Remember Mekong Valley Foods? An update...

Many of you will remember our friend and colleague, Wessel Huisjes, and the company we started in Chiang Khong .  Well, Mekong Valley Foods Co. continues, under Wessel's leadership, to produce blended flour products for the Burmese refugee camps.  

Wessel Huisjes...new owner & Director of Mekong Valley Foods Co.

Mekong Valley Foods Co. in Chiang Rai, Thailand

In fact, about a month ago we decided that it made more sense for Wessel to continue that work as owner of the company rather than as Manager.  So, we have now transferred ownership of the company to Wessel and 2 other Dutch friends who are committed to running it with the same determination to produce quality products and help disadvantaged communities.  

We, in turn, are using the funds from this transfer of ownership to invest in Covenant ministries here in Roi Et and in Chiang Mai.  We recently gave a large gift to the camp in Chiang Mai.  Here in Roi Et, the funds are enabling the leadership team to extend electricity service into the camp, drill a new well, and help buy a piece of land that will become a full-sized soccer field.

 

Harvest

Beginning last year, we witnessed and participated in several significant outreach efforts into villages surrounding our little collection of 8 churches.    

First, a 5-day funeral on the Mekong River inBeungkan--a funeral for the mother of Khamphan Sudcha, our Thailand Covenant church president.  Starting in the mornings and lasting well into the nights, the story of this remarkable woman was told by her many children. The gospel was preached by me and many others.  Churches from the entire area participated.  

Pastor Soudinh Penkhay, a Lao-American pastor who is in the process of coming to join the work, preached and helped with funeral ceremonies...Both he and I provided a lot of entertainment with our "pure" Lao--as opposed to the Issaan Lao spoken in Thailand ("Lao like my grandmother spoke" said one).  The funeral ended with a huge gathering in the middle of a rubber orchard for the cremation of this much-loved lady.  

Then there were Christmas celebrations in many places.  Following that,  the dedication of two new church buildings--one up on the river in Beungkan and one here Roi Et.

The second of 2 new church buildings in Lao Klang, Roi Et. This was the first church planted in the area back in the early 90's.

Putting the finishing touches on the new church building @ Chaiyaphon--up on the Mekong River in Beungkan Province

Finally, this past Valentine's Day, our team took advantage of Thai fascination with this day, to organize a big event called "The Miracle of Love."  This happened because "Mother Lum Yai" said she wanted to come visit--and could the team organize something?  The church in the village of Yang Cher exists today because this Thai grandmother living in Savannah, Georgia, USA was concerned that her relatives here in Thailand had not heard the gospel.  Over several years she shared her faith.  When she read about the Covenant on the Thailand website she contacted Pastor Daeng and Thipawan who patiently visited and led many of her family members to new life in Christ.  

And so "Mother Lum Yai" came, along with a team of about 10, including the pastor of her Baptist Church in Savannah.  A day-long event was staged with games and prizes for kids.  Over 1000 people came.  And when the gospel was preached that night, more than 100 people came to faith!  Ruthie and I and Kristi Byford followed the event from afar since we were at a meeting in southern Thailand, a 3-yearly gathering of Covenanters in Asia.

Harvest Time in Issaan

It's harvest time in Issaan!  Not rice harvest--that was back in November and December. But this is the time, we are feeling, for God to bring a harvest that has been a long time in coming.

Ruthie and I feel privileged to be here at this time.  Since we returned from our brief trip to the States in December, we have hardly stopped moving, jumping into the many events and issues that are the ebb and flow of the work here.  More about those below...   

Still, we're at peace.  We are well-settled in our house, happy to have a smaller place in the neighborhood where many of our Thai friends and church leaders live.  We have had wheels, borrowed from other Covenant missionaries.  And we have been welcomed into the team like long-lost friend.

Bracing Ecumenical Spirit

In Pastor Khamphan (Daeng) we find a leader with a refreshing, bracing, ecumenical spirit—Daeng’s passion is to see the church grow and be expressed within Issaan culture. 

To see that happen, Daeng and the rest of the team are willing to work with anyone who loves Jesus.  Recently a Korean brother-missionary helped fund 2 new church buildings.  Another brother, a Dutch businessman and his Issaan wife, have given hours of time to grade and improve fish ponds on the church property.  As Ruthie and I began showing up at various events, we began to check each other out—“Were they the real thing?  Were we the real thing?”  The Korean brother wondered if I was a believer, he later told me.  We wondered what our Dutch brother was up to—he was going above and beyond, giving himself, and expressing love in actions— because he hardly speaks a word of Thai.    

