Welcome

Historical summary of the Sansai Church of Christ

The local Church of Christ, Sansai, Chiangmai began in 1961 with help from an American missionary Kenneth Rideout and his family who started his evangelical center in Chiangmai town under the name Church of Christ. The family of Mr.Sawang Gaesorn whose hometown was in Sansai district was involved into the center. He received Christ as his personal Savior and later on received baptism. Returning to his hometown in Sansai and sharing the good news with his relations, many of his family came to Jesus and devoted themselves to Bible study with Mr.Rideout. The faith in the family of Christ grew and 12 families came to Christ in that year.

The community of faith in Sansai worshiped in the house of the Gaewjaidees for a while but the numbers grew so rapidly that the house could not provide enough space. They decided to provide sufficient space to worship and agreed to purchase half a rai of land (0.2 acre) at the cost of 6,000 Baht. The fund came from brothers and sisters in the country and overseas. The building is still in use today, providing space for evangelical purposes, retreats, revival meetings, and receiving guests from overseas for more than 4 decades.

Recently, a problem with the land ownership rose up that the land was not legally owned by the church. At the time of purchase, it was told that a person sold this piece of land to the church of Sansai, but all the types of documents related to that purchase were somehow lost. The land, according to the legal deed, is still under the ownership of an elder Mrs.Gaew Gaewjaidee who will pass the ownership to her children. Unless all the children agree to let the church stay, we have to find another worship place. For this reason, the church decided to move out to avoid the controversial over the land then come up with the idea of relocation projects.

Few weeks later, Por Som, our former minister had decided to sell a part of his land about 0.2 acre to the church for only USD 12,500 and donated another piece of land next to it to the church so the total area of the land then become 0.4 acre. At that time the church only had about USD 2,500 in the bank, so the church with the generous help from Bro.Henry Kong, the minister of Pasir Panjang Church of Christ in Singapore who helped us to raise fund from his congregation as well as some of his members who live in other countries also with the help from the churches in Serumban, Malaysia and Thailand who received our letter contributed some money which make the total contribution come up to USD 14,500. After purchasing of the land, the church also transfered the ownership of the land to the “Kristachon Ruam Jai” foundation (founded by Watcharapon Church of Christ in Bangkok) in order to avoid the problem of ownership which might occur in the future.

However, our building fund right now is going to finish soon since the construction work has been started (please see the photos). According to our contractor Mr.Utorn (one of the church member) the church still need 550,000 Baht (USD 13,750) more to finish the “above the ground” construction and interior work. If you are interested and would like to contribute financially to this project, please click here.

Our relocation project if the Lord will, will be finished by the end of 2006 as well as our evangelist plan which now has been starting will then win the souls to Christ more and more.