The Abundant Life Center seeks for all those who enter our doors to meet Jesus through the genuine love of His saints. 

We pray that lives would be changed through belief in His redemptive work on the cross and that God's Word would come alive in our day to day interactions with one another and in our obedience to Him. 

We desire to minister to the whole person through worship, work, prayer and community outreach.

HOLISTIC LOVE THROUGH COMMUNITY

The Abundant Life Center (ALC) is a community-based ministry to rural northeastern Thai (Issaan) who have migrated to Bangkok in search of work. ALC integrates discipleship and leadership training as it reaches back to families back in the villages as well as reaching out to the people in the ALC neighborhood—in the context of community living, the running of a mission business (ALC Crafts) and in the life of our center’s house church. We are located in Samutprakan, Thailand.

The focus of the Abundant Life Center (ALC) has been on the internally migrant poor who have come to the capital city of Bangkok from the rural, agrarian, northeast of Thailand (Issaan) to find work.  Thousands of Issaan people leave their village setting each year to look for work in the capital city of Thailand, exchanging the security of family and community for the unknown, often harsh life of the inner city of Bangkok.  ALC has been a place of refuge for these people.

The ministry has evolved over the years as we have faced the workplace challenges of most Issaan people in Bangkok.  They work at least 6 days a week, long hours, and are often separated from their children and even spouses.  We found that having a place of community gave ALC the opportunity to better minister to the whole person.  For many years we were a shelter for people first coming out of the village or looking for a new start in the city.  Those people later had the opportunity to join the community, share in rent and be a part of ALC activities. They did not have to be a Christian to live at the ALC house but they did need to be committed to the community of people sharing a living space.  Later on, we opened our doors to the government education extension program which used our facilities for classrooms and linked us in new ways to our neighborhood.

ALC Crafts began in 2001 with the intention of keeping families intact, as children are often sent back to the care of grandparents in the village, while parents and young people of working age (15+) are down in Bangkok. ALC Crafts develops sewing skills for women giving them regular income, as well as supporting the larger work of the Abundant Life Center.  Another focus has been the living laboratory of what it means to be God’s person in the workplace.  A byproduct that has come from ALC Crafts has been seeing women come to know Jesus, grow in their faith and desire to serve Him in ministry, as well. 

In December 2007 we moved to a small, industrial neighborhood on the outskirts of the city.  We came as ALC Crafts with 4 women and have added new women over the years.  We are currently at 7 women, looking to add 2 more women and eventually branching for people who want to return to their village
and work for us there.

Another avenue we began to explore in 2018 was the beginnings of a bread-baking business with one of our seamstresses leading this new endeavor. We have seen the BAM (business as mission) model work well for ALC Crafts and so are hopeful that in using another skill set, we might see God's Kingdom advance in this area.