Student missionaries see God at work in Thailand

Posted: 8/19/05

Student missionaries see God at work in Thailand

By Meghan Merchant

Communications Intern

KHAO LAK, Thailand–Pictures of missing people nailed to trees serve as a reminder, months later, that the devastation of the Dec. 26 tsunami remains in Thailand.

Yet in the midst of the wreckage, God is moving, said Keith Garner, director of Baptist Student Ministries at Texas Tech University and leader of a Go Now Missions trip to Thailand this summer. Go Now Missions is the Baptist General Convention of Texas collegiate student missions program.

Because of help the Thais received from Christian organizations and missionaries, Garner's team of students from across Texas saw people in the largely Buddhist country say, “Thank you, God” after receiving the food the students brought for them, he said.

A child in Thailand receives much-needed food from Baptists in the United States.

Thais told the 10-person team that many humanitarian aid groups have “dumped stuff” off for them, but the Christian groups were consistent and there for the long haul, said Dawn Younger, a trip participant and former Texas Tech BSM intern.

Help from short-term missionaries and relief workers has “made a huge impact on their being open to Christianity because they see we really care,” Younger said.

Since the tsunami, many churches have sprouted in villages, and missionaries are trying to find locals to teach new believers, she added. While the team was told it probably would not see a return on its work, members saw about 100 families become Christians, Garner said.

After Garner returned home, he learned 16 new believers were baptized in a waterfall, because “the people don't want to be near the ocean.”

“There's a massive harvest taking place,” Garner said. “I think it will explode in the coming weeks and months.”

The loss and despair from the tsunami have left the people searching for peace. Garner told of a man who lost 11 family members in the chaos but had found peace in Christ. He was eager to show the team his Bible and wanted someone to disciple him.

Kyle Roach, a student at Texas Tech, helps deliver rice to a refugee camp in Thailand.

The team distributed food and dry goods to refugee camps through a local relief foundation.

For many Thais, this was their only food source outside of fruit from trees. Despite the daily rain showers, team members brought supplies to villages, a gesture Thais saw as “an act of love because they saw us putting ourselves in harm's way to minister to them,” Garner said.

Most of the Thai people have some form of housing now, although of a far lesser quality than before the tsunami, Garner said.

Multiple families share one-bedroom shacks. And while reconstruction has begun, the beach, which he said still was littered with clothing, shoes, pacifiers and debris, will most likely never be the same.

More than the physical needs they saw, Younger said, many of the Thai people needed someone to talk to and share their story.

Her team visited a village that had not yet been reached by any humanitarian aid groups.

“One of the main things they said they needed was just someone to spend time with them,” she said. “They wanted someone to be there for them and listen to them as part of the healing process.”

Months after a devastating tsunami struck South Asia, its impact still is readily apparent.