17 April 2012
Dear Phyllis,
Gomen nasai (I'm sorry). It is now
Tuesday morning and we just got home last night at midnight. For the
past five days we have been at the Siam Baptist Association annual
conference. What a marvelous time! This is the third conference I
have been to this year and the fourth for Pammy. It was hands down
the best conference I have been to in many years. I'm sure it was a
tremendous experience for Pammy. Her background is basically
Pentecostal; although she did have a brief period working with the
Church of Christ Thailand. They are highly traditional and pretty
dead. Of the two, she far prefers the Pentecostal. Fellowing with
these Baptist was a new experience for her.
Over the years I have fellowshipped and
worked with a broad spectrum of the Body of Christ. I first got saved
on a Friday night standing along side a military barracks and never
really got immersed in a denominational church structure. The first
two years, I went to Southern Baptist churches, Nazarene, Bible, and
independent churches. As soon as I got to Japan, we started our own
church – The Church of the Open Door. And I was baptized in a
Japanese church. Since then I have worked with three or four
different Japanese denominations, Pentecostal, Charismatic, Christian
and Missionary Alliance, Plymouth Brethren, and Kichijoji For the
past six years I have fellowship almost entirely with the Mennonites,
which I enjoyed very much. Unfortunately, since my marriage that is
no longer possible as they have zero tolerance for remarriage after a
divorce. Of the many groups I have worked with, some are radically
different, and some mutually exclusive of each other – but I have
seen Christ in all. What we had at this Siam Baptist conference was
almost a micro cosmos of all. Pammy invited a Pentecost friend of
hers to go with us. I wondered how she would make out, but she was
fantastic. Pastor Kichikun was tremendous impressed. When we came
home he told me, “I have never met a Christian like her.”
The Siam Baptist are the group that
Kichikun is associated with . They sponsor him to do pioneer
evangelism, church planting ministry, in Chiang Mai. His sponsoring
church is in Bangkok. Kichikun told me that the attendance this year
was considerably smaller than usual with somewhere over 100 believers
coming from about ten different churches. But the fellowship was
outstanding.
There were eight speakers to preach at
ten or twelve different meetings. There were three other gaijins
(foreigners) beside myself, two of which were speakers. Ron was a 35
year missionary with an independent background and presently teaching
in a Bible school in Chiang Mai. Peter was a 50 year missionary who
is now 81. He has taught extensively in Bible schools in Thailand for
many years, but is now retired, and only comes back a few weeks a
year. The other brother was Southern Baptist with a doctorate in
anthropology doing research in SEA (Southeast Asia). It was a great
honor to be invited to be one of the speakers as there were a number
of excellent Thai pastors who were very good preachers.
The camp location was in southern
Thailand about 1,100 km from Chiang Mai on the Bay of Thailand side
of the country. The facilities were quite nice, belonging to the
Church of Christ, about 100 meters from a nice beach. The program
was relaxed, and yet quite spiritual, with a strong emphasis on the
meetings. They had two sessions in the morning, the afternoons were
free for swimming or anything else you wanted to do, and a very good
meeting in the evening. Really it would be hard to improve on it. The
singing was terrific, and all the messages were very good.
But one of the strangest things
about this conference is that we may have gained a daughter from
it. There was a brother there who was rather unimpressive. He was
one of the poorest men I have ever met. He was poorly dressed, drove
a car that was such a klunker that you would have to push it out of a
junk yard; but had14 children – mostly adopted. He had brought six
with him to the camp, and left his wife home with the other eight,
including a very young baby. Of the six he had with him, there was
one little three year old girl and twin boys who were five.
The sleeping arrangements were more or
less separate. Pammy had to sleep with the women, and I slept with
five other men. But Pammy wound up sleeping with this darling three
year old girl, that she immediately adopted as her daughter. She
bathed Ng in the morning, dressed her, and took her to breakfast. The
two were inseparable for the entire camp'. Her father was grateful to
have some lady take care of his young daughter, as it would be
difficult for him. When Pammy first brought her darling little girl
over to meet me I said, “We are going to take this one home with
us”. At first it was just a matter of Pammy helping an overloaded
man with a small daughter, but soon it got serious. Pammy asked me to
speak to him about giving this precious one to us. I was much
impressed to discover James (his Christian name) was such a wonderful
brother. Of the things of this world, he had next to nothing, but his
heart was a good as anyone you would ever meet. Although he lived in
a shack, and scarcely had two sticks to rub together, he would not
say no to anyone who had a child they didn't want. Ng's mother had
abandoned the family shortly after she was born and the father
couldn't take care of her. He gave her to James to raise. I asked
James,“Would you be willing to share some of your wealth with us?”
