Toongabbie Anglican Church Blog

Missionary News, Prayer Points

From Sarah and Dave

Thursday 13 November, 2008 · Posted by Dave A · 0 Comments

Hi Toongabbie Anglican Church,
Sarah and I thought that it was high time we drop a letter back to everyone at church to say hello and fill you in on what we have been doing. I feel like Paul (the Apostle) , except for that I am not writing this to you from prison, I didn’t have to walk to get to where we are and no mobs have chased us out of town lately. As long as I am feeling like Paul, I may as well start this letter like his by letting you know that we are praying for you all and that we hear of the many good things that God is doing at Toongabbie and we are encouraged.

It may not seem like it, but we have now been gone for four months! That means that we only have two months left here in Hauy Maley, and three months before we come home again. This is good and bad. Good because we are missing everyone back home and the familiarity of life in Australia and bad because are are loving our time here and it seems it is passing us by too quickly.

We have grown quite accustomed to our routines here and the work that we do. Because of the language issue, most of what we are doing here is to support the church in the local area. Every week seems to be different, but usually we do something along the lines of the following:-
Sarah’s Days
Sarah teaches English in the local Christian school Mondays to Fridays. She teaches all grades from 1-6 , spending a few hours a week with each class. Teaching is difficult because of the language barrier, but most of the kids are well behaved and willing to try hard to understand the lessons. School here can be a little more unpredictable here than back in Aus, with classes being cancelled and the school closing for random reasons without us knowing.
Dave’s Days
My days are a little less structured. I teach English 3 nights a week in hostels for children run by the local church district office. During the days, I teach English 5 mornings a week with adults and 1 afternoon at a bible college. The rest of the time I fill with odd jobs such as fixing computers, helping build things at the bible school and lately, harvesting rice!
The rest of the week together
In our spare time we go for walks, read books and watch movies. We also love to go for rides through the country side on our motorbike to random places just to get out and about. On Sundays, we go to church in the morning and at nights meet with the other missionaries here for a bible study and sing along and dinner in English.
Most people around us are not actually Thai. The vast majority were either Born in Burma, or there parents were born there. The main people groups who we work with are called the Karen. They are divided into the Pow Karen and Scaw Karen (both speaking different languages). That means that for many of them, Thai is a second language too. These people have left Burma (Myanmar) because of persecution against them from the Myanmar government. The other group of people who live around us are the Mon. They remind me of the people of Bangladesh in many ways (in the way they look, eat and dress). The Mon also come from Myanmar. The Karen and Mon don’t consider themselves “Burmese” as such . They would consider themselves a separate people group to the Burmese, with their own languages, customs and ways of living (that is where the persecution comes in).

This makes life here very unique and interesting. It means that the language barrier remains between us and some people even if we do successfully learn Thai. Many people speak at least two languages. Church on Sundays is conducted in two or three languages (Thai, Pow and Scaw Karen) and since we have come along, sometimes four. People around here eat mainly Burmese food. The Thai eat with cutlery, much the same as westerners, but often when eating with the Karen, we have used our hands.

Most people are poor, earning low incomes and struggling to pay for the basics.It is easy to think that it is not the case, but you don’t have to wonder far from the main roads to find small bamboo houses, balanced over rivers as they do not own land. In the community in which we live (hospital, school and hostel) the staff wages are lower than they could receive elsewhere, but they still choose to serve these people by accepting lower paid positions. Petrol costs approx the same as Aus, but consider a graduate wage here (Thailand) is only about $270 per month AUD, so rises in world food and resource prices have a big impact on these people. So I won’t complain about petrol prices back home again.

Anyway, good to catch up with you all. Would love to here how you are all going so feel free to write, email, call or blog us. (Please contact the Church for the postal address, phone number of email details.)

Blog - http://davesarah.adamsonline.id.au, or on this web-site.

Make sure you keep praying for us back there, we really need and appreciate it. I have added our latest prayer points below:-

• Thank God that 2 Aussie (Katy and Micheal) will come here to take over from us in January. Pray that God would would prepare them spiritually for their one year stay in this country. Pray that they would get everything done that needs to be done before they leave and that there would be no hassles.
• Thank God for the many Christmas celebrations that will soon take place here. Thank God for the boldness of the Christians here in openly holding these celebrations and the carolling they do in the community.
• Pray that the hospital could continue to function in this area and serve the people here.
• Thank God that another years worth of students are able to celebrate their graduation this Sunday.
• Ask God to make clear new opportunities and work for Dave to be involved in for the next half of our stay.
• Pray that the many house churches being started around the area would continue to grow.
• Pray for the families in the area who send their children away to go to boarding school. Pray that the children would still rely on God despite being away from Church and regular Christian contact.
• Thank God for the out reach work that the hostels here are able to achieve with the children they house and their families. Thank God for the families who have become Christian through contact with these hostels.
• Thank God that the church here is flourishing. Thank God for the boldness of the Christians to spread their faith in this area.

Love Dave and Sarah

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