November 2006
Dear Friends,
At Payap University we’re enjoying blessings beyond our
wildest dreams. Our new president, the Rev. Dr. Pradit Takerngrangsarit,
has appointed four new staff people to help in the ministry of
the chaplain’s office. (I asked for two and got four!)
Sawai Chinnawong is not new to Payap. He has
been moved to my office to produce Christian art for the campus
and for our ministry events. A book of his Thai Christian art
is due out soon. Sawai’s ministry expresses the heart of
our faith in ways that resonate deeply with Thai hearts.
Chonchaneepan (Tang) Up-ngern is the residential
life director of Payap’s new International Friendship House,
where Thai and international students from the region (Burma,
Laos, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.) and
around the world are living together and learning to love each
other better with the motherly, wise, and joy-filled care of Tang
and her family. Tang brings to her new job a decade of youth ministry
experience and three years of international experience (as a graduate
student wife in California while her husband completed a doctorate
at San Francisco Theological Seminary).
Tony Layraman and Ed Chaiti will work together
in Student Ministries.Tony comes with nine years of chaplaincy
experience at a huge school in Bangkok, has international experience
through a Mennonite exchange program to the United States and
Canada, and has led the national youth of the Church of Christ
in Thailand (the national partner church of the PC(USA)). I asked
God for the cream of the crop in Thailand for student ministry—with
skills in computers, English, music, and discipling. People said
I was hoping for superman! God provided two supermen. Ed will
work with Tony to strengthen our chapel program, our Christian
student group, and to develop a network of student cell groups
throughout all our colleges and departments. Ed is a graduate
of McGilvary College of Divinity and has wonderful gifts of musical
and fun leadership.
These four join our chaplain, our pastoral care person, two office
staffers, mission co-workers from Germany, Korea, and Singapore,
and other volunteers who work to share the good news of God’s
kingdom of love at Payap University.
Pray that God will knit us into a loving ministry team that is
fruitful beyond our wildest dreams.
Spiritual Emphasis Week
People encouraged me to invite Boyd, the famous and beloved Thai
pop singer, to perform at Payap. I asked God to work it out, but
honestly didn’t have enough faith or courage to ask Boyd
to come. We discovered that Boyd had asked to come to Payap to
promote a new CD right in the middle of Spiritual Emphasis Week.
So we invited him to perform in the chapel and he packed the place—students
were sitting on the floor and the stairs, and it was SRO in the
back. Boyd shared a short sweet testimony that spoke even to teachers’
hearts. Everyone was raving about the concert and I was in awe
at God’s delightful generosity and amazing management skills.
A blessing beyond my wildest dreams
Rob and I enjoyed meeting new friends during a short visit to
the United States from March to May. We visited in Scioto Valley,
Maumee Valley, and Saint Augustine presbyteries. I told these
new friends that when I communicated next I would probably be
asking not only for prayers, but also letting them know of the
need, greater than ever, for financial support for Presbyterian
mission personnel. That time has come, and it is really weird.
In Rob’s more than 40 years and my 25 years of being Presbyterian
missionaries, we were prohibited from seeking financial support.
As many of you know, in May the PC(USA) let go over 70 staff in
the national offices, and only the grace of God prevented losing
15 mission co-workers currently on the field.
I have been encouraged that God will provide funding so that
I will be able to continue working after my current term ends
in July 2008. But it will be more and more important that churches
and individuals contribute financially to my support through designated
giving. I hope you will consider joining me in ministry at Payap
University through your prayers and financial support. I love
the work God has called me to here, and God is working beyond
my wildest dreams. I think that is because God’s dreams
are much bigger than ours.
Please help bring God’s dreams for Thailand and this region
into reality. And let me know how I can pray for and support the
dreams God is bringing into reality through you, too.
Blessings,
Esther Wakeman
The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 119 |
