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The snack store in the corner of the street going to the church was made of grass roofs, bamboo posts and bamboo table. The middle-aged woman was selling delicious noodles and finger foods that were delicacies from Myanmar. The foods were delicious so Narlin and I would usually make a stop there when we were hungry and eat while chatting with the woman. This was a rare opportunity when we practiced our Thai language and got corrected and laughed at with our bad pronunciation. This woman we found out later is our link in the community. Her daughter and her daughter’s friends were Narlin’s first students in our English club held in the church last summer. She was responsible for making us popular in the community.
We never thought that we were very popular. A Filipino couple who passed by the neighborhood in their old motorcycle were not worthy of notice at all. Until… one day when I was about to make the turn to the church this woman stopped me. Parang pumapara ng jeep. With her were two young ladies. I didn’t know what the reason was until one of the ladies spoke with me in broken English and tried to tell me something which I did not understand. So I thought maybe they want to see the church or the pastor. I brought them to the church and there we found out that one of the ladies wanted to learn to speak English. Apparently, our English club and DVBS last summer had far reaching effect in the community than what we thought. These two ladies wanted to attend our English club which had stopped for a while because the students were busy with their schooling.
So last night we went to the church, Narlin was expecting and prepared to teach one or two students, but to our surprise more than 20 people showed up. Children and young people came with their parents. Narlin was unprepared to teach that many people. These people come to the church to learn English. They never even want to be near a church much more inside it before but they came and we were grateful. We are praying that through English club they will learn about the story of Jesus and come to know him as the true God.
Last week, Thursday, September 21 was Reuven's 8th birthday. His previous birthdays were usually celebrated in the church with the church's children and young people. We always had an enjoyable celebration because of the fellowship and my mother-in-law usually would cook and prepare the food. And I tell you she is a good cook. I had not taste the most delicious foods anywhere in my life. Not even here in Thailand. The young people and the Sunday School teachers would organize a children's party and games. Everyone would have a great time eating, talking and just being with everyone.
Last Wednesday, we had a very simple celebration. We were not able to invite our neighbors because we really didn't have money to spend for the celebration unlike Jillian's. And besides, it was still raining cats and dogs and the coup was on its peak. The only people who came were the other Filipino who where learning the Thai language with us and our Filipino teacher and her niece. They brought with them cake and Narlin prepared pancit canton. Why pancit canton? Because Reuven missed pancit canton and that is the only food he really liked for us to prepare. (No spaghetti please!)
Although we missed the usual way we celebrate his birthday we are thankful to the Lord. Some friends from the church remembered his birthday and gave the gift last Sunday. Some friends emailed us and sent their greetings. Tita Nori, Tita Dadai and Lola Toti called us up to greet Reuven for his special day. He timidly and in a shy voice would reply "thank you." Just like ordinray children, he wished that he would received many gifts. But he also said that it was still okay if he would not receive a gift.
Reuven is a very smart boy. Most of you who was with him know this. He is a fast learner. Narlin and I have a hard time reading Thai, he actually read Thai better. We always bring him when we go to the supermarket because can read the labels of the goods we were buying. Living in foreign land is tough for the grown up, I could only imagine that it is tougher for our children Please remember our children in your prayers.
By the way, Reuven had written three children books. Ate Precy (Caronongan)was asking for the first book because she want to publish it in the near future.
He is the greatest king of kingsMy youngest son asked me, is he like Jesus Christ? No, he is not but I think the Thais would agree that he is greater than Jesus Christ. I began to wonder, what was happening? Where were the regular TV programs? Did something happened to the king? Was he sick? Why were they showing these videos? Why was it abnormally quiet? Why were our neighbors' kids were not going to school? Why were the borders closed?
The heavenly gift to all mankind
He is the sun, moon and the stars
The greatest king, King Bhumibol
The coup situation is a very good one, people are happy to see the change, no gun shot, no bloodshed. We have a great king who cares for his people, and knows how to handle the situation. The person he appointed to look into the corruption is a fine Christian, every thing will be OK soon, we will have a temporary prime minister for about a year which already being named.Perhaps the coup is something that God allowed to happen for his glory and for the advancement of his kingdom.
There are changes in this blog for some reasons. A well meaning friend advised me not to put too "much" in this blog. And I believe he is right. I removed some of the page elements and pictures. Rest assured the updates and stories of God's faithfulness will continue. We want to thank our friends and people who emailed us and told us that they were blessed with some of the stories. I guess they still have to learn to put their comments on the blog. Thanks for the encouragement and appreciation. We know that we are not alone as we struggle culturally, emotionally, financially, physically and spiritually in the field. Thanks again.
Also I want to thank Jim Cortrill for featuring this blog in Missionary Blog Watch . Honestly, I wasn't expecting that this blog will be featured in his site much more my other blog. It's just feel good to know that we are not alone in the field and that we are part of a global effort (by God's power) to share the love of God for those who otherwise would have less chance of experiencing it.
