December 1999

Dear Friends,

I apologize to all of you that you have not received your usual June letter from me. You will understand from what I write later in the letter what the possible reasons are. Those excuses, however, do not replace an apology. I'm sorry you did not hear. For that reason, I have to use very small print in my Christmas letter in order to cover all pertinent points. I hope your eyes will survive!

Can it be that Christmas has come round once again? The weather here in Chiang Mai tells me it is so. My personal concept of time, however, does not. The increasing speed with which each year passes can only mean I'm getting old—a thought I don't much relish, nor do I recognize.

The new millennium is upon us and the last year of the old one has been filled with numerous trials and blessings not unlike all other years. There have been particularly good blessings and particularly difficult hardships; so it has not been an ordinary year.

The year began with a visit from my very good friend and brother, Bill Blair, accompanied by Scott Lemmon, the son of another of my long time Canton friends. We had a grand time as Bill fulfilled my expectations of being enthralled by the artwork, antiques, and culture of Thailand. It's always wonderful when life-long friends come visit. It not only gives me an opportunity to show people I have loved and appreciated the world I now live in and love, but it also gives me the opportunity to renew my acquaintance with my adopted culture, which I grow to take for granted until someone unfamiliar with it comes along. Bill's visit was followed by the celebrations for commemorating the 25th anniversary of the founding of Payap University. Good friend and one of the founders of Payap, Konrad Kingshill was back for that.

January, February and March were filled with activities and I could tell by the time vacation came in April that I was very, very tired. The whole family went to Hua Hill for our annual vacation where I began a time of more "rest" than I had bargained for. A leg infection (cellulitis) which I had suffered in 1989 came back with a vengeance. I had to be flown back to Chiang Mai and put on intravenous antibiotics for nearly two weeks! I did get out in time for my birthday party on May 2, which has become an important Chiang Mai event. My friends showed up in great numbers for the open pit roast pork barbecue, but I had to spend most of the evening seated.

In the meantime I had made plans to go to Korea as a guest of Minister of Culture, Mrs. Nakyun Shinn, a classmate of mine from Yale Divinity School. I was to leave on May 8 and had visions of my dream trip disappearing in the reality of my physical condition. With my doctor's blessing, I flew off for nine of the most wonderful days I've ever spent. The most important part of the visit was the reunion with a number of classmates from Yale, all of whom hold extremely responsible positions in Korean academic, corporate, and public life. I was so very deeply impressed with what they have all accomplished with their lives and feeling myself so blessed to have had the opportunity of being a part of their lives. The Yale University Divinity School classes 1967, 1968, and 1969 have immensely impacted the contemporary life of Korea.

Korea was an incredible contrast to Thailand, particularly in the presence and importance of Christianity. That was brought so clearly to my attention as we drove into Seoul the evening of my arrival. As I looked out from the expressway over the city there was an ever-present cloud of literally thousands of red, lighted crosses floating above the city. Quite an impressive sight! And one which can be found nowhere else in the world.

With the completion of that "trip of a lifetime" the beginning of the new academic year was upon us at McGilvary Faculty of Theology. Much to our happiness and the hope of the church for the future, we had far more applicants than we have ever had before. This year we accepted over 40 first-year students in all programs, nearly half the current student body. The difficulty for me was to realize that nearly all these 40 first-year students and 60 + others needed scholarship assistance if they were to fulfill their calling to serve in the church. "Where was I to come up with the funds?" I asked myself. The economic situation has not improved over the past two years. All predictions that Thailand, the first to go under in 1996, would be the first to revive have proved false. Some of our scholarship help for students comes from generous yearly contributions from churches and friends from Illinois and Ohio to Naples, Florida, Arizona and Washington, D.C. We are very grateful to the Rev. Marcy Punnett and his friends in Geneva Presbytery, New York, for their continuing and loving support of our students.

Nevertheless, fully half our scholarship funds have traditionally come from our sizeable endowments at the seminary contributed and collected by faithful people over the years. Last year we were drawing over 12 percent interest on those endowments. This year we are barely receiving four percent. I have had to watch nearly half our available funds vanish in just a few months. Hopefully that income will return. In the meantime, I'm appealing to all of you to help us at McGilvary as much as you can to meet the needs of our scholarship support. Whereas this year it costs us Baht 45,000 ($1,154.00) per student per year, the university has informed us the costs will increase to over Baht 50,000 ($1,282.00) next year. I am drowning in a sea of red ink!

I'm also deeply involved in the fund-raising process for a new library at the main campus of the university. Payap was conceived as a "small, Christian, liberal arts college" in 1974. It began with 200 students and 20 faculty members. The university now has over 9,000 students and 350 faculty members. When the new campus was built in 1981, we had 2,000 students. The library, built for those 2,000 students, is no longer adequate. I'm hoping we can find some foundations who will help us out on that one.

We've had some good visits. Dr. Kosuke Koyama, author of Water Buffalo Theology, and his wife, Lois, were back after having left thirty years ago. Dr. Nantawan Boonprasat Lewis and her daughter were also here for the first semester. Both contributed to the ongoing climate of stimulating research and discussion going on at the seminary. I, myself, had to research and present two papers during the year. The first was a study of the "hidden" years from 65 A.D. to about 150 A.D. These vitally important years in the history of the church saw the establishment of the scriptures of the New Testament, the basic creed of the church and the strong beginnings of an administrative system for governing the church, and yet very little documentation is available to know how this all happened. In October, McGilvary Faculty of Theology hosted the national meeting of the Association of Teachers of Philosophy and Religion at which meeting I was asked to present a second paper on "The Relationship of Christian Theology and Philosophy."

In June I received an award from the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for "Distinctive Contribution to Higher Education in the Presbyterian Church." I was truly honored to receive such an award. Someone must think I'm doing something special! I feel as though I'm just living life as I'm expected to live it. Full of ups and downs, it has been basically a wonderful adventure of the spirit.

Nothing, of course, has meant more to me than my adopted family here in Thailand. We've had lots of problems and they're not over yet. The economic crisis is still dealing blows to many of my "sons" and their families. But, by the Grace of God, we manage to support one another and keep our spirits high. Just this last Saturday, we learned that Pom has lost his job in middle management. At 40, and with no social security net, that's rough news to get.

Wooster friends, Roger and Carol (Whittacre) Hall are visiting me next week. I'm looking forward to that.

The graphic is another lovely creation by Acham Sawai Chinnawong: "The Holy Family-1999." I hope it carries to you a blessing from all of us in the McGilvary Faculty of Theology and the Church of Christ in Thailand. May the new millemum bring us ever closer to the glorious day when "thy will (will) be done in earth as it is in heaven."

God bless all of you with a Christmas filled with the Grace, Peace and Joy of the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Rev. William J. Yoder