Welcome to wdbydana.com the website of Dana and Cindy Bratton, missionaries to Thailand with YWAM Thailand. We  moved to Thailand in August 2006 to volunteer at the Step Ahead MED center in Khao Lak, where we taught English and shared the Gospel, as well as helped people to recover from the Tsunami.  We currently live in Thachatchai on the island of Phuket.  Where Dana pastors Calvary Chapel at the Bridge, an international Phuket Church, and Cindy teaches English. Previously we spent 6 months studying Thai in Bangkok.  We are long term missionaries to Thailand.  Dana is a licensed and ordained Southern Baptist minister who worked for 16 years as a hospital chaplain.  Cindy was a school teacher.  She taught home school for our three children, kindergarten, and middle school science. They also were missionaries with Child Evangelism Fellowship for eleven years.   Dana enjoys helping Christian ministries with web design too.

Did you know?  There are 1.3 billion Moslems in the 10-40 window. There are 400 million Buddhists.  There are 800 million atheists adopting Western consumerism.  Who will go tell them about Jesus?  How about you?  Isaiah 6:8 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I. Send me!" Isaiah 6:8 (NASB) 

 
Currency data courtesy coinmill.com
Time now in Thailand

I was reflecting on 25 years of ministry.  I surrendered to the gospel ministry in 1983, the same year our youngest son was born.  I led a home Bible study, taught Sunday school, drove the church van and started a children's church, and began studying for a bachelors degree in religion in those early years at the First Baptist Church of Woodcrest..  Then the Lord led to full time ministry in 1989 when I became the director of Child Evangelism Fellowship of Greater Riverside and subsequently became a hospital chaplain.

I pioneered the Caleb Community, the senior adult ministry at Magnolia Avenue Baptist.  The Lord led us to be a part of several churches - Gavilan Hills Community Church, a church plant, children's ministry at Harvest Christian Fellowship, children's ministry at Faith Bible Church, Sunnymead Baptist Temple where I was ordained,  and Magnolia Avenue Baptist.   The Lord led me to pursue a seminary degree at Golden Gate and TESOL studies at BIOLA.  Then in Khao Lak Thailand we affiliated with Calvary Chapel Ban Nam Khem, then in Bangkok with Calvary Baptist where we taught the new believers and English learners class, and now pastoring Calvary Chapel at the Bridge.  The Lord has blessed during these 25 years, I have a wonderful wife, three great children, two daughter in laws, one son in law, and two grandsons.  I have done ministry in Mexico, Nairobi Kenya, Campos Brazil, New York, and New Orleans.  I went on study trip with Talbot to Greece and Rome.   We had intense study and application in a YWAM Crossroads Discipleship Training School in Perth Australia.  This is the abundant life.  A YWAM motto sums it up, Cindy and I do what we do "to know God and to make Him known".   My heart is for evangelism.

Thachatchai is a small village on the north end of Phuket island  that was hard hit by the tsunami.  About two and a half years ago, Calvary Chapel Ban Khem started a church plant there. There are many new homes built by Habitat and the Mercy Ships.  The mission church has a core of about 20 people.  Mercy Ships raised funding to build a large community center that set vacant for a year. It is a huge two level building with two auditoriums, class rooms.  We have a church service on Sunday and Bible study on Wednesday, plus Kids Club on Saturday.  Very few people in our village speak any English at all.  Cindy teaches English for adults on Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon at our home, and children at the Thachatchai School. The community is very poor many are fishermen, they harvest jelly fish, shrimp, and squid and dry the squid on a large wire screens on the street. Some people work at the Marriot Resort which is just a few miles from us, some work in downtown Phuket about an hour away or in other neighboring villages. Also there is a very large police station and border patrol in our village, and one public school. There are a few small shops in our village and some people have motorcycle carts selling food, ice cream, soda, or snacks. There are about 20 churches in province/island of Phuket with a population of 500,000. The statistics overall in Thailand are the country in 95% Buddhist, 4% Moslem and less than 1% Christian, however in the South the percentage of Moslems is much higher, at 35%. Thai Buddhism is mixed with animism, there is a great fear of spirits here. Many homes and businesses have spirit houses where they place food and drink for the spirits to try to appease them. There is a pretty good networking between the churches in Phuket especially for major events such as Christmas and Easter.