This was an interesting situation to step into.  We started with a visiting team of Korean acupuncturists going with our Thai and Korean team mates to do acupuncture in new villages while also sharing the gospel.  At one point a Lao-American pastor, Soudinh Penkay, joined us.  Soundinh has been praying for several years about joining the Thai-Lao team–and had come out for an initial visit.  He was well-received in the first message he preached to the church in Roi Et—and when it came to the informal times of sharing the gospel meeting in village homes, he was right at home.

Coming in half-way to this developing scene has called for all the open-mindedness we can muster.  We’re just praying that God will do the work, we will be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and that through all of this the church will grow and God receive the glory. 

101 Reasons to Love Roi Et

Last time we wrote we were still smarting from our experiences with Lao and Thai immigration.  Since that time we have been bouncing around from one hotel to the next—first in the border town of Nongkhai, then down to Roi Et, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai--touching base with colleagues and friends, both Thai and expat, and seeking out God’s will for this next phase of life and ministry.

Our reception in the northeast city of Roi Et--and our inception into life and ministry with that Thai Covenant team has been at once gratifying and challenging.  

We nearly joined the team in Roi Et more than 20 years ago, fresh out of language school.  Or so we were reminded by Daeng and Thipawan, the Thailand Covenant Church president, and his wife.  But instead Daeng and Thip and two Covenant families—Doug & Carolyn Johnson, Paul & Gretchen DeNeui—pioneered the work.  

Today we find a church that is growing in many ways—both numerically and qualitatively.  

Deported from 2 Countries

I never even smoked marijuana in high school.  But now I’ve been deported from 2 countries!  How’s that for a day’s work and travel?

During our time in the States I had applied for, and received a visa to enter the country from the Lao Embassy in Washington D.C.  Surely that meant we had been taken off the black list in Laos, we thought.

But the bottom line is…. for the second time, the Lao security police have told us they don’t want us.   And we are now trying to figure out what God wants us to do for the next phase of our lives.

Immigration Lockdown

I didn’t realize it at first, but I was being remanded.  After 24 hours of straight travel—across the Pacific, to Taipei, Bangkok, and then on to Vientiane, we didn’t expect this.  “May I go with my wife into Vientiane to help pack up our house?” I asked.  “No, you need to get back on the flight you came on.” So, I went, with Ruthie stuffing cash in my pocket.  I glanced back at the immigration hall to see Ruthie’s dazed look—and those of all the other foreigner’s and Lao wondering what on earth I had done.  It all happened in five minutes.

I thought when I got back to BKK all would be well.  I could return to our favorite little hotel.  But the Thai airlines people kept my passport and led me to the back of the plane.  On the ground in Bangkok someone took me in a special van to the underbelly of Suvarnabhumi Airport, signing me into one office, then out again.  One official pushed a document forward for me to sign…and my eyes fixed on the words “acknowledge” and “expulsion”.  “Do I need to sign this?” I asked—since Thailand had no issues with me as far as I knew…  The head immigration official assured me all would be well.  I just needed to leave the country, according to Thai-Lao protocols.  When I returned to Thailand “I would be a new person,” he said.  So then, the questions was, “How much money do you have?  Where do you want to fly?”  Then I remembered most of our Covenant leadership was in Taipei for the 3-yearly Asia Covenant Consultation, a meeting I had helped organize a short while ago.

I asked my friendly northeast Thailand immigration minder, “So, where will I spend the night before getting on tomorrow’s plane to Taipei?”  “We have a one-star hotel,” he said, laughing.  But when he showed me to the men’s quarters, the beds were full of sleeping African men.  “Would you mind just sitting around in the women’s room?” they asked.  Again I was thankful.  Lots of empty bunks and it was even semi-air conditioned.  Between bouts of fitful sleep I skype chatted with Ruthie and anyone else I could find with a green dot.

Taipei never looked so good

On the flight to Taipei I began to feel like a person again.  I asked for a second cup of coffee to test my new status.  As I waited in the Taipei immigration queue, my palms were sweaty.  I worried that the thermal readers might mistake me for an Ebola transmitter—or that word about me had been sent ahead.  But I was admitted without question.

My two days in Taiwan were so welcome.  I met with our colleagues and administrators.  They provided listening ears and welcome hugs.  Our Executive Minister even gave me a clean shirt.  Our Thai colleagues and friends said, “Now it’s time for you to come work with us in the northeast.” 

The dust is settling

Since I returned to Thailand (and was admitted) Ruthie bopped across the river to join me.  We have had many meetings with important friends and counselors:  Our Lao partners, Regional Coordinator, Thai church leaders in Roi Et, member care expert, Thai-Lao Country Coordinator.  And we have taken a few days to pray in a quiet hotel in Chiang Mai.

