Phrao Bible Conference
27th October - 17th November

Team members: From malaysian: Raymond (team leader), Yen Ching, Shamberg, Rachel, Hock Swee. From Australia: Daniel (team leader), Meredith, Marion, Peter Lin, Melissa Cheung, Yik Fong, Sharon, Sammi, Caleb.

Summary

The mission trip involved the joint effort between a Malaysian and an Australian team working together with our Thai partners at the Phrao Church of Christ.

The trip consisted of two stages; the first half focused on running a five day children’s program followed by a four day bible conference in Phrao. The second half of the trip (following the departure of the bulk of the team), focused on the daily running of an after-school program, followed by a short trip to Surin.

Children’s Program

We began the trip with a five day children’s program called Son Force kids, based on VBS material from Gospel Light. Each morning around sixty children arrived to sound of action based songs. (Titles such as “Together in Harmony”, “Train me up” were instants hits which the children hummed away as they walked to and from the program each day). The songs were followed by a theme story that set the study for the day. The lessons included extracts from the life of Moses, Daniel, Jeremiah, Joshua and Esther – all based on the theme of being strong and courageous for God. After the assembly, the children were separated into age groups that rotated between three workshops; craft, snack and games, and bible lesson.

This is the sixth children’s program we’ve Phrao Church of Christ since our inaugural trip in October 2005. An encouraging sign has been to see many of the same students returning year after year and growing in their knowledge of Christ each time. Our continual hope is to one day see that knowledge become faithful convictions towards Christ. That however requires nothing short of much prayer and a miracle given the social and family pressures for the children to follow the religion of their parents.

Also encouraging was the see some of the regular students helping as assistants to the mission team members. Nee, for example, is a Chinese speaking Thai who has been attending the programs since conception. On this trip she played a major role in helping with Thai to English translation.

Bible Conference

Another major ministry in which the team was involved was to assist in organizing a bible conference; a first for the Surin Foundation. The idea originated in the April mission trip, earlier in the year, when the lack of adequate training in bible teaching among the pastors was noted, and many requests from the hill tribes for preaching and bible study had to be turned down due to limited resources.

The conference teaching was shared between Daniel, Raymond and Hock Swee. Daniel gave some lectures of preaching and bible exegesis. Raymond gave an overview of the bible, while Hock Swee spoke on church fellowship. About fifty students, consisting of full-time and lay pastors from various surrounding churches attended the conference. Some students traveled from as far as Mae Hon Song, five hours away, to attend the conference. These pastors were offered accommodation at the church premise.

The conference was run over four days, with each day beginning at 9am with a lesson on hymn singing, conducted by a Thai Christian hymn leader. The bible teaching program ran till 4pm. After a quick dinner, the students returned to attend a revival / evangelistic meeting which was opened to the public.

The bible conference was a success and its organization was highly praised by the attending students. The Surin Foundation is keen to follow up with another conference in October 2008. The range of subjects will be broadened with greater focus on biblical studies, and more teachers will be involved. One setback of the conference however, was that the timing coincided with the rice harvest season. Any future conferences thus would need greater consultation with the locals as to the most appropriate timing. Some thought has also been given to starting a bible school in the area that would provide more ongoing evangelical teaching courses to less advantaged churches and pastors.

Phrao Boarding House

The mission team was also engaged in running some activities for the boarding house children. The boarding house program is joint partnership between the Surin Foundation and the Phrao Church of Christ to accommodates hill tribe students studying away from their home town. The children attend local schools during the day, but are given a Christian development program in the evenings and weekends.

The children are mentored by Pastor Arun of the Phrao Church of Christ. He is assisted by Krit who works as a full-time children’s worker and administrator. The church members assist in cooking meals and other domestic duties. The program also relies on foreign missionaries, short and long-term to help in the children’s after-school programs and development.

Besides engaging them in the children’s program (already mentioned above), the mission team also taught art and English to the boarding house children. Moreover, they spent time assisting them in their Math and English homework, and giving positive influence and role modeling.

Christmas Bags

The team was also involved in handing out Christmas gift bags which had been prepared by several churches in Australia. 800 bags had been collected, of which 200 were carried as check in luggage with the team, and 600 shipped free of charge courtesy of Shenker shipping. At first it was feared that up to $500 worth of customs taxes would be charged on the bags, however, the fact it was waived can only be attributed to the Lord’s doing alone!

One location where the bags were distributed was in a remote village 1 hour from Phrao. The village is a new area for the Surin Foundation’s ministry. The team ran a one-hour children’s program which involved the children in acting out the story of the “Prodigal Son”. The bags were then handed out to over 100 children! Further follow up of this village is intended through future mission teams.

Surin Ministry

The bulk of team finished the mission trip and departed for home on the 6th December. The remaining team members, including Daniel, Peter, Melissa and Rachael, made a trip out to Surin strengthen our ministry there.

The Surin Foundation runs a children’s scholarship program in Surin. The children are given after school-tuition on a daily basis and house church is run each Sunday. A children’s worker is employed to oversee the program. Although the scholarship finances covers only 10 students, often more than 30 students attend the program.

In three days spent there, the team was involved in daily English teaching at Pom Sittern Primary school. Our relationship with the school stems back four years, and has grown from strength to strength over that time. For many of the children the only foreigners they have ever met are the mission team members from Australia, especially those sent through the Surin Foundation and Sth Camberwell Uniting Church. They have grown up knowing the positive influence of the teams, and can recall almost every name of the team members that have visited. For the current mission team, it was an encouraging sight to see the children eagerly waiting for the team members to arrive each morning. On our final day of teaching the Surin Foundation pledged 20,000 baht as a gesture of good will to lay a new concrete floor for the school.

At another village, called Ban Choke, the team was also involved in running an after-school children’s program over two days. Fifty children attended each session to sing songs, listen to the bible teaching, and receive a scrumptious dinner, courtesy of the team funds!

Over the last five years, the major part of the Surin Foundation’s ministry has been run at Ban Choke with much result to speak of. It is here that all ten of our scholarship students reside, and here that at least ten children have become Christians and meet up each day for devotion and prayer. The ministry at Pom Sittern on the other hand has been largely restricted to teaching at the local primary school. The lack of an indigenous Christian presence has prevented us from running any after school activities or house church gatherings.

Recently, however, one couple has indicated a growing interest in become Christians and have offered their home for a children’s ministry. This has not come unexpectedly. Two years ago when this couple was having concerns about complications in their pregnancy, a number of Australian Christians responded to the Surin Foundation’s request for donations to give the mother better medical support. The couple were touched by this demonstration of love and have since been grateful and open the teaching of Christ. The Surin Foundation is keen to not let this window of opportunity to close and is thus seeking funding and support to begin this new ministry.