November 2001

Greetings in the name of our Lord!

Khanita and I have been on the road visiting several of the mission schools in the north of Thailand. I have been doing in-service workshops for English teachers, while Khanita has helped me with devotions and visiting with teachers to learn about their situation and needs. One of the schools we spent time in is Rangsee Wittaya School in the small town of Fang, a three-hour drive from Chiang Mai and not far from the border with Burma. This school made a remarkable transition from being run-down and near to closure to being the top school in the city. That change was brought about through the faith and devotion of Ajahn Sathaporn Limpadung (the title "Ajahn" is used with teachers, pastors, and monks).

When I first met Ajahn Sathaporn in 1987, we were both teaching English at Bangkok Christian College. I was a mission volunteer, and he was a principal while at the same time was earning a scholarship to study school administration in the U.S. As we became friends, he told me he felt God was calling him to help the schools of the Church of Christ in Thailand, many of which were facing problems that seemed insurmountable. Ajahn Sathaporn
believed this call was to earn an advanced degree and bring his new knowledge and skills back home. At the same time, there was an element of doubt in this, a feeling that perhaps God was going to lead him somewhere else. He was troubled about leaving his wife and 8-year-old son in Thailand, but he felt the call to help to be a strong one. Where was God leading him? He often wondered this aloud to me, as if hoping that by expressing this he could find God and find his answer. We both prayed for God’s guidance on many occasions, and at the end of the school year an answer came. He was offered the chance to be the headmaster at a small school in Fang. He was not sure, but he thought this might be where God was leading him.

I visited him at the school in 1990 and saw the challenge he faced. The classroom buildings were dilapidated, students had little motivation to study, and teachers were demoralized. The previous administrator had run the school into the ground, mismanaging it both professionally and financially. The community’s perception of the school was as a place of last resort to send their children. Even the local congregation had distanced itself from the school. It was not an enviable situation, and yet Ajahn Sathaporn had his usual smile and positive outlook that this school could become more. Where others saw a place apparently abandoned by God, he saw God’s presence ready to be made known. He saw the potential to convert this place back into a center of God’s love.

He focused first on his students and his teachers. It was not enough to improve the buildings—he had to make the students and teachers a part of the school’s mission. They had to feel that they had a stake in the success of the school. Children needed dedicated teachers, a safe and clean school, and protection from the dangers brought to the city by the growing drug trade coming down from Burma. The police and army are only now doing more to stop this trade, with good results, but schools still need to be vigilant to keep amphetamines away.

I remember my first sight of the school’s kindergarten building. How dark and dirty it was. The playground was filled with broken and dangerous equipment. Ajahn Sathaporn was in the process of removing the dangers and raising funds for a new building. Daycare in Thailand rests with the kindergartens, which start taking children from 2½ years of age. But he accepted younger children for free, gave them food and care and helped their families as best he could. When I asked why he told me these people have no other choice. Both parents must work and the children would otherwise be left at home alone.

Over the past few years I have had many opportunities to visit the school and have seen its transformation. Students are involved. They study hard, and most graduates go to college or university. The teachers have a higher degree of professionalism and are dedicated to their students. Our recent trip was Khanita’s first visit, and she could not believe this was the school I had described to her in the past. A new kindergarten and elementary building give students a bright and airy place to study. The school grounds are open and inviting with a new canteen for eating lunch, two new basketball courts, a volleyball court, and a large soccer field in areas that were once dusty and unused. The mosquito-infested canal that bordered the school had been cleaned up. There is still work to do: A new secondary school is needed, as is a library. Students work to keep the rooms clean and in good repair, for them it is part of studying at the best school in the city. As we were leaving, Ajahn Sathaporn, his face so different from the one I remembered, the one searching for God’s guidance, looked across the campus and said to me, "God was always here." We only need faith to be open to the truth and to follow.

Grace and peace,

Scott, Khanita, and Christopher Satterfield

The 2001 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 171