Mission Journey to Nan & Reflection

Why the Trip was Planned

With Rev KIM Chong Pae, A Korean Thai missionary in Singapore

Nellie is facing some ministry challenge with another Korean mission in Santiphap. It will be good if the OMF and Korean mission teams can partner and work together to reach out to the Mien (& Thai).
Rev Kim and wife are GMS missionaries working with True Way Presbyterian Church & Santiphap Church Singapore, reaching out to Thais in Singapore. His mission calling is to set up Santiphap churches in 77 provinces of Thailand.
Rev Kim was able to organize a meeting with an old Korean missionary couple, Elder Lee & wife whose church has built a students' hostel (US$800,000) in Nan.
He will also speak to the other Korean couple, another Lees, who are trying to reach out to the same villagers Nellie is serving. Poor communication and perhaps mistrust have been great obstacles in forming meaningful partnership in outreach of Mien youths in the villages.
We prayed that God will bring OMF and the Korean missions in Nan province to work together in reaching out to the people there. Perhaps our own Thai missionaries and Korean ministry will also want to be involved in this missions endeavor in Thailand in partnership with the Koreans/Rev Kim.

13^th Nov 2011, Sunday Evening

I was unable to book a taxi to the airport due to a sudden heavy downpour, so I had to request our neighbor Peter/Ivy to send me there. They just happened to be back home from dining out.
Peter and Ivy (David Tay's cousin) shared that a Thai missionary and his Mien partner were giving some testimony in their Ascension Church (St Andrew) last Sunday. It sounds like the Mien in Thailand is already coming to Singapore to seek direct support for their ministry. Nellie when informed was not aware of this. New Creation Church is also sending mission teams to villages in North Thailand through Christina Ng's team.
On arrival to Changi Airport and upon entry into Terminal 1, Rev Kim also came down from his dinner at 3rd level and we just met head on without having to look or call for each other. The timing and location were planned by the Lord and we get our boarding passes stamped without any hitches.
When we reached ChiangMai, we met the person from Thai Rent-a-car who also happened to be the one delivered the cars to me for my last trip.
The forward journey was very smooth, even though a Western air passenger fainted in the plane and delayed our exit from the plane and checking out of the airport. God also protected us from an accident while driving after 1:00am S'pore time in ChiangMai to our rest house.

14^th Nov 2011, Monday

We had our simple but ample breakfast at Riverside House where we stayed. After breakfast, we drove to the day market to buy things and food for the trip to Nan.
We set off to Nan at around 11am guided by my phone GPS. The trip is expected to take about 5 hours for the 350+ km journey. This time, we took the Northern route through Phayao where there is a bible college where many Mien youths have graduated from.

Along the way, we stopped by a road side waterfall for a snack and rest. We did a slight detour beside Phayao town's lake for a Western lunch. The route from Phayao was hilly and we were driving along ridges.

 

 

 

By then Rev Kim had arranged for a dinner at Tesco Nan with Elder Lee from Korea. We reached Santiphap village at around 5:00pm and drove out again with Seng Fin & his wife for dinner with Elder Lee and his wife. We visit Elder Lee's students hostel after dinner and was invited to stay and dine with them the next day.
We returned to Santiphap for the night and realized that the hostel is not far from the village.

 

 

 

 

15^th Nov 2011, Tuesday Morning

Breakfast was at Seng Fin's home and we shared and prayed much there. We met up with the eldest daughter who came back from Bangkok as there was no work there with the flood. After breakfast, we went with Seng Fin to his orchard and ate some Thai orange and pamelo from the trees planted on the hill slope.

 

 

 

We set out to town before noon to try to meet up with another Korean missionary couple in town, Mr & Mrs Lee. But they were not in during lunch so instead, we managed to organize a meeting with them at 4:00pm. Their phone number was given by Seng Fin's son who happened to be in the youth hostel from school.
Parking our car on the side of a main road, we had lunch in a Thai restaurant we frequented. After lunch, we realized that we had parked illegally and received a ticket. We immediately went to pay our fine and ended up in the police HQ. Thank God, the fine was waived as we were considered tourists who were not familiar with local condition.

