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Introduction
The Abundant Life Center (ALC) began in 1994 with a vision to address the needs of rural Issaan (northeastern Thai) people who have migrated to mega-city Bangkok in search of the work and income they hope will bring them a better life. We purpose to do a “grass roots” kind of ministry in this urban setting, desiring to be both holistic and culturally appropriate in our approach.
Issaan People in Bangkok: Their Situation
Our growing understanding of the real needs of Issaan people in the city is shaping the ALC. We have found that this group of internally migrant people have needs in areas of work, job skills, housing, basic education—but more than anything, need genuine caring community. This is much like family (left far up-country for most of them) which, in the ideal, is that place where there are people who offer genuine love, unconditional acceptance, trustable counsel and have the time and interest to listen and understand.
Most of those who come to Bangkok are in their teens and twenties and almost always come without family. Left behind them in the village are those structures that offer stability and accountability to their lives.
They work long hours because that's why they came—in factories, construction sites, and other unskilled jobs often doing undesirable and mundane or dangerous tasks. In the small portions of time left after the over-time shift, they look for some kind of happiness in this foreign place. It’s common to be lured by friends into settings that offer temporary escape through drugs and alcohol. Short-term romances result in unwanted pregnancies and constant shortage of money drives them towards gambling's addictions and debts. Floundering amidst the apathy of a city too big to care and unprepared to deal with the pressures they face, many end up lonely and confused or taken advantage of. Asia’s current economic doldrums only add to their difficulties with continuing low wage levels and a rising cost of living.
The ALC House and Community: The Gospel Intersecting Daily Life
The ALC Community House is a core integrating part of our outreach to urban Issaan. People, through the network of friends and family, come to stay when they first arrive in the city. Though some may move on after only a few days, others stay on to discover the richness and challenges of life in a community of people committed to each other and growing in their understanding of Jesus Christ and His love and life offered to them.
We are convinced that a model of "lifestyle evangelism”, occurring naturally in the midst of daily living together, reflects most powerfully the truth and light of the gospel. Living and working together—cooking and cleaning, eating, hanging out—offers so much opportunity for growing relationship, building trust, and addressing these core, often unrecognized, yet very real needs. The gospel lived out beyond words among people who have grown to know and trust you, opens doors for God's Spirit to enter in.
This is the place where we meet people. This is where we are seeing community life as a context that has impact. This community has formed with God's values at its core and is a place where people are being transformed by the life of Jesus Christ in them—working out a new life with a new center.
Then ears hear, eyes see, and willing people are transformed and become new in Jesus Christ.
Church Planting at the Community House
Integrated into life at the Community House is the study of God’s Word in both informal and formal worship and small group meetings. We strive to see the Word lived out in the day-to-day as well as taught interactively in a context and format that comes to life because it's truly Issaan in style and God’s Spirit is at work in our midst. In a desire to see the church birthed in a genuinely Issaan context, the music, the language, the ways of meeting and communicating are all drawn from Issaan culture.
There is a core group who has lived at ALC for some time now who give a measure of stability to the young church. But the larger percentage of non-believers in the community house at any time as well as their constant movement in and out has made leadership development and growth for this group an elusive goal. Coming to genuine faith is generally a process that spans months, even years, and the training-up of new leadership is a constant challenge. But we still have been encouraged by many who have grown in faith and maturity, their willingness to take leadership in word, music, and community life, and especially a deepening love for God.
The Cell Church Model: a Good Fit for this Community
Our inner city neighborhood seems well suited to the Cell Church model that places essential elements of discipleship, body life, and evangelism in the context of small groups. The more relational nature of the cell model and the way in which laity are necessarily mobilized and grown at the cell level is both healthy for natural outreach into the community and the enabling of new leaders to grow into their areas of giftedness. The transition to a cell structure, though, has been more difficult than we expected and we are still in process. We remain committed to this Cell Church model and pray that we will see stability and growth result from structures able to be used by God for his work in KoBo community.
Local Community Outreach
Being salt and light in the Ko Bo community means that ALC needs to creatively address the many facets of needs these young people face. We believe that every activity that improves the quality of live in our neighborhood is a manifestation of God’s kingdom coming even in this fallen world—no matter how small it may be.
Along with the short-term housing offered at the center, the ALC has offered for 5 years now Adult Education classes in cooperation with the local government program. With nearly 100 students enrolled at our center each term, we are helping to meet an important need for community people young and old. Classes of both primary and secondary levels and English language offer students an opportunity to finish the basic education that slipped by them due to family and financial pressures in the rural agricultural setting. The local community has lauded our partnership in this effort, a role that has opened doors and brought acceptance of ALC in Ko Bo. We are finding that as the ALC House becomes a comfortable place to gather and find friendship, that people look into daily life and activity at ALC, and see a reflection of the life and love that is there because of the Lord.
Business as Mission: ALC Crafts
Perhaps the most exciting new dimension of ALC ministry has been the development of the ALC Crafts business. Purses and bags created from local Thai fabrics are being sewn by residents of the ALC community to be marketed overseas and locally. In an effort to keep young families together, the project offers women, most of them with small children in tow, the opportunity to stay in the city with their husbands and their kid(s) when typically mother or child would have to return to the village.
The work environment is flexible and kid friendly and additionally is a natural context for relationships to be built and discipling to take place. We are so encouraged by the initial response to ALC Craft products and the positive impact on the lives and families of the women involved. Though we are a bit overwhelmed by the current business challenges, we are hopeful that this portion of ALC ministry will be profitable enough in the future to aid in the overall financial self-support of the center’s ministry.
Coming to Christ for most of these Issaan young people is a process that spans months and years as they know very little of our of God and face many obstacles to genuine faith that exist in this culture. The ALC Community and all it is about is ultimately so that the name of God would be honored and made known to Issaan people—that they may ultimately know Him. As we seek to do holistic ministry and face the nitty-gritty problems that flow from the darkness in this city, we are at times stretched to our limits, but it is at that cutting edge where God’s light and love shine the very brightest.
Please pray with us for God to make our efforts truly fruitful for His Kingdom.