December 9, 2010
Lately I have been amazed about the individuals and families that are connected to our school in Chiang Rai.
A week ago we spent two days in a Habitudes leadership curriculum training session with a trainer from Singapore. Leaders from our school sat alongside the visionaries from the Akha Hilltribe Outreach Foundation. This is a family from our school who, being Akha themselves, are able to train leaders and take the church to their people throughout Southeast Asia. Recently the Akha have seen new inroads for churches into their people group located in Vietnam. While this family pursues the Akha people with passion, they also care deeply about their children and other children in our school receiving this education focused on developing a Biblical World View.
Also, we get the joy of sitting in meetings with a parent who helps in developing our future campus. This parent recognizes the community impact of the school and directs his efforts to building the future. However, this effort receives only a portion of his time. The remainder of his time is dedicated to supporting efforts of peace that will put a broken nation on its feet. Countries near us are boiling with change and our friends get to see this first hand. These people we walk with hold up the hands of leaders you and I only hear about on the news.
This work can definitely humble us at times. We enjoy fellowship with leaders who send trained nationals into surrounding countries where religion is banned. These leaders are not seeing a church plant, but churches and movements. Also our national parents are pretty amazing. Recently I have talked with parents and learned that they were the ones who brought the Internet to Chiang Rai.
These connects are fun and inspiring, but lately we have been even more inspired about the incredible opportunity God puts before us in the life of our students. The following story will help you understand how education in Thailand has a transformational community impact.
One of our parents has lived in Thailand for many years, and in that time her children have attended school with children from many levels of the Chaing Rai community. Recently, a Thai lady from the community, momentarily forgetting this parent was a Christian herself, asked our friend if she had heard that two of the CRICS students were now Christian. This Buddhist parent showed a deep concern that Thai students might be attending our school and turning to the Christian faith. Truly she has a lot to be concerned about because most, if not all of our students commit their lives to Christ and lead in their social relationships.
Inspiring? Yes. But there is much more here, think about it. These students go home with their faith and enter a place quite foreign to their commitment to Christ. This lady’s comments testify to the truth that these students enter a community hostile to their belief in Jesus. Her words remind me of the often unspoken but always present reality that to be a Thai is to be a Buddhist.
I am left wordless by students who must find the words to explain to parents and friends about Christ’s lordship in their lives. We also know that more students in Christ’s fellowship will mean more persecution against these students and at times our school. Please pray that our students will embrace the challenges to their faith, as the young church did. May they see the beauty in the opportunity of suffering for being a light on a stand. We know nothing of what it costs them, yet we can pray to the one who does.
