February 16-17 ABCRM Thailand Mission Team Experiences

Monday February 16 was a day of transition for the ABCRM Thailand mission team. We took time learning about the Chiang Rai ABC-IM ministries of Karen Smith and Kit Ripley to help tribal in-need women at the New Life Center (NLC), as well as the multiple ministries of Mike and Becky Mann to help Karen people with coffee-crowing, medical supplies, and education. We then packed up to go by van to Chiang Rai with ABC-IM Global Consultant Lauran Bethell and NLC staff members. The unexpected blessing for our team was to spend time with Lauran allowing us to learn more about her global efforts to stop human trafficking for slave labor, prostitution, and other purposes.






















After arriving in Chiang Rai, the Thailand mission team was met by our host ABC-IM missionaries Chuck and Ruth Fox at the Rimkok Hotel located less than a mile from their home. We enjoyed dinner at the hotel with them in preparation for the many mission team activities scheduled for the remainder of the week.






















On Tuesday morning, we started the day by attending the Family Learning Center (FLC) international school’s morning worship where Ruth Fox is principal. Ruth introduced the students to our mission team members, and thanked us for bringing five extra suitcases filled with purchased and donated books, science kits, a microscope, and sports-related items that were requested by Ruth. Most of these items were paid for using part of the total $5000 of ABCRM funds designated for our team’s in-country projects.




















Bill Golson participated in the morning worship by talking about appreciating gifts, especially the spiritual gifts we have received through our faith in God and by our following Jesus’ teachings.





















After the FLC morning worship, Ruth let the mission team members on a tour of the school’s campus. We then went to the Fox’s home to see the Akha Crafts Store staff who make many kinds of home and apparel items that are sold in Thailand and through the Akha Crafts Internet Store (www.akhahilltribe.org). The income helps families in the Akha villages near Chiang Rai who do hand-stitching in their homes.





















Barbara Fuller’s mission trip project for the upcoming week was to work on crafts projects with the Akha Crafts women as well as the Akha women in the Chiang Rai New Life Center located next to the Fox’s home.





















After the entire team went to the beautiful Quenn’s Gardens about an hour north of Chiang Rai, our “Clean-Water Construction Crew” (Karen Van, Bill Golson, Mark Francis, and Kerry Hassler) went with Chuck for our first visit to the Akha village where we would stay for the next four days, located about 45 minutes south of Chiang Rai. We arrived there as the sun was setting over the nearby mountains, and were greeted by the villagers who we would be working with. They arranged our accommodations in the village family homes, including setting up the mosquito netting to protect us from various insects.
Karen Van immediately made friends with many of the village kids, and we started learning about the Akha culture around us. The next morning, we would be going with Chuck and the villagers to the source of the clean-water supply high up in the mountains to see how the system was being constructed. Our ABCRM clean-water project was ready to start.

Clean Water for an Akha Village

But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere- in Jerusalem, thought Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts 1:8

We spent the last four nights in an Akha village in the remote hills of Northern Thailand. There are about 15 houses, with most made out of bamboo and having thatched grass roofs. They are off the ground on stilts. Each house has a solar panel that powers an indoor light and they have batteries if they are lucky enough to have a television. The kitchen (in the main section of the house) has a wood fire where they heat water for tea, cook lots of rice, some vegetables and a little fish or meat. The bathroom is outside in a separate building and contains a "swat" toilet and a large container of water with a bowl for dipper baths. Before dinner, the young men gather at what looks like a dirt volleyball court with a lower net and play decrew, a game using their feet and heads and a wicker ball. It is amazing how good they are at getting the ball over the net.

A simple life. People in the village care for each other, love their children and work very hard. One issue they have is a lack of clean water. That is why we are here. ABCRM has supplied most of the money, Chuck Fox and the Akha Foundation have supplied the expertise and the village paid for some of the materials and almost all of the manual labor for the water project. Before we even arrived the villagers, both men and women, went into the jungle with machetes and hacked a narrow path for the water pipe. A dam was built in a stream over three miles from and 100 meters higher than the village. The ABCRM Mission Team is here to lay and connect the PVC pipe together. It is hard work.

I believe this is an example of being the hands and feet of Christ. Having clean water is something we take for granted. ABCRM mission funds will make a difference for this village. Even though most of the work is being done by the villagers, your funds and willingness to help has made it possible. The mission team members are here to let these new Christians know that there are brothers and sisters in Christ half-way around the world who care about them. By bringing clean water to the village, the Rocky Mountain Region has helped Christian people in a remote Akha village experience the living Christ in the world today.

