“Why don’t you cut your toenails more often?”

“It seems like you’re fatter.” (This accompanied by hand motions which seemed to indicate that my face had swollen up like a balloon.)

“Have you been eating a lot lately?”

“You don’t speak Thai well at all.” (Thankfully, lately people have been complimenting me on my Thai almost every day. But for awhile this was very discouraging.)

[neighbor] “Sara! Where are you?”
[me] (washing my face before bed) “In the bathroom!”
[neighbor] (waits for me to emerge) “Oh, were you showering?”
[me] (thinking “to shower” might be a general term for washing in general) “yes.”
[neighbor] (looking into my bathroom) “You didn’t use much water…. you didn’t shower!” (accusatory, for Thais shower at least twice a day, religiously). “Why not, because it’s cold?”
[me] “Yes, and because in the States people only shower once a day.”
[neighbor] “But it’s not hot there. You need to shower twice a day. In the morning and when you get home in the evening.”
–Since then she has been watching to see if shower in the evening and will often ask me about it. I’m considering sucking it up and showering twice a day so I make a little more sense in her eyes.

“How much did you pay for your haircut?” “How much did it cost you to fly here?” “How much did that shirt cost?” “How much do you spend on food every day?” (Followed by very blunt opinions, almost always– “too expensive.”)

“Don’t eat too much food or when you go home your friends will tell you how fat you got in Thailand.”

“Narak jung luuy!” (or “So cute!”)– yelled at me by random people on the street.

“You’re 23?! I thought you were about 16!”

“Your skin is so white and beautiful. You have such pretty blonde hair. Thai people aren’t pretty at all– we all have black eyes and black skin.”

(in broken English) “Hellooooooo! Hey you! Farang! (foreigner)”

“Hello! I don’t have a girlfriend yet!”

• cockroaches in my bathroom every evening
• loose floorboards in my main room
• the sound of rats in the room my landlord uses for storage
• waiting 25 minutes for my electric water heater to heat up enough water for my shower
• little lizards all over my house
• having no light in my bedroom if I don’t turn it on before 5 p.m.
• sometimes not seeing a piece of bread for many days
• spirit houses on every corner (okay, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that)
• drunken karaoke at 3 a.m.
• being called “farang” (foreigner), even by people who know my name
• comments on my “beautiful” white skin and “blonde” hair (in the States I’m really not a blonde, and many with my skin tone would work on their tan)
• being cheated by fruit vendors
• causing double-takes when I walk down the street
• noise– all the time, everywhere, except a rare late night in Permsup
• cat fights, dog fights, family fights
• roosters crowing at 5 a.m.
• packed sidewalks of people who are oblivious to everyone else
• frequent comments on my weight and language abilities
• sitting on the floor, eating off of the floor, sleeping on a mat on the floor
• hanging my clothes to dry, timing my laundry so there will be enough sun to wear the clothes the next day
• gossip about how I don’t have a TV (a big status symbol in the slum), how I only shower once a day, how much money people think I have
• my three-year-old neighbor barging in to help herself to my candy or gum

Praise God for giving me the grace and perseverance to live in this place. He really does give us everything we need to respond to his call. I wouldn’t choose to be anywhere else.

• Books (a few suggestions– let me know if you’d like to send me one of these so I can take it off the list and avoid duplicates): Amy Carmichael of Dohnavur (Frank Houghton); Chasing the Dragon (Jackie Pullinger); Saint in the Slums: The Story of Kagawa of Japan (Cyril Davey); Desiring God (John Piper); Cry of the Urban Poor (Viv Grigg); Spirituality of the Road (David Bosch)– or any other Christian books or biographies of missionaries that you think would be encouraging
• Packets of instant oatmeal or hot drinks I can use with my water heater at my house
• newspaper/magazine articles
• worship music
• blank journal
• Ultrathon mosquito repellant lotion
• travel-sized anti-bacterial lotion
• stain remover like Stain Stick
• granola bars

If other things come to mind I’ll add them (or take them off the list if I end up with a stockpile) so you can keep checking back if you’re one of those wonderful gift-givers. I have been really blessed by how many people have sent me packages and this is not intended to solicit more– it’s hopefully just a help to anyone who was wanting to send me something anyway.

