June 3, 2023 by Weston in Reports

Topic: Pure Glory Village

Thank you all for your prayers about Pure Glory Village and the ministry that sprouted up in September 2022. We have officially closed out this ministry, however.

In November of last year the regular fellowship meetings were halted because the local host was no longer available. The underlying reason for this appeared to be pressure from other villagers. From that point on all we would hear from the members of the Saturday fellowship was that they were unavailable. This is a Thai cultural way of saying that they do not want to continue the relationship.

Our team put a fighting effort, though, to see this ministry continue. In February 2023, Lisa and another Thai partner went to visit the villagers with James to make some inquiries. On that visit the villagers again said that they were not available to meet.

A week later James, Pastor Celebrate and myself went to meet with them. That visit proved more productive. We were able to visit with Ms. Small and another villager. Twice, I asked them point blank if they were interested in continuing to meet regularly to worship God and study the scriptures and they just looked away and refused to answer the question. This is a Thai way of saying no. We debriefed with Pastor Celebrate afterward and he said that if we were to continue the ministry in Pure Glory Village we would need to start over with different villagers. This was not something he had the capacity for at that time.

Since then, James has tried to continue following up with them but it is time to call this ministry closed for the time being. This village is in our target area so we will keep our options open regarding how we might re-engage with them in the future.

As we have reflected on this ministry as a team we've asked the question, "Initially, in September 2022, did the believers make a genuine profession of faith?" There is no way to know for sure but in the final, aforementioned visit there were some signs that Pastor Celebrate may have used his cultural position of authority as a religious teacher to pressure Ms. Small into making a profession of faith. If this is the case it violates our team's evangelistic standards, namely, that we do not use pressure tactics to bring people to Christ. Furthermore, if Ms. Small was a genuine believer why would she not answer "Yes" to the question, "Do you want to continue a regular fellowship meeting?" If the Spirit of God dwelt in her I think we would have seen some signs that she was at least wrestling with this question. No struggle was observable, however.

Thank you all for praying for this ministry. It was an encouraging sign and provided opportunities to gain experience and learn some new things as a team but, sadly, ended in a way that is all too common in the countryside of Isaan.

June 2, 2023 by Weston in Reports

Topic: Dune

We have decided to discontinue regular ministry with Dune and her family. There are a couple of reasons for this. The primary reason is that she lives far outside our team's target area (approximately 1 hour drive from our house, 1.5 hours from our teammates) and it has become clear over time that being meaningfully involved is impractical.

A second reason is that, frankly, we don't know how to help her. She is addicted to Meth and has a long history of trauma. She needs medical and psychiatric help and these are not things that we can help her with and she appears unwilling to seek help. There have been some good signs and some encouraging visits but it appears to us and to Pastor Celebrate, who has been our Thai partner in this work, that she is not ready to make changes in her life. This is very sad and it continues to have drastic consequences for her two children but that is the current reality.

The impact on the kids, Film and Sophia, has been our major concern. They live in a violent household and the necessities of life are not being provided by the adults in the home. Simply put, in an American context they are kids who would be immediately put into child protective services. I did ask Pastor Celebrate if it is possible to inform the authorities about the situation to see if they can help the kids but he said that is not possible and they wouldn't do anything. I am still considering if this is a step that we need to take apart from him. Please pray for this.

In the meantime, one of the ways that we have tried to help Film and Sophia has been to bring them to Pastor Celebrate's church on Sunday mornings. Over the years the church has done a lot to teach, encourage and love on the kids. Some months ago I stepped in to help in this regard also by picking them up on the way to church. This was a big encouragement to Pastor Celebrate who was usually the one picking them up in the early morning before church. I did this for about six weeks. During this period, however, Film stopped coming to church and only Sophia would come. And this unfortunately became an issue because I just cannot be alone in a car with a child. Fortunately, Pastor Celebrate understood this and released me from this responsibility.

With that mode of involvement gone it has become clear that this is not a ministry that we can further participate in. We will continue praying for them, however.

