Thailand Village Outreach
Refuge Fellowship Calvary Chapel Shares Christ’s Heart to a Village via Teaching, Medical Care, and Loving Children
This story first appeared in the Spring 2025 print edition of Calvary Chapel Magazine, Issue 103.
Photos by Tom Price
Alyssa Rooke, a missionary from Horizon Christian Fellowship in Indianapolis, IN, helps a Thai woman struggling with severe bug bites on her feet. Alyssa has been a missionary at the Calvary Chapel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, for several years.
Against a bustling background, Alyssa Rooke sat on the church courtyard floor in a remote Thai village, gently cradling the foot of a weatherworn woman, carefully examining it for well-scratched bug bites and likely infection.
This patient was not alone in her medical need. “A couple of older ladies were brought to me, and they needed help. They had scabs on their legs and were itching and scratching. Through the help of a translator, we figured out they needed basic treatment, cleaning, and antibiotic ointment,” she recalled.
“The woman was just grateful to be seen,” Alyssa marveled with a wide, bright smile. “A lot of the older ladies are held with respect, but [how important it was] just to be seen completely—like Hello and How are you?—and to be heard, [knowing] that their problems mattered, and that they mattered. That’s what she was really blessed by, that she was just loved on by a bunch of people she didn’t know.”
Alyssa joyfully interacts with her Thai patient at the outreach. “That’s what she was really blessed by, that she was just loved on by a bunch of people she didn’t know,” she reflected.
Alyssa, serving with a team from Refuge Fellowship Calvary Chapel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, continued: “For some [issues], like joint pain, we gave them different ointments that helped but definitely wouldn’t cure them. We’ll give simple, basic medications. Ultimately, we’re there to spread the love of God, share the Gospel, pray for them, and love on them.”
“Ultimately, we’re here to spread the love of God.”
Alyssa has been a missionary at Refuge Fellowship for three years, originally sent from Horizon Christian Fellowship in Indianapolis, IN. She had initially come to the outreach—held in September as part of the Calvary Chapel Association Asia Conference sponsored by her church—to offer medical education about hand hygiene, malaria prevention, and protection against mosquito bites. Some conferencegoers also assisted in this village outreach, which included providing eyeglasses, playing with children, and teaching the Gospel.
Children from the village enjoy learning songs from Refuge Fellowship volunteers about hope in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
“This church, in the middle of a Buddhist community, has struggled,” stated Arron Moon, pastor of Refuge Fellowship. “The rumor was that local people had burned it to the ground. Then it was rebuilt.” It has no running water or electricity. Arron humorously remembered the hour-long drive to the village: “It was quite a drive to get back in there. The road was very steep at times. We were told it would be four-wheel drive only, but we were able to make it in the church van. As long as it didn’t rain, it was fine. We were grateful for a van and a four-wheel-drive truck.”
Believers teach a song to Thai children at the outreach.
Refuge Fellowship plans monthly outreaches, sometimes in the city or schools. “Our goal is always to share Jesus, but when we do that in the villages, we always try to come alongside the local small church and encourage the pastor and to help him share the Gospel and get people into his church,” Arron emphasized. “If anyone from the community is responsive, they will have a local church with local language to go to.”
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Freeze Tag, Eyeglasses, and the Gospel
Silas Breen, 22, traveled from Horizon Christian Fellowship in Harrisonburg, VA, to attend the conference and assist in the outreach. “Most of the time, I was running around with the kids and playing freeze tag with them. That was a ton of fun,” he exclaimed. “I also sat with the kids while 17-year-old Nathan (of Thailand), an orphan adopted by Christian missionaries, gave the message to the kids in Thai and shared his testimony. It was a highlight getting to watch him just proclaim the Gospel and getting to see the Lord work through him.”
Despite a language barrier, Silas noted joyfully, “The love of Christ has no barriers. It was cool to love on those kids by running around and playing with them. They would laugh at me because I’d ask my friend who knew Thai how to say something, and I didn’t say it right.”
Vicky Moon, wife of missionary pastor Arron Moon, helps the Thai children to learn about the love of Jesus.
Villagers wait in line to have their eyes examined and to get free prescription glasses.
Silas also assisted with providing eyeglasses to nearly 50 villagers, searching from a kit for the correct lenses to pop into frames after other volunteers determined the correct prescription.
Although Sandy Adams, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Stone Mountain, GA, came to Thailand to teach at the conference and share the Gospel at the outreach, he was called into unexpected service.
Pastor Sandy Adams, senior pastor of Calvary Chapel Stone Mountain, GA, hands out reading glasses.
“When they broke out the kit and started fitting people for eyeglasses, I thought, This is cool. So, I jumped in and helped out where I could”—helping to fit reading glasses for many. His church is familiar with the eyeglass ministry, as they use it on their own mission trips. “This is so simple and affordable to do, and yet so life changing and impactful in a person’s life,” Sandy added.
A translator energetically interprets a teaching from Pastor Sandy Adams.
Villagers listen to the Gospel proclaimed with a teaching from Pastor Sandy.
Through an interpreter, Pastor Sandy taught on Matthew 12:20-21: “A bruised reed He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory; and in His name Gentiles will trust.”
