Participants:
Series Code: MTK
Program Code: MTK000003A
|
00:00 (uplifting music)
00:05 - [Mary Ann] We've grown up in the church 00:06 and have always been somewhat involved in outreach. 00:10 But how can we get involved in missions overseas? 00:13 My name is Mary Ann. 00:15 - [Lilyann] And I'm Lilyann. 00:16 We wanted to find out. 00:18 Join us on our journey 00:20 (gong clangs) 00:22 to discover the culture, the lifestyle. 00:25 - [Mary Ann] The need and the mission. 00:27 In two of Southeast Asia's 00:29 least-reached countries. 00:31 Welcome to MissionTREK. 00:38 Hi, we're so glad to have you join us again. 00:41 Today we will be traveling to northern Thailand 00:44 and learning more about God's Great Commission. 00:46 - In the last episode, we were in Bangkok 00:48 recovering from jet lag and sampling 00:50 some of the local culture. 00:52 There's still a lot we wanna see and do there 00:54 as well as some ministries we want to visit, 00:56 but we'll come back to Bangkok later. 00:58 - Right now we have a special opportunity 01:00 that we don't want to miss in northern Thailand, 01:02 so we're gonna travel there by bus 01:04 and visit the more rural part of the country. 01:06 - Yeah, on the way, we'll be traveling through a large part 01:09 of Thailand where there are absolutely 01:11 no Seventh-day Adventists in the entire region. 01:13 - Wow, we had a eight-hour bus ride 01:16 where we didn't come close to another Adventist church. 01:19 - If you look on this map, this is Thailand right here. 01:23 We start right about there in Bangkok, 01:26 and we travel up through Nakhon Sawan to Chiang Mai, 01:30 but we stop for the night in Sukhothai. 01:32 - Join us as we stop and pray for the unreached 01:35 when we pass through their territory. 01:37 (engine rumbling) 01:39 - We're gonna spend the Sukhothai and then in the morning, 01:43 we're gonna take another bus to Chiang Mai. 01:46 And along the way, we're gonna stop at different towns 01:50 and pray for them, because the whole way to Chiang Mai, 01:53 there's no Adventists, so we're gonna claim promises 01:58 and just pray, claim those areas for Jesus. 02:03 (uplifting music) 02:17 - There's over five million people that live in this valley, 02:21 and over the next five hours, we will not even come 02:25 within a hundred miles of a single church plant. 02:30 - We're claiming Joshua 1:3, that wherever you plant 02:32 the sole of your foot, that have I already given unto you. 02:35 We're claiming that God will send someone here 02:39 to represent him in this area that doesn't have anyone. 03:01 (singers vocalizing) 03:17 - Praying that your presence will. 03:20 (speaking faintly) 03:25 - We pray for the people here. 03:28 - We pray knowing that you will hear and answer our prayer 03:32 and we love and thank you in your name, amen. 03:35 (speaking in foreign language) 03:38 We're here in Sukhothai and our bus got here 03:42 an hour later than we had expected, 03:46 so that was kind of disappointing, 03:49 but we're glad to be here. 03:51 We don't really know where we're going 03:54 and we just wanna be there 'cause we're tired, 03:57 but we don't know where we wanna be (laughs). 04:01 I don't know. 04:02 - We're going to a guest house to spend the night. 04:06 It's about 10 o'clock and yeah, everyone's exhausted. 04:12 - And they stuffed all of us and our stuff 04:13 in all these little tiny tuk-tuk things. 04:16 - We have three, and they're not quite like tuk-tuks. 04:19 They're like a motorcycle with a songthaew on the back. 04:24 You'll find out what a songthaew is later. 