November 13, 2022 by Weston in Reports

Topic: Dune

Thank you all for praying for my meeting with Pastor Celebrate which took place this afternoon. We also paid a brief visit to Dune which proved encouraging.

Visit to Dune

One of the first things Celebrate said to me today was, "Dune was in very good spirits this morning when I went to pick up the kids for church. Sophia asked to go take a shower first. I almost fell over from amazement." In the past Sophia, and in fact the whole family, has rarely bathed. This was an interesting development.

After church, when we took the kids home, Dune was out front sweeping the porch with a worried look on her face. "Is everything all right?" we asked.

"I want to move over there and build a new house with some rooms." She pointing in the distance toward the original shack she fled to years ago where Lisa first met her. "What kind of a future will the kids have here?" she said looking around, dejectedly.

Unfortunately, Celebrate didn't ask her where these new feelings and concerns for her children came from, which I understood to be quite remarkable. In the past she has been almost completely disinterested in what her kids are doing, likely due to her drug addiction. But where did this change come from? How long has she had these feelings? What kind of future does she envision for Film and Sophia? These are the kinds of questions we should have asked to help us understand what has changed inside Dune's own heart and mind. But, unfortunately, Celebrate spend about 20 minutes talking about land titles, deeds and how complicated it would be for her to get permission to build on someone else's land. Dune got tired of this.

Thankfully at the end Celebrate told her that if it is her desire to move and build a new house for the kids to live in she should pray to God and ask for this. He is able to do anything. Her took her hand and we prayed right there for her, the kids and a new place to live. We left shortly thereafter.

Upon further reflection, I think Dune's change of behavior might have more than one explanation. Firstly, it is possible that God is stirring something in her heart but unfortunately we didn't ask her any further questions so what is happening in her heart is unknown for the time being. Secondly, is also possible that what she displayed was a very normal, motherly concern for her kids and doesn't necessarily mean there is any spiritual hunger yet. But what does require some explanation and further investigation is why she appeared so normal? Is she trying to get Pure from Meth? Or is it possible she had just recently taken a hit and as a result feels more normal and energetic? If that is the explanation it would be no cause to be encouraged. I know nothing about this drug. If anyone has any ideas please let us know.

Meeting with Pastor Celebrate

After leaving the house Celebrate and I drove back to the church and sat down to discuss the questions I sent him last week. I was quite disappointed in Celebrate's feedback. He had almost no ideas and nothing to say. I reframed my questions a couple times and circled back to little things he said and asked him to elaborate and slowly I understood that he really didn't have any thoughts for me.

Eventually, we agreed that I would start getting involved with the family by picking up the kids and taking them to church on every other Sunday. This was clearly a felt need for Pastor Celebrate who is sixty years old and would appreciate the help shuttling the kids. I thanked him for his time and left him to rest.

I drove home feeling a bit discouraged and alone. How could he really have no thoughts or ideas? How can it be that all we can do is pray and wait for a miracle? Is it not clear that something needs to insert itself into the situation to meet needs, show grace and love, and teach them the truth about God and themselves? But how can we do that with this specific family?

Clearly, further prayer and thought is needed. In the meantime, I will see what transpires picking up the kids and taking them to church.

October 19, 2022 by Lisa in Reports

Topic: Dune

It’s been almost 2.5 years since I visited รำไพ. Her nickname is ตุ่น (Dune). Wes and I visited with Pastor Celebrate on Tuesday October 18, 2022. I remember being impressed with her desire to keep her kids with her and not give them to the center in KK. Having visited this time, I realize that her reluctance to give them up seem more for her own sake than theirs.

We arrived late to Pastor Celebrate’s church due to road work. He was waiting to pray and hear some of our devotional thoughts from today. We headed out in his inherited truck. He told us M’s have a lot of things. He was critical of the amount of gas that the truck required but agreed that it’s a more comfortable ride than what he had.