We are experiencing a dark and rainy mornings here for a week now. Yesterday, when we were preparing to go to the church and as I was putting on my rain coat, it happened, a tiny tear from the neck decided to go all the way down to the bottom. The rain coat proved to be unusable. I had no choice but to go in spite of the strong rain. I drove our 10-year old Honda Dream 100 with my wife holding a big umbrella at the back and my 8-year old son at the front holding a smaller umbrella; we negotiated the road to our church up to the mountain. It was a difficult and dangerous drive. The drop of rains pierced my eyes and face like millions dumb needles. It was painful. And I was thinking I had to do it again for I had to come back for my other two children.
My friends who are also missionaries always tell me that I need a vehicle—a car or a pick-up truck that I can use for our ministry. But to be completely honest I really do not have the desire to owe one although it may be a real need for mission work. I believe a motorcycle will do the job. However, God knows our needs and not our wants. I don’t want to have a car but if God saw that it is what we need then perhaps God will give us a car.
I’m not trying to trick God by saying I don’t want it but we need it to so that He will give it anyway. We had a similar experience before with God when I was studying at the seminary. I was serving in a church as an interim pastor on the weekends while studying in Baguio for the weekdays. The church is a 3-hour drive from the seminary. I thought we did not need a car because we can commute every weekend to our place of ministry, but of course with much difficulty. We were satisfied with that arrangement because that was our way of life for almost a year and we got used to it. But God knows our needs more than us that after almost a year in that situation, He did provide and gave us a vehicle we can use every weekend. Now it made me think… God would provide our needs if it will help us become more effective in His ministry and because He loves us. For me… it is a clear application of this verse: …for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:8)
I saw these spirit houses in a shop for sale. I did not know if the shop owner is a Christian. Perhaps the original owner of the house converted to a shop was Christian because of the cross design on the wall. The picture represents the different religious pattern of the different people groups here in the Greater Mekong Subregion. The first religion is Buddhism which is the dominant religion represented in the design of the spirit house. The spirit house itself represents animism. This is the dominant religion before Buddhism came to Thailand. The first inhabitants of this place are tribal peoples. The cross represents Christianity which is today is the minority religion even smaller compared to Islam.
The spirit houses play a very important role in the worship of the Buddhists. This small highly-decorated structures can be seen in many buildings. No Buddhist house is complete without the spirit house. The spirit house should be kept clean and nice than the main house so that it can attract the spirits. This is the home for guardian spirits for a house, gates, gardens, etc. The family should offer food, flowers, candles and incense. It is necessary to provide a living place for these spirits so that they will live in the main house with the family. This belief is obviously animism that is being integrated with the dominant religion.
However, Buddhist "theologians" teach that these beliefs and practices that are accepted as important part of Buddhism do not fit with the Buddhist principles. Rites and practices like this completely obscure the real Buddhism and its original purpose. They claim that the real Buddhist teaching is about attaining liberation. It is about examining things closely in order to come to know and understand their true nature. Then people have to behave in a way appropriate to that true nature. Buddhism depends on reason and insight not superstitions and magic. It demands that we act with what one's insight reveals. A person should not believe other else's opinioin. He must first listen and examine then verify if it and if it is reasonable he can accept it at least provisionally. When I looked at Buddhism closely it seems to be very philosophical rather than cultic.
The cross of course is the most prominent and the most important symbol of Christianity. If a cross is seen in the building around here, it is assumed that the people who are using are Christians if it is not a church.
It is interesting to study this further. I will devote more time to study its significant from Christian perspective that would be useful for missionary works. This will the subject of my next post.
A Christian faith that is not resurrection faith can therefore be called neither Christian nor faith. It is the knowledge of the risen Lord and the confessions to him who raised him that form the basis on which the memory of the life, work, sufferings and death of Jesus is kept alive and presented in the gospels. It is the recognition of the risen Christ that gives rise to the Church’s recognition of its own commission in the missions to the nations. It is the remembrance of his resurrection that the ground of the inclusive hope in the universal future of the Christ. The central statements of the primitive missionary proclamation are therefore: (1) God has raised the crucified Jesus from the dead (Acts 2:24, 3:15; 5:31; 1 Cor. 15:4; and frequently elsewhere. (2) “Of this we are witnesses.” (3) In him is grounded the future of righteousness for sinners and the future of life for those subject to death.
Jurgen Moltmann. Theology of Hope. From Religion-Online
For sure there will changes on visa regulation for foreigners staying in Thailand. The only good thing about this is that Filipinos are not singled out as the one of the reason why changes are necessary. Foreigners of other nationalities are speculating about the reasons for the relatively abrupt changes on visa regulation. The only reason they could think of is that Thailand no longer wants those unwanted aliens in its country. Here is the latest update:
News from the new regulation:
This is coming from the Chief of Immigration.