04:27 (engine rumbling) (shrill chirping) 04:34 Can you get in my backpack and pull out my purse so I can. 04:36 (people speaking in foreign language) 04:38 That, yeah. 04:39 - [Jon] What are you getting out? 04:41 - Passport, 'cause apparently they need it. 04:44 - [Jon] Why's that? 04:45 - To get a hotel room. 04:48 - [Jon] Why are you fanning your face? 04:50 - There's a lot of mosquitoes here. 04:52 - [Jon] I haven't noticed any. 04:53 - Oh, I've killed two since when you guys 04:57 were going to get the room. 04:59 - Really? - Yeah. 04:59 - [Jon] I haven't noticed any. 05:01 - Really, that's because 05:02 they're all around me. - They all like. 05:03 The most dangerous animal is mosquitoes, so-- 05:06 - So how come you're not-- - She murdered them all. 05:08 - [Jon] Fanning your face? 05:09 - 'Cause they all like her. 05:10 (girl in blue shirt laughs) 05:11 - [Jon] So she's the one we need to hang around. 05:13 - Ugh. - Yes. 05:14 - Now nothing will hang around me (laughs). 05:17 - So it's 10:30 and we got our rooms. 05:20 It's really nice. 05:21 We're very happy that we have beds, 05:23 so we're gonna use them now, so. 05:27 (uplifting music) 05:36 - We stayed in a pretty nice place last night, 05:37 and I think we all slept pretty well, 05:40 and it's a new morning and we are hurrying to see 05:44 some old ruins from the old Sukhothai. 05:48 And we didn't really stop for breakfast 05:52 'cause our bus got moved to leaving two hours earlier 05:55 than we thought originally, so we're kinda just hurrying. 06:01 But it should all be good (laughs). 06:04 (uplifting music) 06:21 (singers vocalizing) 06:37 - We're here at Sukhothai to see the ancient ruins 06:40 of the capital of the La Na Thai kingdom. 06:42 - You don't even read about this stuff in history books, 06:44 like what is this? 06:46 No, but it's just different coming to different countries 06:50 and being there, it's much more real 06:55 than just reading a few facts about it or whatnot. 06:58 - We've taken world history, but we've never learned 07:01 about the different, like the war between Thailand 07:04 and Cambodia and the Khmer and the kingdom of Siam 07:08 and everything we never learned. 07:10 So I think definitely world history 07:12 isn't much of world history. 07:23 We found out that there are 193 ruins in this area. 07:28 There are 26 temples. 07:29 This one is the largest, 07:31 and there's actually the ruins of a royal palace here, 07:34 as well, which I think is pretty cool. 08:01 That prayer tour was such a blessing. 08:02 - And Sukhothai was such a neat place. 08:05 I can't believe there's no missionaries living there. 08:07 - I know, it's really sad. 08:08 The people were so welcoming and friendly, 08:10 and they took us all the way to a hotel and everything. 08:13 It was really nice. 08:14 - Yeah, it was. 08:15 We can pray that God calls someone there 08:17 to live and share about him. 08:19 - And there are 35,000 people that live in Sukhothai. 08:22 It's crazy to think that there are so many places 08:24 where the people have never even had access 08:27 to the three angels' message. 08:28 - Mm-hmm, and there's five million precious Thai people 08:31 living in that valley. 08:33 So many opportunities for a young person 08:35 to give their life in service to make a real difference. 08:38 - And at home, if you go to church, you can easily join 08:40 others that act like, think, and talk like you. 08:43 - If you miss a Sabbath, you may be missed, 08:46 but the church will go on without you. 08:47 - But if you go to a place like Sukhothai 08:49 and start a church, you could open the door 08:51 for so many people that wouldn't have that opportunity 08:54 to have salvation otherwise. 08:57 So earlier we mentioned God's Great Commission. 09:00 Can you share a little bit of what that actually is? 09:02 - Yeah, so in Matthew 28, Jesus shares with his disciples 09:06 before he returns to heaven how they are supposed to go 09:09 into all the world and share him with everybody. 09:12 - Mm-hmm, so that's what we call the Great Commission. 09:15 - Yes, it's the joyful task that we have 09:17 to take the good news of his second coming to everyone. 