He stopped by and honked at any and all he knew. He collected some funds from a nearby neighbor. When asked what that was for, he said he’s the head of a farmer’s association here. He told us about the kids of Dune. Her oldest boy is away at work. He should be in 7th grade now but he is working in Bangkok. Later we heard that he sent 900 baht home once since he’s been away. Her middle child, a son in fifth grade, is very resourceful. His name is Film. He showed us the grasshoppers he caught recently and even managed to get one while we were there visiting. That will be his dinner. The youngest is name Sophia. She is quick witted and goes to church every Sunday. When neighbors asked wryly if she has become a Christian, she smiles and say, “All I know is I am not a Buddhist.”

Pastor Celebrate picks Film and Sophia up every Sunday to go to church where he leads worship and preaches for a dozen members. Pastor Celebrate has been praying for a partner/a team to work with. He says, “because when two or more gather, there He will be.” We are hesitant to commit because it’s an hour ride just to get to his house.

When we reached our destination, I was surprised that the family no longer lived in the shack. Pastor Celebrate said that they live in her boyfriend’s house. Where we parked, I saw a neat house to the left and right. As we walked through, passing the water buffalo barn, I saw another shack. Pastor Celebrate asked if anyone was home and when no one answered, he peeped into the shack. The boyfriend came out. Pastor Celebrate had told us that he spoke nicely and is pretty good to them. He might hit the kids sometimes because they’re bad but he’s really helped them out.

Celebrate then took a broom and swept the front porch area and asked for two mats to be brought out. He then opened the door of the shack and commented, “this is a house of someone who’s too busy to Pure. Come and take a look.” We felt embarrassed for them and us and did not want to look in. I gave the boyfriend some snacks that we brought for them. He handed it off to Dune who immediately went to a corner of the shack, out of view to rummage.

We sat out to talk to the boyfriend for a bit. Celebrate and him spoke in Isaan, gathering news about the family. They were recently in a motorbike accident, heading straight while a car turned in front of them. Dune and he were unconscious but Sophia was ok. The car paid for their damages. He talked about how Film sometimes goes off for a day or two and doesn’t come home. He is hanging out with his friends and he needs to be fetched. Right now Sophia is with her friend Cartoon. We encouraged Dune to come out to chat. She eventually came out. The first thing I noticed was that she has a buddhist necklace on with a showy amulet. I don’t recall her wearing that before.

As I tried to encourage her to share and talk about her life, I had a vague sense of deja vu. This feeling of talking to her was similar to when I talked to Rosanna (the daughter of a Burmese refugee family whom we worked with at Faith Bible). A youth pastor had visited her when she was not feeling well and she attempted to throw herself off the balcony of their second story apartment. The youth pastor believed that she was possessed. Since I had a relationship with her, I asked to speak with her before they go forward with any plans of exorcism. Rosanna did not display any signs of possession that day. Her voice was her own and she didn’t attempt to jump. Yet, I had a feeling that I was talking to a shell of her.

Dune eventually started opening up and she shared about her first pregnancy where she lost the child. She was 14/15 years old, living with her grandma while her parents were away at work. They would come back if she got into trouble but otherwise she was on her own. She lost her child when it was 5 1/2 months old. It was unclear if it was an accident or an abortion. She seem still shaken about it. She recalled it as the time she “threw her child away”. Apparently, her boyfriend have never heard this story.

Dune went on to talk about her life as she smokes what she calls “her medicine”. Her cigarettes helps relieve stress. She recalls all the sheets of papers in the corridor of her life which taught her as much about life as school. She then refers to us as sheets of paper but of a different sort. And we cannot mix sand of different sorts especially if there was her blood in it. We were wondering if maybe we were missing out on some Thai idioms or stories that would give more clarity to what she was saying. It was Pastor Celebrate who asked her to speak more plainly. When she repeated what she had to say, Pastor Celebrate looked at her boyfriend and he confessed that he doesn’t know what she is talking about. She talks like this about twice a week and most of the time is when she is alone.

