The Timeline

A chronological record of milestones, stories, partnerships, and needs from the field. Filter by year or theme, or search for a name or place.

Showing 58 of 58 timeline entries.

  1. 2010

    1. Nong Song Hong, Khon Kaen province (Isaan), ThailandPersonal

      A Calling Takes Shape in Northern Thailand

      Before the Moken, Philip served in Thailand's rural northeast under OMF, learning Thai and Isaan and preparing to move south to a people he had already set his heart on.

      first-contactpersonalprayer
    2. Bronkhorstspruit, South Africa / Ranong, ThailandPersonal

      A Season in South Africa — and a New Mission Partner

      Philip moved south to Ranong, formally left OMF for the mission agency STAMP — a better fit for incarnational, church-connected work — and flew home to South Africa to raise support for the Moken chapter ahead.

      furloughfundraisingprayerpersonal
    3. Bronkhorstspruit / Pretoria, South AfricaPersonal

      Farewell, Taaiboer — Back to Thailand

      After three months of feedback talks across South Africa, Philip's supporters threw him a farewell before he flew back to begin the Moken chapter — not expecting to see him again for perhaps two years.

      furloughprayermilestonepersonal

  2. 2011

    1. Ranong & Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      First Days Among the Moken

      Arriving in Ranong on 14 February 2011, Philip began crossing to the Moken village on Koh Phayam — diving for sea cucumbers under the stars and being welcomed, haltingly, into a sea-nomad world.

      first-contactcommunityprayermilestone
    2. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      The Spirits Are Afraid of Jesus

      Half-asleep on his porch, Philip told the Moken boys the spirits were afraid of him because Jesus lives in him — and within a day the children were passing the news around the village themselves.

      communityprayerfirst-contactmedical
    3. Ranong, Thailand / Penang, MalaysiaPersonal

      Brought to the End of Himself

      Hospitalised with dengue fever and brought to the end of his own strength, Philip describes a turning point at a Penang seminar where God became his Daddy — the theology that colours every later newsletter.

      personalprayermedical
    4. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      The First Moken Worship

      Rather than make the Moken Thai or English, Philip put the question to them — how do you want to seek and worship God? — and a fragile, indigenous Moken church began to take shape.

      churchcommunityprayer
    5. Koh Phayam / Ranong, Thailand / Penang, MalaysiaStory

      A Team Tested — and a Dream on the Porch

      After sickness and whispered suspicion nearly split the small team, one honest conversation restored unity — and on the island porch Philip dreamt of wrestling a dark figure that deflated at the name of Jesus.

      personalprayercommunity
    6. Koh Phayam / Ranong, ThailandStory

      Monsoon Season — and the Love They Could See

      Through his first Ranong monsoon — mould growing on everything he owned — Philip caught shrimp with the Moken from their kabangs and heard their verdict on the strangers: "You love our children with the love of God."

      communitypersonalprayer
    7. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      Toilets, a Garden, and a Water Filter

      Philip salvaged the village toilets, coaxed children into a vegetable garden, helped build a water filter, and started the daily motorbike-and-trailer school run that would become a years-long rhythm.

      water-projectschoolcommunitybuilding
    8. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      A House Among the Moken

      Philip finished building his own home in the Moken style — wood walls, palm-leaf roof — and floated an idea: buy a boat the Moken could use to earn a fairer income.

      communitybuildingfundraisingmilestone

  3. 2012

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      Living Full-Time on Koh Phayam

      Now living permanently in the village, Philip became mom and dad to a growing group of boys left behind while parents fished at sea — telling Bible stories nightly and going to school alongside them.

      moken-boysschoolcommunitypersonal
    2. Koh Phayam / Haad Say Dam, Thailand / South AfricaStory

      Nine Exam Papers, a Sports Day, and a Healing

      The Moken children — who could not yet read — sat nine grade-one exam papers, played drums at an inter-island sports day where nobody was allowed to lose, and watched a tormented old woman healed through one simple prayer.

      schoolcommunityprayermedicalfurlough
    3. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      Racing the Tide

