August 2000

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. "I am willing," he said. "Be clean!" And immediately the leprosy left him
(Luke 5:13).

Greetings in the name of our Lord!

The laughter of the four old friends filled the fellowship hall. The evening Bible study had ended with "Amazing Grace," and the old women lingered to carry on their earlier conversation. I had spent the day at Pa-doong Rad School in the city of Phitsanuloke doing a workshop with the English teachers on learning-assessment and test-making. It had been a lively session, and I was tired. The manager of the school, Mr. Manat Sutjaritjit, had invited eight other English teachers from the nearby Catholic school to join us. Since school was over and dinner and my bus back home were still some time away, Mr. Sutjaritjit asked if I wanted to join the Bible study in the church next door.

The women were in a particularly good humor that day, and their talk was non-stop. One of them told me how much she enjoyed "Amazing Grace" as she held her Thai hymnal up. They talked about other hymns and a thought struck me, so I asked. "Those are all Western hymns. Do you have any Thai hymns you like?" They looked at me and answered, "But these are Thai hymns. These are the songs we sang in church and school as little girls." They went on about how excited they were when their church got its first hymnals and they could learn more songs. Their talk turned to people they remembered from that church. Trying to follow the Thai language when it is spoken fast is hard, if not impossible, for me, but after a while I realized that the conversation had shifted again to people who had given profound witness of how the love of God had changed their lives.

One of the stories was of a man who as a teenager had been struck with leprosy. His disease was thought to have come from an evil spirit, and his family were afraid for themselves. He was forced by them to leave home and village. All love had left him. He stayed in a temple but the monks could not care for him properly, so the only thing to do was to go to the missionary’s hospital. He could stay for free, he could receive good care and treatment, and he could have the companionship of others made outcast like him. But even among them he treated himself as an outcast. He did not want to learn how to do the crafts or participate in the social life of the hospital. And even though he did go to daily devotions and to worship on Sunday, he did it more out of a sense of "repaying" the missionaries for taking him in, which he never allowed himself to believe they did out of love. He clung to his Buddhism as the last thing from his previous life he still had.

Then one Sunday, a visiting pastor came to give a sermon. The story of Jesus healing the leper had been told often at the hospital, but the man had never heard it before and it changed his life. When he gave this witness at the women’s church everyone expected that it was Jesus curing a man with leprosy that changed him and gave him hope. But, no. It was that Jesus would actually stop, listen, talk to and touch a man with leprosy. All the pain he felt—not from his disease but from his family’s rejection—he could now face. Jesus touched a leper out of love. No one had ever touched him out of love since he became ill. On that day he realized that since he had been at this place there were people around him who had been touching him out of love. The "touch" of Jesus, he said, is still passed on by others.

A month after my trip to Phitsanuloke, I went to the southern city of Nakorn Srithammarat to give two workshops for the teachers at the mission school, Srithammarat Syksa (STS). Since the trip is almost four days round-trip by train, and I was to spend two days at the school, Khanita and Chris came too. It was a wonderful time as we both had the chance to meet friends we had not seen in years. STS will be celebrating its 100th anniversary next year. Originally founded in 1901 as the American Mission School, STS has been one of the top schools academically in the province. Children from all walks of life attend the school and have the chance to receive a good education and continue on to college. Still, the school for all its resources and strong teaching staff needs prayer. Classrooms are overcrowded and buildings are not enough.

Because only primary education was mandatory, building secondary schools has not been a priority. The school has to allow more
students than it can accommodate in order to meet the needs of the community it serves. The teachers face a challenge, but in my
work with them I sensed it was not a burden they wished to go away but one they are willing to carry. They know what they can’t
change and what they can. And they care enough about these children to do their best. Others might be overwhelmed, but the spirit of this school is strong, where Buddhist, Christian and Muslim teachers and students serve, teach, learn and worship together in His name.

We are all in good health and happy. It is the middle of the rainy season and the weather is wonderful when evening and night-time showers cool off the heat of day. We are richly blessed by your thoughts and prayers and thank you for them in our daily prayers.

Scott, Khanita, and Christopher Satterfield

The 2000 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 158