TWR MOTION Videos Reaching Into Thailand

TWR MOTION's new series, Journey to Hope, opens with a scene of Jesus and the disciples in a boat during a storm. 

 

The story starts with a storm at sea: lightning flashes, thunder, driving rain, angry waves. The music is eerie; the color scheme from dark green to almost black.

A male voice is heard, in the Thai language. “Do you know someone who is able to protect you from evil spirits?” the voice asks.

This is the beginning of Episode 1 of Journey to Hope, an animated series from TWR MOTION. The project, launched in the summer of 2021, reached a milestone on Jan. 22 when the first five of 20 episodes were released to a church-planting team in Thailand seeking to introduce Jesus to a people steeped in the Buddhist religion.

“To be Thai is to be Buddhist,” said Josh Terndrup, a member of the Antioch Ministries International (AMI) team in Thailand since 2015. “Eighty-eight percent of Thai villages have no Christian presence.”

But in parts of Thailand where there is some form of Christian witness, the Church is growing faster than the population, he added. “Wherever the gospel is present, it’s bearing fruit. … They’re not rejecting the message of Jesus as much as being unaware or unable to access it.”

Terndrup and his colleagues have certainly engaged in traditional evangelistic face-to-face outreach. But most Thais still had no access to the gospel message. A way to reach much more of Thailand much more quickly was presenting itself.

“Something like 80% of Thais are on Facebook,” he said. “And Thais are the highest consumers of social media, of Facebook content, of anyone in the world. … So the question was: How do we then use this tool? If people are spending three hours a day on the Facebook ecosystem, that’s the marketplace. That’s where people live.”

The AMI team already was experimenting with social media in 2019. The next year, with COVID and lockdowns, Terndrup found himself stranded back in the United States. He knew about Share the Story, TWR MOTION’s earlier series for people with an Islamic worldview.

“I reached out to them … and said, ‘Hey do you want to do this for Buddhist-background people?’” Terndrup related.

MOTION did, and the agreement that was reached on July 28, 2021, sent the MOTION team on a journey of their own. With just a five-member team at that time, they spent a year – while continuing with earlier projects – raising the financial support that would be needed. Production, involving an expanding team and a number of freelance contractors, then took two more years before the first five episodes were sent out.

Although the AMI team has not begun to promote the videos, there’s evidence they already have some watchers on the Thai version of YouTube, Terndrup said.

The entire project in the Thai language is expected to be complete no later than February 2026, said Candace Mackie, ministry director for MOTION. Seven languages, including English, are in the works with more likely to be added.

Journey to Hope will tell the story of the Bible chronologically. The exception is that first episode, which tells how Jesus freed a demon-possessed man (Mark 5; Luke 8). The decision to start there was motivated by what Thai people likely would find most engaging, Mackie said.

“Even though Thai people are Buddhist, there’s a lot of animism in Thailand,” she said. “So they’re constantly in fear of evil spirits, and they’re performing rituals.”

The first episode begins to build the case that Jesus is more powerful than evil spirits and that we can have that power now through the Holy Spirit, Mackie said.

The MOTION team along with one of its contractors traveled to Thailand in early 2023, getting to know the AMI team and learning about Thai culture and artistic styles.

It was well worth it, Mackie said.

“We’ve all been there, and we all have a feel for the culture,” she said. “We know the team that’s going to be using the content. … I’m glad the whole team was able to go.”

Their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed.

“They’ve been so helpful to resource the project, to raise the funds, to put in the time, to do it with excellence,” Terndrup said. “We’re excited about what we think is just kind of the beginning point.”

After two years of production, the team celebrated being able to send out those first episodes, Mackie said. But with 15 episodes to go, the pause was brief.

“You’ve got to celebrate a little, but now we have a ton of work to do,” Mackie said. “And so now … we’re jumping back into it."

Images: (top, banner) A still frame from the first episode of Journey to Hope, depicting the disciples in a boat during a storm, (middle, left) Josh Terndrup (right) stands alongside a local Thai artist (left), (bottom, right) A still frame from the first episode of Journey to Hope, depicting the story of the demon-possessed man.