Dear Friends,

A year ago we wrote that Esther was relishing her new job as chaplain and assistant to the president for religious affairs at Payap University. She is enjoying it even more now. This past year God surprised us again when the president of Payap invited Rob to serve as director of the Christian Communications Institute. CCI uses traditional Thai dramatic and musical arts to communicate the good news of God’s love in schools and churches throughout Thailand. Rob has fallen in love with his staff of gifted musicians and performers. We just returned from a refreshing retreat at the beach with them, where we also prepared for a whirlwind tour of the U.S., which starts April 3 in San Diego, California.

The tour will include traditional Thai dancing and a melodramatic form called "Likay," which CCI uses to interpret scripture in ways Thai hearts can hear. We hope many of you will be able to join us. Our itinerary is at the end of this letter.

Our year has been chock-full of joy and adventure including the usual fare of meetings, counseling sessions, daily worship times, workshop leading, and conferences of one sort or another. We’d like to share some of the highlights.

This summer we were in the U.S. and saw many of you during excellent visits in lots of churches. We got to be with both our families for fun reunions and especially enjoyed reuniting with Nathan and Paul after their first year of college. Pray for their continued growth into wonderful men. Anna is completing her first year of high school this year and doing a good job of it. She’s learning to play guitar and loves to sing.

In the fall, we helped organize a retreat for 120 missionaries who work with the Church of Christ in Thailand. The most fun was enjoying our complementary gifts as we worked together. Another highlight was Payap’s twenty-third graduation ceremony. The pomp and circumstance are moving; the campus was brimming with gorgeous flowers and truckloads of proud family and friends. Payap now has over 15,000 alumni.

In December we played Mr and Mrs Thai Santa Claus all over campus to invite students and teachers alike to join in joyous and festive Christmas celebrations. We passed out 2000 gifts of candies and a pencil, which included a tract explaining the meaning of Christmas. The worship service was packed, and the dinner and entertainment were enjoyed by all.

Our favorite retreat cabins on Khun Tan mountain are operated by the university, but are in serious disrepair. In January the president hiked the three-mile walk up to take a gander himself and has pledged $22,000 to renovate the site. Please pray with us that both the renovations and the programming for this camp will be filled with God’s presence and creativity. We believe God wants to use this beautiful setting to restore hearts and draw people to Himself.

In February we held our traditional one-day retreat for graduating seniors called "Heading Out to the Wide World." We tried out a new activity called the "Human Centipede" in which the students each tied their ankles to their neighbor and walked together a distance of about 15 meters. This was a pilot project to test the feasibility of pursuing a world record. I got the idea from the Guinness Book of World Records. It was terrific fun to watch all the students join together to pursue a goal that required all of them. We set a Payap record of 558 students. The cooperation was brilliant and success seemed satisfying to all. We’ll probably one day encourage each class to pursue a world record. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful way to finish a college career—working together with your classmates to create something new in the world?

The brightest highlight for Esther took place just weeks ago. A young woman in our international MBA program gave her the name and phone number of a friend and fellow student who wanted to become a Christian. So Esther called "Note" and met and she prayed, asking Jesus to be her Savior and Lord. This was an answer to Esther’s prayer that people will just walk into our office asking how to meet Jesus.

As a toddler, Note had been sent to a Christian nursery by her non-Christian parents. For some reason, this past Christmas she was drawn to church and to Christ as never before. Perhaps this is the beginning of a "winter wheat" phenomenon that we hope will happen all over the country. For decades, Christian schools like Payap University have been planting the word of God in hundreds of thousands of Thai hearts. Some of those seeds have been buried under the snow of misunderstanding and fear. As the warm love of God’s Spirit moves powerfully over this land, in response to much prayer, the snow is beginning to melt. Our prayer is that the seeds will take root in good soil and begin to bear much fruit. Pray with us for a harvest of winter wheat at Payap University. Many of our students and staff have heard the gospel for years. Jesus is yearning to embrace them fully.

Blessings,

Esther Wakeman and Rob Collins

The 2002 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 163