February 15-16

Team Activities with IM Missionaries Chuck and Ruth Fox in Chiang Rai on February 15-16

Early on Monday morning February 15, our mission team went with Chuck to see the 7:30 a.m. opening ceremonies of the Combined Christian Village School located across the street from where the Fox’s live in Chiang Rai. This school was begun in the 1950’s by American Baptist missionaries who initially taught 15-20 kids in their home. Since then, it has grown to be a Christian school that has a student body of over 2300 kids. Most of the students come from nine different northern Thailand tribal groups, where some students are Thai and Chinese. As the opening ceremonies were about to begin, it was quite impressive to watch as over 1500 kids from grades 7-12 obediently stood in the large open space in the middle of the school grounds to sing Thailand’s national anthem, followed by their reciting of Thailand’s “pledge of allegiance” and the Lord’s Prayer.

After members of the school staff gave announcements to the students, team member Arlene gave them a message of Christian greetings from our mission team and American Baptist churches in America, and of encouragement to study and learn from their teachers. After the ceremony ended, our mission team talked with Principal Wichai Sonosaeng (a Thai Baptist) about his over 20 years of service at the school, and about how the students receive a quality education there. The school is a wonderful testimony of the impact that American Baptist missionaries have had in helping people in Chiang Rai.

During Monday afternoon, Chuck drove Arlene, Sandy, Karen, and Beth to see areas north of Chiang Rai, including a scenic overlook of the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong Rivers at the place where the borders of Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet to form the infamous “Golden Triangle”; Mae Sai, the northernmost city of Thailand at the border with Burma; and the Queen’s Garden, a beautiful botanical garden south of Mae Sai that has over 10 acres of many kinds of flowers, plants, and trees indigenous to Thailand arranged in spectacularly beautiful ways. While this sight-seeing was being done with Chuck, Kerry stayed behind at the Chiang Rai New Life Center facility to work with a NLC staff member to complete the testing of a database program he’d developed for Karen Smith and her NLC staff to use to keep statistical/education information about the in-need women they helped.

On Tuesday February 16 (the team’s last full day in Thailand), we started our day by visiting the Chiang Rai “Family Learning Center” (FLC) where Ruth Fox is the principal. As is done every Tuesday at this grade international school, the upper-class students led a contemporary worship service. Team member Beth had been invited by Ruth prior to our mission trip to give an inspirational message to the students, so she shared we them an abbreviated summary of the book of Daniel that included the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed'nego and the “fiery furnace”. Ruth followed Beth in thanking our mission team for bringing along with us from Colorado a “Tall Paul” anatomical model to be used for FLC science classes, as well 40 Bibles for the FLC Bible studies class. These items were paid for by a portion of the $5300 in 2010 ABCRM missions funds that were designated for this ABCRM Thailand mission trip’s projects.

After Ruth Fox gave our mission team a tour of the FLC facilities and talked about their plans to build a larger FLC facility in Chiang Rai, we visited American Baptist missionary Scott Coates and his “Mekong Minority Foundation” facility on the outskirts of Chiang Rai. Launched in 2005, MMF’s goals are to equip, train, and empower marginalized tribal people in northern Thailand to develop sustainable solutions to complex problems that impact their communities. Due to globalization and other factors, tribal communities are facing unprecedented issues of poverty, trafficking and exploitation, debt, and environmental destruction. MMF is uniquely positioned in Chiang Rai to help address these issues. As our team did with other American Baptist missionaries we’d met during our trip, before leaving we stood hand-in-hand with Scott to pray for him and his MMF ministries that help so many tribal people in northern Thailand.

After returning to the Fox home from the Family Learning Center, the mission team visited the Chiang New Fai New Life Center facility behind the Fox’s home to be given a tour by NLC staff members. The Chiang Rai NLC is a “sister facility” of the Chiang Mai New Life Center, where both facilities are overseen by Karen Smith and her staff. The Chiang Rai NLC in-need women are given education and training to help them lead self-supporting lives as is done in Chiang Mai.

