Jason and Kezia Lewis

Hey everyone!

First off, I want to say thank you so much for your prayer and financial support to Jason and myself. We are grateful beyond words could truly express for your love and generosity. We have now been in Thailand for almost 8 years now (I know, where did the time go, right?!). It’s been an exhilarating adventure with our Most High God: Being a part of the work He is doing in Thailand, witnessing His transforming power in people and experiencing His faithfulness and goodness ourselves. Truly, we have never been in want. And you guys are a part of that.

So, this is a quick update/summary of what the Lewises have been up to these past few months. By the way, we’ve created a secret Facebook group for our friends, family, and supporters. We update it more often that our blog. If you are not on it and you want to be in it, please let us know and we will invite you in. 

Okay, here we go…

Peace Church Ao Nang

Jason continues to serve as pastor of Peace Church Ao Nang, and a few months ago, we built a new church building. 

We also got to host a YWAM DTS Team and Jason taught them a class on the Identity of Christ.

If you want to listen to Jason’s sermons, you can go to this link: https://soundcloud.com/jason-lewis-630043289

Bar Ministry

Early last year, Gonny, a missionary from the Netherlands, and I have partnered together and started going to the bar strip in Ao Nang to build relationships with the women and ladyboys (transgender) working there. Since then, our group has grown to 4 people: Gonny, myself, and two Thai believers (Radt and Ariya). Our vision is to offer anyone willing to leave the sex industry and give them an opportunity to learn a new skill for their livelihood. But most importantly, our vision is for them to know Jesus.

We go there once a week. We play table games and laugh with them, but most significantly we spend our time listening to their stories. We are genuinely interested about who they are and where they come from. We also pray for them. Sometimes they ask for it, sometimes we ask them. They know we are Christians, and they know that we pray to Jesus. 

We’ve made friends with several women and ladyboys in the area. They come and go a lot, looking for ‘better’ opportunities in nearby bigger, busier red-light districts. But there are a few who have stayed, and with them we’ve had the opportunity to have conversations about faith and Jesus. We always bring up Jesus. {Pictures are posted on our secret Facebook page. We don’t post them anywhere publicly to protect the women and ladyboys’ identity.}

On Valentine’s Day of this year, a team of 8 from Peace Church went out and shared Jesus’ love to women working at the bar strip here in Ao Nang. We each gave them a rose attached with a short love letter from Jesus and a tract about the “Foreigner” they’ve all been waiting for. These women tell us their hope: to find a foreigner, who would love them enough and rescue them out of the bars. Isn’t that exactly what Jesus’ story of love is? Who they really long for is Him, but they do not know that and have wrongly placed that longing onto other men.

The women were so happy to receive the roses that night, hungry for true love and hugs from people who see them as women with value. Each were so ready to receive a rose and a hug. It was such a sight to behold: to see Jesus invade the enemy’s camp and burst forth with His love and joy through our team.

House of Refuge Thailand

We have great news! House of Refuge Thailand is underway. We are joined by a Thai-believing couple (Wutt and Radt), who are going to serve as house parents when we finally open our doors. As of now, we are working towards making us legal since working with women from the sex industry is a sensitive matter and needs proper documentation before we can begin. We are doing this by operating under a foundation, which we have named “Sowers Foundation.”  Right now, the papers are still in the local municipal office and have to undergo review from their officials. We have a few prayer requests that fall under this ministry:

1. Pray for the fast approval of Sowers Foundation that we may begin work immediately and open our doors for women who may want an opportunity for a new life and freedom from the sex industry.

2. Pray for a property we can purchase or a Thai local believer who may want to donate their land for use for the ministry.

3. Pray for our team’s covering. There is so much darkness involved in this work and the enemy is definitely not glad that we are bringing light in to expose him.

Evangelism

Every Thursday, some of our Thai believers and myself go door-to-door evangelism in the area. We’ve gone to several streets; we were welcomed in some homes and got to speak about Jesus to men, women, and children. We’ve encountered people from all sort of faith backgrounds. We’ve prayed over Muslim and Buddhists for healing and salvation. We’ve also had some interesting conversations with them. Below are some pictures of the women I go with.  

With Adnan, a muslim guy we shared the Gospel to.

Thank you, once again, for being a part of God’s work through us here in Thailand. Please let us know if you have anything you want us to pray for. I leave you with His word from the Book of Psalms:

In Our Messiah’s Love,

Jason and Kezia 

Hello to all!

Grace and peace to you in the name of our Lord!

With the arrival of Thanksgiving, Kez and I were moved by an overwhelming sense of gratitude for many blessings, but specifically for you, our supporters. You have been so faithful and generous, your prayers and financial support have empowered us and enabled us to persevere in the good work He has called us to do here in Thailand and around the world. I would like to share with you a brief update about what has been going on in our lives, as well as encourage you to reach out to us if you ever need more information or have any questions. We would love to hear from you.