09:20 - How exciting, we're learning a little bit 09:22 of what it might be like to serve like that. 09:24 - Mm-hmm, but back to the trip. 09:27 After spending the morning in Sukhothai, 09:29 we took a bus the rest of the way to Chiang Mai 09:32 where we spent the night near the Adventist Academy there. 09:35 - There is a video production team nearby 09:37 sponsored by Jesus for Asia that took us to a Lahu village. 09:41 We also got to talk to them about their work. 09:43 - And at the end, we got to go visit a sticky waterfall. 09:47 (uplifting music) 10:16 - Well, we're here in a village. 10:17 We're gonna go to church here and last night, 10:21 we stayed at a resort, which was really nice, 10:24 and then this morning, we ate breakfast and drove here. 10:27 So yeah, we'll see how it is. 10:35 (man speaking in foreign language) 10:37 - We're here in a village and we're having 10:40 the church service here in a little church in a village 10:45 that's a few kilometers away from the media studio 10:49 that we were at. 10:50 (upbeat guitar music) 11:00 (people chattering in foreign language) 11:02 And nobody else had brought any food. 11:04 (woman speaks in foreign language) 11:05 The little kids are so sweet 11:07 even though we can't talk to them directly, 11:09 but they're just so cute. 11:12 (singing in foreign language) 11:29 We came to this village that's just a few miles 11:33 from the media team that we visited. 11:36 - [Mary Ann] So the people are from a tribe called Lahu, 11:41 and we went to church here and it was really nice. 11:43 - We got to teach Sabbath School and-- 11:45 - For the children. 11:47 We told them stories and taught them 11:48 to sing "Jesus Loves Me" in English, 11:51 and it was actually really fun. 11:54 Even me, when I've been on trips before, I was like, 11:57 "Well, I can't really do anything," 11:58 so I'd just sit and watch. 12:00 But then we got to teach them something and tell them 12:04 stories and it was really fun, and it was really good. 12:08 I think that definitely you're never too young 12:12 to be a missionary. 12:23 - We're here in Mae Taeng, Thailand 12:25 with the Love for Asia Media Team, and we'll be interviewing 12:28 each of the team members individually. 12:31 We're starting with Daniel Bair. 12:32 - So Mr. Bair, what do you do here at the media center? 12:36 - I'm the director of the team here, 12:39 and (laughs) I'm also IT, 12:42 which is one of the reasons I first came here. 12:44 - What can I or others like me do to help you now 12:48 or when we're older? 12:50 - Well, you could study media production 12:53 and become TV show hosts or something like that, 12:57 or you could bring awareness to what we're doing 13:01 so that people know that the work we're doing 13:05 and the support we need. 13:08 You can also encourage others and light the fire 13:12 in other youth to be mission-minded, 13:15 to seek out opportunities for bringing the Gospel 13:19 to the unreached parts of the world. 13:22 - What are some differences between life for kids in America 13:25 and life for kids here? 13:27 - Probably be more on the level of growing up 13:30 in the Christian culture versus growing up 13:31 in the Buddhist culture over here. 13:36 Having that worldview difference, having everything 13:39 revolve around that culture, versus in America, 13:44 you drive through the town, you see the Christian churches. 13:48 In Thailand, you drive through the country here 13:51 and you see the Buddhist temples and the Buddhist idols. 13:54 - We've seen some of the hardships 13:56 that missionaries have to go through. 13:59 Considering those, why do you stay here? 14:02 What keeps you here? 14:03 - When you think about what is life worth living for, 14:08 you can live for yourself or you can live for your king, 14:11 and for us, to chase after 14:16 the American dream of wealth and riches 14:18 and all the possessions 14:20 and things like that became tasteless, 14:24 whereas pursuing what Christ has to offer us, 14:27 which is eternity with him, with others, 14:31 with the rest of humanity, and then being a part of that, 14:36 bringing others to Christ, I mean, that was, to us, 14:42 it was like it was almost nothing to sacrifice, really. 