Hard Decisions

Our househelp, Samon is a pastor’s wife. Her husband is working at a new church plant in a nearby town. He receives some financial support from Korean missionaries but not enough by any means to live on. So her husband is going to ask the Korean missionaries if they could raise their financial support. If they are not able to get an increase, they will seriously consider an offer to be the pastor of a more established church in another province. They don’t want to move but they are really struggling to live on their current income, even with what we pay Samon (which is at the high end for househelp wages).

Unfortunately, this is a common problem within the Thai church. Rural churches cannot afford to pay their pastors enough for them to live on. Compounding the problem is that pastors think it is demeaning for them as a pastor to get a another job to supplement their income. So either pastors move to a bigger church in the major cities or quit being a pastor and find secular work.

I’m not sure of what Samon’s husband was doing before he started this new church plant. But I wonder if he would have gone through with it, if there as no financial backing from these Korean missionaries? I would say not. OMF in the past have provided funding for pastors of churches OMF has setup, but are in the process of a gradual withdrawal of all such funding and has a policy of not providing such funding in the future. It has created an unhelpful dependence on missionary funding and rarely are churches successfully weaned from such funding.

I don’t know if we contributed partly to their current financial situation too. Last year, Samon was mentioning how her husband was thinking of borrowing some money to by a motorbike as Samon was using theirs to come to our house to work. They would have to pay quite a bit of interest on the loan so wanting to help them out, I offered to provide them with a loan at no interest. Samon would pay back the loan over a number of years from her wages. Samon’s husband up buying a cheap car instead of a motorbike. It has been useful for their ministry in picking up members of their church and taking people to camps and things. But I’m sure that the running costs of the car and the increased cost of petrol has added to their financial burden, canceling any benefit of the interest costs they saved from borrowing from me. I guess could argue that if I hadn’t given them the loan they would have borrowed the money from the car dealer with the additional interest expense and be in a worse situation. It is hard to know what they would have done.

It would be a great loss for us if Samon had to leave. We are praying that she won’t have to. We try to help out when they additional medical costs or when she gets a fine for not having a driver’s license. I’m not sure that there is much more that we can do. It would be hard to find someone who would be as trustworthy and hard working as her.

Rising Political Tension

In Thailand there is again rising political tension. Towards the end of last year it was the "Yellow Shirts" (Pro Monarchy, Anti Taksin) that blockaded Government house. Now it is the "Red Shirts" (pro Taksin). I hadn't really noticed this rising political tension until this week when going home from teaching on Wednesday night, I saw a crowd of "Red Shirts" gathered near The Lighthouse watching an erected big screen with the ex-prime minister being broadcast from an undisclosed location overseas. I noticed the "Red Shirts" were gather again last night coming home from the International Student night. Then I read in the paper that Taksin has been broadcasting nightly this week to his "Red Shirt" supporters. Taksin is trying to overturn the current government and return to power in Thailand, though his wording is along the lines of if the current government continues to mismanage the financial crisis and Thailand can't find anyone else, then he is willing to take over again. I'm thankful that my parents are flying out of Thailand today. There is nothing much to worry about here in Lampang, but I don't want to have to worry about my parents if something eventuates in Bangkok.

Day in a life of a missionary

Unwillingly woken up at 5am by our baby's crying. Tried in vain to get back to sleep. Two other children woken up by the baby. So the day starts much, much earlier than I'd like. Rush our two boys to their respective schools and then start journeying to Chiang Mai where we are due for our language checks at 10:30am. On the way to Chiang Mai I notice that the rear window of the car is unusually opaque. I suspect that it is due to the fuel leak I discovered yesterday afternoon under the car. The petrol is decreasing faster than normal and I quitely praying that we get to Chiang Mai. Arrive in Chiang Mai at 9:45am, earlier than expected so we try to make it to the insurance agent to renew my car insurance. Take a wrong turn. Make it to the insurance office at 10:10am. Rushing out by 10:20am. Notice a large pool of petrol collecting on the gutter next to our car. Hmmm... petrol leak is a bigger problem then I thought. Arrive 5 minutes late to my language check. Pass our language checks. Relief. Our plans to have a nice lunch in Chiang Mai deferred. Need to rush back to Lampang to try to get the petrol leak fixed. 1:45pm, the mechanics inform me that tt is a major job to fix the leak so we won't get the car back until noon tomorrow at the earliest. The service centre offers to drive me back home but I say that I need to pick up my kids from school. No problem they will take me. Pick up the kids. Watch bits and pieces of Australia vs Ubekistan in the world cup qualifer online. Feel guilty that Lisa is watching the kids as she is very tired. Diner, bath kids, rush off to teach English at the Lighthouse. Two students ring to say that they can't make it. Only Tai turns up. We start working on a translation of the Chronilogical Bible Stories. Back home. Read the SMH online about the Australia vs Ubekistan game. Get ready for bed. Glad day is over. Lisa and I are both pretty exhausted. Golf tomorrow at 5:45am!