Iew has the darkest skin of anyone in her family, and in a country that bases so much of its social interactions on comparison, she is forced to hear comments on it daily. Having white skin is such a strongly held ideal that it seems everyone is focused on it. Most face lotions, powders, even deoderant contain whitener. People are often holding up their arms to each other to compare skin tone. A Nigerian expat I met recently complained about the Thai people not being hospital. I’m convinced his vastly different experience is based on his appearance (and the assumptions that go along with that).

Hence the lyrics to the song that would never be aired in the States (at least not nowadays). That same evening, Iew’s mother was holding her affectionately, pointing to the TV at a beautiful, white-skinned Thai woman and telling her daughter “that woman is very pretty. You’re not pretty at all– you’re so black.” With a smile on her face. I don’t understand.

And so as a three-year-old, Iew is already trying to find some other way to look beautiful. In contrast to her sister and cousin she lives with, Iew is obviously a dancer and performer. Every evening I am over she shows me her new dance moves, which are disturbingly provocative. I couldn’t figure out where she was learning it until I was over later one night and saw that her parents were letting her watch the equivalent of MTV (they were actually watching it with her).

Please pray for this little girl. I’ve made it my mission to tell her daily that she is beautiful (and she really is), that she has beautiful skin, that God made her this way. Pray that God would protect her from the temptations to be provocative as she grows older and begins to understand what that really means (and what she can get for it). Pray for her parents, Chiao and Lin, who have good intentions and really love their daughter but are also a product of the corruption in this culture. Pray that more people in this country would come to know their Creator and accept who he has made them to be.

I first head out of Permsup, greeting some of the people who are already awake that early. My neighbor Lin is usually heating up water for the children’s bucket showers, and these past few days the TV has been on, tuned to a channel broadcasting news of the tsunami tragedy. I often pass by an elderly man who still boils water over a wood fire every morning. Kids are getting dressed in their neatly-pressed school uniforms. Alarms are going off, radios are playing, meat is hissing on the barbecue.

I run passed food stalls that are just opening up, selling donuts or barbecued pork or bananas and sticky rice. The street is already busy with cars and motorcycles, elderly men and women taking their mornning stroll.

And then there are the bald, barefooted monks, dressed in orange and carrying buckets to collect gifts made in merit-making. I make sure to leave a lot of space if I run past one of these men, because if I woman touches a monk he becomes “unclean” and must then go through an elaborate purifying ritual. Yet it is almost always women who make merit to these monks, kneeling on the ground, placing their gift in the bucket and then receiving a blessing from the monk. Who these men pray to or what power they believe they are summoning in making the blessing is a mystery to me. But the women believe that by making an offering to one of these holy men they are increasing their karma and that of their loved ones, improving their chances for good fortune now and in their future lives.

As I continue running I reach a path along a canal, which would be nice scenery were it not for the garbage littering it and the faint smell of sewage coming up from the water. As I continue running an elaborate Buddhist temple comes into view.

My route then takes me to a main highway, which is already busy with people waiting for buses, food vendors selling breakfast, mangy dogs wandering the sidewalks. The air is already hazy with pollution. I run past several spirit houses and often see people laying fresh flowers on the alter, replacing the bottles of soda with new ones, lighting candles, paying respect to the spirits who supposedly reside there.

By the time I return to Permsup I am reminded again of how blessed I am to not feel I have to appease spirits, bow down to men in robes, hope that I have done enough good in my life to escape punishment from the gods. It is to break bondage such as this that Jesus came. Praise he Lord that he is a God of grace, slow to anger and abounding in love. May his presence grow in this city and the number of his worshippers increase. Bangkok needs Christ’s freedom!

