God’s Faithfulness

Our New Home…

/ Matt & Amy / 2 Comments

As we mentioned in our Christmas newsletter, in January we were unexpectedly preparing to move house and moving across town. We believe that the story of how we came upon our new home is truly a wonderful God story and so we wanted to share it with you! 

In the fall, we started talking with a missionary family with nine children (yes, you read that right, 9 children) who were trying to come into Thailand. Because of the current state of lockdowns in Thailand due to COVID they felt unsure of how they would get here, but knew that God was still leading them to continue taking steps to prepare such as selling their house, their car and most of their belongings to downsize for the big move. They had joined a group for Protestant missionaries we are a part of and heard that while many people cannot get into the country that teachers are able to get in. And of course, our school was looking for teachers at that point. After a series of conversations, the school extended an offer that would let Bill, the husband, teach part time and still allow him time to learn Thai language and culture.

Continue reading →
Advertisement

Two Months Already?

/ Matt & Amy / 1 Comment

At times it seems crazy to me that we’ve only been in Thailand for two months. So much has happened and our days are full. We are entering our second month of language school, which is going well. Learning a new language has its challenges but it also has its joys – like those moments when you actually understand what someone is saying or when you’re able to carry on a bit of a conversation with someone in your new language.

IMG_3356

Our Thai Class

Between language studies and finding our new life rhythm as a family, we’ve began getting to know the staff and students at Dton Naam, we’ve found a church we love, and we’ve gotten connected to a local house of prayer. We feel so blessed to have gotten established in so many ways so quickly as we know it can take months to find these kinds of connections when moving to a new city.

Continue reading →

Confidence in the Will of God

/ Matt & Amy / Leave a comment

We have been in Thailand almost 2 months! I’d be lying if I said that adjusting to a new culture is easy, but we know the Lord has led us here and He continues to confirm that are in the will of God. Reminding ourselves of this gives us great confidence and encouragement when challenging times or questions of why are we here come. It also helps us to stay focused on what He has called us to. I want to share with you four practical ways in which we have discovered the will of God for our own lives and principles of how the Holy Spirit loves to direct and lead people into the will of God.

How-to-pray-for-gods-will-865x453

The number one way the Holy Spirit leads me into the will of God is through His word. As we were preparing to come to Thailand, the Lord spoke to me through a few passages of scripture (Matthew 24:14, Psalm 2:8, and Ephesians 5:15-19) that tell of His promise of receiving an inheritance from the nations and our calling to partner with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit to present that inheritance to Him. These verses confirmed for me that stepping into missions was the will of God for us. At various times while reading or studying Holy Spirit will emphasize a scripture, making it stand out or come alive to me and I know God is speaking. Holy Spirit loves to open the scripture to us as His perfect will is revealed in the scriptures. If we are doing something contrary to what the word of God teaches we should repent right away, ask for forgiveness, press delete, and move forward in confidence in His mercy. Continue reading →

Heart of a Warrior

/ Matt & Amy / Leave a comment

Heart of a Warrior. I love how that sounds. Bold. Courageous. Daring. Like something out of the movie, Braveheart. Not like the name of a training on healing and deliverance. And I think that is why Tim and Olga Erickson chose this title to christen the training for Overcoming Strongholds, a ministry out of Kansas City that helps disciple people into truth and freedom.

Tim and Olga’s approach is incredibly refreshing: they threw out everything in the inner healing community that they couldn’t find scriptural basis for and went back to the Bible. Their training manual contains over 400 scriptures to back their approach.

Matt and I were incredibly blessed when we went out to Kansas City in mid-October to receive training from Overcoming Strongholds and we wanted to share a small nugget with you. The illustration shown below, The View of God Illustration, is one of five illustrations used by the ministry to illustrate Biblical truths and lead contenders into freedom.

view-of-god-1

Our view of God often will line up with something that we encountered when we were younger. Many times we believe that circumstances, the devil or the unknown are bigger than we are or are bigger than God is because we have the wrong view of God and of our new identity in Christ. We can become so focused on the situations that have wounded us, the devil or the things we do not understand that we feel defeated and lose sight of the power of God to free us. (1Co 14:33, Rom 8:15, 1Jo 4:18)

view-of-god-2

Our view of God is crucial! We must repent of the lies we have believed about who God is and who we are in Christ and allow the Holy Spirit to breathe on the Word of God to establish a refuge of truth for us (Ps 46:1). When we do, we will see the enemy of our souls as defeated, the situations we have encountered and the questions that have arisen in our souls as powerless and arise as overcomers.  We must remind ourselves of the truth that God is greater and He has made us victorious. (Rev 12:11, Isa 54:17, Luk 10:19, 1Jo 4:4, Psa 56:9, Rom 8:35-39)

img_6064

Jedidiah just turned 9 months old on the first. We love our little guy so much! He loves exploring and is constantly on the go, has 2 sharp little teeth, says da-da and ma-ma, when we go out he gets all the attention and always smiles at strangers! He is full of life and we are so thankful for our little one.

We were blessed during the training to be reminded of how crucial it is to build our lives upon the truths seen in the Word of God. Many times, it is easy for us as believers to get so caught up in the struggles we face that we lose sight of the simplicity of the gospel to set free the soul.

We loved the focus in the Heart of a Warrior Training on using the Word to free the captive unto raising up and discipling wholehearted lovers of Jesus. We appreciated the simplified approach to the journey to freedom and deliverance. It really affirmed to me what the Lord had spoken to my heart years ago about bringing the ladyboys of Thailand into freedom – that if we just bring them to a place where they can encounter the Lord and the truth of the gospel they will be changed from the inside out.

We hope this has blessed you! Maybe this has stirred up questions for you – we would love to connect with you! Feel free to send us an email or give us a call at 970-405-0328.

Ruach (the breath of God),
Amy and Matt Baldwin

His Word Will Not Return Void

/ Matt & Amy / Leave a comment

“Why don’t you talk to her?” Matt suggested, gesturing towards a young girl sitting in the shadows on a curb. We had gone to Walking Street (so named because the street closes to vehicle traffic from 8pm to 2am) that night, just the two of us, to see what kinds of encounters the Lord might lead us to. We had walked down the cobblestone-esk street under the red neon lights of the bars and brothels from the entrance at Beach Road down to the Bali Hai Pier, praying and taking in the sites. Then on the way back down to where we started, we stopped and spoke with any of the ones we felt the Lord highlighting. IMG_3502 Continue reading →

When Love Invades…

/ Matt & Amy / 1 Comment

My friends and I recently went to a low income neighborhood on a mission: to release massive love. Mission Accomplished. We saw Love Himself invade this low income neighborhood as we setup with a team of about 75-100 lovers of His friends in a park right in the middle of three government-subsidized low-income apartment complexes. We distributed food, clothes, raffled off gift items from local businesses, barbecued, and hosted live worship, prophetic and healing teams and fun for children and youth.

Continue reading →

Glory Log Volume1, Issue1

/ Matt & Amy / 2 Comments

…Because miracles are becoming our norm and I don’t want to forget a single one. {But I’m pretty sure I did this time.}

January 6 ::I went with friends to go love on some people at the movie theatre. We gave encouraging words to this lady and her kids. She had been hurt by the church pretty badly it seemed, but as we spoke over her and asked for forgiveness for the ways the church had hurt her, she softened. We went to King Soopers later and we gave encouraging words to these three early-college aged guys. They were pretty blown away and we asked if they’d like to experience God’s presence. Fun times. Continue reading →