14:46 - Right now we're gonna introduce Gop and Frame. 14:49 - What do you guys do here? 14:50 - I'm working as translator. 14:53 - So I'm a audio engineer and also help editing video. 14:58 - Why are you doing this? 14:59 Why are you working here? 15:01 - I feel the call about four years ago, 15:05 actually five years ago while I'm working in the bar. 15:09 I'm a musician, I'm playing and I pray, 15:12 "Lord, I want to serve you somehow." 15:18 Even the song that I sing is good meaning, 15:20 but the people that listen, they just drink 15:23 and they not really touched by the music. 15:26 I feel that God is calling me for some ministry, 15:30 and then he open door and here, I'm here. 15:35 - What are some of the tribal religions like? 15:38 - The belief here is kind of mix 15:40 with animist and Buddhist, Buddhism. 15:44 Actually they're not really go deep 15:47 in Buddhism for the tribe. 15:50 They are really worshiping the evil spirit. 15:53 They believe that because they live in the forest 15:57 and they feel the needs of some power to protect them. 16:03 - Are there enough workers for God's kingdom? 16:05 - Well, I can say that is never be enough. 16:10 I'm a third generation, actually second generation 16:14 from my parents as an Adventist. 16:18 Even though I'm a second generation as Adventist, 16:20 I still feel more need of materials 16:23 and more example, good example, and it will be more need 16:28 for the next generation to have more good example, 16:32 good labor to prepare the ground field 16:35 for God's work. 16:37 - So you've come into the work and been working 16:40 for a few years here, and would you go back 16:43 to your old life? 16:45 - Well, we've been honored to serve God in the ministry 16:51 and our life change when we see other lives change, 16:54 and we feel this is a blessing, and if we stop, 16:58 we just stop the blessing to others, as well. 17:01 So we would like to continue 17:03 the life of blessing to people as long as we live. 17:06 - We all should try to be blessings to those around us. 17:09 - Yes, yes. - Yeah, for my life, 17:11 it's changed a lot. 17:13 Since I work here, I feel the call from God. 17:20 Every day that we come here 17:22 and as I work as the translator, 17:27 I can feel like the letter that I type, 17:30 every word that will bring 17:32 the blessing for the people and they can understand more 17:37 about Jesus and God, our Lord. 17:42 - Is it okay for a Christian to wai to people? 17:44 - For culture-wise, this is a way 17:48 of showing respect to people and it is not, 17:52 I don't think it's sinful to show your respect. 17:56 In return, you receive respect back, 17:58 but if you don't respect people, not even in Thai 18:02 or other culture, you know what you will get back, right? 18:05 You cannot get the respect back. 18:08 - Ah, thank you very much. 18:09 (upbeat guitar music) 18:13 - Right now we're here with Babal 18:15 and we're going to find out what she does here. 18:18 - What do you do here? 18:19 - I work translator here. 18:21 - Which language do you speak? 18:24 - Karen. 18:25 - Oh, okay. 18:26 - Actually, yeah, I translate Thai into Karen. 18:29 - So how do you greet someone in Karen culture? 18:33 - In the Karen say like the foreign people, 18:36 and we would say good morning, good afternoon, good evening. 18:40 In the Karen, we say 18:42 (speaks in foreign language), like that. 18:45 - Okay, do you like working for Jesus? 18:48 - Yes, I like work for Jesus. 18:51 I mean, in my life actually, I'm not Christian before. 18:56 When I become a Christian, my family left me 18:59 because they don't like Christian people, 19:03 but when I become here, I mean, I saw the people 19:07 who help me when I study at the school. 19:12 So next time feel like that one day 19:14 I will serve the Lord, so yeah. 19:16 - Wow, that is powerful. 