Just at that time, the granny who lived in the neat house on the left stopped by. ยายตุ๋ย is a drug addict, currently on medication for psychosis (if she doesn’t take them, she just wanders off endlessly), and she has no teeth. She was very difficult to decipher but also brought a lot of comic relief. She was obsessed with Wes and my chubby arms. She called Dune crazy. When asked by Pastor Celebrate, what the difference between Dune’s crazy and her psychosis was, she answered, “I’m under treatment”.

Pastor Celebrate tried to share with granny about the good news of Jesus. She says she wants it but she keeps getting distracted by Wes’s good looks or sleepiness because she nodded off once. ยายตุ๋ย’s drug addiction came as a result of working in a chicken slaughterhouse. The people in charge would give medicine to help workers work harder and longer. This is the second time I’ve heard this this week and it breaks my heart. Our staff worker’s brother got addicted to drugs when he was working to cut down sugar cane as a teenager.

Pastor Celebrate invited us to share our stories with them on how we knew God. I had shared that when I was born, I was illegal in China because I was the third daughter and my mom wanted me drowned. And it could only have been the grace of God that I am still here today. Dune started crying and she looked so embarrassed to be crying. It angers me so much that Buddhism teaches people to despise the emotions that make them human. As we were leaving, Pastor Celebrate later shared that today Dune was easier to understand than the last time because she didn’t talk about the visions she has had.

As we left Pastor Celebrate’s church, Wes and I both felt so overwhelmed by the needs of this family. When we came back to our town and I see my motley crew of kids entering the office: a boy addicted to gaming, 2 know-it-all girls, 2 boys with LD and a boy who just moved here from Laos, I felt so relieved. I just want to hold them and not let them grow up because I’m afraid of what their society has for them.

This morning I am encouraged by a verse that came to mind as I thought about all that Dune’s family needed: food, shelter, security, a psychologist, a doctor, a drug rehab specialist, the list can go on. It dawned on me that what I was desiring for them is the church. And Jesus promised that He will build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail.

October 15, 2022 by Lisa in Reports

Photo: Lisa introduced (with others) as a new teacher to the County.

Details and Responsibilities of Work

1. Increase the potential of people with low to no opportunities.
2. A Self Learning Center: Improving the lives of children and youths.
3. Wordless Stories: A linguistical approach to learning language for women in Isaan.
4. Regular visitations to encourage low-income families.

Collection of Work Details and Photos

1. Increase the potential of people with low to no opportunities

Nam Boon School is a small village school of 80 kids. The teachers of Nam Boon have a variety of roles from homeroom teacher to nurse, chef and janitor. The school has lost their budget for a kitchen staff and janitor. The villagers of Nam Boon take turns to come to the school to cook the daily meal. The students here at Nam Boon have never had a native English Speaker as a teacher. Learning English has become a necessity for Thai people nowadays because they are able to make twice as much as they would if they had no English skills. Companies are being internationalized and foreign investment in Thailand has been booming. Even the Thai schools pay more for English teachers than other subjects. Unfortunately, most English learning in schools remain on the written level with emphasis on vocabulary and grammar yet they cannot read or speak the words that they write. I, as a volunteer, work with village grade school students on phonics and pronunciation so that the phonetic system of English will be the foundation for them in which to build vocabulary and grammar on.

Mondays through Fridays 11:30am-3:30pm. Typical Thai schools teach English as rote memory. They say the word and the students write down the word and they are encouraged to memorize the way it is spelled. So if they have never seen that word before, they have no idea what it is or even how to sound it out. Using a revised curriculum of phonics from America to adapt to the Thai alphabet, I bring a natural way for Thai learners to pick up the sounds of English using basic linguistic phonetics and the sounds of their own language. By introducing them to sounding out words, I am able to empower the learner to learn on their own. They will learn the skills to pronounce, use the dictionary and the internet to figure out meanings, and altogether, learn on their own. I work with Director Succhitra and Teacher Pat at Nam Boon School teaching grades 1-6.

