2 minute read
I Want This City
Missionary Doug Venn spent five years looking for ways to share Jesus in Thailand’s capital, arguably one of the planet’s most unreached cities. The opportunities were breathtaking. The limitations were heartbreaking.
One of his most trying moments came when leaders of a slum area offered land and invited Adventists to establish a church. Doug was excited until he discovered that the $30,000 it would take to build it would require two-thirds of the Thailand Mission’s annual budget. There would be no church. There simply wasn’t money.
He was challenged again while looking for Bible studies to share with unreached friends. He discovered that the only lessons available to reach the millions in this unreached city were photocopies of photocopies, so many generations out that the blotchy print was hard to read. “The literature rack at our local church in the United States was better stocked than the one we have here at the Thailand Mission to serve an entire nation” Doug said. “And there we were just trying to serve one or two cities of 50,000 instead of a nation of 65 million.”
Pastor Doug’s experiences are documented in the television series I Want This City. With cameras running, he traveled the city by water taxi, motorcycle taxi, tuk tuk, and sky train, revealing just how vast the need is in this country, which is less than one percent Christian.
Look for I Want This City on Hope Channel in October.
Q: How old were you when you first heard of Jesus? A: 45 (and she still hasn’t heard the story—only the name.)
Would you want to share literature that has been photocopied so many times, it looks like this?
Karen Suvankham is the communication coordinator for Mission to the Cities at the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters.
Watch a sneak-peek interview with Doug Venn about I Want This City on Hope Channel and 3ABN during the weeks of July 1, August 12, and September 23. For a program schedule, visit M360.tv/schedule. Or watch it online now at m360.tv/E1203.
I Want This City premiers on Hope Channel in October.
Q: Have you ever heard of Christians or Jesus?
A: No, I have not heard
“If you’re looking for another heartwarming mission story, watch something else.” —Kirk
“To see a man brought to tears about not being able to share Jesus and realize that it’s all because we haven’t made mission a priority—that’s tragic.” —Laurie
“Wow, my church needs me, God needs me. There’s a calling in this.”—Brenda
Facebook.com/IWantThisCity