Peace Church Ao Nang

The church here is going great. We have outgrown our current space and we begin construction on a new building in January next year. We are super excited about this. The venture is in cooperation between both congregations (International and Thai) so there are a lot of chefs in the kitchen but I’m sure we will end up with something nice, hahaha.

Kez and I are very pleased with the development of the Thai congregation. I preach there at least once a month and Kez attends all of their events, prayer meetings, and Bible studies. Kez studies Thai about 20 hours a week and is making great progress. Our hopes are high for the Thai congregation to soon find a permanent pastor, and establish themselves here in Ao Nang for good. In a town where we are the only church, and where there has never been a Christian church before, we feel privileged to be a part of what God is doing here. But we also feel a great sense of responsibility and purpose to make sure Peace Church survives infancy, please pray for us!

Also, I would like to officially invite you to join us when you can! Our English service is now being broadcast live on Facebook at 10:30 every Sunday morning (Thai time, which is Saturday evening in the U.S.). All you have to do is search in Facebook for “Peace Church Ao Nang” and “like” the page, then our service will show up in your news feed. Hope to see you there!

Palm Beach Atlantic University

One of our highlights this year was our trip to West Palm Beach. I was invited to be a guest speaker at Palm Beach Atlantic University for their “Missions Week”. Kez and I had an amazing time at this great school. We were able to reconnect with students who had been on Sowers teams in the past, as well as hang out with my dad who was also invited to speak. But best of all, we got to share about what God is doing through Sowers around the world and hopefully inspired people to join short term teams happening next year.

The Joshua 20 Project

Our anti-human trafficking project is doing well in Myanmar and Cambodia. In Myanmar, the House of Refuge is focused primarily on the “prevention” side of the traffic, and the house there has 25 souls who were at high risk. The House in Cambodia is focusing more on the “rescue” side, the House there now has two young girls taken right out of the brothels. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the project in Thailand. Ironically, we thought it would be super easy to do something here because it seems like Thailand is where the problem is most prevalent. But I have run in to major roadblocks, lots of pushback, and many dead ends. To this day, I have found land for building six different times, each time looked as promising (if not more so) than the last, only to watch it fall apart right before the deal would be finalized. This has happened in many different ways, including key players getting sick, nationals having a change of heart about the vision, and even political and legal issues arising. I am convinced at this point that the resistance is mostly of a spiritual nature. Please help by praying for The Joshua 20 project in Thailand. With that said, we are not giving up, and we still have a couple of promising prospects ahead!

Prayer Requests:

• Peace Church Ao Nang’s Christmas program and outreaches
• Peace Church Ao Nang’s new building project
• Kezia’s Thai studies
• Jason’s preaching
• Joshua 20 Project in Thailand, Myanmar, and Cambodia

To give to Jason and Kezia click HERE 🙂. God bless you all, and thanks for your support!

email us at: jason@sower.org and kezia@sower.org

Peace Church Ao Nang (Thai Congregation)

Jason teaching Jonah chapter 1 for Missions Week at Palm Beach Atlantic University

Joshua 20 Project in Myanmar

Sawatdee kap from Thailand!! Kezia and I want to say hello to everyone, and thank you for your faithfulness and generosity. Your continued spiritual and financial support is a tremendous source of blessing and encouragement. We hope this update finds you well, please email us any questions or prayer requests you might have.

Thailand:

We are pastoring a church that was planted by Sowers missionaries in 2011. It’s quite challenging. I’ve never pastored before and Kezia has never pastor’s wifed before :). We are dealing with many things at the church but overall it is proving to be a wonderful and growing experience for us both. You can find the church on Facebook, the name is Peace Church Ao Nang. I’m mentioning this because we soon plan on streaming our services live on our FB page! So you will be able to see the church in action!

Also, Kezia is still teaching at the language school in Krabi. The school is run by another Sowers couple and is doing great. Kezia is also heavily involved with the Thai believers here. At Peace Church, we have an English congregation and also a Thai congregation. Kezia has been helping the Thais with evangelism, worship, and logistics. Her involvement has also been sharpening her skills of this very difficult language.

Myanmar:

The “House of Refuge” in Myanmar is doing well, literally! We started digging a well on our property there thanks to the generosity of my sister Becka and her friends, who teamed up to help the House in Yangon. For more info on our anti-human-trafficking campaign you can visit: joshua20.org

Cambodia:

I just got back from an amazing time in Cambodia. This is the site of our latest “House of Refuge.” The house has just been finished so my dad and I went to check it out. This place is amazing! Two bedrooms, a living room, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen. There is a young Khmer couple overseeing the grounds and we are ready for taking people out of slavery and into the Kingdom!! The best part is the house is on a farm with lots going on, lots of ways to help the house earn. There’s a fish farm, a lime tree orchard, a ton of chickens and more! Here are some pictures:

the front

the back

bedroom

the fish farm

lime tree orchard, out back

chickens!

our caretaker.. and more chickens!