He responded that he would have to speak to his wife first. Shortly
after we got home, Pammy called James to see which way things were
going. James said that his wife was willing to let us have her. If he
can get this untangled with her genetic father, it looks like there
is a very strong possibility that we gained a daughter from this
camp.
It was beautiful to see Pammy with her
all day. She instinctively went to Pammy, and called her Mommy. She
was a little slower with me, but Pammy kept saying this is your
daddy. During the meeting she would usually fall asleep in my arms,
as I held her for an hour. Several people asked her, “Do you want
to go to Chiang Mai with this mommy? And her reply was always,”Yes”.
Ng's bond with us was so tight, I was
wondering how we were ever going to part. But even that was ordered
of the Lord. The last morning was as good as ever. As everyone one
was getting their things together to go home. James was cleaning his
junker car out for his six children. Pammy let Ng be with her twin
five year old brothers in the same setting that they came in. We just
got in Kichikun's car and drove away with no flurry of tears; but
with a big hole in our hearts.
But if all goes well, as things look
now, in a couple of weeks we will be getting on a bus again and go to
southern Thailand to pick up our new daughter.
Ng is an unpronounceable name for
gaijins (foreigners), so we will have to give her a new name. At
first I wanted to give her a Bible name that started with a N. I came
up with Naomi. But Ann is close to the Thai pronunciation for Ng, so
we probably will stick with that. Ann is also a good Thai name.
What an unbelievable experience! After
being on my own for 21 years, now I was at a camp with my family and
my three year old daughter. Naturally speaking, what we are doing is
unthinkable – but so is everything else. When I was released from
NLL eight years ago, I came back to Chiang Mai with zero support, and
hoped I to get off this planet before I starved to death. I honestly
don't know how I made it for the first two years. But then my friend,
Neil Verney, started sending me $100 a month. After that a church I
had built in Japan started sending me $100 a month. This has now
doubled, but I certainly didn't have money enough to get married. Now
I have a beautiful home with my wife and a three year old daughter.
This is the story of a 26 year old man
– not someone 76. Nine months ago I had no plans of ever being
married. I wound up marrying a girl that I really didn't want, after
only knowing her 18 days. That was insanity, but I felt strongly that
the Lord had ordered it. I suppose it is illegal for a 76 year old
man to adopt a small child in the states. Naturally speaking I should
be looking for a nursing home to spend the sun-set years of my life.
At this point it looks more like the sun is rising rather than
setting on my life. It is difficult to imagine staying on this planet
for another 25 years, but that is what the picture looks like now.
For years, I tried not to collect anything beyond what I could carry
on my back. Now we are setting up home big time. I still have not
made a bed for ourselves, but soon I will have to make a bed for our
daughter. I planed never to own another car, but now we are going to
have to look for four wheels.
For years it looked like the Lord had
placed me in the rubbish pile of heaven as far as a ministry was
concerned. I have no idea what will happen in the future, other than
I am preaching more now than I have in 30 years. I greatly enjoy my
shop, but making shavings is not my main goal in life. If I can
glorify God the most in my wood shop, then that is what I want, but
His Word burns in my heart daily. At the moment our main goal in life
is to reach the folks in this muban (housing area) for Christ. I feel
strongly that every Christian should have as a main goal to win their
neighbors for the Lord. That is why the Lord has placed them there.
The thing that was so different about
this Baptist camp seemed to be the reality and presence of Christ.
The quality and caliber of these believers was outstanding. The
Kichijoji Christians in Japan are the finest Christians I have ever
seen in the world. The Mennonites are a close second. But these Thai
Baptist are right up there in the top tier of genuine followers of
Jesus. The singing was tremendous. All the pastors I met there were
at the top of the line. And the Christians they brought with them
were of the same cut of fabric. There seemed to be a total absence of
denominational distinction. The only thing that mattered was that
they loved the Lord. Pammy has been to four conferences this year.
(She attended her Thai Pentecostal conference which I missed.) I
asked her which one was the best. She said, hands down, this one was
it.
I was scheduled to be the last speaker,
but they changed the schedule to give me the first message Sunday
morning. I was warned, “Please keep it brief and don't ramble on
all day”. Forty five minutes was a very short shot for all I
wanted to say. I had only covered a portion when I noticed that there
was only ten minutes left. The president of their association was
interpreting, and said to me, “Don't look at the clock. Look at the
calendar”. That was one of the most gracious things anyone has ever
said to me. There was another speaker after me, so I cut out a lot of
material, and only went ten or fifteen minutes overtime. Fortunately,
no one complained.
Oh my goodness! What is the Lord doing?
A week ago life looked fairly stable. Now it looks like we just got
off the boat with a full term of serving Jesus on this planet in
front of us. Jesus is coming soon. One of the great blessings is that
we will all go together. Then we can worship Him united with every
age and ethnic group. Oh that will be even more wonderful. Praise
God!
bill
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