THE JOY AND PRIVILEGE of Church Planting

Lyndon Gan, Lay Ministry Staff at Kampong Kapor Methodist Church. He considers it a great privilege to have been involved with the ministry to the Lahu in North Thailand from the early days of MMS. He continues to be involved with MMS. Apart from a passion for God’s Mission, Lyndon enjoys wildlife photography and where time permits, he can be seen with his camera in our parks and forests.

Ca-Tu, a 35-year-old member of Santi Methodist Church in North Thailand recalls:

My parents divorced while I was still in my mother’s womb. My grandmother raised me and I hardly had any contact with my parents.

When my grandmother moved to Santi Village, I was the oldest boy among all the children there. I became the leader of the children. At that time, I had little interest in studies and I led the other children to hide in secluded spots along the river where we would drink alcohol and sniff glue.

One day, when I returned to the village from school, I heard that a team from another country had come to teach about Jesus. Out of curiosity, I stood outside my house to observe. The foreign team was teaching about Jesus but I did not know who Jesus was and what Jesus was all about.

Not long after, Pastor Ca-Suh came to the house of the village chief, Pak Kheh, to teach songs. I went along to learn but did not believe that Jesus was a real God. My family followed the Lahu religion and I just followed what they believed and practised.

Pastor Ca-Suh soon came to stay and built a church in the village. Although I did not believe in Jesus, I still went to church to play guitar and sing songs. I also attended the church services. Slowly, I understood that Jesus was different from the Lahu religion. Slowly, I came to believe in Jesus. I received water baptism when I was studying in M2 (secondary 2).

About a year after Pastor Ca-Suh came to the village, he announced that Kampong Kapor Methodist Church (KKMC) in Singapore was offering scholarship for students in the village to attend school. This was a great opportunity for me as my family was poor. I completed my secondary education (M3) at Pong Nam Rong School near the village. I went on to study engineering in Lamphun. After earning a diploma, I found work in Taiwan.

Ca-Tu (2000) when he was a beneficiary of the Student Sponsorship Scheme that paid for his school fees.

After six years, I returned to Santi Village to work in my farm. One day, a Christian woman came to the village and asked if I had any prayer request. I told her that I was praying for a wife. Within three months, I met a girl from Chiang Rai who I had never known before. In our second meeting, I asked her if she would marry me and she agreed! Her parents were also very nice to me and treated me well. This all came as a surprise from God. He provided me with a wife and daughter and is providing for my family.

Ca-Tu (today) is a leader of Santi Methodist Church

I am so grateful to God for all He has done. Thanks also to KKMC for helping to start Santi Methodist Church in this village.

Ca-Tu shared the above testimony when I visited Santi Village in December 2016.

Kampong Kapor MC’s first visit to Santi Village in May 1998.

It was in May 1998 that KKMC’s mission committee made a study trip to Chiang Rai province in order to identify potential villages to start church planting work in partnership with MMS.

On our way to a village located in a mountain at Mae Khajaan, we passed by a small village that was still under construction. We were told that this was a new Red Lahu village inhabited by 15 families. We decided to visit the village to find out more.

The village was so new that it did not even have a name. It was referred to by the name of the village head – Pak Kheh’s village. With the village head’s permission, we gave deworming medicine to the children, played some games, and did a puppet show based on a gospel story.

A sudden thunderstorm saw us rushing to take shelter in different houses. I ended up in the village head’s house. We explained why we were visiting the area and he invited us to do missions work in his village. None of the families had heard about Jesus and they were keen to find out. Meanwhile, other team members who were sheltering in another house built bridges of friendship with the children as they played improvised games and activities.

This event of that day was mentioned by Ca-Tu as his first encounter with the name of Jesus.

When the KKMC missions committee held a debrief that night, everyone felt God was calling us to start work at the first village. After a time of prayer, the conviction grew stronger. By October 1998, Pastor Ca-Suh had moved into the village, built a small pastonage, and started teaching songs and bible lessons to the children and youth.

