June 2003

Dear Friends:

The south of Thailand is noted for having some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, many of which are popular destinations for travelers. What many may not be aware of is that it is also a place where three of the world’s major religions exist side by side. The majority of those who live in the south are either Buddhists or Muslims, but there has been a growing Christian minority for years. Part of the Church of Christ in Thailand, these Christian congregations have been served by mission workers from the Presbyterian Church, the Christian Church, and mission groups from Australia. It was mission workers from the Presbyterian Church and the Christian Church who established two schools to support the early Christian converts nearly one hundred years ago, Srithammarat School and Trang Christian School. These schools have grown beyond their base of serving the local church and now are active and important members of their communities, witnessing God’s love to students of all three faiths, and composed of staff members of all three faiths.

I had met this young man, Ajarn Srimed Phumichat, at a conference for school administrators in 1992. I had led a workshop on the problems faced by the church schools, many of them similar to what Trang Christian was facing, and was impressed by his candor and willingness to talk about these problems—this being a sensitive area for many. When I went to the school again in 1997, he had just taken over as director and was full of enthusiasm and faith that God would help lead the school out of its problems. His faith and conviction gave a boost to everyone’s morale and I heard teachers saying that change was possible. The first problem he faced was with the student body. Needing students in order to maintain an income, the school had agreed to take on several hundred boys from the provincial juvenile center. These were boys who had behavior problems, no direction in life, and flirted with crime and drugs. They had made life hard on the teachers, who were not prepared to handle them, and had made many families hesitant to place their children in the school. Ajarn Srimed, however, saw these boys as a mission, boys who God had not abandoned but had brought to the school.

Taking an idea he had seen on a visit to observe schools in the United States, Ajarn Srimed converted the school’s auditorium into a basketball gymnasium. He organized community basketball games, giving these boys and other young people in the community something to do after school that would keep them out of trouble and help build character. He also worked on the school’s Christian education program and with the help of the local church used these organized games as a chance to share the gospel. Soon, the community saw the school as a valuable part of it, and enrollments increased. As more money came in, Ajarn Srimed was able to replace old, dilapidated classroom buildings with new, larger ones. The school I saw in 2000 and 2002 was a different one than ten years before. Teachers believed that what they were doing, what the school was doing, mattered. When I did a workshop with the English teachers I meet Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims who were one under the vision that what they did made a difference in the lives of children who truly needed them.

There are still problems the school must work to solve, there are still students who are hard to reach, but the school is trying and is growing in so many ways no one ten years ago would have thought possible. The work it does is not glamorous, and it lacks the clear, understandable direct message of faith given by the evangelist. It is a school. Its statement of faith is in the seeds it plants in those it serves and teaches. It is incremental and its results may not be seen in a day or a week or a year, but within a lifetime. What it is doing is sharing its vision of God’s love for this world and all who live in it. Please keep Ajarn Srimed and the teachers and students of Trang Christian School in your prayers as they work to serve our Lord.

Sincerely,

Scott and Khanita Satterfield

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