Dear Friends and Family,

I hope you have had a blessed holiday season. It was definitely different leaving most of my Christmas traditions in the States, but a joyful time nonetheless. The reason for celebrating Christmas had not changed, though all of the trappings of the day might. God has made his dwelling here on earth not only in Bethlehem or the US, but among believers the whole world over. It was powerful to see Christians here in this pagan country, where Christmas means very little, praising God for the gift of his Son.

Christmas in Bangkok

Nearly all of the believers in the Peace Community church network are former Buddhists and pagans. They did not grow up with Christmas traditions, so the parties, caroling and celebration of the church are for many where they have learned how to celebrate Christ’s birth. These activities also serve as a fun way to reach out to neighbors who have not heard much, if anything, about Jesus, and who will seldom turn down games and good food.

One of the most popular pastimes in Bangkok is karaoke, so it is fitting that Thai Christians love to go caroling. But in contrast to the brisk door-to-door singing that sometimes happens in the States, here it is an elaborate affair. One evening this month a group of about two dozen of us piled into cars and stopped at 10 church members’ houses in different neighborhoods, mostly slum communities or low-income government housing. At each home there was singing, prayer and blessing for the house and those who live there, and then a time of sharing food and fellowship. As we walked through the community we sang songs and handed out small gifts to the children. The trip started at 6 p.m. and wasn’t finished until nearly 2 a.m.

On Christmas Eve the Permsup house church hosted a huge Christmas party at Dave’s house. A few women from the community cooked up a feast, feeding the 70+ people who came with plenty of leftovers. There were games and singing for the kids, a gift exchange, and a showing of the Jesus film. A good time was had by all.

As for my own Christmas day, I spent it with my teammates Jen and Dave. We ate good food, relaxed in our team leader’s air-conditioned house, opened care packages from friends and family and spent some time in Scripture together. It was a very special time.

Going North for New Year’s

The big Thai holiday this time of year is New Years (Bii May). Ratchai, the new believer in Permsup, has invited our team to join his family on their annual trip back to their home province of Kalasin for the holiday. We will make the 7-hour trek on the 28th and probably come back on the 3rd. It sounds like this will be a laid-back time of meeting the family’s relatives, eating a lot of sticky rice and a spicy papaya salad called Som Tam, and a break from the heat of Bangkok (it is still in the 90s during the afternoons here). Jen and I will be taking a break from Thai lessons during this week, but will have plenty of opportunities to practice, I’m sure. Dave will be trying to learn more of the family’s first language, Issan. We are still trying to figure out this heart language of the majority of Bangkok slum dwellers. It appears to be similar, if not identical, to Lao, though we have heard that it once had a distinctive alphabet. This, however, has disappeared ever since the Thai government destroyed all written forms of the language several decades ago. It is still passed down verbally, however, and most families in the slums are bi- if not tri-lingual. It my hope to one day be able to speak about Jesus in Issan to the poor of Bangkok.

Language Learning

My daily language lessons and practicing with friends and neighbors is teaching me much about perseverance, but is also progressing quickly. I can now hold simple conversations with people and have started to develop some real friendships. I now definitely know more Thai than either Spanish or French, which I have studied in the past. And though it is a lot of work, especially as an introvert, thinking on how God will soon use my voice here compels me forward. A few weeks after we return from Kalasin, Jen and I will be learning the Thai alphabet. As an avid reader and writer, I am excited to be able to understand written Thai.

Prayer Requests

1. Please pray for two of the youth in Permsup: Ahng and Fon. These two teenaged girls seem to be the closest to accepting the Gospel. Fon, who is 14, has already expressed interest in committing herself to Jesus, but seems reluctant to go against her family which is devoutly Buddhist. Ahng is my neighbor and my landlord’s daughter (she was in one of the pictures in my last letter). She is studying the Bible as an optional class in school and is often asking questions about God. Both girls have been coming to the house church together. Pray for God to be continuing to till the soil of the hearts and that I would be faithful in modeling, interceding, and witnessing in the simple ways I can now.

2. We have just approved a new member to the team named Clara. She will be joining us hopefully in the early fall. She has some background experience in youth work and ministry to addicts—I am excited to have her join us. Please pray for her fundraising and preparations.

