On CHIC, BAM, and the Emerald Buddha

When the organizers of CHIC offered to make our project one of the recipients of their large offering, they made it clear there were a few strings attached. Their goal was to not only help out a worthy ministry, but also challenge some of the students to get involved after CHIC had concluded.

We liked that idea and agreed to host a group of students who would be arriving a day after Christmas--the first of several work groups planned. We planned a trip through Thailand and Laos that would expose them to some of the history and culture, as well as a number of business-as-mission enterprises seeking to share Christ and make a positive economic and social impact in the lives of people.

So, in one week we visited Bangkok, Vientiane, and Chiang Rai, retracing the steps of the Emerald Buddha which over hundreds of years, had been discovered in Thailand, was taken to Laos, and then re-captured and brought to Bangkok.

We also visited 6 different ministries in Laos and Thailand ending up at our place in Chiang Khong where we showed them the food mill CHIC funds helped to build. It was a wonderful, whirl-wind week of travel, education, bonding, prayer, and fun. We hope to see some of these back out here some day--or at least involved in ministry wherever God opens the door for them.

The Challenge: Can you eat a "rat-dropping" red pepper, also known as a "Thai carrot"?

Not a problem, says Jon.

The pain hasn't begun to show.

Jamie Sladkey and our "most beautiful" (her words) guide to the Temple of Emerald Buddha.

Okay, yes, we spent too many hours in a van...

Jamie Sladkey, Stephanie Braman, Jon Foley, Allison Honn, Sara Wilson, Kaitlin Choquette were accompanied by Kimberly Crawford from DWM. In Vientiane we ran into this guy-- the friendliest monk you could ever want to meet. Great English too.

A cave in the heartland of Laos.

Telling the story of our 16 years in Laos--in 3 minutes or less.

Arriving up-country Laos from Vientiane. It is beautiful.

Near the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in Vientiane. The Emerald Buddha went to Bangkok around the time of the American Revolution.

We finally reached Mekong Valley Foods in Chiang Rai....

And celebrated New Years by lighting northern Thai floating lanterns. A lot of fun.

CHIC Visit (Covenant High Congress)

CHIC--An Unforgettable Experience

How many experiences can you pack in to sixty-three hours for a group of visiting high-school students? Is it possible for kids to step off a plane from the States, gain an understanding of cross-cultural mission work, and then take something significant back to share with 5000 other teenagers at CHIC? This was the expectation and hope—but we have to admit we were more than a little apprehensive, even doubtful.

What we found, however, was that God can do amazing things with willing hearts, spirits and minds. While the advance planning took time, in the end, the blessing was ours! The three students, MJ Pacheco, Rachael Lindsay, and Kerric Stevens, had been selected from more than sixty applicants. We found them flexible, engaging, and interested in all the experiences we threw at them. Their adult guides, Cue (Stephen Curtis Jn. Marie , a pastor with New Song Covenant Church in SoCal) and Karen Hallberg (from Covenant World Mission) were a great complement.

Starting at six in the morning, over two days, we showed them the beautiful area we live in, visited two villages, took a ride down the Mekong, crawled around in grain bins and explained our plans to use a food mill to bless farmers in Thailand and Laos. The students experienced life in a village and took a short course on how to plant upland rice. In between all these activities we asked them to share their stories; many on our team also related how God has undone our lives and re-ordered our priorities.

What did the take away from this experience? We have received many reports from friends who were at CHIC for the live feeds from Bangkok—and their words as they walked on stage at the end of the gathering. They said: They realized they can have a part living out their faith. That being a missionary these days can mean a variety of activities and ways of working. That while different, they share much in common with northern Thai or Lao villagers: difficulties, triumphs, fun, work and worship. Not bad. Ruthie and I can live with that.

In the end, did you hear the result of the offering the kids took for our work? It was an incredible result: More than $109,327 dollars for our ministry and that of The Abundant Life Center in Bangkok. By visiting us, these students missed some excellent messages challenging them to a radical commitment to live out their faith. But our hope is that their first-hand experience of mission work, however brief, will do the same.

Undone by CHIC

Ruthie and I just put 5 wonderful people on the plane back to Bangkok last night—an advance team of planners and videographers for the CHIC conference to be held this summer (this is a nation-wide gathering of high-schoolers from Covenant churches held every 3 years).  We flew down to Bangkok, met them, and accompanied them to many sites around the city, then Chiang Rai, and Laos.  Why CHIC?  Because two of our Covenant ministries here in Thailand will be the subject of the CHIC project offering this year—our Mekong Valley Project and the Abundant Life Center in Bangkok (Karen and Carl Groot)—and these creative people are concerned that this offering be more than just another “missions moment” in the life of the CHIC week.  Like us, they are concerned that young people catch a vision for the needs in the world around us and a conviction that God has “good works that he has prepared in advance for them to do” (Eph. 2:10)—a way that they can become involved in showing Christ’s love.  Though we are tired, it was a great time of discussion, travel, visiting—the whole of which was very encouraging to us.  Praise God.  And please pray that this project will come together in the minds of planners and video-editors over the next months.