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July 2001
Dear Friends in Christ,
Our last newsletter (in hard copy) from the Mission Connections
office of the PC(USA) was sent out in early June. The present
letter is just to let you know a little bit of what has been going
on with us and the church in Thailand. Please look for our next
(hard copy) newsletter with the rest of the conversation between
myself and the Thai teachers of English from the Prince Royal’s
College in Chiang Mai.
News
We have been quite busy the past few months with visitors, meetings,
and seminars, so it has been hard to find the time to write. Last
May, Elsie Choy from First Presbyterian Church in Honolulu came
over for dinner at our house, and we had a wonderful time dining
on sticky rice and northern Thai dishes. Elsie e has been making
regular trips to Chiang Mai with the Rotarians of Honolulu to
teach English to hill tribes and learn about Thailand and the
work of the church here. We had a wonderful time sharing stories
and learning
about each other, as well as filling our stomachs! We have just
learned that she will be returning in October, so we are looking
forward to seeing her again.
This past June, Les Sauer paid a visit to Chiang Mai. Les is
the PC(USA)’s new area coordinator for South and Southeast
Asia, and he was in Thailand to meet PC(USA) mission personnel
and get acquainted with the leadership of our ecumenical partner,
the Church of Christ in Thailand.
May and June were full of meetings and seminars. We had a huge
seminar for the school administrators on how to conduct in-school
research. Part of the new school reforms require schools to maintain
certain standards of quality, which means they need to start to
do research within the school on how students are learning, how
effective are the curriculum, instruction, and administration,
among other things. Then we had the regular planning meeting of
school administrators. At that meeting, the administrators approved
the programs I have planned for the next three years and invited
me back for another term working with them.
We are all doing well, though Chris has had the occasional cold.
Viruses are quite common during the tropical rainy season, and
Chris seems to catch his fair share. The big health alert here
is dengue fever, which this year is stronger and more frequent
than before. It is a mosquito-borne disease and is carried by
a particular skeeter (pardon my Texan there!) common during the
rainy season and is characterized by flulike symptoms and a high
fever for several days. If treated, it’s not deadly, but
if untreated one may go into shock and may die. The government
is spraying areas where the mosquito is commonly found, near rivers,
canals, places where water collects during rains.
Thai culture
This last weekend marked the beginning of Buddhist Lent. It
is different from the Christian period of Lent in that it is the
time when the monks retreat to temples and monasteries for the
rainy season. The day before Lent is an important Buddhist holiday
marking one of the Buddha’s major sermons. According to tradition,
the Buddha gave three important sermons outlining the whole of
his teachings. After this sermon, he and his followers retreated
into a temple for the monsoon seasons. They made this a regular
practice
and it has since become tradition. In the morning, the monks will
still go out to collect alms, but are not to go out of the temple
until Lent is over, though it is not strictly enforced in the
city so that monks can travel from temples to seminaries, and
visit homes to perform ceremonies.
One of the more interesting—and misunderstood by Westerners—aspects
of Buddhism is the idea of merit. This is the idea of doing good
works in order to build up a good spiritual life in this lifetime
and secure a better place in the next life one is born into. In
fact, it is more complex than this. For Thai Buddhists, making
merit is important for building their spiritual lives, helping
them to focus on the teachings of their religion and to act upon
these teachings. But they seldom keep the benefit of a better
life for themselves. After merit has been done, Thai families
will take water in a holy vessel and pour it on a tree. This act
symbolizes the transfer of the good will created by doing merit
in themselves to someone else they have prayed for. It can be
an ancestor, parents, children, or a relative or good friends.
Doing merit for Thais is not an act of selfishness for building
a better life in the next life, or to avoid hell, but is done
for someone else’s benefit. So, the act of doing merit is
to develop one’s spirituality by physically doing good deeds
and then giving
away the "blessings and grace" of those deeds to those
who need them more.
This idea of doing merit is also a part of Thai Christianity,
though in ways not realized or appreciated by Westerners. The
acts of doing merit that are a part of Thai culture—giving
alms, working on the temple, attending services at the temple,
working on temple charities—are in many ways duplicated by
Thai Christians and mark the expression of Christianity in Thailand
as specifically "Thai." Though they might not say it
or think it out, Thai Christians perform the daily devotions in
all offices of the church (weekly prayer groups, Sunday worship,
and Bible study, and donations of money and time to church projects)
with the same sense of devotion to God and God’s grace for
the blessings of others that their Buddhist brothers and sisters
have. While they frame this within the Thai concepts behind the
Thai word for merit, it is still a whole Christian idea of God’s
grace and blessings being given to those who need it, to ancestors
already in heaven, for forgiveness of others before one’s
self.
This concern for the well-being of others is a strong part of
the Thai identity, as anyone who has ever visited here will tell
you. Hospitality, care, concern, generosity and thinking of others
first all come together in the Thai word "namjai" which
can be translated as "beautiful heart."
Grace & peace,
Scott, Khanita & Chris Satterfield
The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 171
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