1.Retirement Visa extension. If you have a foreign married spouse who is a dependent they will be able to get this dependent visa now. ( change of what has been happing the last couple weeks)
2.Retirement visa extension: If you have children under 20. They will no longer be able to get a dependent visa based on you having an extension of stay on retirement. They want these kids to get it based on education so they go to school.
3..Investment Visa extension: Will no longer be available after Oct 1st for new applicants on 3 million Baht.
4. Investment visa extension. For existing extension of stay holders of 3 million Baht, we are now being told this will now be grandfathered in and they will be able to get the extension forever as long as they renew. (Yes I know reversal from several hours ago but the government is aware that people bought condos before on this scheme and now will allow it.)
5.Now the news for frequent visitors: We have checked this upwards and backwards all day and it has been confirmed by a copy of the new regulation we have. If you have a visa on arrival more than three times in six months, you cannot come into Thailand without a visa from an Embassy/Consulate. When you enter Thailand, even if you are here just 1 hour, this counts as 30 days. If you come back 6 weeks later for 2 days, this again is 30 days. If you arrive a month later for 4 days, still counts as 30 days. When you leave, you cannot enter Thailand for 3.5 months without coming back with a visa. The reason is to force people who are supposed to have work permits to do so and pay tax.
Another example; you arrive for a week, this counts as 30 days, One month later 3 days and its 30 days, two months later and its for a two week period, still another 30 days. You can reenter Thailand in 6 weeks without having a visa.
6.On extension of stay based support of a Thai national (Marriage visa), before if you applied for this extension of stay, you would get a 30 day consideration stamp. Once you return in 30 days you would get the one year extension. Now it will be the same as an extension of stay based on business with the norm of three 30 day consideration stamps. Immigration will go out and check to see if it’s a real marriage or a sham before issuing the one year.
7.On an extension of stay based on being a Monk. No dependents will be allowed to get an extension of stay based on being a dependent.
Everybody can say that after seven months of staying in a new place, you can consider yourself no longer a stranger. The sights and scenes become familiar. You wake up everyday and the moment you put your head out of your door, your neighbors smile at you and mutter words of greetings that you still understand but know what those words mean. The one place we consider our refuge is our home in familiar place, with familiar neighbors who become our friends.
We continue to experience God's faithfulness after a seemingly long seven months. We are thankful to the people who are actually supporting us and those who are willing to support us financially. However, we are in the situation right now when our money in the bank is not enough to pay for our house rent for this month (and our house rent is cheap). God in his graciousness provides us a "big" house, a 3 storey row house where we welcome short term missionaries and accomodate Filipino Christians almost every month. They come here to renew their visa. This is one of our ministries here--a place where people can stay for free. This is our home but most of all a home for all God's people.
In addition, we need to pay for our visa extension before the end of the month. We are going to the Thai Immigration office again to extend our visa to one year. The cost for the visa is 1,900 baht for each one of us (total for five person is 9,500)and 3,500 for the working permit (all in all approximately U$360). This is the last time we will do it at this time because after this we only need to renew our visa once a year.
God is always on time. We just got our non-immigrant visa last month just before the Thai government changed its policy about 30-day tourist visa. I will quote what the immigration officers said regarding this:
'Under the current rules, people from those countries can stay in Thailand as long as they want. Some even stay here for one year,' another bureau official said.God is indeed faithful!
The bureau had learned that a growing number of foreigners from the 41 countries worked illegally in Thailand, Suwat said, adding many were employed in bars and restaurants in the popular seaside resort of Pattaya, east of Bangkok.
'Tourists are taking advantage of the visa exemption law. Instead of sightseeing, they are doing business here,' Suwat said.
From October, tourists from the designated countries can still enter Thailand without visas and stay for up to 30 days, but their entry stamps will be renewable twice at most for a maximum stay of 90 days.
Tourists who stayed for 90 days must leave the kingdom for at least 90 days before being permitted to re-enter Thailand, Suwat said.
After seven months in the mission field God gives us a clearer direction on what path to walk on in our ministry. He is giving us a focus. As Filipino missionaries this is crucial. We neither have a team nor an organization here who would tell us what to do nor would just give us a position in a well structured organization. Given this situation it is easy to lost focus. However, we believe that in situation like this that God would certainly reveal His will to those who are fully dependent on Him. I believe God put us in a position where our ministries will have a greater impact on the local community.
Narlin’s Christian Education Ministry
It is very clear for us that Narlin is most effective with her ministry with the children. She has a very important role in the children ministry of Grace International Church. Besides teaching the children, her position gives her the opportunity to minister to non-Christian parents and lead them to a saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. The strength of her ministry lies on her ability to make friends and make people feel they are important—both for the children and their parents. Her training community health training gives here the ability to care for the children who are sick.