15^th Nov 2011, Tuesday Afternoon

After lunch, we met up with Seng Fin in town and he arranged for us to meet up with the pastor of the local 114 years old Baptist church, with less than 100 attending members.

The church also started the popular Christian school next to it.
Unlike what happened in Singapore with Catholic, Methodist and Anglican churches, the Baptist mission effort did not seem to bear much fruit. The Baptist mission has left Nan and the locals have now taken over.
Why has the mission effort not produced thriving churches? Possible answers: Buddhist faith is entrenched, church dependency from outside, perception that Christian faith is foreign and for certain class, ….

 

 

 

 

After fellowship with the Thai Baptist pastor we returned to visit the Korean missionary couple, the Lees, at around 4:00pm as planned.
There was a long fellowship in Korean between Rev Kim and the Lees in our presence. It was clear that they were still inadequate to communicate well in English or Thai. Many misunderstandings were cleared and we are hopeful that Nellie should be able to forge a partnership to reach out to the youths in the village. We still need to ascertain their Korean church background and doctrine. There is a ministry HQ in Bangkok.

15th Nov 2011, Tuesday Evening

Nellie is still holding the OMF 1st vision of reaching the Mien and then mobilizing them to reach others in the Mekong region.
Rev Kim and I believe that this vision is good, but has to be revisited in the light of what God is doing in China & Korea. Perhaps the vision now should be focused on the evangelization of Thais, leaving our brethren in China to do their parts. God's glory and plan are often His alone. We need to be faithful in partnering Him in His works as we see His plan unfolds before us. Increasing, mission in the Mekong region is more to prepare the ground for the southern movement of the Holy Spirit, transcending national interest and cultural bias.
We were invited to stay for dinner by the Lees but could not as we had prior dinner engagements with Elder Lee at his hostel and then staying there overnight.

16^th Nov 2011, Wednesday

We had breakfast at the home of elder Lee and there was much fellowship, prayer and sharing of lives since last night. It was clear that Elder Lee is open and keen to partner others in the outreach effort in Nan. The Hostel is functioning like an outreach centre there. Singapore & Thai Churches and OMF could take this opportunity to work with the Korean Churches for the mission work in Nan.
Possible joint partnerships are:

• Student & youth outreach through teaching of English, computing, sport etc.
• Long or short term teaching mission attachment to the hostel.
• Organizing camps and seminars to disciple Christians in Nan and the Mekong region.
• Help in completing the building project as the ministry expands.
• There are many areas for cooperation between the Singapore and Korean churches with such wonderful amenities that started 10 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

16^th Nov 2011, Wednesday

We left for ChiangRai around 10:30am on 16th Nov with most of our objectives met. Nellie was keen to celebrate Gao Cheng's birthday at MoC. With the help of GPS, we were able to reach ChiangRai in 3 hours much to the surprise of Nellie. The journey from Santiphap village normally takes 4-5 hours. Nellie would be hosting a team of visitors in MoC after we left.
In ChiangRai, we had beef noodle soup for lunch and visited a bakery which is a mission enterprise helping about 100 children and youths.

 

 

 

We return to MoC for dinner and as usual bought BBQ chickens at MaeChan market for the children. Of course, also a birthday cake for Gao Cheng.
Rev Kim was able to witness the students' devotion time at both hostels and this gave him much optimism in reaching the Thai people for Christ.

 

 

 

17^th Nov 2011, Thursday

On 17th Nov, we drove to ChiangMai at about 9:00am and reach there after noon for lunch at Airport Plaza. We then returned our rental car at the airport and took Air Asia flight home at 4:50pm.
God has been good to us throughout this journey and I learnt much about what Rev Kim has been doing in Thailand. I believe there is much room for us to work with him in our Thai mission effort.