      With more children in his care, Philip enlarged his house — ferrying timber, sand and cement by motorbike and raft through monsoon storms as spring tides broke right into the building.

      buildingcommunity
    4. Koh Phayam, Ranong, ThailandMilestone

      The Special Needs Project — Raising the House Above the Floodwaters

      When monsoon spring tides flooded Philip's ground-level home every new moon, a seven-person South African relief team flew out to rebuild it on stilts — keeping Philip and the Moken children in his care dry.

      special-needscommunitymilestonefundraisingprayermoken-boys
    5. Koh Phayam / Bangkok, ThailandPersonal

      A Hard Decision — and the Cameras Arrive

      After unresolved tensions with STAMP's oversight, Philip and the Kwoks concluded they could not continue under it — even as a Thai media crew filmed a documentary about their life among the Moken.

      personalprayercommunity

  4. 2013

    1. Koh Phayam, Thailand / Bronkhorstspruit, South AfricaStory

      The Moken Story Reaches a Wider Audience

      A prominent Thai magazine came to write up Philip's life among the Moken, and he returned to South Africa for a season of rest and feedback.

      furloughcommunityprayer
    2. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      The Day the Village Began to Hear

      When 17-year-old Thoen died of an electric shock, the grief cracked something open — and for the first time the Moken truly heard, with even the spirits they consulted telling them Thoen was at peace.

      churchcommunityprayermilestone

  5. 2014

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandPersonal

      A Week Alone with the Father

      Weighed down by grief over coerced conversions and his own exhaustion, Philip withdrew alone for a week to wait on God — and came back with a clear answer: stay with the Moken and be who you are.

      personalprayercommunity
    2. Koh Phayam, ThailandPartnership

      A South African Team Doubles the House

      A fifteen-person team from five South African denominations flew out in May and, in about seven days, doubled Philip's island home into a gathering place for the children and a house-church.

      partnershipcommunitymilestone
    3. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      The First Moken Wedding and a Moken Christmas

      In a year of new strain — a TV-screen school program that failed the Moken — Philip led the first Moken Christian wedding and pulled off the community's first full Christmas celebration.

      churchcommunitymilestone

  6. 2015

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      Five Weeks on the Front Line — A 2015 Visit

      Paulien and Mark spent five weeks visiting Philip and "his boys" on the island — what the sending cell called a "sacrificial adventure" of joy and unpredictability.

      communityprayer
    2. Koh Phayam, ThailandNeed

      Home in the Moken Village — and a Call for Partners

      Writing from his home in the Moken village, Philip reflected on change and exciting prospects — but a falling Rand and rising costs for the children left his ministry under real financial strain.

      communityfundraisingprayer
    3. Koh Phayam, Thailand / Bronkhorstspruit, South AfricaMilestone

      Leaving the School System

      After his 40th birthday and a five-week furlough, Philip pulled the Moken children out of a school system that was failing and belittling them, and began home-schooling and a learning centre.

      schoolfurloughpersonalmilestone

  7. 2016

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      Registering the Moken — and a Surfing Champion

      Philip helped register over 100 stateless Moken for Thai citizenship, built rainwater tanks and a chicken coop, and watched a Moken boy, Oden, win his age group at a Phuket surfing competition.

      communitywater-projectschoolmilestone

  8. 2017

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      A Year's Visa After Nine Years

      After more than nine years in Thailand the welfare department formally approved Philip's work and asked immigration to grant him a full year's visa — arriving alongside a donated boat, twenty chickens, and new life on the island.

      milestonecommunityneed
    2. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      When the School Became a Battle

      A whisper campaign that home-schooled Moken children would 'end up like donkeys' forced Philip to confront what he had feared most — that the school system was quietly turning the Moken into Thai.

      personalcommunityneed

  9. 2018

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      The Children's Tuck-Shop

      The foster boys pooled their savings and opened a little tuck-shop — Philip's quiet, years-long seed finally taking root — while the Tuesday Bible-story evenings began drawing in more of the village's men.

      communitychurchpersonal
    2. Chiang Mai & Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      The Boys' First Flight

