jim larson's thoughts

Not a Pastor

31-Mar-07 00:22

Written Tuesday, March 27 

Tonight in a small village in Buriram, about 6 hours northeast of Bangkok, I showed Prang the set of Train and Multiply materials I brought for her.  Train and Multiply is a curriculum for equipping average believers, even new ones, to start and lead small churches.  Prang has been actively talking about Jesus with her neighbors, and doesn't know what to do with them all.  It's too difficult to get everyone to the nearest church.  So I told her she needs to start one right here.

Train and Multiply is basically a set of 63 booklets, each on a different subject.  The idea is that a coach would normally cover about a lesson a week, depending on the topic that needed to be covered.  For instance, if a question came up about the nature of God, perhaps the lesson explaining the Trinity would be covered that week, and taught by the church leader/trainee at the following meeting.  Since they are simple booklets that can be photocopied, the idea is that very soon that young church leader will soon be training another one.

In Thailand we are partners with the Southern Baptist Bangkok Metro Team.  Southern Baptists aren't too keen on women in ministry leadership, so I hope I don't get in trouble here.  But as the strongest Christian in her village by far, and as someone with a burden for reaching others young and old, Prang is a ministry leader.  I figure that right now, Christians are less than 1% in Thailand.  After we have a few percentage points we can argue about the meaning of I Corinthians 14 and I Timothy 2.   For now, I'm happy for any worker, whatever color or shape.  So I told her, "Learn all this material and you'll be a real pastor."

"I don't want to be a pastor," Prang laughed.  That didn't surprise me.  Prang is not an up-front kind of person.  "That's ok," I told her.  "This isn't about standing in front of a big group and preaching.  It's about reading the Bible together and talking about it.  Why don't you want to be a pastor?"

"Because a pastor doesn't reach many people."

I wasn't sure I heard her right.  

"Because a pastor doesn't reach many people.  He has to stay inside his building and take care of people in the church." 

Hmmm . . . . 

Comments (4)

Errant Fact

31-Mar-07 00:19 Celeste McGee forwarded a message from a friend--here is an excerpt:

"I just went to a children-at-risk conference last weekend....  I found out that half of the sex workers on Bangkok are less than 14 years of age. they just aren't allowed to be taken out of the rooms, so you don't see them out on the streets. the pimps say "for make love only, no massage, stay in room since so young"  Lord bring justice, Lord have mercy... His heart breaks."

This statement is almost certainly not true.  We are not hearing of Thai girls kept under wraps like this.  We don't doubt that it happens, and that fact alone, whether 10 girls or 10,000, is still horrific.  However I think it's important to be avoid overstating the situation.  Perhaps it helps to draw our attention, but can lead us to the wrong target.  Far, far more Thai girls are damaged by domestic sexual abuse and early sexual activity in their own age group than are sold into closed brothels.  That is not at all to say that we shouldn't make every effort possible to rescue and prevent child sex trafficking.  But we need to keep the source of the problem in mind--the brokenness in families and cultures that would lead families to sell their children in the first place.  That is our priority at The Well. Comments (0)

Heading to Buriram

26-Mar-07 15:34

Leaving in a few minutes for Buriram with a small team to hang out with Prang.   Bought her a $50 guitar last night and copied a bunch of church planter training material. 

After the last 10 days, a long bus ride (7 hours) will be a nice break.

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Week in Review

24-Mar-07 06:38 Stuff sometimes happens here faster than we can think.  Some highlights this week:

Spent time with 6 aimless teenagers, age 17-19; jobless, penniless.  One finished only 3rd grade; none has a sense of direction for the future.  We see this commonly here.

Welcomed "Noi", a 13 year-old girl into our home, with Kay as her mentor.  Noi quit school halfway through 7th grade because she said teachers were giving her too much homework.  For the last several months she has been hanging out with friends, including a boyfriend in his 20's.  Thursday Kay took her to the doctor to be treated for an STD.

Had lunch with "Beau", a 22 year-old who has been in the sex industry for several years.  Ae had just come from getting a passport picture taken, and said she was hoping to leave for England in just a few days.  According to our students who brought her, the passport Ae is getting is fake, and as I suspected, she is not in fact going as a tourist but will be working as a prostitute.  We're working on seeing if we can find out enough details about her, especially her fake passport name, to alert the British embassy before she goes there for her visa next week.

Called Prang, our former student now in her home village in Buriram, 6 hours northeast.  She's pretty much on her own, and I apologized for still not getting up there to visit.  Prang told me that since she has become a Christian, 35 adults in her village have as well.  She told me she could lead more to the Lord, but wouldn't know what to do with them all.

Spent several hours with Sandy Wisdom Martin and Gail Hallman, state leaders of the Southern Baptist Women's Missionary Union in Illinois and Pennsylvania, brainstorming and discussing possibilities for the WMU to bring their Christian Women's Job Corp initiative to Thailand.

Met with a couple of Thai women working on starting a school.

Made 2 pickup/dropoff trips to the airport.

Met with the Christian owner of a sewing factory here, explaining The Well and some of our thoughts for business development to provide economic alternatives to prostitution.

Explained Jesus to the cousin of one of our newer members at The Well.  I'm not overly quick to invite Thai people to receive Jesus, but Ae, a 30 year-old college student, seemed to be ready.  I sent him home with a Bible and a VCD, and he agreed to visit our home for "church" on Sunday.

Did a quick outreach at Soi Cowboy.  Talked with Ann and Nok, 2 street freelancers in front of the Robinson's department store, about going out to dinner for Ann's birthday on Monday.

Worked with Jason Bowman on a logo for Narimon, the brand we're developing to market jewelry and clothing accessories in the West.

Got further behind on a whole bunch of other stuff.
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Restart

20-Mar-07 10:01

Ok, after over a year I'm trying again.  This time it will be short posts, not trying to write an essay each time, ok?

Sunday afternoon we had 14 people over to our house for church.  Eight were not Christians.  Great fun.

Four were teenagers.  Two were sisters who make about $4 a day sewing shirts for Nike. One has a child, and to make ends meet, tries to sell herself on the street a couple of times a week.

Looking at Nike's web site, I see that their cheapest men's t-shirt goes for $25.   According to this article, Nike budgeted $476 million for celebrity endorsements in 2006.  

Draw your own conclusion.  Comments (0)

 

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