Danny in Thailand

the following is a press release from Christian Solidarity Worldwide that may give you a better idea of the conditions here:

CHRISTIAN VILLAGERS DRIVEN FROM HOMES FACE STARVATION IN LAOS

The 18 families have been living in a temporary camp outside Katin village, Ta-Oyl district, Saravan province since they were marched from their village at gunpoint in two separate incidents in 2010 for refusing to give up their Christian faith.  

 A report received from a CSW source this week said that village officials are refusing to allow the Christians to enter the village to farm their land. An area that had been farmed around the camp has been destroyed. Village officials have instructed families in surrounding villagers not to help or provide food for the group, who lack access to adequate food, water and sanitation facilities, and medical treatment. It is reported that the villagers believe these tactics are an attempt to starve them in order that they give up their Christian faith. 

At first 11 families were driven from the village at gunpoint during a worship service in January 2010, before a further seven families of new converts to Christianity were driven out in December 2010. Despite international advocacy on the case, the dire situation has not improved. One man from the group has died during this time.

In March 2010, the district head of Ta-Oyl, Mr Bounma, met with the group and urged them to reconsider their decision to follow the Christian faith, encouraging them to renounce their Christian beliefs. The group refused, and on hearing this Mr Bounma reportedly stated that while the Lao Constitution provided protection for freedom of religion and belief, he did not allow Christianity in his district. He threatened the group with expulsion from the district if they refused to renounce their faith.

 The Laos Constitution provides protection for its people to practise a religion of their choice without discrimination. However, legislative protection is weak and implementation at a local level can be arbitrary. Theravada Buddhism is the dominant religion in Laos. Religious minorities, including Christians, can face harassment. 

 CSW’s National Director Stuart Windsor said, “CSW calls upon the Lao government to adhere to the constitutional protection afforded to all its citizens by allowing the Katin villagers to return to their homes. CSW calls upon international actors to hold the Lao authorities accountable for the ongoing violations of the rights of the villagers to freedom of religion and belief and afford them their economic and social rights to live in their village, sustain themselves by farming and have access to medical treatment.”

Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is a Christian organisation working for religious freedom through advocacy and human rights, in the pursuit of justice.

For further information or to arrange interviews visit www.csw.org.uk

and so little blogging I actually did! Today is my last day in Nonprasert. I’ve been working especially hard and had access to the internet, but never enough time to blog it up. So I promise to add more with commentary and pictures to show you more of Thailand while I’m killing time in airports and when I get back to the states. Thanks for reading, and expect a lot of updates soon!

One noticeable thing about being here is that I feel alive. I don’t have other words for it. I’ve been digging for answers as to why. I’m not always fond of the food… the language barrier is difficult… it has been quite an adventure and such a different yet wonderful culture, but I’ve also been working… Then I came across this awesome quote:

‎”Here’s the funny thing: We think, No, I want my own life. And Jesus says, ‘If you lose your life, you’ll find it.’ It’s the person who tries to build this autonomous, self-governing, disconnected, one generational, weekend-to-weekend life that is dead. It’s when you pour yourself into God’s purposes that you actually get to be alive.” Mark Driscoll

more photos from Nasai market

Nasai Market - early saturday mornings the neighboring town holds a street market for fruit, meat, clothing and amenities. The town is on the Mekong river, so vendors travel from Laos by boat and use a winch to travel up the river bank with their goods. It was quite an eye opener, I’d never seen anything like it. The food is outrageously inexpensive, most fruit would be a dollar per kilo. Beef - $4/kg. 

My journey to Thailand, and the Lord’s draw for me to be here now, came from my studies at Florida State. I am here to be a servant to the people, in any way possible, and to worship God with the talents and ability he’s given me. In this case, that means accounting!

The Mission recently made a switch from shoe-boxes full of receipts to an online accounting software. There’s still a lot of work to be done, and I’m here to learn their business processes at the mission and identify areas for improvement. Here’s a journey through my last work week:

Monday was all about learning the Mission and the business. Over the course of the day I put together a to-do list with 20 items and got a great understanding for the work to be done. We analyzed the separation of duties extensively to create a map for better checks and balances. Tuesday was learning the process behind the grunt work: Quickbooks online, revenue recognition, etc.

This is a shot from our office. Grace and Christian were kind enough to run over a power strip to use our laptops, and they were rewarded with a sip of Mike’s Coke. Those swords on the wall might be the most exciting pictures I can post of my accounting work. =)

Wednesday was spent tracking money. We looked for discrepancies in the individual accounts and I was able to track a staff salary account and find a missing $900 US. We also investigated a few money transfers and dates. Pray for clarity here as we hope to instigate more shrewd financial planning.  

