Chiang Mai Orality Network

I was teaching a class on missions at my Thai Bible school when on November 17th news came of the death of John Chau, a missionary who was seeking to reach the Sentinelese tribe in the Andaman islands. My students had a number of questions concerning Chau’s death and his decision to contact this tribe. Many have commented on this event, but what was highlighted for me and my class was the inherent risks that are part and parcel of most any mission endeavor. The first time this fact came “close to home” for me was in 1981, after I had been in Central Thailand only a couple of months. I got word on October 25th that an OMF worker named Koos Fietje had been martyred the night before in a neighboring province, in a village called Khao Din. Only a week before Koos’ death he had addressed a group of new missionaries with, “We should live to live and not live to exist. It is for this reason God has created us. Today I will live to glorify God … I will live each day as though it were my last. I am ready to go home at any time.” The afternoon before he left for Khao Din, he told his wife, “If anything happens to me, I’m leaving my watch and ring in this drawer.” Koos knew the risks. He knew that this next trip might be his last. Many missionaries had died in Central Thailand before Koos, but he was the first to die a martyr’s death.

Do pray that those that are reaching the Thai, both missionaries and nationals, will be willing to take calculated risks based upon the promises of God and like Paul be able to say, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

“You need to be able to preach, pray or die at a moments notice,” was a phrase I heard while training in seminary and has become especially poignant in Thailand where I am sometimes called upon to preach in Thai and often pray without any prior notice … fortunately I’ve not had to respond to the third aspect. Recently I flew to a Bible school in NE Thailand and on the way sat next to two 17 year old Thai high school students. As we talked, I thought about a story that would relate to these youth and decided to tell them from memory the entire prodigal son story from Luke 15. This prompted a good discussion, sharing of a tract based on Luke 15, as well as an evangelistic app. The previous day I had been informed unexpectedly that I would be speaking in chapel to 35 Bible students for an hour. I decided to tell them the story of the paralytic in Mark 2. That evening while eating a meal with the director of the school and a number of friends, he asked me “Do you have something from the Word to share with us tonight?” In the past thinking of a spontaneous message in Thai for such an esteemed group would have made me go into diabetic shock.

Fortunately, I’ve made it a goal of having many Biblical stories in my heart pocket for just such occasions. I immediately started telling the story of Mephibosheth from 1 Samuel 9. Incidents like this reminded me of Paul who was often called upon to speak at the spur of the moment, such as the synagogue in Pisidian Antioch, “After the reading of the Law and the Prophets the synagogue officials sent to them, saying, “Brethren, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, say it” (Acts 13:15). Do pray that our O missionaries here in Thailand will have a good “word of exhortation” and “say it” accurately and powerfully to the Thai as God opens up divine appointments for ministry in this land.

The OMFer who recruited me in the states encouraged me to do a research paper on the Bangkok Bible College with the possibility that I could teach there after my language study was finished. So, at the end of one year I went to David Pickard, OMF’s director and asked him when I might start at BBC. David chuckled and said, “We have no policy to send new missionaries to BBC, you’ll need to do church planting up-country first.” Seven years later I did start at BBC and now I find myself after 30 more years still teaching theology to the Thai. My favorite class is Psalms and here is why: 1)It is probably the most read book out of the 66. 2)Every student is required to write daily in a journal that they then share during class (150 days of devotionals). 3)They write a one page reflection paper each week to turn in. 4)They memorize passages from Psalm 1, 23, 51, 100, 127, 139. 5)Tests and outside reading round out the course. After teaching this course numerous times you begin to see just how impactive this section of scripture is for the Thai. Psalms touches on most all human emotions and addresses heart felt needs at a deep level. Pray that all the OMF teachers in academic settings here in Thailand as well as our national team members will be able to be Ezras to their students … “For Ezra prepared his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statues and ordinances in Israel”(Ezra 7:10)

One aspect of the miraculous cave rescue in Thailand that the press failed to emphasize sufficiently was when the British diver popped up and asked how many were on that ledge. This was the first time we heard from a resilient 14 year old that knew enough English to say, “Thirteen”. Adun Samon grew up in a Burmese refugee camp on the Thai border and with the multi-lingual skills he attained there could have replied in Burmese, Wah, Chinese or Thai. Adun’s parents are believers and encouraged him to live at a church near Mae Sai where he enrolled in the Compassion International program and learned to lead worship.

