August 12, 2003, Mother's Day

Dear Family and Friends,

It is Mother’s Day here in Thailand. It is Her Majesty Queen Sirikit’s seventy-second birthday anniversary. It is a particularly auspicious occasion because it is the completion of the sixth twelve-year cycle of the Oriental zodiac.

This is an important month for other reasons closer to home, as well. I have now received word that my official end of service with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be August 31. (A previous communication had it set for June 30 this year). I was ordained by Springfield Presbytery in the First Presbyterian Church of Jacksonville, Illinois, on May 16, 1965. I have spent 16 and a half years as a pastor in the States and 21 and a half years as a missionary in Thailand and on home assignment from Thailand. So I am retiring as of the age of 63. It seemed just too much to contemplate finding a new job at this point. Besides, Christian University here in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand, wants me to continue in my retirement in the capacity as Director of International Relations. I actually started on June 1. We have an office staff of three and are looking for a fourth. And the work is piling up, including a steady schedule of contacts with international teachers, plans for international gatherings, publications for international consumption, international visitors and development of international language programs and workshops.

Our major priority at the moment is to locate additional English teachers for Christian University, especially a Ph.D. in English, linguistics, language education, or the like. Any leads? We also are advertising for teachers for our basic courses; any college graduate who is a native speaker of English is welcome to apply.

I expect to finish a book on English Camps in time to present a workshop on it at a January gathering of the Thai TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) Association. English Camps are one to four-day programs of games, contests, and activities in English ideally conducted away from school in a camp setting with native speakers of English participating; it is a fad here at the moment. We are finishing our first full-fledged University Bulletin (catalog) in English. And I am conducting the fourth round of workshops for professional nurses. Our handbook for those workshops is about ready for publication, too. So my writing career has shifted from theology and Bible study to English for Thai speakers—in other words, a circle, back to the beginning where I started out in 1965 teaching English in Chiang Mai.

On September 9 I will be heading back to Illinois for two months, until October 28. As of this point, I do not have any official duties. But I want to visit people in Alton, Jacksonville, and Pontiac. I doubt if I will try to drive farther than that. But I am open to a round of preaching on those Sundays if you are interested (and in the target area).

My longer-term retirement plans are to be fully and completely retired in about four more years when Social Security kicks in, and then move back to Chiang Mai, build a house, and pursue other dreams, one of which is to invite future seminary students to spend a year studying English and the Bible in a context of spiritual discipline … rather like an ashram or a kibbutz.

Notice my change of address to Christian University, PO Box 33, Nakhon Pathom 73000, Thailand. My two emails remain kennethdobson@yahoo.com and Dobson@christian.ac.th.

By the way, if you are receiving this by regular post it means I do not have your email address. I will also need to trim my mailing list down. So if you would like to keep in touch with me in retirement, please let me hear from you.

Ken

The 2003 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 184