      Philip took Wud and Tine on their first-ever flight — to a missions conference in Chiang Mai where they glimpsed the Father's heart and, meeting other stateless hill people, said they wanted to help.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    3. Koh Phayam, ThailandPersonal

      A Vow to the Moken

      Watching the school quietly turn Moken children into Thai children, Philip made a vow: to stay and try to repair it until the last Moken — because mission work must never be the death blow to a culture.

      personalcommunitychurch
    4. Phuket & Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      On Stage, and a Storm at Home

      The Moken children performed their own culture and music on stage at a missions conference in Phuket — and came home to a storm that had flooded the house and drowned the chickens, but also to a quiet breakthrough: they now retell the Bible stories themselves.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    5. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      Reviving the Old Moken Soap

      A soap-making lesson unearthed a forgotten Moken craft — washing-soap milled from a forest seed — while opening bank accounts for the boys ran headlong into a government that still won't count the Moken as residents.

      communityneedchurch
    6. Koh Phayam, ThailandPersonal

      The Hardest Christmas

      Saw, a young Moken foster son born with HIV, died the day before Philip's Christmas preparations were done — and the village grieved and sang the nativity in the same weekend.

      personalcommunitychurch

  10. 2019

    1. Sangkhlaburi & Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      Into the Mountains with the Karen

      Philip took his two oldest foster sons, Wud and Tine, deep into the Karen highlands, where the boys were welcomed so warmly they came home wishing the Moken could be like these mountain people who never once looked down on them.

      communitychurchmilestone
    2. Koh Phayam & Koh Chang, ThailandMilestone

      The Children Speak for Themselves

      The Moken children began to represent their own people — telling the Moken story in English at a fundraiser, serving another island's church each month, and posting exam marks that overturned a teacher's verdict that they would never read or write.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    3. Ranong & Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      Citizenship at Last, and New Hearts

      Almost three years after the process began, a group of Moken families received their Thai citizenship IDs — in a season that also saw young Moken profess faith and a wandering foster son come home.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    4. Khao Lak, Myanmar border & Koh PhayamMilestone

      The Boys Become Teachers

      Asked to teach a whole school group to surf, the once-timid Moken boys stepped up as instructors — while Philip scouted the Moken living across the border in Myanmar and more young Moken professed faith.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    5. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      The Coffee Shop Opens

      A two-year dream came true as the older Moken youth built and opened their own coffee shop — and at Christmas they taught the younger children the Jesus story and led the nativity themselves.

      milestonecommunitychurch

  11. 2021

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      Quarantine on the Island

      A COVID outbreak put the whole Moken village under a 14-day quarantine — and Philip and his helper Chanab absorbed the village's anger for having reported it, even as the little church kept growing.

      medicalcommunityprayer

  12. 2022

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      Power, Coral, and a Church That Paints Itself

      Solar power finally reached the school and coffee shop, the little congregation chose to paint its own church, and several Moken youth joined a reef-restoration team planting living coral.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    2. South Africa (broadcast) / ThailandStory

      On the Radio — So I Send You

      A two-part interview with Murray Louw on Radio Kansel carried Philip's story of the Moken to a wider South African audience.

      communityprayer
    3. Ranong & Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      The Woman Who Tried to Have Him Removed

      A foreign resident waged a sustained campaign of false accusations to have Philip removed — reported to six government departments, every charge investigated and found untrue.

      personalcommunityneed
    4. Bangkok, Chiang Mai & Koh PhayamMilestone

      The Youth Rise

      The Moken youth took second place at a national science competition, two became certified scuba divers, and Philip's eldest foster son Wud decided to head north for mission training — the dream of the Moken ministering to the Moken taking on a face.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    5. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      A Christmas of Joy and Trouble

      A foster son chose to walk the road with the Lord and finish his studies, monthly surf contests began for the island's children, and Christmas was celebrated with a joy twice interrupted by trouble in the village.

      communitychurchmilestone

  13. 2023

    1. Koh Phayam, Thailand / Chiang MaiMilestone

      Wud Flies for Discipleship Training

      Wud — once the shy drummer boy Khay Dam — sat his final college exam and was set to fly on 1 April for a YWAM Discipleship Training School, the first fruit of more than a decade of investment.

