Volume 19 Number 6
July/August 2003
Tamuz/Av 5763

Sharing Yeshua In Asia

By Michael and Jeannie Stinton
 

As we look back on our latest trip overseas it excites us and causes us to yearn for more. We believe each trip is a call to labor in the fields. We always look forward to harvest time but the call on our lives is to break up hard ground and sow seeds. At times the soil is so hard that we become exhausted and discouraged; but we know Adonai did not call us to fail nor would he abandon us. Each trip has met with new trials as well as near death experiences (this is no exaggeration!)
Before we left for Thailand, Rabbi Barney told a story of a father who took his son fishing. At the end of the day the father wrote in his diary, “What a waste of time. We caught nothing, the day was a failure.” The son wrote in his diary, “This was the best day of my life. My dad and I really bonded. I can’t wait to do it again.” This message came back to us over and over again during the six weeks in Thailand.

The flight to Thailand was smooth except one of our four pieces of luggage was damaged when the US Customs forced it open because the contents looked strange on the x-ray. This bag had our tools for ministry. Nothing was lost but the luggage was badly damaged and of course they take no responsibility for the damage or cost of repair. Upon our arrival in Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand we made contact with our friends/sponsors, Peggy and Willie Wang, and were taken to what would be our home for the next six weeks. It was a beautiful two story house in a mooban (gated community) that we would sublease for 500 baht a week ($12.50). It didn’t have any furniture except a bed, a microwave oven, refrigerator, a two burner hot plate and (thanks to some of the Pioneer Int’l missionaries) a wicker settee for the living room. It was more then adequate as we were usually only there to bathe, sleep and regroup for our next program.
Each day started and ended with prayer and devotion-the most important tools for any ministry. Daily we saw the hand of G-d working in wonderful ways. It’s sad to say that as believers we miss out on so much because of fear or lack of faith. We blind ourselves to the greatest of G-d and miss out on his wonders. We’ve told many people that when we take these trips it’s not about us but about Hashem and the people that pray. We believe that those who pray fervently for the international outreach workers that they too are doing the work. Your prayers are just as important as the worker. This is not a license to not be involved in the physical work but an opportunity to say, “Lord, how about sending me?” In the scriptures Yeshua said, “The harvest is great but the workers are few”. We certainly witnessed that scripture.

While we were in Thailand the war broke out in Iraq. You could see the tension in the missionaries but to the people of Thailand it was almost transparent. We felt anxious for our country and wanted to be home. It was emotions we’d not experienced before. We felt proud to be Americans and shocked by the propaganda about our president and what the news said America’s real agenda was regarding the war. It was hard being so far away from home at such a time.
Thailand is a Buddhist nation and the idolatry is everywhere. Our neighbors, who also were our landlords, were devout Buddhists. Early mornings and late into the evenings our house would fill with grotesque scents from the incense they burned on their altar to Buddha. Our houses were so close together and neither house had curtains that we could see inside each others house on the bottom floor. We could see their huge altar as the main focus in their home. We felt like the Israelites must have felt while in Egypt. In fact, today there is a significant number of Israelis in Bangkok and we got to meet with one such friend who used to live in San Diego. It would have been easy to become consumed and blinded by the spiritual darkness that is present in such an environment. But of course our strength was (and is) in Yeshua who is the light of the world. Sadly we met missionaries that appeared to have become saturated by this culture and had started to compromise their position in Messiah. Only through prayer and continually keeping your eyes on Messiah can you continue to minister in environments such as this. Because the darkness is so great the people are starving for the truth. Because of this hunger you have to almost spoon feed them with G-d’s word. The people have been lied to for so many years. Many of them have found out what they’ve been taught is false. There is a feeling of emptiness, hopelessness and fear. The people of Thailand are not unlike the people of Israel in that not all are practicing Buddhists. They will go through the rituals out of tradition. These traditions keep the people spiritually blind.

We traveled several thousand miles by plane, bus, and car throughout Thailand to minister. There were times we traveled with people we’d never met before and had to go completely by faith. One of the trips our driver didn’t speak English so for over an hour we traveled to our next destination just believing we’d arrive at the right place and that someone would be there to meet us that could speak English. In every situation G-d was with us and gave us his peace. We had a special treat of spending three days at the beach on the Gulf of Thailand (teaching Peggy and Willie how to rest and refresh themselves). It was a sweet time of fellowship, rest, and refreshing.
We had many opportunities to minister to different tribes and people groups. We did four weeks of Vacation Bible Schools, which included English classes, as well as many programs at hospitals, orphanages, churches, schools, drug rehab centers, factories, villages, a seminary, even a birthday party where the young man wanted his unbelieving friends to hear about G-d’s truth. We specifically asked for prayer for those “divine appointments”. We are happy to report that the prayers were answered over and above as we had many of those appointments. Many additional programs were added along the way as well as training opportunities. We weren’t scheduled to do any training this trip so we brought no materials along. It turned out that we had the opportunity to teach creative arts in sharing G-d’s word to missionaries, Bible students, and four media personnel. G-d miraculously showed us materials such as rope, newspaper, and scissors to give our students powerful object lessons to share G-d’s word. Baruch Hashem!

We were scheduled to go to Hong Kong for 12 days but because of the SARS scare that part of our trip was cancelled. The group we were going to work with (Hong Kong Youth for Messiah) had 42 programs scheduled for us in public schools, detention centers, the maximum security prison, churches and camps. We were devastated by the news but knew that if G-d was going to close the door he would also open it again in the right time. We are now excited and looking forward to the prospect of going to Hong Kong for three weeks late October early November. We appreciate your prayers that the details for this trip will come together.