TBMF Newsletter

September 2005

Newsflash: Here at the TBMF office we have been doing exhaustive research thinking about what kind of car Jesus would drive. We feel strongly that Jesus would be driving a Honda based on the text of John 12:49 where Jesus himself says, “I did not speak of my own Accord.”

New Volunteers

There are several new faces around TBMF land, mostly from Sweden . Malin Andersson and Eva Maria Munck come representing the Swedish Baptist Youth Federation. They are now the 5 th team to come. Like previous groups, they will stay for one year mostly helping with Pwo Karen work. Karin Bernhardson is here through the Baptist Union of Sweden and arrived about the same time as Malin and Eva Maria. The three have been studying Thai for the last two months. With their newly acquired Thai ability, Malin and Eva Maria will head to Mae Sariang where they will be based and Karin will begin helping to teach English at the KBC operated Friendship School in the Pai area, north of Chiang Mai. We haven't seen him quite yet, but Per Larsson , also from the Swedish Baptist Youth Federation will arrive September 13. He'll have some time to study Thai, then will remain in Chiang Mai to work with the Pwo Karen. Grahame Walker has come through BMS World Mission. He is taking some Thai lessons at the Union Language School in Bangkok . In October, he will join the teaching staff at Phak 12's Mahachai Christian School . Grahame plans on spending at least a year here as well. Though it is hard to think of them as “new”, Dick & Charlotte Worley have been volunteer English teachers at Sammuk Christian Academy in Bang Saen . Dick also gets around officiating at many weddings and doing quite a lot of preaching. Quietly working way down south, Doug & Shirlee Hegge are manning the volunteer guest house at Khao Lak . The Hegges ' are Canadian but coming to us through the American Baptists.

The first Baptist Union of Norway missionaries due to arrive

I don't know how to make my computer make the line through the ‘o' or to make some of the other marks we see from Scandinavia, so I hope writing Oyvind and Phethsamai Hadland comes close enough to their real names. Some may remember meeting the Hadlands and their two children at our 2004 TBMF conference. It is now anticipated that the Baptist Union of Norway will become the 7 th member of TBMF at the coming consultation in February and the Hadland's are their first missionaries to Thailand . Some may recognize that the name Phethsami doesn't sound very Norwegian. That is because she was born in Laos and spent some time in a refugee camp in Thailand before moving to Denmark where she met Oyvind. The Hadlands will study Thai at Union Language School in Bangkok , then move north to Chiang Mai to work with the Lahu Baptist Convention. The Hadlands are scheduled to arrive in Bangkok on September 26 th and will start Thai study in October.

Welcome Back

After a year of study at Fuller Seminary, the Osato family is back happily ensconced in their home at the Karen center in Chiang Mai. Eiji was only back a day or two and then was off to Om Koi to help a Japanese tour group and to knock the rust off his Karen by doing the Sunday sermon. Kim Brown also returned from a year in the US just in time to participate in the recent flooding in Chiang Mai. Many others were back in their home countries in recent months for various lengths of time and for a variety of reasons. Happily, everyone is now back in Thailand .

Did you know? Half the people you know are below average.

Baptist World Alliance Meetings

Thailand was well represented at the BWA meetings in Birmingham , England . Jacqui Wells, Judy Cook, Mike & Becky Mann, Kit Ripley, Jit Yawan, Karen Smith, and Eiji Osato were all in attendance. No one was blown away by the tornado that hit Birmingham but many were “blown away” by the opportunity to worship with over 10,000 others. Special congratulations go to former TBMF missionary Lauren Bethell who received the BWA Human Rights award from former US President Jimmy Carter. Congratulations to the New Life Center too as that is the platform that launched Lauren into her work.

Newsflash 2: A recent nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize was quoted as saying, “I'd kill for the Nobel Prize”. He didn't get it.

New CCT Building Opening

The new CCT building will have their opening ceremony on September 24 th , starting at 9:00 am . Starting October 3 rd , all offices should be operating out of the new site. The new building has a convenient location right at the Rachatewi Skytrain stop, just beyond Siam Center . The address is: 328 Phayathai Rd , Rachatewi , Bangkok 10400 . The phone numbers are: 02 214 6000-9 and the fax number is: 02 214 6010. The general e-mail address is: cctecume@loxinfo.co.th

Spam Filter Blues

Nobody (except those that send it) likes spam so we are all trying to filter it out. The problem is that no one has found a really good way to do the filtering so lots of legitimate mail is filtered out along with the spam. We are told by those operating tbmf.org that when a particular server gets known as a source for spam, then the whole server is “blacklisted”. That means all the legitimate users of the server are blacklisted along with the spammers and everyone's mail is rejected. Here at the TBMF office, we are going through various periods of time when our e-mail is rejected by various groups, usually from outside of Thailand . While there isn't much we can do at the server level, one thing each person that is using spam filtering should do is check to see what is being filtered out. Usually, there is a way to let the filtered mail be delivered to you. I had gotten lazy about checking some of my own filtering systems and found a number of pieces of mail I wanted.

Some More Advice: Borrow money from pessimists – they don't expect to get it back.

Reminder 1: Bi is doing a good job keeping the TBMF contact list up to date on the TBMF website. 99% of the time when someone calls the office asking for a phone number, we are getting it from the TBMF list. While we enjoy chatting with you, printing yourself a copy would save some phone calls.

Reminder 2: The CCT Ecumenical Retreat is October 17 – 20. We'll need your registration information even if you are only going to go during the day (we'll have to let the resort know how many to cook lunch for). So please send in your registration if you haven't done it already.

Reminder 3: Though TBMF 's flood is like a glass of spilled water compared to New Orleans , some photos of TBMF 's experience in the recent Chiang Mai floods are on the TBMF website at www.tbmf.org .

Edited out of Proverbs: An ancient manuscript was found with some of Solomon's unpublished proverbs. Here is a sample: “A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory”.

Meetings & Events

September 5 th : Conference Planning Committee Meeting

September 16 th : Coordinating Committee Meeting

September 24 th : CCT Building Opening

September 28 th : KBC Executive Committee

October 17 – 20: CCT Ecumenical Retreat

October 24 th : Chulalongkorn Day (office closed)

November 12 th : Christian Service Foundation Meeting

Final Thought: I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.