Thursday was different. Most of the day was gathering information and stories to write reports on MEM to their parent organization Mission One. It’s been one of my favorite days here, I learned so much about how God is moving in thailand and in other countries where the gospel is oppressed. 

Friday was focused on MEM Thailand. Most money here is recorded in Baht, worth about $0.29 per Baht (฿), and this is the portion of MEM still in shoe boxes. We spend a lot of time coordinating the Thai labeled accounts to those in the bank statements and certifying account balances. This still has a long way to go, but we’ve got the ball rolling. 

All in all, it’s been a successful week. Monday I’m looking forward to assisting the Nathan Trading Company and then we will return to working on MEM Wednesday. Prayers are appreciated, and I can’t wait to update you more on my work here and this exciting culture. 

This is the in-progress high school building! Mercy Christian School will have their first graduating seniors in two school yrs, impressive because education is expensive and not required beyond 9th grade. You might notice construction in thailand looks a bit different. Very open rooms, mostly cinderblocks. We came over to the site one afternoon to gather berries!

Scenes from Nonprasert

Orphan Boys & making a movie

So far, I’ve done well with the spices here! They dip the wild mango in a rub made of salt, sugar and chilis (very hot!) or something like anchovies… which I avoid.

There are mango trees in nearly everyone’s yard. You can walk up and take whatever fruit you see, there’s always plenty. If you dip it in the rub, make sure you have water on hand! I looked pretty silly trying to ask for water with sign language.

Water is delivered in large 5 Gallon jugs. The tap water is safe enough to brush your teeth, but you wouldn’t want to ingest the amount of Chlorine that keeps it clean.

Good morning! And hello from the FUTURE! It’s thursday evening here, but thursday morning back home. Many of the people I work with are out of town today, so I have a slow morning and a chance to take a break from accounting and blog. 

This is Mekong Church. It is the hub for 9 churches in Thailand and over 200 elsewhere…

Last sunday was my first Thai service and it was an incredible time of worship. The Thai often take english worship songs, like Come Thou Fount, and translate them. It was all so familiar but very different.

Chansamone preached on Job 2 which seemed incredibly relevant to the people. Many of the Isaan Christians experience intense persecution, especially those living in or planning to planning to move to another southeast asian country with a communist government. Most of Chansamone’s sermon was in Thai, but he would add an occasional sentence in english for the missionaries. He spoke about God’s concern for Job’s character when he was put to the test by Satan. He showed that suffering enters into our lives because God allows it, and pointed out resolutely that even Satan must answer to God (verse 1-2).

I often heard the phrase, cheuua khohn laeeo which means “someone who already has belief” in Christ. It was clear he spoke a lot about the protection and the sovereignty of God. It was actually pretty difficult to find out what cheuua khohn laeeo meant. Apparently the word cheuua can mean belief, shirt, mattress, bacteria, or tiger - depending on what emphasis and/or pitch you say it with!

After the service everyone gathered outside to share a meal and then most went to buy ice cream from a vendor or go home. Families with youth hung around a little later so their kids could attend the Youth Service.

Before the sermon a new friend Wong, who’s bible I took a picture of and the guy leading worship above, invited me on stage to lead a worship song in English! He really put me on the spot, so I wasn’t very prepared. The song I knew best with the simplest words I could think of was Chris Tomlin’s Exalted. They gave me an electric guitar and I had them repeat-after-me the lyrics of the song before I played, not knowing I’d forgotten to teach them one of the lines. Then I began:

Exalted, He is exalted
on high, He is exalted
for great is the Lord 
LET ALL THE NATIONS SAY
exalted, He is exalted 

The words emphasized were the one’s I’d forgotten, and it was all I could do to keep playing and not stop in shock or awe. I nearly cried. Here I was experiencing the very words I’d praised the Lord with so many times. This song has been a resting place for me, and now it’s gained so much more meaning. I am so grateful for the experience. I sang the chorus myself:

blessing and honor, glory and power
unto the Lord be praise
sing with the chorus resounding before us
holy is His name

 and then together we sang over and over again:

Yahweh, holy is Your name!

What a wonderful gift from God: to be here, and to be experiencing God’s work in a completely different culture. Thank you everyone for your prayers and encouragement.

Links:

Chris Tomlin - Exalted