New Television Studios: Growing Impact in Four Languages
Part 1: West Thailand TV Studio
In the two months since the media team at our newest TV studio in Thailand received their initial training, they have already started making an impact!
A few weeks ago, we shared how God took this new studio from an idea to reality in less than one month. Here’s a short recap of what happened:
March 28: We signed the contract with the seller.
April 8: We shopped for lighting and equipment in Chiang Mai.
April 10: We interviewed potential employees.
April 11: We finalized the house purchase, the previous owner moved out.
April 12: We purchased editing computers in Bangkok.
April 19-21: We gave the new team members intensive training in lighting, camera, editing, graphics, and sound.
April 22: We started production!
Since then, the media team has been working on three main projects: filming sermons, testimonies, and interviews in the studio; filming and broadcasting live sermons from churches on Sabbath; and translating Christian Berdahl’s "Distraction Dilemma” series into Thai, Karen, and Burmese. This will be helpful in establishing standards of music for our team, as well as the area churches, since these concepts are pretty much unknown in Thailand.
Left to right - Travis Sharon (English, Karen, some Thai), Becky Sharon, Judson, Htoohtoo (Burmese, Karen), TaToe (Jay’s wife-she works part time as a cook and housekeeper), Jay (central Thai), Jasmine (Karen), Teeku (Burmese), Mumu (Karen, English), Week (Karen, English, Burmese, Thai), Ocean (Thai, English).
The team has already started editing and publishing the sermons and testimonies they’ve been filming, and God is starting to grow their influence on Facebook.
The media team is posting their videos on Facebook and on three YouTube channels. In the last month, nearly 2,300 people have come across their Facebook content! Please pray that God will touch the hearts of those who come into contact with their videos.
These team members are dedicated to God, and they continue to be excited to share His love with those who don’t know Him. We know that as the team stays connected to God, He will do great things through them and this ministry as a whole.
One of the favorite times of day for the team is morning worship.
During this time, the North Studio has also been in full production, developing excellent programs in Thai and Hmong. We helped the team up there with more much-needed equipment and planning. While we were there, we helped them design a new series for TV with a local Thai pastor presenting the doctrines surrounding the baptismal vows. We’ll be sharing more details about what’s happening at the North Studio next week!
Please continue to keep our Thai media teams in your prayers as they work hard to spread the Good News with their people. If you would like to support their ongoing ministries, please click the button below.
Pipe Rupture at Midnight
Not a scene you want to wake up to…
The weekend before the above story was written, the media team took a trip to an unentered area about six hours away, leaving only three people at the studio. Late one night, while everyone was sleeping, a pipe burst on the first floor and began flooding the studio. When someone finally woke up and noticed, the water was already ankle deep, with boxes and some of the equipment sitting in it.
All the equipment that got wet
Drying off the equipment
The three rallied together to turn off the water, rescue the equipment and supplies from the water, and mop up the water on the floor. They praised God that the cameras were on tripods and didn’t get wet. They turned on fans to dry the equipment and boxes, and pulled up part of the linoleum floor to check for damage. By the grace of God the flooring was okay. Then they had to wait and pray for the equipment to work again. Finally, the equipment dried out, and it all worked beautifully! Nothing important had been ruined. Praise the Lord! This is yet another confirmation that this studio belongs to God, and that He has great plans for it! We can’t wait to see what He is going to do.