In restating Isaiah’s prophecy describing Jesus the Messiah, Sandy described in agrarian terms familiar to the Thai people how Jesus ministers to each of us. “Jesus doesn’t throw away bruised reeds or smoking flax. He fans the flax back into flame, and He nurses the reed back to health.”
Alyssa offers sanitary supplies to villagers, many who are receiving medical care.
From Indianapolis to Chiang Mai
For Pastor Arron and his wife, Vicky, the journey to Chiang Mai began in Nevada, wound through Indianapolis, IN, and then turned to Myanmar/Burma. He’d been through several careers before attending Calvary Chapel Bible College Indianapolis and then going on the mission field in 2016.
Vicky Moon (front) leads the children’s skit with the newly arrived visitors from the U.S.
“God has always been there for me, had a purpose for me, watched and protected me, loved me, instilling His mercy and grace, even when I was not walking with Him,” Arron acknowledged.
Raised in poverty in a dysfunctional home in Nevada, Arron became addicted to drugs and alcohol as a youth, barely escaping jail. Although he gave up the substance abuse, he admitted that work and the pursuit of riches became his new “drug”. He married Vicky at age 20; she was 18. They had four children. Despite their growing prosperity, their life and marriage were a wreck. Vicky was saved when their son Arron, Jr., was born, but Arron, Sr., was still far away from surrender.
In 2008, on the verge of losing everything, he finally surrendered to the Lord, Who restored their family. He and Vicky were originally from CC Carson Valley, NV, before attending Horizon Christian Fellowship in Indianapolis.
They started Refuge Fellowship Yangon in 2016. “In Myanmar, the ministry itself was extremely fruitful,” Arron said. “We saw many people dig deep into the Word and learn what it is to grow in it.”
But things became more dangerous when in February 2021 a military coup seized power from the democratically elected government, resulting in chaos as civil disobedience and protests against military rule followed. Despite the times, Arron proclaimed, “We never were really scared of the violence that was literally all around us. It was common; bullets would hit the roof of the church.” Their children often had to stay inside for their safety.
At their last Easter Sunday at the church, attendance was standing room only. “As I got to the pulpit to deliver the message, I heard a loud smack on the window,” Arron said. “A girl who was standing right in front of it moved the curtain back so that I could see—there was a bullet hole. Some sniper from a rooftop had shot at the church,” he expounded. “I thought, What do I do? I asked God and He said, Preach the Word, so I preached the Easter message. And we never could find the bullet—it was just God’s sovereignty.”
“Jesus ... fans the flax back into flame, and He nurses the reed back to health.”
Despite the violence, the Moons, who lived on the church’s top floor, planned to stay. Vicky recalled, “We prayed and agreed that we would only leave Myanmar if the military physically removed us, or the Lord closed the ministry. We wanted to be with the people and for them. During that time, the church was full because we were bringing hope where we had lost all hope.” Attendance swelled to just under 200.
However, due to the Americans’ presence in the building, their landlord had been threatened, and he asked them to leave. “We prayed about it, and we saw that suddenly we were no longer able to do the ministry that God had called us to,” Arron surmised. “So, we decided to go to Chiang Mai to continue ministry to the Myanmar people from there.”
Vicky added, “We knew God was shutting the door, and He gave us a clear peace to move. Two days before we left, the whole neighborhood gave us a two-day party; they were heartbroken that we were leaving.”
An International Church
Now two and a half hours away in Chiang Mai, Arron shepherds a “truly international church,” he explained. Services and worship are done in English with live translations provided in the back.
Pastor Arron Moon leads a team giving away free prescription eyeglasses to the local population. Arron shepherds the Calvary Chapel in Chiang Mai.
“A big part ... is loving on them as much as possible.”
Using a newly developed way to get an exact eyeglass prescription, the local population is given glasses that fit their needs.
“The biggest outreach is probably to the expat community that has chosen to live here, who have come from all over the world to retire or to work remotely,” he added. “It’s a very popular place.” Some who attend are from the Myanmar church, and many, unexpectedly, are Chinese. “They’re coming in for lots of reasons, but they’re getting saved!” Arron enthusiastically marveled.
Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Psalm 133:1
Vicky described the work as operating a training center in God’s Word, equipping and training men, women, and youth in different areas of life.
“A big part of that is loving on them as much as possible while they’re still with us,” she said. “It’s hard to let them go, but they [learn] the basics of Christianity, what a healthy church looks like, and that they need to read their Bibles.”
Arron related, “Some go back to China, some to other parts of the world. While they’re here, we want to do everything we can to prepare them to share the Gospel.”
In addition, the church supports existing missions in Asia, he noted. “They come into our church exhausted, and they can just sit at the feet of Jesus, worship Him, and then walk out the door and [return] to the mission field—whether teachers or nurses, whatever they’re doing. We are a refuge to them.”
Sandy tenderly encourages a woman who came for glasses and was overcome with emotion when she could see again.
A local man is overjoyed to receive glasses for close vision as well as new eyewear to see things in the distance.
Alyssa Rooke, a missionary from Refuge Fellowship Calvary Chapel in Chiang Mai, Thailand, treats a woman with a severe bug bite infection during a remote village outreach.
Now may the God of peace … make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:20-21
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