Ingrid Hanson reports from Thailand on a church that has abandoned the Western way, to make Jesus relevant to the poor. Photos: Mike Webb.
It was back-breaking work on the southern Thai sugar plantation, but Paw Kong knew there was no way out. Like many others, he had accepted the massive loan he was offered by men from the sugar company earlier in the year. Now it was time to repay it.
It took years of hard labour in prison-like conditions to escape from the ever increasing debt, he recalls now - an old man on his smallholding and fish farm in the north east. But that’s life in Thailand, under the shadow of Coca Cola. As people will tell you here, nothing matters more than making money
Except, perhaps, traditional culture. And for the Issaan Development Foundation (IDF), a Thai agency that helped Kong start his small farm, culture is the key to changing people’s lives. Whether in integrated farming or planting churches, IDF believes nothing can be achieved in north east Thailand unless it’s rooted in the local culture.
Land - once owned by the Thai king and available for all to settle and use - has been gradually taken over by large companies, leaving many people without a livelihood. Issaan Development Foundation helps landless people like Kong reclaim unused plots and develop integrated farms, raising pigs, chickens and fish, and growing a few crops. But there’s more to it than a bit of farming. ‘The gospel is a holistic concept,’ says Jim Gustafson, President of IDF ‘The economic, agricultural, technological; the social, the spiritual - even the political is part of that mix.’
The Foundation’s agriculture incorporates a whole belief system and style of working. Tu Jaikla, now one of the Foundation’s leaders, joined the staff and converted to Christianity when she saw that it was not a Western import but a radical way of life, compatible with being Thai. Now she helps small groups of farmers work together co-operatively
‘I’ve worked hard to bring them to an understanding of what it means to accept each other and forgive each other,’ she says. ‘If you have problems you don’t just turn your back and go, but you face them.’
For Kong and the three men who work with him, this has meant a whole new way of life. They no longer work someone else’s ground with no escape and little reward, but plant their own bananas, feed their own pigs, and breed their own fish. Working together with grace can be difficult, but it’s worth it.
Grace is one of the key concepts of the Foundation, and the Thailand Covenant Church with which it is affiliated. Giving second chances to those who fail, working together to deal with problems, refusing to ostracise those who don’t conform - all these inform not just the personal beliefs of the staff, but the entire structure of the organisation.
Grace goes against the values of north eastern Thailand (as it does against most cultures). But, argues Tu, challenging the values of a culture is very different from challenging its forms - which must be wholeheartedly embraced.
‘In order for us to really reach people Jesus needs to be born into their culture,’ explains Tu. ‘Everything in this culture needs to be impacted by Jesus so that he can speak in it and touch people’s lives.’
The church gathers for worship in a north eastern village: forty or fifty people seated cross-legged on rattan mats in the concrete space beneath a house on stilts. Chickens scrabble about and the ubiquitous puppies of rural Thailand lie sleepily in the sun outside. Children hover around the edges.
The service begins with worship, using traditional instruments and traditional tunes, the words written by people in the church. The teaching takes the form of a heated discussion; communion is the local sticky rice and berry juice.
During the worship, many are dancing north eastern dances, with small foot movements and eloquent hands. An elderly person, bent almost double with age, joins them; She sits down, worn out, then gets up again.
The old woman continues quietly to dance throughout the service. It’s the hot season, and even under the house it’s very warm. Eventually Jim Gustafson, worried for her, urges her to sit down and rest.
‘Do you know how old I am, son?’ she asks him. ‘I’m a hundred and three. I’ve known Jesus three years, and nothing is going to stop me dancing to praise him.’ And with a smile she gets up again.
‘That was the best thing anyone’s said to me for a long time,’ says Jim later. ‘In north east Thai culture to dance is to express liberation, freedom, joy. God works in culture, God speaks in culture. He saves people in their culture, not mine or yours.’
It’s a glitzy, ritzy life for the rich in Bangkok. The city buzzes and hums with traffic, people, clubs, late into the night. And for the city-loving tourist, it’s heaven. Shops, hotels, gourmet restaurants - even a world-famous red light district.
But for girls who come in droves from the poor north east the Westernised glamour of the city conceals a hellish underbelly. Many are drawn into the sex shows and brothels of the tourist prostitution industry. Others end up in sewing sweat shops, working long hours in prison-like conditions for little pay.
Sakowduan Yoatsuwan, 15, prefers to stay in the village and sew clothes with her friends. ‘My mother’s dead against me going to Bangkok,’ she says. ‘It’s a big mess down there.’
It’s to help girls like this make a living at home that IDF has set up sewing co-operatives all across the villages of the north east. The women take orders for clothes from big companies in Bangkok, but never have to stay in the city itself.
‘The impact of consumerism on Thailand is totally destructive,’ says Jim Gustafson. ‘Life isn’t about making money: it’s about living together; loving each other; being drawn together as a social community.’
So while IDF takes on the traditions and forms of its culture, it constantly challenges the values of north east Thai culture and the imported values of the West. Values that affirm greed, individualism and self-effort over the selflessness, grace and acknowledgement of sin that come with the gospel.
‘The core issue isn’t to do things in the Thai way because that is politically correct,’ says Jim. ‘It is how in the world does Jesus come to life in the lives of these people?’
This question has borne answers over many years. But it requires the church to abandon its pursuit of the Western dream and let go of its subculture for the sake of the poor. Not all are willing to risk it.
The Issaan Development Foundation works in villages across north east Thailand, the poorest area of the country, helping people develop agriculture and income generation. It is affiliated to the Thailand Covenant Church which consists of over 300 churches, planted over the last 25 years. Tearfund has supported IDF with £222,000 since 1991.