After lunch, our last mission trip activity was to go with Chuck to an elephant reserve about 20 miles north of Chiang Rai, where we took a 30-minute ride around the small village where the reserve is located, returning to the starting paint by the elephants walking in a river. After enjoying a delicious evening meal of homemade pizzas that Chuck cooked in a pizza oven he’d built in his backyard, we finished packing our bags (including the 40 Karen Bibles being taken back for Duane Binkley), and headed to the Chiang Rai airport to fly to Bangkok to then return back home the next day. Thanks to all who prayed for us during this ABCRM mission trip!

Kerry Hassler

February 13-14

February 13

ABCRM Thailand Mission Team’s Last Day in Chiang Mai

On Saturday, February 13, our mission team enjoyed its last breakfast at the Downtown Inn hotel in Chiang Mai. As we tried to do every morning during breakfast, team members talked about the daily topic in the International Ministries “Short-Tem Missions Handbook” that provides mission teams with a 10-day “spiritual framework” for their trip. Also as was often done, Kerry brought his laptop to breakfast so team members could write up their mission trip articles for publication on the ABCRM “Missions Experiences Blog”, as well as send emails and make Skype voice-calls to family members in the U.S.

Little did our mission team know how frustrating our last day in Chiang Mai would be! After breakfast, Becky Mann called to tell us that the “VIP Bus” we’d hope to take from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai at 11:00 a.m. had been sold out, and our team would have to take a bus later in the afternoon. Also, as Kerry was loading the team’s luggage and other items on the truck Becky borrowed from ITDP, a box full of Karen Bibles (to be brought back by our team for IM missionary Duane Binkley to distribute to U.S. Karen refugees) slipped off the truck track, and dented the fender of a car parked next to it. After working out a settlement with the car’s owner, Becky drove us to the bus, and we said our “good-byes” to her. We didn’t know it at the time, but one of our team member’s suitcases had been left in the Downtown Inn’s storage room, and also our later VIP bus from Chiang Mai would break down three times on its way to Chiang Rai, delaying our arrival there by another two hours. What a troublesome day!


February 13-14
Team Activities with IM Missionaries Chuck and Ruth Fox in Chiang Rai

After our team arrived at the Chiang Rai bus terminal, we were met by Chuck to take us to our hotel, and then later we met wife Ruth and the Fox’s son Kenny at a downtown Chiang Rai Thai-food restaurant. We enjoyed a delicious meal together, and then had a “guided tour” of Chiang Rai’s Night Bazaar by Chuck. Since Chiang Rai (100,000 population) is about one-tenth the size of Chiang Mai, its Night Bazaar has a much cozier, friendly place to shop compared to Chiang Mai’s Night Bazaar.

On Sunday morning, February 14, our team went with Chuck and Ruth to the “Sukasem” Akha village about 30 minutes from Chiang Rai. This is an all-Christian village that the Fox’s are closely connected with since Chuck helped arrange for the funds and work-teams to build their church. He’s also a good friend of the village’s Akha pastor Pedru, and shares the pulpit with him often. There was also a connection between this village and our ABCRM mission team since Kerry had worked with Chuck during the past year to arrange for his FBC of Boulder church to donate $1000 so the Sukasem village could build a clean-water system through Chuck’s project ministry help.

After we arrived, our mission team joined with the Sukasem villagers in worshipping at their church overlooking the village. The Sunday start-time for their main service (they have two other Sunday services) varies each week somewhere between 10:30-11:00 a.m., so the villagers are called to the church by a small church-bell. As the villagers starting coming to the church, the women sat on one side of the church; and men, on the other (as is the custom in all tribal churches). Many of the village’s men were absent on that Sunday morning since repairs were being done to their clean-water system far up the mountain. After the service started, our mission team was introduced to the congregation by Chuck, and we sang to them (as best we could!) portions of the traditional hymns “I Love to Tell the Story” and “Amazing Grace”.