Getting cheaper mangoes - just keep my mouth shut

My language teacher was sharing with me this week about a conversation she had at the market. She asked a lady selling fruit "Why does the sign say 20 baht per kilo?", because she knew that the price should be 15 baht per kilo. Oh, it's the price for the foreigners. My language teacher relayed his conversation with a hint of disgust.

Last week I'd gone to the market and asked in my best Thai, "how much a kilo" for the mangoes I wanted to buy. "60 baht", the seller replied. I thought this was a reasonable price as I heard my wife telling me only a couple of weeks ago that they were selling for 80 baht a kilo. This week I went to the same seller. This till I didn't open my mouth. I just picked out the mangoes I wanted and waited for the seller. She said 40 baht a kilo! So by not opening my mouth I saved myself over 30%! I guess I can pass for a Thai when I don't open my mouth!

The King and Taksin

I’ve just completed a language model on Thai culture. Of interest, when referring to the King of Thailand what you say, literally translated is “the lord who sits on my head’ or ‘the lord above my head’; and the form of address to the King is ‘the dust under your royal feet’. I went to see a movie at the local cinema in Lampang a couple of weeks ago and was reminded again of the position of the King in Thailand. Before each movie begins, everyone in the cinema stands and pays tribute to the King who we see on the screen bringing prosperity to the land and people (raindrops of the King’s image falling on the fields, forests and mountains). Even our language teacher, an elderly Christian lady, complained bitterly to me that people outside of Thailand knew the name of the infamous recent ex-Prime Minister Thaksin, but not the name of the King of Thailand who was so much more significant and important!

As the world’s longest living monarch and one who has provided much needed political stability during his reign, the King of Thailand is much loved and revered by the Thai people above almost everything else in Thailand. However, the King is now over 80 and recently for the first time ever, could not give his annual speech to the nation because he was unwell. His health is deteriorating and there is much concern as to what will happen to Thailand on his passing and the political turmoil which might arise afterwards.

The political situation in Thailand is easily forgotten in a city like Lampang far away from the flash points in Bangkok, 6 hours drive away. However, reality hit home a couple of months ago when the “Yellow shirts” (anti Thaksin), blockaded Thailand’s international airport for several weeks in protest of the government. This almost prevented the short-term team from the Christchurch 6:45 service arriving. They ended up landing in an ex-naval airstrip 2 hours south of Bangkok and getting a private van up to Lampang. The “Yellow shirts” succeeded to a certain extent and the then government (pro Thaksin) lost power and a new government is in power. However, now the “Red Shirts” (pro Thaksin) which oppose the “Yellow shirts” are now protesting against the new government. Last month, I was surprised to see a motorcade of “Red Shirt” protestors passing through the streets of Lampang (and causing a traffic jam!).

Please pray for the King of Thailand and the political situation in Thailand, that God will use whatever happens to the King and the political instability to turn Thai people’s minds and hearts towards God.

Colourful missionary life

Riding back on my motorbike from teaching English to a lone student, the thought entered my mind what a colourful (read “weird”) life I have as a missionary here. Last night I couldn’t get to sleep because at 12:20am a woman was screaming as if she was being murdered. Normally that would be pretty weird, but the woman (or man - we aren’t quite sure) who lives next door, is often shouting and ranting at all hours of the night. A neighbor has assured me that she might be crazy but not dangerous. Maybe he/she is schizophrenic because that other times he/she appears quite sane.

Tomorrow morning I have to play golf with a Japanese man who grew up in Korea and a Korean man who the Japanese man and I think has been involved with the mafia. This man seems to have no job and we’re not sure what he is doing with his wife and son in Lampang. Why else would you be living in Lampang of all places, not being able to speak Thai and for no apparent reason for being here? Apart from that he has been involved in a number of fights on the golf course in Lampang and a neighouring town from which he has been barred. I didn’t really want to play golf with him tomorrow but two days ago he turned up at our house with the Japanese man asking me when I was free to play golf with them. Unfortunately I didn't have an plausible excuses.

Now I can’t imagine being in situations like this is Sydney. As I said missionary life is never dull.

Another matter entirely. It has not rained for at 3 months in Lampang. Our househelp yesterday predicted that it would rain that day. It was overcast but there had been overcast days before and it hadn’t rained. I didn’t give her prediction much credence. Lone behold at around 1am in the morning (still disturbed a bit by the screaming woman) the roof started to roar with patter of heavy rain which continued into the morning.

Tonight only one student turned up to my English class. She was my very first student and only student for the first month of teaching. Unfortunately she probably my least capable student and I doubt that her English has improved at all. I’ve got to the stage where I’ve thrown out all the great teaching techniques I learnt at Macquarie Uni in my TESOL course. Tonight my aim was to get her to memorize 5 introductory questions.

Where do you come from?
Are you on holidays?
What do you do?
Where are you working?
How long have you been working in Lampang?

Questions 1 and 2 took over 30 minutes to memorize. It kind of went like this.