 But there is no large Christian outreach in the South. I am not sure why but is seems that the South has been neglected largely by mission agencies. I think it is because up until the tsunami this region was very resistant to the Gospel. Many of the churches in Phuket and the neighboring province of Phang Nga did not exist prior to the tsunami. Thai Buddhists are very happy and peaceful, outwardly open to the Gospel but inwardly most want to remain Buddhists, it is such a major part of their culture and history. In February of 2008 we moved to Phuket after studying Thai for six months in Bangkok. I am now the pastor of Calvary Chapel at the Bridge. Sunday morning I preach in English and a translator, translates it into Thai, we are studying through the book of Romans.  Monday is our day off, Cindy and I go into Phuket Town about an hour drive and go shopping, eat some American food like Sizzler, and maybe see a movie. Tuesday is my study day. I study and pray and prepare detailed notes of the Bible study and sermon, plus Power Point presentations for Sunday. The detailed notes really help my translator to be prepared. I write out all the scripture text in both Thai and English, using copy and paste from a computer Bible software program. Cindy also makes Power Point presentations of our worship music in Thai and English. Most mornings I pick up trash in the street and cut down weeds to help our neighborhood look better.  . 

Prayer concerns:  Pray for open homes to host Bible studies outside of our village.  Pray that more people in our community will respond to the Gospel.  Pray for our radio program on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday mornings. Pray for our Thai language study.   Pray for our financial support. both for our church and personally.     We need the Lord's wisdom in leading and overseeing this ministry.   Pray that many more Thai will come to know the Savior.

Missions - What compels missionaries to leave home and family and go to the other side of the world?

Mark 4:35 That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side."   To go takes us out of our comfort zone, to the unknown, to the risky.

There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, (tsunami?)  men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world ; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.  "Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory."Luke 21:25-27 (NASB) 

How do long do we have to tell them before Christ returns?

"I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light" -- John Keith Falconer

"Lost people matter to God, and so they must matter to us." -- Keith Wright

"No one has the right to hear the gospel twice, while there remains someone who has not heard it once." "We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first." -- Oswald J. Smith

"If you and I both were dying of the same disease and I found the cure, shouldn't I tell you?  If I saw your house on fire and knew you were inside sleeping, shouldn't I try to rescue you?" -- Dana Bratton

"The gospel is only good news if it gets there in time" -- Carl F. H. Henry

"As long as there are millions destitute of the Word of God and knowledge of Jesus Christ, it will be impossible for me to devote time and energy to those who have both." -- J. L. Ewen

"The command has been to 'go,' but we have stayed -- in body, gifts, prayer and influence. He has asked us to be witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth ... but 99% of Christians have kept puttering around in the homeland." -- Robert Savage, Latin American Mission

"People who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives ... and when the bubble has burst, they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted." -- Nate Saint, missionary martyr "

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 3:16

​เพราะ​ว่าพระ​เจ้าทรงรักโลก​จน​ได้​ทรงประทาน พระบุตรองค์​เดียวของพระอง ค์ที่บังเกิดมา ​เพืทุกคนที่​เชื่อ​ใน​พระบุตร​นั้น​จะ​ไม่​พินาศ​ ​แต่มีชีวิตนิรันดร์

What man is he that desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good?  Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it. The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.
Psalms 34:12-15

มนุษย์คน​ใด​ผู้​ปรารถนาชีวิต​และ​รักวันคืน​ทั้ง​หลาย​ ​เพื่อ​เขา​จะ​ได้​เห็นของดี ​จงระวังลิ้นของเจ้า​จาก​ความ​ชั่ว​ ​และ​อย่า​ให้​ริมฝีปากพูด​เป็น​อุบายล่อลวง ​จงหนี​ความ​ชั่ว​​และ​กระทำ​ความ​ดี​ ​แสวงหา​ความ​สงบสุข​และ​ดำ​เนินตาม​นั้น ​พระ​เนตรของพระ​เยโฮวาห์​เห็นคนชอบธรรม​ ​และ​พระกรรณของพระองค์สดับคำ​อ้อนวอนของ​เขา

That if you shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.  For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 10:9-10

คือว่า​ถ้า​ท่าน​จะ​รับ​ด้วย​ปากของท่านว่า​ ​พระ​เยซูทรง​เป็น​องค์พระ​ผู้​เป็น​เจ้า​ ​และ​จะ​เชื่อ​ใน​จิตใจของท่านว่าพระ​เจ้า​ได ้​ทรงชุบพระองค์​ให้​เป็น​ขึ้นมา​จาก​ความ​ตาย​ ​ท่าน​จะ​รอด ​ด้วย​ว่า​ความ​เชื่อ​ด้วย​ใจก็นำ​ไปสู่​ความ​ชอบธรรม​ ​และ​การยอมรับ​ด้วย​ปากก็นำ​ไปสู่​ความ​รอด

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