Introduction of GraceWorld Mission Australia
Rev. Dr. Joseph Teoh, Consultant of GraceWorld Mission Australia
GraceWorld Foundation Australia (GWFA) was registered and established in Melbourne in 2012. Sharing the same vision over the past eight years, our GWFA and the GraceWorld Foundation (GWF) have jointly supported the mission ministries of GWF in Thailand. Approximately AUD$100,000 has been donated each year to support the Student Center in Northern Thailand (about 180 disadvantaged students mainly in nearby mountain areas). the Discipleship Center (about 106 students mainly in their teens and twenties), seven ethnic churches under GWF, several mission pastors and preachers, and 12 theological students. In the past eleven years, our GWFA had organized short-term mission trips to Northern and Southern Thailand on average twice a year, leading pastoral retreats and targeting ministry seminars, and delivering sermons in Sunday services. Leaders from various local and overseas churches had been invited coming to our spiritual revival gatherings and conferences.
In the past eight years, the vision of our GWFA is to equip believers of ethnic churches in Northern Thailand to become the disciples of the Lord, and then commission them to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with their own ethnic communities. Therefore in 2019, our name has been changed to “GraceWorld Mission Australia” (GWMA) to affirm our purpose. Secondly, it clarifies some past misunderstandings that our organization in Australia is not an investment enterprise, but a mission association. The contribution from any person or church is not used to strengthen GWMA’s finance but all funds are solely used for mission and discipleship ministries in Northern Thailand without any deduction for overhead. Thank our Lord that there are currently seven churches in Thailand that are supported by our GWMA: 1. Sien GraceWorld Church, 2. Paradise GraceWorld Church, 3. Tian-bian GraceWorld Church, 4. Pan Mai Jia Nan GraceWorld Church, 5. Tiancheng GraceWorld Church, 6. Bangjiao GraceWorld Church, 7. Barwin GraceWorld Church and we are supporting the living costs of several preachers of ethnic churches.
Future development: At present, the International GraceWorld Foundation is about to develop the Thai GraceWorld Vocational School in Northern Thailand. The aim is to equip Thai or Burma or Lao young people from the Golden Triangle area in Northern Thailand to become chefs, kindergarten teachers, Chinese teachers, nurses, and educators. We also have a school-based training director. In addition, a church building for Bangjiao ethnic church was established in the Bangjiao area of northern Thailand. The plan is to promote the children’s ministry and Chinese schooling to reach out to local villagers as it provides the opportunity to share the Lord’s love.
December 2023
Our Australian team