3. As always, pray for my language learning. Ask the Lord to continue providing what I need to keep my energy and determination levels high. Thank him with me for the generous and kind language partners he has already blessed me with.

4. Pray for my trip to Kalasin to be a safe one and a time of bonding with this family from Permsup. Pray for Pie, Ratchai’s wife, and Nat, their son, who are not yet believers. Dave and I will probably be asked by many about our faith and why we have come to Thailand; pray for open hearts to what we have to share.

Blessings to you in this coming new year.

In Him,

Sara Stephens

Hello from Bangkok!

It’s with great excitement that I write this first letter from the field. I hope that through these updates you will get a good sense for what this place is like and that your own heart would grow for the needs of the people here. Your prayers for this ministry and for me are extremely important.

My New Home

On October 6 I arrived safely in Bangkok and the next day moved into the squatter community of Permsup. The slum is home to about 120 families, living in shacks built on stilts over a swamp. There is limited (cold) running water and electricity, people take bucket showers and sleep under mosquito nets, mangy dogs and cats roam the twisting walkways. Most of the community is of the Issan minority group, speaking a dying language from the Northeast (as well as Thai) and delegated to low-income jobs such as construction, public transportation and food vending.

My new home is a three-room house of plywood and corrugated metal, though one of the rooms is used for storage by our landlord. It is in a fairly safe area (as far as slum housing goes), being at a kind of dead-end and surrounded by incredibly friendly neighbors. Our landlord’s wife and sister have practically adopted my teammate Jen and I, keeping track of our comings and goings, feeding us and even doing our laundry a couple of times.

Peace Community Church Network

Every Sunday there is a house church gathering in Permsup, led by my teammate Dave and a couple other Thai leaders in the Peace Community Church Network (PCCN). There are currently thriving house churches in four slum communities of Bangkok, with new sites already in the works. Services in Permsup are held in Dave’s home and consist of worship, sharing and prayer, a teaching from Scripture and communion. Believers and non-believers often join us from the community, either invited by friends or attracted to the strange sound of praise being sung in the midst of poverty.

Once a month the four congregations gather together for worship and, this month, for baptisms of new believers. November 7 was our most recent such service, and two members of the Permsup church, a father and teenaged daughter, were baptized. Seven others from another house church also made their public declaration of faith. Praise God for this fruit, that more Thais are following Jesus as their Lord!

Language Learning

I am now fully immersed in learning Thai. Each morning Jen and I meet with a language tutor for two hours, then with someone on staff with PCCN to develop a “script” (short paragraph) to practice with neighbors, street vendors, and anyone else willing to lend an ear for a few minutes. Most of the afternoon and evening are spent speaking as much Thai as possible to as many people as possible.

This has been exhausting work, but also incredibly rewarding. Where at first I could not recognize one word in a conversation happening around me, I can now often pick up on at least the topic, and increasingly more of the details, too. It is also an entertaining process, both for me and the Thais who find comedy in many of my attempts to communicate. On my side, I have gotten to hang out with some great people and eat some usually delicious and sometimes, shall we say, “adventurous”, foods. My most notable accomplishment has got to be the meal that included both a ground iguana dish and eel soup.

Prayer Requests

Pray for Ratchai and Pat, the father and daughter from Permsup who have recently been baptized (more pictures are on my website). Pray for God to increase their faith and love for him as they learn more of what it means to be a disciple. Praise God for these first believers in Permsup! Pray also that I would be a good role model for Pat, both now and as I become increasingly able to communicate with her. Right now Nim, a leader in the church, is discipling Pat; ask God to continue to bless that relationship.

Pray that God would continue to give me the energy and mental stamina I need for the labor of language learning. Ask him for increased memory and for many patient Thais who will help me. Pray also for patience for me, as I am anxious to be fluent and able to do more meaningful ministry here. Pray that I would have peace in knowing this is what it means to be faithful right now.