2. A Self Learning Center: Improving the lives of children and youth

Children are exposed to a lot of addictive behavior these days from drugs to video games to social media which steals precious quality time and innocence from them. The Self Learning Center provides games and puzzles for children to play with one another and they are encouraged to help one another, to be diligent, to be creative and to have confidence in their skills which will help them in life.

2.1 Mondays through Fridays 4:00pm–6:00pm Using the office as a Self-Learning Center, the adult is a moderator in learning. The children who come are encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning. Games such as jigsaw puzzles, chess, Othello, and providing Rosetta Stone or other language learning apps for children to learn on their own. Children are also encouraged to play outside, learning new games such as frisbee.

3. Improving the Lives of Isaan Women

Isaan women who finished their schooling in the villages are usually at a disadvantaged when they find work in the cities. They have less opportunities for extended learning and usually their English skills are less than those who have finished their schooling in the cities.

Mondays through Fridays 09:00am-11:00am For women who are working already, I use a linguistic technique called “wordless stories” for adults to learn to use the vocabulary they have built up in the schools. This is an opportunity to put their knowledge to use and explain the pictures using whatever vocabulary they have. This activity helps learners get over their shyness and provides constructive feedback and answers questions that have stopped them from learning fully. Participants feel more confident when they actually use what they learn in their jobs.

4. Visitation and Encouragement to Low Income Families

In Isaan, the parental guardians of children are usually their grandparents because parents have to go find work in the big cities. This common situation may lead to unwelcome side effects. Grandparents are usually not as technologically savvy and cannot watch over the use of technology by their grandkids leading to an overreliance on media by the kids or even an addiction. There is also a tendency for kids with a darker complexion to experience bullying in the classrooms. In addition, there is a greater proportion of students in the villages that are considered LD (with a learning difference such as ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia, etc) than in the cities and are at risk of dropping out of school due to an inability to learn. One of the schools that I had taught at, as much as 40% of the 10 students in a grade had a learning difference. During the weekends, I visit families to give advice on alternative learning methods and encouraging kids experiencing bullying at school.

October 2, 2022 by Weston in Reports

Ministry Progress Report

Term 3, Goal 1: Decide on a final CP strategy and methodology.

Term 3, Goal 2: Develop a timeline for our team to begin implementing our methodology.

Current Ministry Project: Conduct a study on the existing literature on CP strategy and method and make a recommendation to the team for discussion and selection.

Spend 10 hours per week for the next year to

1. conduct a broad survey of the existing literature on cross-cultural CP strategy and method
2. categorize the existing strategies and methods into type groupings (e.g. disciple movement, insider, traditional, etc.)
3. analyze the validity of these methods by examining their scriptural evidence and underlying missiological theories
4. write up my findings in a report to be examined, discussed and selected by the team

The purpose for this study is to get a better understanding of the various CP strategies that are currently being used. Basically, I am confused about all the acronyms and tools discussed (e.g. DMM, DBS, T4T, 4- Fields, etc.) and how Biblically valid they are. There are also a number of different underlying motivations that appear to be involved which may be ungodly (e.g. speed of multiplication). In the end, my study may find that they are all fundamentally the same and only different in form or perhaps there are very significant differences that are critical to understand.

1. What progress have you seen this quarter toward your ministry plan?

I spent 28:35 hours working on this and I feel I have a good start. I have surveyed 13 titles related to this subject already and there are a couple of resources that appear to be very well researched and are proving very helpful so far. Those titles are Global Church Planting by Craig Ott (2011) and Motus Dei by Warrick Farrah (2022).

2. What problems have you encountered?

I’ve been having trouble figuring out the best way to organize such a large project. I’ve never attempted anything like this before. I’m using a database to story my notes and resource data but I spent 10 hours developing this. I think I am in good shape now.