Such testimonies brought us great joy when we saw the fruit of our church planting work.

Ca-Tu was one of the youth who attended Pastor Ca-Suh’s programmes that led to him eventually believing in Jesus. Today, he is one of the leaders of Santi Methodist Church (SMC). His testimony is one of many from the Red Lahu people who had come to Christ through the church planting efforts of KKMC and MMS. Such testimonies brought us great joy when we saw the fruit of our church planting work. When we first started church planting work in Santi Village in 1998, God presented us with many open doors of opportunity to share the Good News in word and deed.

A poor harvest due to bad weather conditions led us to set up a rice bank to provide relief. A year later, we learnt that the village’s access to the nearby river was blocked because someone had bought the land along the river and fenced the property up. The village had no running water. So we brought a team up, linked up with an NGO that specialised in water projects, and helped to erect a water tank and lay a two-kilometre pipe into the mountain to draw fresh spring water. Later, we learnt that the village children could not afford to attend school so many KKMC members contributed to a Student Sponsorship Scheme that enabled the children to go to school. Several students went on to complete their diplomas and degrees. The current pastor of SMC, Rev Tharwin, is a beneficiary of this education scheme.

These early opportunities led to longer-term income generating projects to help with the livelihood of the people. Together with some miracles and healings, those initiatives helped the people to see in tangible terms what it looks like when the kingdom of God comes into their village and their lives. As a result, many came to believe in Jesus.

The village acquired a permanent name. Santi Village, which in their language meant “village of peace.”

Santi Methodist Church members putting the finishing touches to their new church building on 21 August 2021.

First worship service on 5 September 2021 (Sunday) in the new church building.

Today, SMC is a growing church and it is helping to plant a church in another village. In early September 2021, they completed a new church building, as the old building was too small for the growing congregation. God’s peace and favour had come to the village indeed.

There were, of course, many challenges along the way as well. There was a time when a pastor left abruptly after suffering from burn-out. Another pastor met with a fatal road accident. At various periods, the worship services saw only a handful of worshippers as members had temporarily moved out of the village for work or studies while others had backslided. However, the leadership provided by Pastor Henry Yeo and Pastor Pisut, as well as the continual prayer, support, and visits from KKMC encouraged the believers. Many times, God raised up people in the village to exhort the village members to return to God. Often, the people God chose surprised us. It was like God raising the prophets and leaders in the book of Judges.

SMC was dedicated by the then Bishop Dr Robert Solomon in January 2002. Even before the church was dedicated, the church members felt that they should start a preaching point in another village. They identified Payakorngdee Village that was three hours from Santi Village. It had 70 Red Lahu households. The SMC pastor and church members visited Payakorngdee Village to hold monthly Bible Studies, Sunday School classes and to preach. The visits created such a good impression of the Christian faith that the Payakorngdee people of the main village invited the SMC team to start a church there. After two years of building bridges, Pastor Panya moved into the village in April 2004 to start the church planting work. Payakorngdee Methodist Church (PMC) was dedicated by Bishop Dr Chong Chin Chung on 9 June 2018.

Today, both SMC and PMC are growing churches. SMC is now involved in planting another preaching point at Mae Pun Lang Village. They hope to become financially independent and be active in planting new churches. May God grant their prayer.

Pastor Tharwin (left) and Pastor Pisut (right) baptising a member from the preaching point of Santi Methodist Church at Mae Pun Lang Village.

Seeing how God has planted and established SMC from the time He led us to make a detour to stop in the village is indeed a wonderful privilege. There is no greater work or legacy we could leave behind than to see these villagers coming forward to follow Jesus. This is the only thing that will last forever. To leave a lasting legacy and make an eternal impact, we ought to follow Jesus and bring the people into the Kingdom of God.

Contact MMS to explore how you and your church can join us in this wonderful work in God’s Mission.