Happy Resurrection Day!

Our team is getting an extra-long Easter because we are crossing the international dateline.  We left early on Easter morning (just after midnight on Saturday) and are arriving at noon at SFO.  So… Happy Resurrection Day!  I (Steve) am posting this from Incheon Airport and you’ll probably read this on Easter sometime.  So here are some final reflections from our trip, at least final for this blog.

We spent Saturday morning at an elephant park.  

For the afternoon we finished packing.  We had take out for dinner at Joe and Yumi Chongsiriwatana's house.  Joe has been serving with ZOE International working with children rescued from human trafficking.  But he's leaving at the end of May to start a new ministry, Thai Word.  It's a bold move of faith, which I'll explain later.  

In a conversation with Bob on the way to Chiang Mai, he likened the Christianization of a country to time on a clock. The US is post-Christian, so it's midnight, pretty dark times. Korea is getting past its prime so it's 8pm. Thailand is just starting to open up, starting with the hill tribes. It's 10am. When I mentioned this metaphor to Joe, he thinks that it's even earlier, more like 6am.

The fact that Korea may be getting past its prime surprised me. South Korean Christans seem so passionate about missions. But it's true that popular culture doesn't contain many references to Christianity. Those who are evangelistically minded are very passionate, but they may be giving up on their own people. In the US evangelism is often driven more by the sense of common cultural identity among immigrants, rather than love for God and identifying with God's heart. That same fervor isn't present in South Korea itself. And that's much like the US.

Bob said that the exciting work in Thailand is among animistic hill tribes because they can be reached through community development. I see it as a two-step process: offer holistic help and a contextualized gospel and people are interested in the gospel. But that's not the case with the middle-class Buddhist majority Thai. Buddhism is culturally entrenched but without the sense of connection to everyday life that an animist has who is depending on the spirits to bring a good crop. Religion is distant, unnecessary and irrelevant to everyday life. That makes them resistant to the gospel.

So Joe is looking for entry points for the gospel among the majority middle class Buddhist Thai. He points to Luke 15: if the shepherd was concerned about 1 sheep while 99 were in the fold how would he feel about 99 lost sheep with 1 in the fold? Thailand is less than 1% Christian, so the metaphor is apt. Rather than focusing on the areas where the cost/benefit ratio is most favorable (i.e., where God is already moving) Joe has a sense of urgency about the people who are most resistant.

I'm glad I didn't go shopping at the night market last night (the girls shopped for 3 hours!). I had a chance to talk with Joe.  The conversation helped me to understand why Joe is leaving ZOE and working on a new missions strategy. He understands the majority middle class Buddhist Thai because that's where he came from. He realizes that it's easier to get support for either a hot-button issue like human trafficking or for a project where it's easy to demonstrate productiveness, i.e., where people are coming to Christ in tangible numbers like with the hill people or with the Isaan. But that's not where he senses God's call to him.

Developing partners in Thailand is a challenge already, but for Joe to develop partners in the US will be especially difficult. The aspect of his passion that touches me is that he doesn't want to give up on the majority of Thailand. I want to help in some way, but I need to pray about this. Is it enough that he is drawn to the 99? What about God's timing? What if this isn't the time that God has appointed for the 99 to come into the fold? Is it enough to have a noble sentiment or does John 5:19 mean that he should be more patient? Or is Joe a frontier scout, getting things ready for a move of the Spirit in the future, a future he may not live to see?

One argument in favor of moving forward with Thai Word is the same argument that motivates the work of ZOE. God has compassion on everyone. Even if the effort seems wasteful, helping even one child who has been victimized is worth it because God wants to alleviate all suffering. It's not his will that even one should perish.

The most concise way of explaining Joe's vision is that he wants to see God's Word in every Thai home. He thinks this can be done by offering a portion of the Bible as a gift at opportune times such as Christmas or Valentine's Day. Commercialism has given these days popular significance. But it has to be a gift. I wouldn't pay for a copy of Watchtower magazine!

Another thing that Joe mentioned is that resources are not a problem with God. Someone once told me that God gives us enough time in the day to do what he wants us to do, but we keep adding stuff to the list. The same could be said about other resources, such as money. God will give us enough to do what he wants us to do. The problem is that we want to do other things. But Joe is sure that if God wants Thai Word to succeed, God will give Joe the resources. So Joe’s task now is to “be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49 KJV).

And that should be my priority too.  It’s a good lesson to learn from our time in Thailand.