As Pastor Pedru and Chuck preached to the congregation in the Akha language, Ruth translated for the women in our mission team. During the service, we were able to sing along with the congregation in the Akha language (for such traditional hymns as “How Great Thou Art“) by reading the phonetic English spellings of the Akha words printed in their hymnals that also included the words in Thai. This multi-lingual printing in Akha and English is due to the many years of hard work done by well-known American Baptist missionary/linguistic expert Paul Lewis. Paul and Elaine (originally from Calvary Baptist of Denver (good friends of team member Karen Pinkham and her husband Ken, and Beth Kieft and her husband Gordon) dedicated their lives starting in the 1960’s to providing a written language and dictionary for many tribal groups in this part of the world. This led to the first printed versions of Bibles/hymnals in the Akha, Karen, Lahu, Wa, and other tribal languages 50 years ago. What an amazing impact these two American Baptist Christians had on bringing Christianity to the tribal people of Thailand, Burma, China, and other Southeast Asia countries!

At the end of the service, Pastor Pedru thanked Kerry and his American Baptist church for the past year’s donation made to their village (through Chuck Fox) that allowed their village to have clean water. Kerry then gave his greetings to the congregation from his Boulder church, and asked members of the Sukasem congregation to pray for the future of FBC of Boulder, while at the same time his church members are praying for the Sukasem church and its members.

After the service, our mission team enjoyed meeting the members of the Sukasem church congregation with spoken translation help by Chuck and Ruth. We then had a lunch of delicious Akha food shared with Pastor Pedru in a newly-built village eating area. It was such a blessing to share this Sunday with our Baptist brothers and sisters in Christ in the village of Sukasem!

Kerry Hassler

February 11 - 12

February 11
Crafts Project at Chiang Mai New Life Center with Missionary Kit Ripley

As Karen and I stayed in Chiang Mai while team members Arlene, Sandy, and Karen were at the Starbucks Clinic, she and I enjoyed another fine breakfast at the Chiang Mai Downtown Inn together (love that pineapple!). After breakfast, we waited for a ride to the New Life Center (NLC) to begin a mission trip crafts project there coordinated through Kit Ripley. Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding in our getting picked up, and after several phone calls and almost two hours later, we were on our way to the NLC in a "tut-tut" mini-cab, with instructions to the driver provided by Kit in Thai.

Finally at the NLC, we met its Director Karen Smith, her primary staff leader Kit, and an Akha NLC staff member named Fay. Fay recalled meeting another member of my Calvary Baptist Church in Denver (Maggi Sussman) who’d visited Thailand on another mission trip. Kit drove us to lunch at a nearby restaurant that was located inside a section of a Buddhist Temple.

After returning to the NLC, we prepared for our crafts project with the young women who live, learn, and work there. Although only one of them spoke a wee bit of English, we managed with Kit's help to communicate pretty well, and did so with joy. Thanks to a generous supply of paper, stickers, stamps, ribbons and paper-punches, we helped the young women produce some fine-looking Valentine’s Day cards for their loved ones.

Following a tour of the NLC campus, Kit drove us back to our hotel, where we found out that Arlene, Sandy, and Kerry had just returned from the Starbucks Medical Clinic. In the evening, our mission team met Mike and Becky Mann and their son Ryan at our hotel, and we walked a few blocks with them to have dinner at the “Antique” Thai restaurant. Our shared meal included “pineapple fried rice” (made with coconut milk in a pineapple boat), tilapia fish, lemon grass soup (served in a coconut bowl with other vegetables), and fresh fruit. Back at the hotel, our team members stood in a circle hand-in-hand with the Mann’s in the hotel lobby. We prayed for Mike and Becky and their ministries, asking for God’s blessings on their many ITDP programs that help needy tribal people in northern Thailand.

 

February 12
Mission Team Visit Chiang Mai House of Hope/House of Love/Preschool and New Life Center

Following breakfast, our mission team members rode in a pickup truck-type taxi driven by Becky Mann’s friend “Pricha” to meet ABC-IM missionary Kim Brown (and learn about her ministries) at her "House of Love/Day Care Center” facility on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. After Arlene, Sandy, Karen, and I were introduced by Kerry to Kim after we got there, our team first spent time with the beautiful 3-5 year-old children of the Day Care Center. They each politely stood up one-by-one to introduce themselves, and then sang a spirited motion-filled song to us.