19:18 Thank you so much. - Thank you. 19:21 - Now we'd like to introduce you 19:22 to another member of the media team, Suwit. 19:26 - So what do you do here? 19:28 - I am cameraman and video editor. 19:30 - Do you like what you do here? 19:32 - Yes, I do. 19:34 - How did you come to work here with the media team? 19:36 - I join the OYIM Program, which is One Year in Mission 19:40 and finished on July last year, 2016. 19:44 And I got a sister here, working here, 19:47 and she asked me I would like to come here 19:51 and join the team, so I apply for it 19:54 and they call me, so I just come here. 19:58 - Wow. - Thank you for sharing. 20:00 - Yes. (speaks in foreign language) 20:03 Okay, we are about to go to the Bairs' house, so let's go. 20:09 (upbeat guitar music) 20:33 - We're here at the Bairs' house, 20:35 and we were curious about what it's like 20:37 living and doing life here in Thailand. 20:40 - So why did you decide to move to Thailand? 20:43 - We came to Thailand after we had learned 20:45 about the great need for missionaries, 20:48 particularly in the 10/40 window, 20:51 and we met some missionaries and learned 20:54 that they were working over here, and we felt impressed 20:58 that God was calling us to come join them over here. 21:01 - So we know you have three pretty young children. 21:04 What is it like raising them in a foreign country? 21:07 - Well, one of the things that I have to think about 21:11 as a mom is sometimes I don't realize 21:14 what they're afraid of, and one thing 21:17 they were really afraid of was that people were talking 21:20 and it sounded like they were just babbling, 21:23 and that made 'em afraid. 21:25 They didn't know what to think about it. 21:27 And so learning the language has been really hard for them. 21:31 - That's very interesting. 21:32 You don't think about things like that 21:34 when you just live in America 21:36 and you can understand what anybody's saying. 21:38 - Yeah. - What are some 21:39 of the ways that life is different here than in America? 21:43 - Our diet is different. 21:44 We eat more rice. 21:46 Rice three meals a day is not uncommon, 21:48 so we have a variety of things. 21:51 - Do you think you'll ever live in American again? 21:54 - It's theoretically possible if Christ doesn't return 21:59 before my father's health declines rapidly enough, 22:02 but we know that if my father, if his health reaches a level 22:06 where he needs family caring for him, 22:10 then we made a promise to him that we'd come back 22:13 to serve him and to remain faithful in that, 22:17 but for us to return to America 22:20 just because we miss it, 22:22 that wouldn't be the decision. 22:26 - Do you have any advice you'd give to young people like us 22:28 or those watching if they're considering 22:31 what God's call might be in their life, 22:32 how they could prepare for maybe coming 22:34 to the mission field? 22:35 - Sure, when I was a kid, I read lots of mission stories, 22:38 and that gives you an idea of what life is really like. 22:42 My favorite one was actually one that, 22:44 I think it's called "These Strange Ashes" 22:46 by Elisabeth Elliot, and she actually 22:51 was describing a mission where she failed. 22:54 Everything went kaput, and I thought, 22:56 wow, if she can go and say it was still, 22:59 God was still in it for her to go and, 23:02 even though she failed, then I could go anywhere. 23:06 - So we've really enjoyed our interview that we've had 23:08 with the Bairs and we hope that you also have enjoyed it 23:11 and been blessed. 23:12 We hope we can come back soon and visit them again. 23:15 (upbeat guitar music) 23:20 - Hey. - Hello. 23:21 - We are on our way to Nam Phu Chet Si. 23:25 - Originally we were heading back to Chiang Mai, 23:28 and then we were like, (gasps) we need to go 23:29 to the waterfall. 23:31 We forgot about it. 23:32 Nam Phu Chet Si is Sticky Falls. 23:36 - It's a waterfall. 