Mission Partner: Luke, Alison, Banya & Anna Blacker

Church planting in Thailand with OMF

“Is Christmas the celebration of Santa’s birthday?”

A Thai lady asked me as we handed out Christmas presents in our Thai neighbourhood.

Many Thai people live in a district with no church, and few or no Christians. 99% of Thai’s are Buddhist in Central Thailand. This is the country to which we have moved to. A country where many of the people have little or no understanding of Jesus and his love for them.

A bit about us:

We met at the Belfrey when we were 12. Growing up at the Belfrey we learnt so much about God and were encouraged in our faith by the youth leaders. It was during a Sunday evening service at The Belfrey when we were teenagers when we both felt God saying to us that he was preparing us to work for God overseas. We were both willing but didn’t know where or what God had in mind!

After a couple of short term mission trips to a Thai charity in Thailand Luke felt God confirming that Thailand was the place he wanted us to go so we started to pray and prepare for moving to Thailand.

After getting married we spent some time in Hull and finally in 2012 we moved to Thailand for a year to volunteer at CCD Thailand. We loved the work, and the place so much we ended up staying for over 3 years. We also became parents to 6 year old Banya (now 12) whilst we were there.

We spent three years at All Nations Christian College, being trained and equipped to serve God in Thailand, our daughter Anna was born while we were there. Now the four of us are returning to Thailand, this time with OMF and entering into an intensive time of Language and cultural training before joining a church planting team.