Christmas 2000

Dear Family, Friends and churches,

I find it difficult to believe Christmas is here once again. I’m a bit slow in getting myself together this year because I had three wonderful months in the States during the summer. Arriving back in Chiang Mai in early October, I had only three days to "catch up" before the General Assembly of the Church of Christ in Thailand began its week-long deliberations right here on our campus. The assembly ended on Friday and the following Monday classes for the second semester began. It has been a very busy two months.

I was so very happy to see so many of you during the summer. I realize the time was very short and I could visit very few churches. I will be back in 2002 and will try to visit churches I was not able to see this time around. As usual I would not have been able to do what I could during the three months were it not for my family and my good friend, Bill Blair, who provided living space for me.

One of the most pleasant parts of being back in the States was cultural rejuvenation through concerts, plays, and lots of reading. Through books I could catch up on current theological opinion, and read for pleasure—novels and particularly history. I also had wonderful opportunities for concerts and plays in Cleveland and Chicago, something all of you know means a great deal to me. Home assignments offer time for renewal and I am grateful for the intellectual, artistic, and spiritual stimulation I received during those important three months.

The McGilvary Faculty of Theology has 124 students this year in three major programs. When I began teaching here, we had fewer than 40 students in the seminary. The seminary has progressed greatly over the past twenty years, much to the benefit of the Church of Christ in Thailand.

Those 124 students do, of course, have a lot of needs and that’s something that continually troubles me. Nearly all of our students receive some sort of scholarship support from the funds of the McGilvary Faculty of Theology. About a quarter of our students come from the tribal peoples in the hills of Northern Thailand. Over the past twenty-five years these tribal folk have flocked to the Christian Church. Schools, such as Prince Royal’s and Dara help provide sound general education for them and many receive a call to the ministry and to help their people, most of whom do not even live on a money economy as yet. A large number of our ethnically Thai students come from poor, rural backgrounds and need much financial help as well. It’s only through the sacrifice of others that we’re able to prepare them to answer their call.

I’m also deeply involved in raising funds for the construction of a new central library for Payap University which will benefit all our students. The old library was built when we had 1,000 students in the university. We now have over 10,000! The heart of any educational institution is its library. We need a new one very badly.

As I write this letter we’re in the midst of graduation week. Our students finished in March, but must wait until now to get their diplomas after having been approved by the Ministry of University Affairs of the Thai government. It’s so much fun to have them back and find out what’s happened to them since passing out of the "halls of ivy." All seventeen of our graduates this year have positions in the church as pastors, chaplains, evangelists, etc. Not a one has chosen to enter any other more lucrative profession. Wonderful!

All of you ask me "How we can help?" I’ve given you several possibilities. If you wish to respond to any of these, you can through several means:

To give to student scholarships, the fund is: McGilvary Scholarship Fund, No. 862414. To contribute to the general fund of the seminary: McGilvary Faculty of Theology, No. 862353. Please include on your check the project number and name. Send to:

Central Receiving Service
Section 300
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
100 Witherspoon Street
Louisville, Kentucky 40202

Contributions to the Payap University Library should be sent to:

The United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia
475 Riverside Drive
New York, New York 10115

Wherever you send, be sure to designate clearly what you’re contributing to. "Dimples, bumps and pimples" don’t count!

May God bless all of you as we remember His most wonderful gift of Jesus Christ. May the new millennium, which really begins now, be a blessing to all of us.

William J. Yoder