23:37 - We're not exactly sure what that means. 23:39 - Why it's called sticky. 23:41 - We're definitely guessing that it's flowing maple syrup. 23:44 - Yummy. 23:45 - So I guess we'll just have to find out. 23:47 - Yes. 23:48 (upbeat music) 23:51 It looks really weird. 23:53 - [Lilyann] There's ropes and you're supposed to climb 23:55 up the waterfall, so it's gonna be really fun. 23:57 We will see how this goes. 23:58 - Here we go. 24:00 (roaring water drowns out voices) 24:02 It's slippery-- 24:03 (roaring water drowns out voices) 24:04 (girl shrieks) 24:25 (shrieking happily) 24:27 - [Jon] Watch out there, don't fall. 24:32 (speaking faintly) 24:35 - Yeah! 24:38 You're wet. 24:39 - Yes, I know. - So was that fun, you guys? 24:41 - Yes! - Oh, my goodness. 24:42 Yes, it's the best. (kid shrieking) 24:45 - Whoo-hoo! 24:46 (girl shrieks) 24:48 - [Jon] Yay. (speaking faintly) 24:52 - This is my new favorite place. 24:54 - Oh, it was awesome, so much fun. 24:57 So basically we learned that climbing a waterfall's 25:00 a lot of fun. - Oh, yeah, 25:01 and the reason it's called sticky waterfalls 25:03 is 'cause the rock is some sort of mineral 25:05 that you can just walk up, so-- 25:07 - It's like sandpaper material, but not scratchy. 25:12 It's just grippy. 25:13 - Yeah, that was the most funnest things I've ever done. 25:18 - We got all wet, as you can tell. 25:22 That was so awesome. 25:23 Getting to visit the Lahu village 25:25 was a really neat experience, and then interviewing 25:29 the media team, and the waterfall 25:31 was really fun, of course. - Of course, that was 25:33 so much fun. - It was. 25:34 - So the village we went to was a Lahu village, 25:37 but who even knows what a Lahu village is? 25:39 Like what are the Lahu? 25:40 - I didn't before I went there. 25:42 - Yeah, so we found this site on the computer 25:47 where if you wanna learn more about the Lahu 25:50 and other unreached people groups, you can check it out. 25:54 If you go to joshuaproject.net, 25:59 it comes up with all these. 26:02 To find the Lahu, you go to People Groups, hit Search. 26:06 You can search there, Lahu. 26:10 So when you search, it'll come up 26:12 with all these different options 26:13 because there are 16,000 people groups in the world. 26:17 But right here, it says Lahu, 26:19 and then the language is also Lahu. 26:23 So that one, so if you go to here, 26:26 you can see that this one says Thailand. 26:29 You click that and there, see? 26:33 There are actually a lot of Christians in this people group, 26:38 is 30% Christian, which is a lot better than-- 26:44 - Some, yeah. - Mm-hmm. 26:45 Down here it will show you all the different information, 26:49 and it shows here that they have the complete Bible 26:52 in their language, which is more 26:54 than a lot of people groups have. 26:56 So this is a really cool resource 26:57 if you wanna learn more about the people groups 26:59 and just people that need to know Jesus the most. 27:03 - Praise God that this people group 27:04 has access to the Gospel. 27:06 It's sad that there are so many like them 27:08 that are just waiting to hear. 27:09 - Yeah, like in Sukothai and so many other places 27:12 that we went through, especially in the 10/40 window. 27:15 - Which includes almost all of Asia. 27:18 - Yeah, and more people live inside of Asia 27:20 than outside of it. 27:21 - As well as 90% of all the unreached. 27:24 - And yet fewer resources go there 27:27 than anywhere else for the spread of the Gospel. 27:30 - We hope this all encourages you 27:32 to reflect on the things that you value. 27:34 If you do, what will you learn about your priorities 27:37 and what path you may be on? 27:39 If you put God first, he will align everything else 27:42 according to his will. 27:44 - Please pray for Asia and ask that the Lord 27:46 will send laborers into his harvest. 27:48 - See you next time on MissionTREK. 27:50 (inspiring music) |
Revised 2019-11-11