Student: Where are you come from?
Rich: Where DO you come from?
Student: Where do you come from?
Rich: O.k. Again please.
Student: Where are you come from?
Rich: No. Where DO you come from?
Student: Where do you come from?
Rich: O.k. Question 1 again
Student: Where are you come from?
And so on.

It wasn’t great teaching but by 9pm, the end of my class, she was getting there. To be honest, both of us went away happy that we’ve achieved probably more than we had in the last 6 months of teaching.

Spelling mistakes

I went to our son's school to enroll him for "Day Camp" over the summer at his school and find out what we needed to do to enroll him for the new school year starting in mid May. I spoke to our son's teacher who advised me that since our son had not attended 80% of his classes the regulations of the school would not allow him to progress up to the next class. We only send our son to the Thai school 3 times a week (he is only 4!) but most Thai send their children 5 days from 3 years old. So the teacher requested that we write a letter explaining why our son didn't attend 80% of the time. I had to ring my Thai language teacher and get our son's teacher to explain what she wanted because I was having difficulty understanding what she was wanting. Our language teacher then wrote out the letter we needed to submit and I quickly typed it up on the computer and went back to the school with letter in hand. Our son's teacher looked at it and said "there are spelling mistakes" and started to correct my spelling mistakes in pencil. So I had to go back home and correct the spelling mistakes and resubmit the letter. One of the spelling mistakes was our surname (used the wrong vowel ใ instead of โ). Makes you feel great when you can't spell your own name and have you son's pre-school teacher correct all your spelling mistakes. But that's missionary life for you.

Dogs spoil the day again

Wat (Temple) Chedi Sao

Tuesday is our designated day off as the Lighthouse is open on Sundays (as the weekends are the days when most non-Christians are free). So we try to go out as a family during the day. Today we went to visit one of the famous temples in Lampang, Wat Chedi Sao. We were all excited as we got out of the cars. The kids and I started playing hide and seek in amongst the 20 shrines. I had finished counting to 10 and started off trying to find our two boys when suddenly I heard lots of barking dogs in the direction of where the boys were hiding. I quickly found the boys and saw about 10 metres away a pack of about 10 stray dogs surrounding a man and barking aggressively. Lisa with our baby daughter made steps to help the man, but I ordered her back to car and I was pulling our two boys in the direction of the car. As we were heading back I saw a monk coming to help the man and chase away the dogs. One dog came in our direction as we were retreating back but stopped. We got back into the car and Lisa was in tears. I didn't have to ask her why. There are very limited places we can take the kids for fun in Lampang and just when we'd thought we'd found another place it's ruined by a pack of dogs. There is no way we are going back there again with the kids.

Horror before the movie (WARNING this entry decribes some elements of horror)

Yesterday I watched this movie "Best in time" at the local cinema (I didn't know the title of the movie until just now when I was searching for the photo on google). The local cinema only had two movies showing, both in Thai with no subtitles (major reason why in 7 months I've never been to the local cinema). It was this movie or what looked like a B grade ganster movie. This movie would have only been rated PG and there were lots of school children in the cinema. I was terribly shocked then when a trailer for an upcoming horror movie was shown with such violence that I had to turn away for most of the trailer. It was definately R rated. Limbs being chopped off and bodily parts ending up in noodle soup being served up by a pychotic woman running a noddle stand. I read on a forum of a woman taking her two young children to a Disney movie recently and having the same thing happen. So just a warning, if you go to see a movie in Thailand, make sure you arrive 10 minutes late and miss the trailers.

The movie was nothing to rave about. Only understanding about 30% of it might have been a factor.

Tent-making vs full support

"To make tents or not to make tents? The question has relevance to church planters, not only because it is the biblical norm, but because more and more ten-makers are getting involved in the work of church planting. One must realize that if church planters are receiving the bulk of their income from donor gifts, then they are forfeiting their ability to be an example to the majority of believers... It is almost universally taken for granted that credible missionary work is the work of a paid professional who trains up indigenous leaders who think they must be fully supported. Westerners have carried this philosophy all over the world as if it were an essential part of the gospel. The expansion of the church, reduced to its elements, is a very simple thing. It asks for no elaborate organizations, no large finances, and no great numbers of paid missionaries. In its beginning it may be the work of one man who is neither learned in things of this world nor rich in the wealth of this world. Rather, it is one who has been with Jesus and is full of the Holy Spirit." (Tim W. Bunn; God's Plan for Church Planting - Church Planting Manual, Using God's Timeless, Supra-Cultural Principles; p.135-137; IMD Press, 2008)

What am I to do? I am one of those fully supported missionaries. It is true that fully supported missionaries have only existed for a couple of hundred years. Before that I think it is correct to say that missionaries all had jobs (i.e "tent makers") while they were spreading the Gospel. It is true that people do view missionaries with suspicion when they don't have a job. It is true that I probably would be a better example to local believers if I was working. I wouldn't have much time to do anything else though, especially language study.

I can't see ourselves giving up our financial support in the near future but I'll have to keep considering this issue and whether we do need to give up our support and find a job to be a better example.

What do you think?