Center for Church Enablement in North Thailand
(CCENT)

CCENT to Chiang Mai

The Center for Church Enablement in Northern Thailand (CCENT) was established in 1996 by a team of 7 Thai staff. These individuals were working with the Thailand Covenant Church and the Issaan Development Foundation (IDF) in northeast Thailand but felt a call to return to their home region, the north. The desire of this group was to begin to do what the Thailand Covenant Church was already doing in the northeast, that is, to contextualize the gospel into their own unique cultural forms.

Unlike the northeastern region of Thailand, the north has a long history of missionary work. One result of this Western presence in the formation of the Church is that the Western style of worship was introduced. The piano, organ, and guitar were the "accepted" instruments used for playing Western hymns which were simply translated into Thai. Naturally, this importation of Western culture brought with it some consequences. First of all, the northern Thai were forced to learn how to play new foreign instruments which were also expensive and virtually impossible for the average person to afford. Secondly, the tunes themselves posed a major problem as the meaning of the songs was for the most part lost in translation. Why? Because not only do the people of the north speak a different dialect than those of the central region (which most songs were translated into), but even more importantly Thai is a tonal language. Unlike English, the meaning of a Thai word is dependent on its tone. So when a Thai sings a Western song and is forced to follow the tune, going up the scale can completely change the meaning of a word that really should have been sung going down. (For example, the word klai means "near" when spoken with a falling tone, and "far" when spoken with a mid-tone!) Due to these factors, the Christian church comes across as being rather awkward, and the Thai visitor tends to feel the same way. They perceive God as being as foreign as these songs and instruments (and the missionaries that brought them here), and are left to conclude that they will have to reject their own culture and become a Westerner in order to be a Christian. Understandable, this option is not very attractive to the northern Thai. They are deeply proud of their Buddhist heritage and cultural traditions which date back over 700 years.

Sent to do what?

CCENT’s aim is to "enable" the existing churches in northern Thailand to grow and reach non-Christians by presenting them with a culturally relevant way in which to express their faith in Christ. In order to do this, the team at CCENT has done extensive research on the traditional music, instruments and dance forms of the north. They have found a large number of traditional tunes which nearly everyone would recognize upon hearing -- some have lyrics, others are instrumentals. These tunes are played using the sueng (a four-stringed mandolin-like instrument), the so-lo (a two-stringed instrument), ching-chops (2-inch cymbals), the coo-ey (bamboo flute), and a klong (drum). Northern Thai dance focuses on very intricate movements of the hands which are done slowly and gracefully. Some of these traditional tunes are accompanied by dance, the movements helping to tell the song’s "story." The staff at CCENT has written Christian lyrics for many of these tunes to date, a work that is continually evolving.

CCENT has been able to share their music with churches in the area and has received a lot of enthusiastic response. In addition to playing in churches, CCENT staff is currently teaching several groups how to play the northern-style instruments. These groups include local adults, youth, children at an orphanage and others at a home for the physically impaired. It is CCENT’s prayer that this work will result in a change in the Thai’s attitude towards Christianity -- that they will see how God loves and values the northern Thai people and their culture and wants to come to them, as northern Thai.

In addition to building relationships with existing churches, CCENT is working on planting its own indigenous churches. "Church" is now being held in several previously unreached areas, and staff members make regular visits to encourage the believers in these areas.

 

What do fish have to do with ministry?

Center for Church Enablment in Northern Thailand

Most of you know that we have a fish hatchery here in northern Thailand. But many of you may continue to wonder what running a fish hatchery has to do with the mission of Christ. We have decided to dedicate this newsletter to trying to answer that question and give you a feel for the work we are involved with. The Chiang Mai Development Farm was established in 1999. It has grown from its original size of 4 acres of land and is now over 11 acres. The farm was set up as a business to generate support for the ministries of the Center for Church Enablement in Northern Thailand (CCENT). CCENT’s major focuses are in the areas of contextualized worship music and evangelism. We praise God that the farm has been able to support CCENT for several years now and that the farm has created many ministry opportunities of its own. We would like to share some of these with you.

For those of you who don’t know what a tilapia fish is we’ve included these pictures. Tilapia is also known as “St. Peter’s Fish.” Tradition has it that this is the fish from which Peter got the coin to pay his tax in Mt. 7:27. We also get “coins” from the mouths of the female fish. They are mouthbrooders and we harvest their eggs every 7 days. Tilapia were introduced to Thailand over 30 years ago and are now being raised in over 100 countries.

This is our staff. We have over 20 people working at the farm, only some of whom have made a public confession of faith. We trust that many others are on a spiritual journey to becoming followers of Jesus. Worship time is held regularly where we share from the Word and pray for one another. Discipleship happens naturally as we work together.

These three boys and one man were baptized in cement fish tanks at the farm. The boys attend the youth group our Thai coworkers Anan and Amnuay Srisuwan work with through the Center for Church Enablement. The older man is a villager from an area where we are working to plant a church. We held the service at the farm as a testimony to our workers who have not yet made a decision to be baptized. Plus, there’s plenty of water here!

This is a group of farmers who are nursing out 2 cm red tilapia fry to large fingerlings. We have a rotating small loan program to help them cover their feed costs. After 2 months we buy back the fingerlings and sell them to other farmers who grow the red tilapia in cages. We are able to help these families financially and share our faith with them.

Randy is posing with students from Mae Jo University who took a tour of the farm. We receive visitors frequently and it always gives us a chance to share with them why we have set up this farm. We also allow university students to do internships at our farm for up to 2 months. Here they get a chance to attend worship and watch how we live out the Christian life. Here is one of the many cage farmers who grows our red tilapia. We produce several hundred thousand of these fish per month and have contacts with hundreds of such farmers. As you can see we have an abundance of opportunities to build relationships!

We donate many fish to orphanages, schools and community fish ponds. In this photo our friend Russ is releasing tilapia into a school fish pond located in the mountains near Burma. We also donate large fish and will be doing more of this since we have expanded our pond space. Our goal is to give 200 pounds of fish weekly to feed underprivileged children. Our hatchery is partnering with several other Christian organizations to try to reach the orphanages most in need across northern Thailand.