Furthermore, the church voted unanimously and give here task of training teachers . She is given the position to be the Sunday School director or something like that. She will be in charge of the entire Christian education of the church. Training teachers for Sunday School and leaders for children worship. This will include organizing English camps and Daily Vacation Bible School during the summer.
For some this may look easy, but as a foreigner working in disorganized church and working with people of different worldviews and cultures makes the task doubly difficult.
However, we believe that here is where she is most effective and where she will have a bigger impact in the community in terms of evangelism and empowering local people to minister and evangelize their own people.
Joey’s Theological Education and Training Ministry
Joey preaches regularly and considered to be the Assistant Pastor of Mae Sai Grace International Church. He is given full responsibility for the program of the morning worship service. Together with Pastor Shin Maung (the church’s senior pastor), Angela (co-worker) and Narlin, he helped organized the international congregation which is now well attended and perhaps preferred by Christians who happened to visit the place.
He is also instilling the vision among fellow Christians and missionaries to be united in reaching the unreached people groups in the region which is of course plenty. A coordinated effort and a fervent praying for one another are certainly needed and indispensable in the mission field.
In addition, Pastor Shin Maung is deeply concern with the theological education of the pastors and church leaders from both Thailand and Myanmar. Together we envision a church- based Bible school which is accessible both to Thais and Myanmar people.
We know that this undertaking is not possible without a working partnership with an established institution. This program will be done in partnership with Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary being coordinated through its current president, Dr. Joyce Abugan. Theological education will be done through Seminary Education by Extension (SEE). We will start the training as soon as the textbooks are available.
We believe that this ministry would also have a greater impact on making Christ known in this region. It will train local leaders in their biblical and theological knowledge, who in turn can transfer their knowledge to local Christians who obviously are more effective doing these things than foreign missionaries.
Because of the lack of qualified theological teachers, we are praying that we can extend this effort in other parts of Thailand using different means and methods of teaching that includes the use of the internet. We pray that these trainings will be a venue for a dialogue to make the gospel—the story of Jesus more understandable and acceptable to the Buddhists in the community.
We are pleading for you to pray for us without ceasing. I hope that the words of the apostle Paul in Phil. 1:4-6 may also be true in our lives
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
As a Pastor’s wife, I supported my husband in his ministries and considered his calling includes me and my children. God had called him to pastor three churches. In those churches, God had put the burden in my heart to minister to women and children. Usually I end up teaching the children in Sunday School and set up a children learning center that ministered to the community.
When my husband was given opportunity to go to the seminary for further studies, I supported his decision to go. Even though we had no clear source of support we responded to the call and went to the seminary. Our going was made possible by selling our stuff that were still of use to our church members.
Our first few months at the seminary were really a struggle. Although my husband was granted scholarship, it was limited to tuition fees and other academic expenses. We had to have other sources of income in order for us to eat and buy our basic needs. The only option me and my husband had was to work in the seminary as work grant. My husband worked as security guard while wrestling with his academic works and ministry on weekends.
Me? I also had to work in order for us to survive and as we Filipinos would always say “para makakain kami ng tatlong beses sa isang araw” and my children could go to school. However, I was not qualified to work in the seminary as work grant if I was taking classes. And God provided me an opportunity to enrolled two very important courses that would prove to be useful in the future. These two courses were Crisis Counseling and Teaching English to the Speaker of Other Language (TESOL). Of course, I had to pay the tuition fees through my small work grant salary.
Eventually I was able to do some trivial works in the seminary from washing dishes at the canteen to cleaning the dormitory rooms. Until there was a need for a nursery teacher and I applied for the position. My experiences in teaching and caring ministry in my previous churches had become very useful. It was in addition to the fact that my major in college was elementary education.
I worked as nursery teacher for over a year. I enjoyed it and it became a ministry that gave me fulfillment. I taught and care for the children of the seminary students and faculties. I came to know the children and their parents and develop friendship with them. So that even the after my duty hours were over children would come into our small dormitory room to play, sing or just watch TV to wait for their parents to come home. The nursery was also able to minister to the community in Guisad. “Outsiders” also entrusted their children to me when they were out there working.
Presently, we are here in the mission field in the northern most part of Thailand. We are now ministering to the displaced people living in the borders of both Thailand and Myanmar. And one of the ministries that God asked us to do is to work in a Day Care Center. Yes, ministering to the children of these displaced people. I could never have imagined that the ministry that I had been doing in the Philippines is actually the ministry that God is preparing for me to do here in the mission field. As if God has arranged everything for me for this moment. Teaching and taking care of the less fortunate children of the unreached peoples in this part of Indochina. Through the Grace Day Care Center I have the chance to share and demonstrate the love and saving grace of our Lord Jesus to the poor and oppressed people.