      moken-boyschurchschoolmilestone

  14. 2024

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      A Bridge to the Village — and a Governor's Thanks

      The treacherous tidal-river raft was finally replaced by a real bridge, and Philip's years of quiet work drew official thanks — visits from Ranong's governor and Thailand's vice-president, and a provincial certificate of appreciation.

      buildingcommunitymilestone
    2. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      A Whole Group Goes Down Into the Water

      Asked to return to ancestral-spirit worship, almost the whole Moken community refused — we now have a King and a Father in heaven — and a large group was baptised, publicly declaring a new life in Christ.

      churchcommunitymilestoneprayer
    3. Koh Phayam / Chiang Mai, ThailandMilestone

      God's Word in the Moken Tongue

      Wud and a young man from Koh Chang trained as Bible translators, and the team began rendering the Gospel of Luke into Koh Phayam Moken — the first Scripture ever in their own language.

      churchschoolcommunitymilestonefundraising
    4. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      Rice Fields, Handmade Beds, and the Book of Luke

      Between rain bursts the household raced to plant rice and maize, built their own wooden beds after years of sleeping on the floor, and pushed to finish the Gospel of Luke in Moken before Wud left for military service.

      communitymoken-boysschoolchurchfundraising
    5. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      The Moken Keep Christmas Themselves

      For the first time the Moken planned and held their own Christmas while Philip was away — sending him the photos — a long-hoped-for sign that they were becoming self-sustaining.

      milestonecommunitychurch

  15. 2025

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandMilestone

      Building a Self-Sustaining Future

      Philip began building a water-and-ice factory to generate income that could employ the Moken and fund the work long-term — as a visa change reframed him, technically, from front-line missionary to tentmaker.

      communitybuildingfundraisingmilestone
    2. Koh Phayam & Ranong, ThailandMilestone

      A Soccer Field and a Path to Belonging

      A soccer field rose faster than anyone expected — envisioned as a platform to reach young people — while Moken families registered their homes, a step toward the citizenship that means belonging.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    3. Bangkok, Phuket & Koh PhayamMilestone

      The Tentmaker Visa, and Surfers Bound for Phuket

      Philip's business, or tentmaker, visa was approved — opening a lawful long-term future in Thailand — while the young Moken surfers travelled out of their province for the first time to compete in Phuket.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    4. Koh Phayam & Bangkok, ThailandMilestone

      A Mini-DTS, a Year Visa, and a Shocking Loss

      Six young Moken completed a three-day discipleship school with visible fruit and Philip's year-long tentmaker visa finally came through — joy shadowed by the shocking murder of Thor, a young former student.

      milestonecommunitychurch
    5. Koh Phayam & Ranong, ThailandMilestone

      The Eldest Son Comes Home

      Philip's eldest foster son Wud completed his military service among the top hundred of his year and came home a strong young man, as the island's water-and-ice factory neared completion.

      milestonecommunitypersonal
    6. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      A Year of Building — Church, Water Factory, and New Life

      Over Christmas and the new year, Philip hosted visiting families and US work teams, rebuilt the church roof, neared completion on a water-and-ice factory to fund the boys' work, and asked prayer for a critically premature baby, Ta-Tê.

      communitymedicalbuildingmilestonefundraisingprayer

  16. 2026

    1. Koh Phayam, ThailandPartnership

      Five Boys, Five Opportunities — The Moken Guardians

      Philip invites supporters to "step in" for five Moken boys living with him to finish grade 12 — to know each boy's name, pray for him, and help carry his living costs.

      moken-boysschoolcommunityfundraisingprayer
    2. Koh Phayam, ThailandStory

      School Bags, Guardians, and a Farewell

      Philip's July 2026 newsletter holds joy and sorrow side by side — a new school bag for every Moken schoolchild, a South African team's visit, the launch of the Guardians sponsorship program, and a farewell to Goy Thalealuek.

      schoolcommunitymoken-boysfundraisingprayer