Mission News: Tales from Thailand

Eric and Linda (nationals) have established a school for poor children at the border of Thailand and Burma and teach in the children's native tongue, Chinese. Officially the children are supposed to go to a school in Myanmar (Burma), which uses Burmese as the teaching language, preventing the Chinese children from learning well. To attend Eric & Linda's school, the children have to walk 16 kilometers round-trip everyday. When the school term began in September 2004, 270 children, of which 150 were less than 10 years old, traveled the distance. They begin their walk about 6:00 am, arriving at the school around 7:45 am. After 5 1/2 hours of teaching, they walk home together to join their families working in the field or doing housework. They have only a brief time to review their study at night. If they fall asleep during class, they stand up to keep awake. Eric & Linda are very touched by their persistence.

In November 2004, orders came from the government that all students from the village of Na Yao had to go back to the Myanmar sponsored school, with the offer that classes from 1:00-4:00 pm would be taught in Chinese. Therefore, five teachers, who are Christ-followers, from Eric & Linda's school go every afternoon to teach the classes in Chinese. By the end of the semester in January 2005, 430 students studied in the Myanmar school, nurtured by the love of Christ.

Pauline, a linguist working with Central's adopted people group, was amused at her attempts to speak both Burmese and Thai with a group of both nationalities. "I was afraid of mixing the languages and did so, in fact. It's a stage of learning to use the two languages together, which I have never had to do. It will require more practice to get the habit of switching languages with a smooth transition. Please pray for my heart to be loving and humble, open to all the Lord Jesus would desire to teach me."

These dear people are indeed illustrating the verses of Psalm 132, "I will allow no sleep to my eyes, till I find a place for the Lord." Obedience with sacrifice.