This past weekend I was invited to teach at a Pastors’ Training Program among the Ahka Churches of Thailand.  Pastors and other interested lay people from 12 churches gathered for this training program which was designed to give them suggestions and helps for teaching and preaching about Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Easter.  I was asked to teach sessions on effective ways of presenting these pivotal events in the life of Jesus. 

Most of these pastors and leaders only have about a 4th grade education and have to do other jobs in order to make a living.  Often they work in the fields growing rice, ginger, coffee, or tea.  They often do not have a lot of time to prepare messages and resources available to them are extremely limited.  They don’t have libraries, or the internet, and because they are primarily an oral people, they do not have access to many other books or resource materials.  Thanks to the brilliant translation work of Paul Lewis, a former American Baptist missionary, they do have Bibles and hymnals in the Ahka language.   One of my responsibilities is to help provide Biblical background for these events and give them suggestions for messages that they can take back to their villages. 

As we prepared to travel to the training the hills north of Chiang Rai, I was joined by a friend who also serves as a missionary to the Ahka, Ascholi.  The surprise from God came as I discovered other connections that bind us together.   Ascholi is from the Naga tribe.  If you are familiar with American Baptist mission history, you may remember that American Baptists first went to Naga land in 1868.  The mission to these tribal people actually began inadvertently when Edwin Clarke traveled to Northeast India, planning to pass through this area on his way to Burma where he planned to work with the Shan tribe.   On his way, he was touched by the needs of the Naga, and head hunting tribe who had never heard of the Savior.    Through the work of Clarke and other American Baptist missionaries, the Naga people were told about Jesus and this warrior tribe was transformed so that today this Indian state is about 95% Christian! 

When Ascholi discovered that I was an American Baptist, he expressed his gratitude that American Baptist missionaries had come to the Naga, and began to tell me many of the stories of how the gospel had reached his ancestors.   Now, the Naga churches are sending out their own missionaries to other countries, and I have the privilege of working with a brother in Christ who knows Jesus because of the dedication of missionaries who have served before me.  This was an emotional moment for me and an amazing surprise from God!

Chuck Fox