About this time last year, I spoke on the Asian Lectureship in Singapore. Four places asked me to come and work with them: two in Australia, one in Malaysia, and one in Thailand. Foreign mission work is not new to our family. All three of our children were born while we were working with the church in Melbourne, Australia. We returned to the States to raise a nephew who was being neglected. He is now married and doing well. We feel it is time for us to go back to the mission field. After much discussion and much prayer, we decided to move to Thailand. The reason we chose Thailand is we felt that Thailand has the greatest need.

We will be working with Dorsey and Ola Traw. Dorsey has been working in Thailand for forty-four years. He hopes to work there another six years. Dorsey has just turned seventy-five years old. His plea was for our family to come and work with them now, and, in his words, "When I have to lay my armor down, you soldier on." That is just what we are planning to do. My wife and I are making a lifetime commitment to the work in Thailand.

The work in Thailand will be the most difficult of all the works that we were offered. We will all have to go to language school and learn to read and speak Thai. We will not be able to drink the water. We will have to keep up with our immunizations. We will have to take extreme care in how we prepare the food that we buy. It is an area of the world that continually has political and military unrest.

Most people want to know why we would go to Thailand especially with our family. The answer is quite simple: to teach the gospel of Christ and help fulfill the commission that He gave us. Through all my years of preaching, I have taught "See a need, meet that need, even if it costs you something." We have tried to instill in our children that Christianity is a life of sacrifice and service. We see the great need, we are going to meet that need, even though it is going to cost us much in the eyes of the world. My wife will be moving halfway around the world from her aging parents. We are giving up the majority of our material goods. We have asked our children to leave their friends, possessions, and even our family dog. My wife and children are moving to a land where they have never been, where they do not know anyone, and where they do not speak the language.

Thailand has 62,000,000 people who need the gospel of Christ. 94.6% of the people there are Buddhists. Only .5% claim to be Christians. That means that those who are actually in the body of Christ are even a smaller percent than one half of one percent. The need is great.

"See a need, meet the need, even if it costs you something." We are willing to go. We need your help. Will you help us meet this need? We need your prayers. We need your emotional support. It is easy to feel isolated when you are far away from everything that is familiar to you. Communication with those we know and love is so important to the missionary and his family. We also need your financial support. We have raised over half of the money we need to make this move. We have raised just under half of the money we need of our ongoing monthly support. I am able to come and make presentations concerning this work and our needs on Wednesday evenings. Let me come to your congregation and tell you more about this wonderful work and how you can be a part of it. I need the help of congregations and individuals. If you are interested in helping with this work, or if you want more information, please contact me at (304) 722-2333 or write me at Michael Mayo, 1025 7th Ave., St. Albans, WV 25177. You can also e-mail me at michaelandlu@peoplepc.com

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