Its really been an amazing year so far. Thanks to everyone for all of your support! Here’s what we’ve been up to since our last update in March.

We are settled in our new home close to the church. We really like it, its small but very comfortable and we feel like its our home. Kezia is still teaching at the Sowers Language School and she’s also studying Thai. She has rekindled a passion for the language and attends the Thai worship service at our church, she’s working hard and doing great.

I started an online course in March at Fuller Theological Seminary, its a master’s program with a cross-cultural leadership emphasis. The program is called the Master of Arts in Global Leadership (MAGL). Being back in school feels great and I’m doing quite well. I am still leading trips to different parts of Asia so keeping up with the assignments has been a challenge, but by God’s grace I’ve been able to do so.

In May I took a team to Myanmar to teach the Bible in the Chin State region, then headed back down south for a week at our Joshua20 House of Refuge. The house is totally full. We bought sewing machines and hired a tailor to come and teach how to use them. The ministry is going great, I would encourage any of you to have a look in person, it will change your life! Our second House of Refuge is near Phnom Penh in Cambodia is ready to start taking in people. The house in Myanmar is more on the prevention side of human trafficking, while the house in Cambodia will focus more on restoration.

Kezia and I also have taken on an intern named Parker Trefz. He is 22 and from Sarasota. Parker has been here before on short term trips and we challenged him to commit for year. We are so happy to have him, he’s going to be a great help.

Prayer Requests:

• pray for Parker, our new intern, for his adjustment here in Thailand
• pray for our church, Peace Church Ao Nang, for spiritual growth
• pray for Thailand, for spiritual breakthrough and revival

Parker Trefz (our new intern)

House of Refuge, Myanmar

House of Refuge, Cambodia

Contact us any time via email: jason@sower.org, kezia@sower.org

Greetings from Thailand everyone! Here’s what Kezia and I have been up to:

Summer Teams:

I lead a team of students from Palm Beach Atlantic University in Florida to China in May. In the interest of discretion there is not much I will say about people or places or specifics of the trip, but it was a huge success.

Then in June, Kezia and I along with our partners Roslen and Phylla Sipat, hosted a team from the same university here in Thailand. We were able to breakthrough cultural barriers thanks to the high interest in English here. We prayer walked temples and mosques, and taught in different and diverse venues such as an Islamic school and a Buddhist temple. Click play to watch the video 🙂

Kezia’s Teaching

Kezia’s time at the school in Ao Nang has come to a close. She had an amazing experience and made some good and continuing friendships with not only her fellow teachers but also some of the parents of the students. We consider her short time teaching there to be a fruitful one and a major blessing. Kezia and I are now praying for a new door to open for her to integrate into Thai society for next year. As you know Kezia loves to teach, and we are confident it won’t be hard to find the next step for her.

The Joshua 20 Project:

Joshua 20 is starting now to really gain some traction. We have a functioning house already in Myanmar, we have land in Northern Thailand and will begin construction soon, and our latest news comes from Cambodia. Kezia and I just got back, we traveled there to meet Pastor Meng, a connection made through Pastor Joe Handley and Asian Access (www.asianaccess.org). We are super excited about this, we are now looking for the right piece land, and as soon as we find it, we will be all systems “GO” thanks to the sponsorship of Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Los Angeles. For more information about the vision for the Joshua 20 project you can go to joshua20.org, or you can email me at jason@sower.org.

Home for Christmas 

Kezia and I are coming home!! We will be in Boise, ID with my parents this Christmas. We are so happy. It has been 4 years and we are ready for a visit. We will be in Boise from December to February, then we will head over to Los Angeles to attend the Rolling Hills Covenant Church Missions Conference at the end of February ’16. If any of you think your church would benefit from us visiting you and sharing a report, please email me at jason@sower.org.

Thank You

As always, Kezia and I would like to say thank you to all of you are supporting us financially and/or prayerfully. We feel a deep connection with you and we just couldn’t be doing any of this without you. We pray for you always, so if there are any specific ways we can pray, any requests you can share with us, we would love share those burdens with you. You can leave any comments, questions, or feedback in the comments below or you can email them to us.. my email once again is jason@sower.org and Kezia’s is kezia@sower.org. God bless you!

Pastor Meng and his brother Pastor Hong in Cambodia

Kezia at Angkor Wat in Cambodia

The Thai team at the temple

Jason at the Islamic school

Grace and Peace,

Jason and Kezia

Hi everyone! Kezia and I send you greetings from Thailand and hope that this update finds you well. Lots going on for us the last few months. Since our last update in April we have finished a short film and launched the website for our new human trafficking ministry called “Houses of Refuge”, led a team to China, hosted a team here in Thailand, and celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary.

Houses of Refuge
The leadership at Sowers International has been praying about what our role will be in the growing fight against human trafficking. The answer we received came through the book of Joshua chapter 20 where it talks about “Cities of Refuge.” These were safe places designated by God for those who were being pursued. Read More

Read More