Banpote was born in the village of Ban Tat Thong in Yasothon province, August 28, 1947. He was introduced to Christianity by an uncle who converted, studied English for a time with a Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) missionary, and became a Christian at age 18. After completing high school in Yasothon he attended Central Bible School (CBS) in Khon Kaen for three years (1965-67), during which time he participated in evangelism work in Sawang Dan Din (Sakon Nakhon province) which was mostly communist at that time, and in three heavily Muslim provinces in the South of Thailand. Also while at CBS, Banpote first met Tongpan Phommedda, who had attended a couple of years previously and returned to speak. Upon leaving CBS he came to Udon Thani for the first time, where he worked at the Fellowship Church (Church of Christ in Thailand, or CCT.)
The following year, 1969, he moved to Ubon Ratchathani (easternmost province in Thailand) where he served as an assistant pastor in the Gospel Church (C&MA) for two years and began studies at the Teachers' College and worked in the PX on the American airbase in Ubon. He met and married his wife Wilai there in 1970, and their son Jay was born the next year. In 1974 he completed his studies at the Teachers' College.
From Ubon, in 1975 Banpote moved back to Udon Thani to work at the CCT's Christian Service Training Center, where he headed the adult education and TEE (teaching church leaders in their villages) programs. It was at the CSTC that he began working with Jim Gustafson and Tongpan, a partnership which has continued to the present. As a result of internal conflicts at the school (for more information, see "Phase I" of Making a Sodality) all three of them resigned from the CSTC and began the Center for Church Planting and Church Growth (CCPCG) in 1977, which has evolved into the present-day TCC, ISD, and IDF.
For many years Banpote served as head of the Enablement Department at the CCPCG, directing the training of church leaders. He and Jim Gustafson have written most of the worship and study materials being used by the churches today, including everyday language commentaries on Galatians, Theology, Salvation, and Love. He also assisted in the preparatory work which began with sending members of the Udon staff to Laos and led to expansion of the Covenant mission efforts to that country.
Banpote also continued his education, beginning with two years at Mahasarakham University (called Sri Nakarin Wirot at that time) to complete his bachelor's degree in history (1981). In 1985 he attended a two-month seminar in Chiang Mai by the Asian Institute of Christian Communications (AICC) which included participants from all over Asia; in the same year he also spent several weeks in the United States for the centennial of the Evangelical Covenant Church. He has also attended seminars in India (drama, music, and dance), Philippines (liturgy), and Korea (Asian congress on church growth.) He planned to attend Fuller Theological Seminary but was unable to do so, initially prevented by needed English language study and finally by his accident.
In January, 1993, Banpote was severely injured in a motorcycle accident which broke his back and left him paralyzed below the waist. Through continued hard work he has become mobile with the aid of crutches and braces, but for the most part has been confined to his home where he continues his work of writing songs, theological and educational materials, and musical instruction books for the khaen, pin, saw, and ponglang (the traditional Issaan instruments) and for mawlam and fawnram (Issaan folk song and dance.) Studying and writing music-related materials are more than work for him - they are also his hobby. In addition to his writing, Banpote also attends the monthly church leaders' meetings to teach Bible to the leaders, helping train them to teach others.
Wilai is from Ubon Ratchatani, born January 3, 1942 (she thinks -- birth records were generally not kept in the villages at that time); while still young she moved with her family from the village where she was born into the provincial capital. She grew up in a Christian family and first met Banpote at the Gospel Church where he was the assistant pastor. They became better acquainted at the American airbase in Ubon where they both worked, and were married in 1970. Their son Jay was born the following year, and their daughter Jiap followed.
After moving to Udon in 1975, Wilai spent the first several years raising their son and daughter. But in 1980 she began to work at the CCPCG, joining Sanit and Nuu in Banpote's department. Her formal education stopped at the 6th grade, but as she studied at the Center she showed a talent for teaching others and getting her points across quickly and clearly. She has utilized this talent from the time she began to work at the Center until the present, as she has continued with basically the same responsibility: travelling to the outlying villages and teaching church leaders.