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 On
May 15th to June 2nd 2006, I took another missionary
trip to Thailand and was joined by Rev. Bob Selle, Vicar Chia Thao and Mrs.
Thao on May 28th
2006. I went with high
expectation of seeing many people come to Christ and be baptized; but the
Lord had another plan. This mission
trip was more for my own benefit rather than
for the people I tried to witness to.
During the
first two weeks, it rained almost everyday, thus making traveling to the villages
on the mountain areas very  difficult. My assistants and I tried every way to
reach Pa Kham Lau Klau and Ban Lau Klau villages, because they had been told
we were coming. However, most of the roads and some of the bridges to the
villages were washed away by the rains. After four days of waiting
for the rain to stop, and with many unsuccessful attempts, we decided to rent motorcycles and head
for the mountains, but none were available.
Finally, God provided us with a way to get to the villages. An elderly man in the village--that we  stayed--decided
to take us to the villages—where we wanted to visit--with his old pick-up
truck.
On the way to
the villages, sometimes we had to walk, sometimes we had to reconstruct bridges
and other times we had to pull the truck
from the mud. Nothing was going to stop
us from getting to the villages because the people there were waiting to hear
the Word of the Lord. We were able to
go to six villages and witnessed to many people there, but no one came to
Christ. We also spent times
instructing our current members (they
came to Christ during the March mission trip.
Rev. Yia baptized 22 people) about the Christian faith and taught
them to sing hymns in Hmong.
 After
three days at the villages in Tak province, we returned to Chieng Mai and
joined up with Rev. Bob Selle, Vicar Chia Thao and Mrs. Thao on May 28th. After two days of unexpected delay, the
three of them went to our mission church in
Klong Houi Klai in Chieng Rai to do teaching with the leaders and the members. I went and spent a night with three
families at their farms in the Chieng Mai area. During our time together, the three
families shared with me their faith in Christ. I was dismayed by
what I heard. They had been wrongly taught
about the Christian faith. One of the
families used to be Christian, but because of lack of Christian support and
education, his family returned to worship the spirits. I pray that God will bring this family back
to Christ’s saving grace. Two other  families
had been Christians for the last twenty years, but had
never been baptized for two reasons: (1) they were never
told to be baptized, and (2) they were instructed that once they are baptized they must abstain from eating meat of
any kinds and not to associate with their relatives
who are not Christian. During the
night, I gave them instructions on justification, sanctification, baptism,
law and gospel for about six hours. By
the grace of God, two household men were baptized in the following morning. Because their families were home at the villages, and not at the farm, I
was not able to baptize them. However, I was invited to go back and
baptize them during my next trip.
 Overall,
the mission trip on May 2006 filled with blessings and challenges. I learned that to be successful in the
mission fields does not always mean that people are being baptized, but that
the Good News was being shared and baptism will occur according to God’s time. During this trip, my assistants and I distributed
some 200 audio tapes of LCMS’ teaching and the Biblical truth about the Hmong
religion. I also learned that as a
missionary, I must listen to God’s instructions and follow His plans through
the Scripture rather than listen to and act upon my own feelings and
thoughts.
Vicar Blong Vang of Milwaukee, Wis. and Rev. Jeff Prewitt
of Neenah, Wis.
are scheduled to take the next mission trip to Thailand in August 2006. Please keep them in your prayers.
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