An Open Letter
June 10, 2007
To the Readers of This Blog,
Greetings from Thailand! I am writing this letter to inform you all of a rather intense month that I have just had, which ended up with God placing me here over in Nonthaburi Thailand for the next year.
Five weeks ago, I received an e-mail from an associate of mine here in Thailand, Aaron Wong, who is administrating at Global English School, an English immersion academy with a primary focus on reaching the Thai children and their families for Christ. He had written me, asking if I would consider a teaching position with the school for the upcoming academic year, which would start on June 5. At the time, I was three months into a new management position with Staples, and the thought of dropping everything that I had been working at for the past year suddenly to fly to the other side of the world and work as a teacher/missionary seemed a bit fanciful, if not a touch ludicrous. Nonetheless, I've known God to do crazier things, and with that in mind, I wrote Aaron back, letting him know that I would pray about the opportunity and get back to him before the week's end.
After some discussion with God and with a handful of people at the Mount Carmel graduation ceremony at the beginning of May, it seemed very clear that God wanted me to take the steps towards going to Thailand, whether or not I would eventually end up there. Many obstacles stood in the way of my departure: I needed to maintain a certain level of income with which to make my monthly student loan & bill payments; I needed to get a work visa from the Thai government; I needed to ensure that my vaccinations were all in order; and I needed a place to store any belongings that wouldn't fit into two duffle bags for my flight across the Pacific all within four weeks. It would take a miracle, I thought, so originally, I had figured that God was testing me to see if I was really willing to commit to this radically sudden call to service—I never thought that it actually would work out.
Within those four weeks, my application for employment was approved by the school, my work visa came through (with 24 hours to spare), I found a place to store my car & furniture at a reasonable price, my vaccination rounds were completed (they all took one day instead of the projected three weeks with an earliest appointment time 10 days before my flight to Bangkok), funding for paying my bills was provided, my open-ended, round trip ticket went from costing almost $6,000 to just over $1,700 and the completely-booked flights to Bangkok managed to open up one seat for little ol' me to park my rear and ride the airways. Four weeks, and this all came together. There is no greater confirmation for me that God wants me to serve over here at GES than the fact that He literally orchestrated everything together perfectly, leaving not so much as a few hours' space between making this trip a viable possibility and having this whole exercise in faith nothing more than just an exercise. And here I am, finding myself in Thailand, thirteen degrees above the equator and thirteen time zones ahead of all you folks in Edmonton.
So what am I doing here, exactly, you might ask? Well, I've come to GES to teach and develop the curriculum for grade 10 & 11 math and chemistry subjects. Aside from a few weeks of rock-climbing instruction and another few weeks of random substitute teaching, I have never taught a class in my life. The school body here consists of 300+ local Thai children whose parents desire that their offspring gain a mastery of (or at least an exposure to) the English language. Pretty much every class will be taught in English, with instructional materials & textbooks imported from the United States. Such a method of instruction is rather common in Thailand, but what distinguishes GES from the other schools is that it is an institution with a Christian focus.
Thailand is a country where 95% of the population follows some form of Buddhism, and another 3 or 4% adhere to Muslim practices. Less than 1% of the Thai population has been exposed to Christianity, I'm told. The mission field is huge here, and the goal of GES as an organisation is to reach these people fro Christ—not through cultural imperialism or through random detached proselytising, but through intimate contact with the people, showing the love of Christ and the impact of His presence on our lives as opposed to life without Him. In Thailand, teaching is perhaps the most venerated profession, revered more so than lawyers, pharmacists or doctors. As Christian teachers here in Thailand, we have an opportunity to use this cultural respect for education in order to advance the Kingdom, and that is precisely our goal.
Through the upcoming year, GES will have an English-speaking staff of 25 teachers, each of whom will be working to show the love of Christ and to present the message of the gospel to the students and their families. I ask that you all would consider joining together with us in this mission field through active, directed prayer. Pray that the students, their parents and extended family members would be receptive to the message of Christ. There is a large cultural cost to become a Christian here, as many families will disown those members who forsake the household religion—whether it be Buddhism, Islam or the Thai indigenous animism. Pray that the staff would be a united body and a consistent, cohesive front as we display the characteristics of Christ to everybody around us. So far, everybody is getting along great and the staff is acting like a large, healthy and supportive family group, yet it is early in the year—things often change when the novelty of freshness wears thin. Pray also for the school's administration, that they would have the wisdom and the humility to follow wherever the Lord would have the school go. And most of all, pray for the local Thai Christians as they adhere to their faith in spite of the cultural adversity. There seem to be several "underground" churches here in the Bangkok region, operating underground not because of official persecution (at least, not that I'm aware of), but because of the cultural pressure against Christianity.
So here I am, in the middle of Thailand, five weeks after being asked to come. It is my desire to serve Christ as much as I possibly can while I am here, in whatever faculty He would have me. English classes begin for us on the 18th, with the first two weeks of June filled by staff orientation / development. Thanks for your interest & your prayer support. If I had more time before coming here, I probably would have said something in person. Sometimes, however, God is spontaneous like this, and it is up to us to follow wherever He takes us, regardless of how much warning is given.
The Lord's peace and grace be upon all of you.
PS.
We were just informed yesterday of some exciting things happening in the Jakarta churches. A report came to us that ten people were raised from the dead, and that a girl who was born without fingers grew them immediately after the people of the church prayed and laid hands upon her. God remains the same; it's our willingness to believe that is inconstant! How great is God!
