October 2025 Newsletter

Dallas Vaughn
Nov 2
6 min read

I am very happy to report that after a tough year, things are finally starting to look up here at the end. There have been so many struggles that have added up over the year that have honestly kept me in a constant state of stress and “survival brain” making me unable to rejoice in the things I should be rejoicing in. Don’t get me wrong, I’m always intentional about practicing gratitude, but this month has been the first time I’ve been able to sit alone with my coffee and a Bible and just breathe and enjoy God’s presence.

I can see so much more clearly now how unprepared we were when we moved to Bangkok. I still think we did the right thing, because without risk, we would never grow. And boy did we grow through this year. But now here we are back in Chiang Rai, and God has not wasted time in getting us back involved in the lives of others, which I’m grateful for.

Baptisms

In the last few months, we’ve had the privilege of being witness to 3 special baptisms here in Chiang Rai. All of the kids we’ve been witnesses to are friends of Mary Ella and we’ve known their parents for years.

Send Off from Bangkok

As we left Bangkok, we were invited to the house of a Thai Christian lady in our neighborhood. I loved hearing her testimony because she became a Christian later in life when she was already in her 60s or 70s. She invited us over and we sang, ate a meal with the small group from her church, and they prayed over us as we prepared to move back up north.

Neighborhood

Since we’ve been in our new neighborhood (which has been about 2 months now), we have already made lots of new friends. The kids in the neighborhood love coming over, and if you know anything about our kids, you know how quickly they make friends. I have seen consistently over this year that with the life stage we are in, with young kids, our neighborhoods are some of the greatest mission fields we have.

This month, we had a girl over for dinner who is one of Mary Ella’s good friends, and we were able to have a great conversation with her about her understanding of Christianity. She told us that she would be interested in going to church with us if her parents let her, and she said when she gets older, she would like to become a Christian.

We’ve also discovered that a Thai pastor’s grown kids live two doors down from us, and we have a Thai church planter/pastor in the neighborhood. In fact, the latter is the dad to one of the girls who has quickly become close friends to Mary Ella. She also had dinner with us one night this month. And the house on our road had a party one night for their worship team, so I was able to go sit on the truck tailgate and spend time with the pastor and some of the worship team, while I ate grilled Thai food with them. There’s also a Jewish man who grew up in a small town in Israel in our neighborhood here. He is a digital nomad and is new to Thailand, so I’ve had the chance to connect with him and start building a friendship. On Halloween we ended up talking a lot about Jewish traditions and different holidays.

Halloween

One of the ways we love to reach out to our neighbors every year is through our Halloween parties. Over the last few years, we’ve organized neighborhood Halloween parties and I always give a short “history of Halloween” lesson, where I highlight the true Christian history of Halloween and talk about the victory of Christ over Satan. This year, we had about 20 people gathered from both English and Thai language backgrounds, so I shared for 10-15 minutes and had Liz translate into English. I told them about why we as Christians do not fear Satan or demons because we know that Jesus is greater, and I shared about the resurrection. I pray these seeds planted would lead to fruit in their lives as they think on these ideas. After the festivities, one of the kids said in Thai, “this house is the most fun house!”

The kids got a second chance to wear their Lilo & Stitch costumes this year. (Btw, Theo LOVES Stitch and it’s one of the few words he can say now!) There is a gym in town that was started by missionaries and they hosted another Halloween event for the community. I wasn’t able to go with them to that one, but they had a blast. The local Chrisitan school (that Liz graduated from) had an event too, but it landed on the same night as our neighborhood event, so we weren’t able to go, but “Memaw” (Liz’s mom) did go because she’s a teacher there.

Meaningful Days

One of the greatest blessings in the last month was being able to host some friends of ours who got engaged during their trip to Chiang Rai. We had the great blessing of getting to sit and talk with them for hours after the engagement about marriage, and preparation for marriage. It was a great honor for me to be able to share what we’ve learned over the years, both from our own experiences as well as from Scripture and the wisdom of others.

We also celebrated an old friend’s birthday, and another friend in America got engaged. Liz has been able to speak into that friend’s life, as well, as she gets ready for her wedding, and subsequent move for her new groom’s job in a different state, after the wedding.

As the year comes to a close, would you consider giving a one-time gift to Transformation Ministries? Your donation goes towards ministry work and proclamation of the good news of Jesus in Thailand and beyond. If you’d like to become a regular monthly partner and help us give generously to work happening in Thailand, you can do so here.

Liz Teaching Worship

From Liz: “A few weeks ago, I got the opportunity to visit Chiang Rai International School and teach a group of high school students who are passionate about leading worship. I was able to share some on the philosophy of leading worship, building harmonies, and we worked through “The Blessing” to solidify the concepts taught. It was a wonderful time of singing, sharing, and speaking into the next generation.”

Seminar with Dave Voetberg

Some friends of ours came in from Udon Thani, Thailand and did a small seminar on biblical theology, which is one of Dave’s passions. Dave has a large online ministry where he makes short (1-5 minute) videos in Thai. He has been an inspiration for me to get into doing this kind of media for several years, and I’m looking forward to when I don’t have to focus so much of my time on money and can dedicate some of my time to doing a Thai Christian podcast. The event ended up drawing about 30 people and I recorded his first session before we had to go (because it was getting late).

Bonus: I forgot to share this a few months ago, but I found this beautiful song from a choir at a Christian school here in Chiang Rai. I shared it on my FB/IG stories awhile back, but here it is:

Bonus 2: We also did one of our famous shows in the last month! This one was about magic tricks.

Prayer Requests:

Mary Ella hurt her ankle this month and had to go get an x-ray. Thankfully nothing was broken, but pray for her as she continues to heal up.
Liz also has some problems with her wrist. She has had issues with carpel tunnel before, but this time she said it has to do with torn tendons. It’s difficult because with taking care of kids and doing housework, it seems to never get rest. Please prsy that this issue would go away for her.
We are preparing now for Christmas and Christmas in Thailand is always a great time to share the gospel with our neighbors.
Pray for the Christians facing extermination and terroism in Africa. Nigeria has been in the news lately, especially now that President Trump has issued warnings against the terrorists and government of Nigeria. Pray for conviction for the governments to do what is right in stopping evil, and pray for those who are destitute and powerless to protect themselves.

THANKS FOR BEING PART OF THE TEAM!

By God's grace, we have witnessed many lives transformed, and some family legacies changed forever. But the story is not over yet, and we are anticipating and believing for even greater things moving forward. Consider becoming a financial supporter so you can play a significant role in sharing the gospel, serving those in poverty, and creating Christian resources.