3. What plans are you making to continue your progress and overcome the problems faced?

I need to keep an eye on how much time I am devoting to this project. There is much ministry going on right now for our team that also needs attention and support from me so I need to be careful not to focus only on this. Despite our existing in the development phase of our work God is working even now and that requires prayer, faith and obedience in the present.

Basically, I need to limit myself to the 10 hours per week I’ve designated.

Time Spent Report

We arrived on August 25th and have had 5 weeks of Q3, 2022 in Thailand. Only 3 or those 5 weeks were spent in Bee Creek working. 1.8 weeks were spent in CM and 0.5 weeks were spent Pureing and setting up house.

The bulk of my time this quarter (70%) was spent in the following six activities:

#1 and #2 are related to the Pioneers International Leadership Training (“InTent”) conference the first week of September. I spent close to 70 hours that week being trained and developing relationships with leadership peers in the organization.

Evaluating the value of this great time investment has been difficult. The training component was less beneficial than I was hoping. Most sessions were left open ended or even with confusion on the part of the participants. My observation is that there appears to be an incredibly broad spectrum permitted for how TLs deal with issues related to missiological practice, pursuit of organizational goals and values, and team formation and leadership issues. I see the value in being given a long leash but in practice it feels that a team can pursue almost any kind of ministry in any manner and that is acceptable. Again, maybe this amount of freedom is necessary and desired but how is it possible to train leaders to do almost anything in any manner? The training sessions would be vague. That was the result for me.

#3 and #5 are related to my leadership role on the team. Fellowship with the team was amazing for me. It has been wonderful to reconnect with everyone and spend a lot of quality time with Anita in CM. It has also been excellent to engage in some very important conversations together about our mission and strategy.

#4 is the main ministry progress I believe I was able to accomplish this quarter. Basically I spent time researching the literature related to cross-cultural CP. See Ministry Progress Report above.

#6 was progress made in my goal to pass the Thai speaking exam at the conclusion of our term. This was very productive time and, while I don’t feel I lost much of Thai proficiency during the 18 months in the US, I found my studies sharpened my ability the speak and hear from fluently. I really love this time spent.

September 24, 2022 by Weston in Reports

Topic: Pure Glory Village

We are celebrating the first known new believers in our target area. Today, three women we reported to have confessed faith in Christ in Pure Glory Village, Plate Hills County. This has taken place as a direct result of the ministry of our teammate, James, and Pastor Celebrate, a local pastor.

We covet your prayers for this new work, being led by James and Pastor Celebrate. They are scheduling regular meetings to follow up each Saturday.

September 13, 2022 by Weston in Reports

If you left your house unattended for 18 months what would you expect to find inside? We didn't know what to expect either but were pleasantly surprised that no destructive animals had moved in while we were away. The only real casualty was our refrigerator. Ants built a nest in the circuit board and when we plugged it in the board fried. I tell you, it is challenging finding a fridge repair man in Bee Creek. Ultimately, I was able to fix it myself by ordering a new circuit board online. I hooked it up and by some miricle it worked. It was a great feeling when that light turned on again.

We praise the Lord for keeping our house and possessions safe while we were away.

Thank you, Lord, for keeping that which we entrusted to you so many months ago and for bringing us back to the place of your calling.

September 8, 2022 by Weston in Reports

The second reason for going to Chiang Mai was for Lisa to apply for a work permit. As I described in our previous newsletter, Lisa and I have changed roles and she is now going to be the main visa holder moving forward.

Securing a work permit in Thailand is not usually an easy task and so it proved. Lisa, and the foundation staff worker, had to return more than once to the office to make changes to documents. We praise the Lord for our foundation staff worker in Chiang Mai, an amazing Thai Christian woman named Joy. Her and Lisa have become very good friends and it was an encouragement for them both to have sweet fellowship in the midst of running around the city and redoing documents.

Finally, the result: a 2-year work permit! It is extremely rare for us to receive documents with such a shelf life. Praise the Lord. It guarantees us a visa for the next two years.