Derington Family

- Ministering in Thailand -
Get To Know Us

Our hearts are for every person in Thailand to know someone that passionately follows Christ.

Thailand

Thailand sits at the center of Southeast Asia, surrounded by Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Malaysia, with China just to the north. Millions of people cross its borders each year.

Though a spiritually open country, roughly 85% of Thais still hold to Buddhist teachings, while less than 1% are evangelical.

Missions work has taken place in Thailand for over 200 years with slow growth. Over the last ten years there has been a shift in the culture and greater disillusionment in the majority religion, paving the way for more consistent expansion of the gospel.

However, of the 114 known people groups in Thailand, 79 of them are still considered unreached. This means roughly 88% of the Thai population currently has little-to-no chance of hearing the gospel.

But…because of the foundation God has laid through faithful workers we are now beginning to see second and third generation Thai believers stepping in to full time ministry, and the gospel spreading into these “unreached” parts of Thailand and SE Asia.

We joined staff with Cru in 2019 and will be serving in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Cru is now the world’s largest mission organization–active in over 190 countries around the world. 

Our Ministry

The Derington family will be serving in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Considered the largest city in the mountainous north with a population exceeding 200,000.

Cru’s ministry focus is four-fold: campus ministry, church planting, leader discipleship, and digital strategies.

In addition to outreach and discipleship, Nick will be stepping into an operational leadership position within Cru with the aim of expanding the existing infrastructure to support the growing ministry. He looks forward to leveraging his fifteen years of corporate experience with project management, marketing, software development, and finance for the Kingdom.

Though born to American parents, Traci holds a Thai birth certificate. This will enable her to work toward establishing dual citizenship once we land in-country. Having dual citizenship gives us permanency in Thailand and will open further doors to serve in the country long-term. Traci will also be involved in relational ministry through outreach and discipling new and growing believers.

Our children–Elam (8), Grey (6), Moriah (4), and Wren (2)–have all made the long journey to and from Southeast Asia and have experience first hand. They are excited to participate in ministry and we see them as key players.

We are excited to partner with Grace Fellowship Church in Northern Kentucky as our sending church.

Prayer Requests

As a family we value prayer. We have found as we progress in this process it is crucial to have more individuals involved in praying for us and the ministry. Please consider partnering with us in prayer in the following ways:

Provision

That God would bring about the right ministry partners and that appointments would be fruitful

Endurance

Preparation can be an exhausting season, and we want to pace our family well

Family

That we would have a “same team” mentality within our marriage and with our littles

Connection

That relationships would begin to form now with our team in Thailand

Latest From Our Ministry

Check out our most recent updates.

2021 | Year End Giving Opportunity

2021 | Year End Giving Opportunity

Amazing to believe over a year has come and gone since we landed in Thailand. Sometimes it still feels like we have just arrived, and yet so much life has happened over this last year. We are doing …

We Have Neighbors! | Small Business Help

We Have Neighbors! | Small Business Help

Thank you all so much for your ongoing prayers and support. A few weeks ago we passed our one-year anniversary in Thailand, and we can hardly believe we’ve already taken a full trip around the sun …

X-Track Training | Time Away | Pii May

X-Track Training | Time Away | Pii May

What a whirlwind the last several weeks have been! We are beyond grateful for the prayers toward our summer training. We started into our X-Track training in mid June, and it felt a little like we …