April 28, 2004

Grace to you, and peace in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have been genuinely blessed by our time for mission interpretation, visiting your churches to share with you the good news of what God is doing in Thailand. We are sorry that we will not have the time to visit all of you, but we thank you for your prayers and requests and ask that you keep us in mind for our next period of interpretation.

We have had the chance to share with you the story of Saha Christian School and the difficulties it has been facing over the past year. April is summer break in Thailand, and our church schools are busy preparing for the next academic year that begins on May 12. Our staff at the Christian Church of Thailand’s Education Ministry recently visited the school to assess what their needs are going to be for the next school year, and sent me a report asking me to share this with you all.

Saha Christian School is in Kanchanaburi province, the westernmost part of Thailand, along the frontier with Myanmar. The school serves a community of hill tribes originally from Myanmar. Many of these families are Christian and have legally lived and worked in this part of Thailand but have never been granted citizenship. Their children are not allowed to attend the government schools, and Saha Christian has been the only school that has accepted them. Since these families are poor, their children have been able to attend school on scholarships provided by the Christian Children’s Fund. However, the CCF pulled out of the school just before the start of the 2003-2004 school year due to their policy that they only help a community for a certain number of years. They do not want the families to depend on them and assume the families will work to be able to support their children on their own. This policy, however noble, ignores the economic realities of some regions, and given frequent border tensions between Thailand and Myanmar little development or aid comes into this area. Real incomes remain below the national average. The following is a rough translation of the initial report by the staff.

Saha Christian School is located in the town of Sangklaburi only a few kilometers from the Burmese frontier in an area heavily populated by hill tribes, many of whom have neither Thai citizenship nor Burmese citizenship. The school and a hospital were begun by missionaries to serve the local tribal people who have, since Burmese independence from Britain, gone back and forth across the frontier until finally settling on the Thai side. They have been allowed to stay, live, and work on the Thai side, but are not granted citizenship. Support for the hospital has been maintained by the Thailand Baptist Mission Fellowship, but the school has received no mission support since it was handed over to the CCT Foundation and its Education Ministry.

Currently, about 50% of the students are tribal. While Thai students can study for free at the school via government vouchers that pay tuition costs, the hill tribe students are not entitled to these vouchers as they are not Thai citizens. This is something of an internal political and security issue reflecting who should and should not have citizenship, with some tribal groups from Laos having been given citizenship and others not. Their parents work in Sangklaburi and in neighboring towns and were born in Thailand. They consider themselves loyal Thais. Most are Christian. Saha Christian is the only school that will take their children, as all other schools in the district are government schools, and are at capacity.

The students are in need of scholarships to pay for tuition, books and materials, and uniforms for the 2004-2005 school year. Last year, financial aid came late in the school year from CCT scholarships and gifts from Thai Christians, but funding this year is stretched, and additional help is not expected.

Since the CCF left the school, it has been struggling to stay open. The scholarships not only kept the students in school but also allowed the school to continue its mission to the hill tribe families. The principal believes quite strongly that this school has a unique mission to help these children. He will allow all students to continue their studies regardless of citizenship and ability to pay, but the school will need scholarships to cover their education fees if it is to pay salaries and stay open. His prayers are that, like last year, help will come.

Please keep Saha Christian in your prayers. We are thankful for your prayers on our behalf.

Scott and Khanita Satterfield

The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 207