function at which there was an evangelistic speaker. He talked about the need for us to give our lives fully to Christ – not necessarily to be a missionary, but to be totally committed to Him and open to whatever He wanted us to do. I remember sensing the Holy Spirit speaking to me, “Andy, are you willing to trust Me for everything in your life?” It was a God moment. I started weeping. I was able to let all the walls come down and say, “God, whatever. I want to be Your servant because I know that You have loved me so much.”

In Thailand, we were in a town of 50,000 people. We were told by the missionaries that there were no Christians, no churches in the entire town.

Carmen, Andy and Connor Owen

We couldn’t pray, “Lord, bring revival,” because there was nothing to bring revival to. There was no light there.

Carmen Owen:

The summer after eighth grade, my best friend from Panama flew up to Kansas, and together we went to a camp. One of the speakers challenged us to missions. I had grown up as a missionary kid and knew what that was about – I had been there and done that – but by the end of his talk I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to stand. I did and committed my life to full-time ministry.

Louise Sinclair-Peters:

I was sent by my parents, who were non-Christians, to a camp when I was 11 years old; they didn’t know it was a Bible camp. There I heard about Jesus and was overwhelmed by the love of God. I went home from camp with a joy and a hope that I had never experienced before – I was not alone, God was with me, and He was going to get me through. My brother, too, became a Christian there. Later on, our family went through an incredible crisis. I look back and wonder what I would have done without knowing how to pray, how to cry out to God. My father attempted suicide, and my mother had to run away for safety, and yet my brother and I could reassure my mom even though we were children. We didn’t know how to process that kind of grief, but we clung to the love of God. There were Christians in our life who reached out to us, and every summer we gladly ran back to this camp. People loved us there.

My husband David and I weren’t really interested in missions. We were busy raising our children, busy in school and ministry. At times, it’s been scary to think we are going to Thailand, a place of 60 million people, 95% Buddhist, 0.5% Christian, with millions of girls sold into sex slavery. Yet when I look with the eye of faith, I see what God is doing in missions today and the amount of intercession that is going on.

Back (l-r): Dave, Louise, Kyla; Front (l-r): Micah, Grace, and Sierra Sinclair-Peters

David Sinclair-Peters:

I remember clearly going out to the cemetery near our place and shouting out, “God, I thought You said You were good. I thought that You loved me.” I was wrestling with God. I felt the Spirit say to me, “I am good, and I do love you, and I promised I would take care of your children. I have taken your daughter to heaven to be with Me.” That was something that I had to really struggle with, that my daughter whom I loved and wanted to hold, was now with Jesus, and that is where we are all going to be one day. It changed my priorities, I was in a lot of ways pursuing what a lot of us want – a comfortable life, a happy family experience – and yet all of a sudden my world was turned upside down.

Karen Huebert-Sanchez:

When I was 15, our youth group from B.C. travelled to Seattle to see a Keith Green memorial concert. He had recently passed away in a plane crash.

Ricky, Sierra, Karen and Tassanee Sanchez

At the end, they gave an altar call looking for young people willing to stand and give their lives to career missions overseas. My heart started beating, and this sense come over me: “This is what I have called you to do.”

Ricky Sanchez:

I made a pact with God as a 14-year-old kid in need: “God, if You let my mom live, I promise to serve you the rest of my life.”

We went to Thailand in November 1999 to do a prayer scouting trip, to confirm that this was the calling that God had on our lives. We were spending time with the missionaries, seeing their lives. These people had so much life; they were full of joy. I remember asking a missionary as we were driving down a dirt road in the middle of the jungle, “Do you ever miss North American life, the stuff back home you had to leave?” Without any hesitation, he looked me in the eye and said he wouldn’t change it if he could. I remember the peace that he had, and I said, “God that’s the kind of peace I want. No matter where You call me, that’s what I want.”

The people we saw in Thailand are created in God’s image, people with real faces, real needs and real wants. These people have never had a chance to hear the gospel message, not even one time. I thought: “That’s not fair. We hear it all the time in North America, and yet these people may never hear it.”

After much prayer and seeking God, we have committed ourselves and our families to ministering the next 10 years in Thailand. We are excited about the call God has on our lives and look forward to the journey that lies ahead.

Team 2000 will leave for Thailand in January 2001. They are looking for 2000 individuals and churches to support them with finances and prayer. This article is excerpted, with permission, from the MBMSI video Called to Thailand.

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Last modified January 5, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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