I think we are okay. 

We are beginning to see the directions God is leading us.  We are so thankful to our friends and family—both immediate and Covenant.  We have been given space and time to pray and process as our lives have been turned upside down. 

God seems to be pointing us in the direction of working with Covenant churches in Roi Et Thailand for our next phase.  When we visited we were greatly encouraged by the team.  Way back in 1991 we were asked to work in Roi Et, but then plans changed and we went to Laos.  Last week we visited again for a day or two.  We heard their dreams and opened our hearts to God’s leading.  It will be quite different than the work we've done for the past many years, but for this season of life, it seems right.  We plan to just integrate and see how God opens doors.  They have been developing a place and plan for leadership development.  How can we help them do that? 

Still Grieving

This is not to say that we are not grieving--especially for what this closed door means for our partners in Laos.  We are so grateful for their understanding and desire to see this injustice righted.  We are very confident that God has not abandoned them, but also has good plans for them and He will use others to fulfill their dreams and visions. 

The words of the sermon we preached this past fall keep coming back to us:  When we left Laos in 2008 we thought it was the end of our dreams.  But our Lao friends grew and developed even a bigger vision.  We thought we’d be there to help them fulfill these dreams, but once again it seems God has different ideas.  We have yet to experience situations where our plans were better than God’s plans  So we will be waiting to see how His plan unfolds for the projects we were helping to start.

Christmas in CA?

Life has been a bit complicated in terms of visas–not just the rejection from Laos, but also getting long term visa’s to work here in Thailand.  This may involve trips to neighboring countries until we can get some issues worked out.  It seems also that a trip to the States is in the wind.  In order to get the right kind of visa for working in Thailand it is best to start that process from your country of residence.  So, we are now looking forward to Christmas in southern California with our family!  Not a bad thing, we feel. 

Finally, I thought about how appropriate some of the exercises were that we had been given in the  “Deeper in Christ Retreat we’d attended the end of September.  We were given three questions to meditate on:  “Where are you?”  “What do you want?”  “What now?”  We will, with God’s help find our way through to the answers over the next days and weeks.  Please keep praying with us.  

Quite a week

It's the end of one of those weeks....Ruthie and I went in two different directions--she to Chiang Mai, I to Udon and then Roi Et, northeast Thailand.

In Udon I took two of the staff from our fish hatchery / nursery to the Issaan Aquatics Farm to learn more about the process of collecting, incubating, and then reverse-sexing baby tilapia fish.  I spent most of one morning in the ponds learning, again, how to differentiate male/female tilapia (something I learned, what--almost 20 years ago).

 It was strange and poignant to spend the night in Udon again--the place has changed incredibly!  It is a booming city with all kinds of factories and businesses operating there.  Twenty years ago it had the feel of a ghost town, just recovering from the Vietnam war--shuttered bars and wide, empty streets.  No longer!

It has been great to spend more time with the staff there and with Jim Gustaftson in my last couple of trips there.  We are grateful for their help in this new phase of our lives and ministry in Laos.

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Roi Et!  I always get a boost from the team in this lower Issaan region.  They are all self-supporting, bi-vocational ministers,  carrying on the work of church planting, leadership training, and church enablement.  The fish farm is going great guns under the management of one of their key members, Siang.  He rents the ponds, thus contributing to the overall budget, while carrying on a successful business.  He chose the following as his logo for his company and took 3 tries to get it passed by local authorities.  Note what's in the fish!

I also had time with Kristi Byford who is finishing up her Thai language studies in a few months and has decided to join the Thai team in Roi Et to enhance their ministries and outreach into the communities.  Below she shares her decision with the team there.

Cheryl Santello, a newly-arrived short-termer from Alpine Camp in SoCal, also shared her vision to assist in developing both the facilities and the programs of the two Covenant camps in Thailand.  She brings more than 15 years experience in camping to the task, along with a lot of energy and enthusiasm.  Here, Dr. Paul DeNeui (who served in Roi Et for more than 10 years and is currently teaching at the Covenant Seminary in Chicago) translates for her.  Paul also taught one of his favorite subjects--"Who Are We, in the Covenant?", affirming the priesthood of the believers and passing the mike to many in the audience...

Finally, Ruthie and I met at the airport in Udon and returned to Vientiane.  I was anxious to get out to the fish farm to see the progress.  Indeed, it really is taking shape!  The large building behind me will house many fish tanks in which we hope to do our spawning.