Pray for this Servant Partners team: Dave, Jen, me and our leader, Kevin. We are still in the process of getting to know each other, learning each other’s gifts and figuring out how to best support each other. Pray that God would knit us together and that we would be a blessing to each other.

Thank you each for your prayers, for those of you who have dropped me a line of encouragement or caught me up on your lives. It is really a blessing to stay in touch with you, so please do write to me! I will try to respond personally.

In Him,

Sara

The Friday after Thanksgiving was the Thai holiday of Loy Krathong. It happens on the first full moon in November, at the end of the rainy season and the end of the rice harvest. Practically every Thai person buys or makes a “Kratong”, or small boat made of banana leaves, flowers, incense and candles. When night falls people gather at every body of water– rivers, canals, ponds and even pools– to float their kratongs and to offer petitions of forgiveness to the water godess for mistreating the country’s waters. More recently it has become a huge party with food vendors and fireworks, akin to our Fourth of July.

My teammate Dave and I decided to participate in this cultural event by offering our kratongs not to a river goddess but to Jesus, as prayers of repentance and gratitude. Dave and Ratchai, a new believer in the community, each made a lamb out of pipe cleaners and cotton balls to symbolize the sacrifice of Jesus, which they placed on their kratongs. Pie, Ratchai’s wife, gave me a pre-made kratong which I added three crosses to.

We took our krathongs to a nearby pond. Hundreds of people were already there, kneeling at the water, holding their krathongs up to their foreheads and placing all of their sins on the kratong. It was a really powerful moment for me, to see so many people praying to a god who cannot hear them, who cannot forgive them. It increased my desire for the Thai people to know Jesus, the “kratong of God” who can truly carry away their sins. As the four of us offered up prayers to the Lord and floated our kratongs I felt an immense gratitude to know and worship a God who hears my prayers, who is living and active, not an idol created by men. Pray with me for Thai people to increasingly turn away from their idols and begin to worship the true and living Lord.

—-

One of the most obvious symbols of Thai animism is the spirit house. Every building, from restaurants and banks to personal homes all include some sort of shrine to the various spirits that the Thai people believe reside there. The size of these red and gold structures depend on the size of the building– people in Permsup usually mount a small shrine to a wall, whereas a hotel could have a spirit house on its grounds that would nearly fill a home in Permsup. People stock these shrines with bottles of water (open, with straws sticking out), fruit and other food to appease the spirits.

At first I wondered if this was just a cultural decoration or custom, like the many “Christians” in the States who may have a cross or two in their house but whose religion means little to them. But as I’ve been increasingly able to talk with people I’ve come to realize that these spirits are very real to people. There have been a couple nights that I have spent alone in my house, which to me have not been scary at all– I have great neighbors who are always aware of who is coming and going in our neighborhood. But even those neighbors are amazed that I can sleep at night. I’ve recently realized this is because they are afraid of spirits. Whenever they are alone it is like they are haunted.

A couple nights ago Jen and I had a HUGE spider in our house, which sent us screaming and running out of the room, and which attracted all of our neighbors asking us what was wrong. When they found out it was a spider they all laughed and were very amused that the farong are afraid of spiders. Without batting an eye a couple of the women went in, caught the spider and let it go outside (bad karma to kill anything, you know).

The next day it was obvious that the story of the screaming farong had spread throughout Permsup. As I sat out in front of the community practicing my Thai with some of the women, many of them asked me if it was true I was afraid of spiders. They, apparently, are not squeamish at all of these giant insects. But many of them admitted they were afraid of spirits. When I would tell them I wasn’t, this was very perplexing to them. “You’re afraid of spiders but you’re not afraid of the spirits??”

Pray that I would be able to learn the words to communicate how I am not afraid because I am protected by the Holy Spirit from any other force in this world. This feels like an open door to be able to explain to people the peace I have as a worshipper of God. Pray for hearts that are open to receive this peace in exchange for their fear.

Sara Stephens
Thai Peace Foundation
3750/9 Soi Lad Phrao 146/1
Khlong Chan, Bangkapi
Bangkok 10240 Thailand

Thanks!