We presented the Kim and the Day Care Center teachers many crafts items and small toys that our mission team members brought with us. They loved them! Since there was only one jar of bubbles we brought, the teachers had the kids line up on the porch outside the Preschool, and they each waited patiently for a turn to blow bubbles.

After the children left for playtime with their Preschool teachers, Kim talked to our mission team about here ministries that includes –

• The “House of Blessing Day” Care Center, which provides morning day-care for kids from poor slum areas, prepares children to enter Thai schools, and works to strengthen the kids’ families; and
• The “House of Love”, a program that takes care of HIV-positive women and kids that Kim started in 1994 when a woman came to her with children who were HIV-positive, as well as women who had been sold into prostitution, AIDS orphans, and children taken out of their homes by the Social Welfare Department because of abuse.

We learned that a House of Love worship service is held here every evening for the 31 women and kids currently staying in this facility. Kim also told us financial help is being provided from an Australia Baptist denomination to help cover the cost of AIDS-related drugs for House of Love residents who are not Thai citizens. Financial support is also being provided by the Samaritan's Purse (an International Christian relief and evangelism organization), American Baptist individuals/churches, and churches in Japan and Norway.

Before we left Kim to go to our next mission team activities, she asked that our mission team pray for the kids here to grow in their faith. Our mission team then stood hand-in-hand with Kim, and each of prayed for her and for her many ministries that help needy people here.

After Pricha drove us to a Thai restaurant for lunch and then to the New Life Center to meet Karen Smith and Kit Ripley, our team joined a prayer-circle of NLC staff members who were praying for one of their fellow staff members who was leaving Chiang Mai soon to go to her Hmong village more than ten hours away to be married. After the prayer-circle ended, we said our good-byes to Karen since she needed to return to the NLC main office, and Kit talked to us about the tribal groups of Thailand and its surrounding countries. She mentioned that approximately one million tribal people are living in northern Thailand. Except for the Karen, most tribal groups migrated from southern China, and today tribal people continue to migrate to Thailand from Burma, Laos, Cambodia, and China.

As to the New Life Center programs, Kit told us that the NLC provides support for primary/secondary education to resident young women, as well as vocational and university education to non-resident women through scholarships. In addition, NLC offers classes in life-skills training, fire safety, basic health, human rights, and sexual equality. Kit told us the questions that the NLC staff ask themselves are: “How can we keep the girls safe?”; “How can we prepare them for urban living?”; and “How can we help them stay in touch with their own culture?” In addition, NLC staff members hope that many of the young women will choose to live with Christ in their lives.

After Kit’s talk, she gave our mission team a tour of the NLC facility, including the crafts building where NLC residents can make jewelry, quilts, women’s accessories, and other items that are sold in the NLC Crafts Store to help provide income for the Center. We ended our visit to the Chiang Mai NLC by standing hand-in-hand in a circle with Kit, and praying for Kit, Karen, the NLC staff, and for continued support of NLC programs that have helped so many tribal girls and women.

For our Friday evening dinner, our mission team was met at our Chiang Mai hotel by Japan Baptist Union missionaries Eiji/Emi Osato and their two daughters, Naomi and Anna. We’d not been able to meet with Eiji and Emi at the Siloam Bible Institute (where Eiji teach theology in Karen to perspective Karen pastors; and Emi, teaches conversational English to Karen students) on the previous Sunday since they were visiting a Karen village north of Chiang Mai. Our mission team enjoyed learning more about Eiji and Emi’s ministries while eating a delicious meal with the Osato family at a Japanese restaurant called "Kitchen Hush", owned and operated by a native Japanese couple who’d lived in Chiang Mai for over 15 years. The restaurant building had great significance since it was in this very building (a large house in a residential area) where beloved ABC-IM missionaries Paul and Elaine Lewis started the original New Life Center in the 1980’s.

What a day! So much learning! So many people our mission team met! Thank you, Lord!

Beth Kieft