“Mommy, mommy, save me!”
Only the sound of screams could be heard from the acrid smoke and burning flames. Sue, who had been holding her younger siblings’ hands and crying, shouted for her mother at the top of her lungs. The sound of the babies’ cries scared her more than the sound of collapsing building. An unknown big hand in the scorching flames was dragging Sue and her siblings to outside. That hand took them through the blinding smoke and flames to the fields where rice was at the top of its season. Then heard was the sound of a cry:
“God, I don’t know who you are, but if you’re there, please save my family! Please stop the fire! No matter what God you are, save them!”
That cry belonged to the familiar voice of her father. Sue just realized that the whole village was burning down and the fire was about to engulf her family’s house and chicken farm. At that moment, Sue witnessed an amazing scene before her eyes: a large number of people in dazzling white were surrounding the roof of Sue’s house, singing beautiful songs. Sue was watching that scene, mesmerized, when the fierce fire abruptly stopped right in front of their house. It was such an wonderful experience. Her father started to dance in joy as the fire stopped and Sue told him about what she saw. He rejoiced, saying it was their ancestral gods who helped them. Sue was puzzled but forgot about it before long.
Two years later, when Sue turned nine, some missionaries from China invited her to their church for learning Chinese language and she went. Few weeks later, one missionary showed her some picture. Sue shouted in amazement, “I know this picture.” The scene in the picture was exactly the same as the one Sue saw two years ago when her village was burnt down and hundreds of people were killed. The missionary asked in wonder, “Have you been to church before? You know angels?” Sue said, “Are these people angels? My father said they were ancestral gods.”
That day, Sue was stepping into the great plan prepared by Jesus who had shown himself to her and stopped the fire.
This is Bangkok, Thailand, where streets are busy with people making offerings to old monks in procession early in the morning. Sue, who had a special experience as a child, was able to grow up a strong Christian with the help of her church in spite of loneliness she felt from not being accepted. Teachers would openly beat her, make fun of her or threaten her because she would not put her hands together to join in their prayer. However, these hardships all the more shaped her to make a decision to become a servant of God and she eventually entered a seminary. Later Sue married Frank, and they lived for church and God’s kingdom as best as they could while running a computer company. At church, they served as teachers, deacons, volunteers and evangelists, and God led their company to stabile business. Everything was on the right course and satisfactory, and they were enjoying stability in everything beyond compare. Then in 2000, God showed his vision to Frank, Sue’s devout husband. It was difficult to change their abode and direction of life to following the vision when everything was stable, but it was not too strange for a couple who had been taking their steps all this time asking for God’s assurance.
There were twenty people around a dining table in a small apartment in Toronto–this was the same scene that God showed them three years ago inBangkok in their dreams and prayers. They came to this far land, holding fast to this one scene God had shown them. It was tough starting a new life with three children where everything was unfamiliar. Their immature children nagged for toys and the couple were under stress because they were out of jobs. Meanwhile, they started Bible study with people they met at ESL, and their number grew from 20 to 100 to hold meetings at library.
This couple confirmed God’s calling each day as they studied the Bible, supported by community churches, making use of the ESL format. Around this time, there were a Korean pastor and Korean church that showed keen interest in the story of Sue’s family and kept in touch with them on a regular basis. They formed a reliable, family-like relationship over tea or meal in frequent fellowship in which they could open up to one another to share their visions.
The Korean pastor often talked about God’s calling and love for the Thai peoples. Sue thought it was not God’s will for her to start a Thai church because she did not want to serve them due to the hurt she received from the Thai church, and also because she had not met a single Thai person for the past two years since she arrived in Toronto. She put off the idea again and again, and then finally started to pray half-heartedly.
“God, if you really want me to start a Thai church, let me meet a Thai person. You know that I haven’t even met one Thai during the last two years and a half.” The day she offered this prayer to shun responsibility, she happened to hear her mother tongue which she had not heard even once for the last two years and a half. As if by miracle, she ran into a Thai at a supermarket where she went for grocery shopping. How could she have explained this! She was afraid and fearful, and also expectant, as she made her first step into founding a Thai church.
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In 2005, Thais insisted on gathering at home even though they were offered to use buildings as much as they liked. It took a long time to pull down the high wall that existed in the minds of Buddhist Thais against church. The Bible study for Thais which started with six people in 2005 held home meetings for about a year and a half. On November 5, 2006, they had their first worship at Youngnak Church. However, they worshiped at homes every two weeks. It was necessary for them to warm up to church, to wait for their hearts and lives to accept it and get familiar with it. In 2011, the church was registered as an official Thai church. To congratulate the inauguration of the first Thai church in Canada, a lot of guests visited including deputy ambassador from Thai Embassy in Ottawa and Thai people.
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They matured into a church which learned how to grow as one family in God to worship God and encourage on another in their own language and culture. The church was able to foster healthy intermediate leadership with the help of Pastor Sue and Frank who strongly encouraged the church to cry, laugh, grow and pray together rather than to focus on big visions or programs so that they would have strength to take care of one another.
Since 2008, they have been preaching the Gospel and teaching the Bible to Thai laborers who work at a mushroom farm in Ajax. Some of them who came in contact with the Gospel for the first time in their lives studied the Bible, attended church, got baptized and returned to their country. As they were equally interested in the Thai people back home as well as those in Toronto, they became a bridge connecting here and their home country with the Gospel.
In fact, Pastor Sue and
Frank are returning to Thailand as missionaries. When they pray for Thailand, they hear the country’s cries. They hear the voice of Sue’s father who cried for his family’s life overlapped by the singing of the angels which was an answer to his cry. The Thailand of 15 years ago which mocked Sue when she preached the Gospel is now asking them to return to preach the Gospel. They believe that the Lord, who has burdened their heart for the Thai people, is also making new preparations for the Toronto Thai church just as he is preparing for a ministry in that land.
