The countdown is on!
We’re leaving for Bangkok, Thailand on July 6th. Follow along, pray with us, and stay close – we can’t wait to bring you into every moment.
Meet the Heltons
We’re Ryan and Melinda Helton, and along with our three daughters, Elsie, Ruby, and Willow, we are preparing to serve as cross-cultural missionaries in Bangkok, Thailand. With a combined 15 years in ministry and a long-held calling to the mission field, we believe God has been preparing our family for this for a long time.
This site is our way of bringing you into the journey with us; the preparation, the prayers, the stories from the field, and the moments where we see God show up. We are so glad you’re here.
The Heltons
Fundraising Progress
Every gift is a step toward Bangkok. Thank you for being part of what God is doing through the Helton family.
We are fully funded!
We’re overwhelmed with gratitude! God provided through so many of you – your generosity made this possible. Thank you for being part of this!
Monthly Support
One-Time Expenses
Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok is a city that grabs you. Nearly 11 million people fill its streets; ancient temples, bustling night markets, towering skyscrapers, and the warm smiles of the Thai people. It is a place of deep spiritual heritage, rich culture, and genuine openness to relationship.
Thailand is over 90% Buddhist, with a worldview that is beautifully communal and rooted in a desire for peace, harmony, and meaning. The Thai people are known for their hospitality and their genuine curiosity about life’s big questions; questions that open doors to real, lasting conversations about faith.
We are not going to Bangkok to bring something foreign. We are going to join what God is already doing among a people He deeply loves.
``The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.
Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.``
How We Got Here
Missions has been on our hearts for a long time. For years we prayed, we waited, and we trusted that when the time was right God would make it clear. But as our girls got older, we began to feel a gentle nudge; maybe faithfulness meant seeking, not just waiting.
So we started asking questions. We leaned on trusted voices in our lives and were pointed toward an organization called Missions Resource Network based in Texas. When we sat down with their team and heard their philosophy of missions, something clicked. It felt less like a discovery and more like a confirmation. We have been grateful partners with MRN ever since, and their training and support have shaped this entire journey.
In September 2025 we took a survey trip through Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Danang, Vietnam. We met with missionaries, church planters, and disciple makers doing faithful work across Southeast Asia. We gathered wisdom, asked hard questions, and soaked it all in. But before the trip was even over, we had a sense we couldn’t shake; Bangkok was the place.
We came home and started planning. Lord willing, we will be on the ground in Bangkok in late May or early June 2026. We believe God has been preparing us for this for a long time, and we are ready to go.
The Way We Work
We believe the gospel spreads best when it’s discovered, not just delivered.
A Disciple Making Movement (DMM) is exactly what it sounds like, a movement. Rather than planting a church and filling seats, DMM focuses on making disciples who make disciples. It starts small, often in homes and coffee shops and around dinner tables, and it multiplies as people share what they’re learning with the people already in their lives. The goal isn’t a building. It’s a movement of ordinary people following Jesus and inviting others to do the same.
Looking for People of Peace
Our approach is rooted in Luke 10, where Jesus sent out 72 disciples with a simple but profound strategy: find the person of peace. These are people who are open, who listen, who welcome the message and the messenger. They aren’t necessarily the most religious person in the room. They are simply someone whose heart is ready and whose life gives them influence; in their family, their neighborhood, their community. When a person of peace discovers the gospel and begins to follow Jesus, the good news travels naturally through the relationships they already have. That’s how movements begin.
Discovery Bible Study
At the heart of our work is something called a Discovery Bible Study. In a DBS, we don’t lecture or preach. We simply open Scripture together and ask three guiding questions:
What does this passage say about God?
What does this passage say about people?
In light of what we’ve read, what will I do?
That last question is everything. The focus is obedience. Not just understanding Scripture, but responding to it. We trust the Holy Spirit to take God’s Word and do what only He can do in a person’s heart. Time and again around the world, this simple, Spirit-led approach has sparked movements that no single missionary or organization could have engineered.
We are not going to Bangkok to build something with our name on it. We are going to find the people whose hearts God has already been preparing, sit with them around His Word, and trust Him to move.
``After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,
standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”
Stay in the Loop
Every month we'll send you an honest update from wherever we are in this journey; the wins, the hard days, the answered prayers, and the stories of people we're walking with in Bangkok. No spam. Just real life. We'd love to have you with us.