Adun said that one day he wanted “to be a doctor and a famous professional soccer player for the Chiang Rai United Club.” What most impressed me about Adun was that on July 24th when the other 11 players were shaving their heads and participating in a Buddhist ceremony, Adun chose to worship God at a special thanksgiving service at his church where he was instructed by his parents to give special thanks to the family of Sgt. Unan who gave his life trying to bring oxygen to Adun and his teammates.

Statistically,  1 out of 12 amounts to 8%, which is 7 percentage points more than the .7% ratio of Christians to the Buddhist majority that we have here in Thailand. (We remain at that low figure despite 190 years of missionary presence here.) Pray that as we share the gospel that many more Aduns will be identified and nurtured in the faith so that the percentage of Christians will grow expediently.

While in the States, I routinely shell out up to $15USD for a simple haircut. The other day I kidded my barber in Chiang Mai about his raising the price of my haircut from $1.30 to $1.60USD. What is interesting is that I could also get my ears cleaned in Thailand if I added just another dollar or two. Thai barbers seem more like a dentist when they pull out their arsenal of tools for a typical ear cleaning session. They use a variety of spoons, spades, hooks and feathers on their customers. I’ve read that you shouldn’t even push a Q-tip into your ear canal, so up to now I’ve deferred from having my auditory system scrubbed down to the eardrum. Yet many Thai enjoy the procedure and no doubt would claim that their hearing improved after just one session. I’ve often thought of how nice it would be if one could “clean out” the collective spiritual wax build up which have kept the Thai from hearing the clear message of the gospel for the past 185 years of missionary involvement in this country. Jesus quoting from Isaiah 6 commented on the Jews of His generation, “For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them’ (Matthew 13:15). Pray that Thai ears would be unstopped by the power of God’s Word and Spirit and that they would not only hear the message of truth but embrace and believe it.

Recently I wrote a blog saying that “… the world breathed a sigh of relief when the news came that the 12 Thai soccer team members who had been trapped for 9 days in a cave near the golden triangle had been rescued.” A comment on my blog reminded me that they had been found, but were not yet out of the cave. Now that they have been safely rescued, we can rejoice and also pause to think of possible lessons that can be learned:

1. Finding the lost is relatively easy compared to getting them safely out of the pit. Christian research groups have identified 7,000 Unreached People Groups (UPGs) globally, comprising 42% of the world’s population. The approximately  21 million Isaan people of Northeast Thailand number in the top 50 of these 7,000 groups. This Isaan group is a part of the more than 60 million Thai Buddhists that are in great need of a gospel witness.
2. Major obstacles and sacrifices will be faced in order to free those trapped. Trained divers took up to 6 hours in order to reach the soccer team. They faced strong currents, near-zero visibility, narrow passages and lack of oxygen (one of their number died in the effort). The human and financial cost of the effort was substantial, but was a minor concern when 13 souls were at stake. How much more effort and money should be expended when you think of the billions of eternal souls that remain trapped in the cave of sin and death, and separated from God and unaware of Jesus their only possible rescuer.
3. Access to Reached People Groups (RPG) is easy compared to unreached people groups. Reached groups have easy access to the gospel and would compare with people trapped near the mouth of a cave. Unreached groups, however, due to their situation “in the depths of the pit”, will require a massive rescue operation with national and international teams joining hands in the effort. For most, the idea of unreached groups brings to mind a remote tribe in the depth of a tropical jungle. However, in today’s world, the vast majority of the unreached are more likely to live in “concrete jungles” which are readily accessible (like Tokyo or Bangkok) but are still “in the depths of the pit”, untouched by the Good News. Such urban dwellers might have Christian neighbours who live close by yet they stay separated from the gospel due to their world view. The Thai soccer team was separated from the outside world by less than 500 meters – but those 500 meters consisted of solid rock. Similarly, these unreached people might be close in terms of physical distance, but the gospel has yet to penetrate the ‘solid rock’ of their world view assumptions and misconceptions. Yet when the gospel of truth does penetrate the darkness, we have seen wonderful changes when these people are ‘brought out into the light’.
4. After being rescued, people need to be brought to spiritual health. Once rescued the first major concern was the health of the soccer team. They had been in extreme conditions for over two weeks and were weak and many sick. The fledgling church in many parts of Asia is weak, often struggling, and in great need of strong biblical discipleship and follow-up.