“God, we are willing to work for you in Nong Khai, but we need a clear answer that it is You who is leading us there.”

That was our prayer a few minutes after meeting with our field directors, who told us about this call to move to Nong Khai to plant a new church.

My name is Uédila. I am a medical doctor. My husband, Henrique, is a programmer. With our son Henrique-Riquinho, we moved to Thailand last year to work as short-term missionaries at the Central Thai project.

A few months later, we applied to become career missionaries with AFM. While the thought of returning to Brazil for a year of fundraising worried us, our goal was that at some point in 2024-2025, we would return to Thailand for five years as career missionaries.

That week, I received a message from a co-worker in Brazil offering a very good position in a clinic that would fit perfectly with the end of our service as short-term missionaries.

We decided to pray and dare to ask more from God. This was April 2023.

During our time praying, God brought memories to my mind from more than ten years before, memories of Henrique and me working as student missionaries in Argentina. We had talked about someday dedicating our lives to serve as cross-cultural missionaries. During our five years as youth leaders and church planters, we experienced God’s leading.

Once we finished seven days of praying and fasting, we accepted the call to move to Nong Khai, a city on the border of Thailand and Laos, and initiate God’s work there. This city is in the Isan area; the least reached part of southeast Asia.

Thus began a sequence of miracles that enabled us to attend this summer’s career missionary training.

Two weeks later, within 12 hours, we received donations covering our next four years of service as missionaries. We were speechless and so excited about what God was doing. We started applying for a U.S. visa to attend the training. After submitting the forms, we learned we could not schedule a visa interview before August 9. We waited and prayed. After three weeks, we spoke with the U.S. embassy, and they scheduled an emergency visa interview in Bangkok.

Our belongings packed, we awaited approval of our visa request.

Exactly one month after receiving the donations, we were in Bangkok for our visa interview. “Approved,” said the officer who interviewed us.

Three days later, with passports, visas and airline tickets in hand, we stood at the airport for our flight.

Now, in our last month of training, as we learn and plan exciting new goals for our work with the Thai Buddhist community in Nong Khai, and as we eagerly look forward to returning this year, we continuously pray, asking God to unify us with supporters who share our passion for mission among the Thai people. 

• Twitter