Please pray for the mission team and the Akha people.

Karen Van
ABCRM Mission Team member
February 21, 2009

Thailand Team splits up to accomplish more!

The Mission team arived in Chaing Rai via the New Life Center Van. We traveled north with Lauren Bethel, the founder of the New Life Centers. All is well...no one sick and most are enjoying the adventure. The team split with four members and Chuck Fox traveling to one of the mountain villages to work on a clean water project and Barbara Fuller staying in Chaing Rai to work with the Akha Crafts Women for a few days. Barbara will be helping the women develop quilts with squares of their beautiful embroidered work and work with the New Life Center girls in the evenings after classes. They will work on their knitting skills. The team will return to Chaing Rai Saturday or Sunday.

There are so many exotic and exciting things in Thailand to enjoy. In the morning I wake to the sounds of birds singing along with roosters crowing.... Motor scooters racing by outside the gates of the walled compound. I have enjoyed the food and most of all the friendly people that I am working with here in Chaing Rai. Kerry Hassler and Karen Van are out of range now for e-mail, but when they return you will hear from them

Many Blessings,
Barbara M. Fuller

Thailand Mission Team Members Meet with Eji Osato on Sunday

ABCRM Thailand mission team members meet with Eji Osato on Sunday, February 15 to learn about his ministry of teaching Bible studies and other topics to Karen villagers up to grade-level 6 at the Chiang Mai Bible College (also known as the Siloam Karen Baptist Life Development Center). Eji and his wife Emi are native Japanese who were called to server the Lord at the Bible College in 1993, and are directly supported by the Japan Baptist Union. Eji showed the mission team the campus that was built in part with funds from ABC-International ministries.

The ABCRM mission team also enjoyed attending the Sunday morning church service at the Bible College with Emi and Eji and their two children (Naomi and Nana). It was especially delightful to hear the Karen choir sing in Karen during the service songs composed by the choir director. This was another example of how the efforts of our American Baptist missionaries in the past (especially the Judson’s and Paul Lewis) are still seen today in the continued spread of Christianity among the Karen tribal people in northern Thailand and surrounding countries. What a joy it is to be a part of this American Baptist heritage!

First 2009 Thailand Mission Trip Update

It is 5 am on Valentine's Day in Chiang Mai, Thailand. My body is tired but my mind is alive with thoughts and images from our first full day in Thailand. Going through immigration we were greeted with Valentine's Day signs. The markets are filled with flowers decorated with rich red and pink ribbons, with a price tag that is over five times the normal cost (sounds like Valentine's Day in the US). The night market is only a block from our hotel and offers vendors selling all types of "bargains". Becky Mann, one of our host missionaries in Chiang Mai, introduced us to a local treat (fried bread with coconut milk) that we bought fresh from a street vendor.

Thailand alerts all your senses with new sights, sounds, smells and tastes. It also tugs at your heart. We spent yesterday afternoon at the New Life Center which works with ethnic minority women who are at risk for, or have been victims of, labor exploitation and sexual abuse. If you attended the Gathering in Cheyenne in October you had the pleasure of hearing Karen Smith, the American Baptist missionary who is the director of the NLC. Karen is on leave in the US, so Kit Ripley, another missionary who works with Karen took us around. Our mission team saw some of the girls sewing dolls with hearts that say "Jesus loves me" and beautiful quilts. Other girls were gathering to board an open air van to go to their adult education classes.

One of the problems for many of the women or girls at the NLC is citizenship. There are approximately one million tribal people living in Thailand. If a girl was born in a tribal village but her birth was not documented, it is difficult to prove she should be granted citizenship. And without proof of citizenship, she will not be able to work or have access to government provided services such as health care. Thailand has been flooded with immigrants from neighboring countries of Laos, Cambodia and Burma. This influx of refugee put additional constraints to obtain documentation for ethnic minorities. With very limited opportunities in the villages, young girls are being forced to work in factories, markets, domestic situation and the sex trade. The New Life Center develops individual plans to train each girl with the skills she needs to reach her goals. They provide a safe living environment, citizenship advocacy, specialized vocational training, spiritual development and supports them emotionally.

To find out more about the New Life Center, visit their website at www.newlifecenterfoundation.org. Find out how you can help them continue to make a difference in the world.

"I sought the Lord and he answered me: he delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame." Psalm 34:4-5

Blessings from Thailand,

Karen Van
ABCRM Region Administrator