Thai Team

Pastor Sangwien Duangkham

Pastor Sangwien Duangkham, Vision Thailand Chief Executive Officer

Pastor Sangwien is a dynamic pastor, evangelist and teacher. He is widely known in Thailand because of his involvement in helping organize many Prayer and Evangelism rallies throughout Thailand. He is pastor of the Siam Bangkok Church, which includes the "Dream Center", where about 30 young professional Thai believers have given themselves to full-time Christian ministry. Pastor Sangwien has been mentoring and training the Dream Team to become effective missionaries and church planters. Pastor Sangwien and his wife Papah have been involved with Vision Thailand since the beginning of 2008. They have three children.

The Dream Team

The "Dream Team" is a specialized evangelism team of about 30 young, professional Thai believers that are in full-time missionary work with Vision Thailand. They reach communities, schools, universities, prisons and markets by means of drama, multi-media presentations, personal testimonies, worship team music and preaching. Many people are coming to Christ through their ministry. We are trusting God that the Dream Team, under Pastor Sangwien's able leadership and training, will continue to do evangelism and plant churches in Thailand. God has blessed them with a passion and zeal for His work that is remarkable, and Thais are responding to the Good News. They are extraordinarily effective because they have the Thai language and culture, and have themselves experienced the hopelessness of sin and despair. Young people in particular identify with them, and respond well to them because the Dream Team members have been where the young people are. They provide living examples that there can be hope and meaning for youth. As Goh, one of our Dream Team says, "I was a bad guy, and Jesus came into my life, and now everything has changed. If God can change me, he can change you" It gets very quiet when Goh and other team members speak to large groups of students - they drink in every word, and many express the desire to learn more about Jesus and the new life that is being offered. As students and others become new believers, the Dream Team follows them up and disciples and mentors them. They are then encouraged to become members of cell groups and then these cell groups become the beginnings of new church plants. God is blessing the work with much fruit.

Jake Janzen

Jake Janzen, Chairman of the Board

Jake was involved in the tsunami relief effort in Thailand in early 2005, and has since been back a number of times to help mobilize the "Dream Team" and Vision Thailand Churches to Share Christ in relevant ways within Thai communities. At present he is the chair of Vision Thailand and is endeavoring to clearly anchor Vision Thailand in Thailand, North America, and the world. He believes that the Thai church planting vision can be enabled and empowered by your prayers and resources to enable local trained Thai believers to move into Thai communities with the Gospel in an effective way. Jake is a retired high school teacher and has also been a contractor, musician, farmer, and business man. He is married to Margaret and they have four married children and twelve grandchildren. He is grateful for God's enabling and your participation in the great work of sharing Christ with Thais.

The Vision Thailand Board

We are blessed to have a competent, Thai-based board that is active in the operations of Vision Thailand on the ground. It is great to have board members that have a passion for evangelism and church planting, and communicate well with board and staff. Most board members are well-known and respected for their long-term dedication to evangelism and church planting. In total, there are about 65 years of church planting experience represented on the board. So, we may be a young organization, but we have a lot of experience within the board that should not be forgotten.

Alan Collingwood, Board Vice-Chair

Alan and his wife Rosina have been called by God to help plant churches in Thailand. God has given him many talents and abilities that suit the work of a church planter. He is from New Zealand, and has been a missionary in Thailand for 15+ years; God has enabled him to help plant six churches, and he is also mentoring and training Thai leaders and church planters. He is very much involved in the ministry of Vision Thailand on the ground, and knows the Thai language and culture well, enabling him to be an effective ambassador for VT. He and Rosina have a married daughter (and one grandson) and two sons who are all living in New Zealand.

Thailand Christian Fellowship Pastors

We have a growing number of pastors and lay leaders that are shepherding new congregations that have grown out of evangelism efforts. These churches usually start out as cell groups of new believers with lay leaders. As they grow in faith and in number, pastoral leadership is developed and mentored which then helps the group become a new church plant. Vision Thailand is helping support these church plants in the beginning stages, and as they mature and grow in numbers, the support will decrease, until they are fully self-supporting within a few years. A board of seven senior pastors will help nurture pastors and congregations and will be responsible for the operation of Thailand Christian Fellowship church plants as they come into being.