Our History
The chief objective of Team Thrust Ministries is the unity and edification of the Body of Christ. We do not seek to build an organization or a permanent work in any country but simply to assist pastors , churches and missionaries, of every denomination (or fellowship) within the Body of Christ, to be strengthened in God and discover a greater effectiveness in the work of world evangelism.
Our prayer is that God will help us help others to accept, love and become “one” with all who believe in Jesus so the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer might be realized in our generation. Team Thrust’s overseas outreach includes teaching seminars for missionaries, pastors, and church leaders and public crusades.
Les Pritchard wrote in 1969: "Early one morning I arrived in Shinjuku station in Tokyo. It is the largest train station in the world with over three million people passing through it's gates every day. I descended the stairs and began to move through the tunnel to catch my train just as several trains arrived spilling thousands of Japanese into the same tunnel. I saw them coming toward me as water breaking through a dam.
Finding protection behind a pillar I watched as a seemingly unending stream of people passed by me: soberfaced and dark in spirit; an innumerable mass of Japanese. I cried out in my spirit, " Lord, how can we reach so many! It looks so hopeless. Must they all perish? The Holy Spirit spoke to me clearly and distinctly of three ways in His word to reach a nation.
Unity. (John 17:21) "Jesus prayed "... That they all may be one ... that the world might believe.
Love. (John 13:14) "Love one another as I have loved you .. by this shall all men know that you are disciples, if you love one another." .
Joy. (Rom 14:17, 18) "Joy in the Holy Spirit... Is approved of all men."
In 1969 I phoned Marvin Fast, a missionary we supported in Nagoya, Japan to suggest I could drop in for a few days on my way to India. He arranged for about 40 people to meet at a camp nearby. Providentially, there were eight overseers of the missions work for their denomination or mission society. Inspired as I shared what I had received from the Lord they proposed that if I came back to Japan they would bring all the pastors and leaders from their churches to attend." Thus was born what we called, "Japan Thrust" from which "Team Thrust Ministries" evolved as Pastor Pritchard's overseas ministry developed.
‘Team’ Thrust had its origin in the days when Pastor Pritchard took as many as seventeen ministries at one time, with him to Japan. So this vehicle is designed to facilitate multiple ministries committed to helping the whole man, and reaching out to the whole church and the whole world with the whole Gospel.
‘Thrust’ is taken from Matthew 9:38 where Jesus told His disciples to ‘pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’. One meaning of the Greek word for ‘send’ (eckballo) is to ‘thrust out’. Revelation 14:15 also says to ‘thrust in the sickle and reap, for the time has come to reap the harvest of the earth’.
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