Last post from Southeast Asia

*Written on Feb 23*

Well, our time here in SE Asia is almost over- we have only 3 days left. We have had a truly amazing experience here with many doors having opened to serve.  We were able to serve in the local public school teaching English, soccer, and leading after school dances and games. This was an amazing opportunity since the schools here are pretty opposed to western influence and the kids are often taught that foreigners are bad. The kids were a little scared of us at first, but they warmed up fast. This was a very special experience for me because as a teacher myself, it is hard to see the conditions that students learn in around the world. We are so so so blessed to have the resources, supplies, and overall excellent schools that we have in Canada. The schools here are incredibly basic- just a wooden frame with a roof. There are chickens and pigs running around outside that cause quite a lot of distraction (maybe the kids are used to it though!). There are no text books stacked at the back of the classroom, no manipulatives for math time, and certainly no computers. The kids only have a notebook and a pen or pencil. But they are sooooo filled with joy. I had an amazing time teaching them and playing some English games. By the end of the classes we felt like good friends :)


Our team also had the opportunity to lead some after school activities and during this time we were able to teach the kids dances to Christian songs. Although the students and teachers didn’t understand the music, we felt so blessed to be able to blast worship music over the grounds of this communist school, declaring that God is sovereign over this place. We were also able to bless the school with new custom made soccer uniforms as well and this was a big way of gaining favour for our long-term missionary that we are working with. He and another Christian friend have now been asked to coach the soccer team at the school which is going to be an amazing opportunity to reach these staff and students with the gospel.


In our last week here we were able to travel to a more remote area of the country where a long term missionary is preparing to move with his family. They have rented a nice big property with the intent to build an artificial turf soccer field to rent out as a business which is a very popular thing to do in Southeast Asia. The soccer field business is really just a front to allow their family access to the region and to help them make connections with the locals. Their long term plan is to share the gospel with the local community and plant churches. This is true trailblazing because this community of about 10,000 people has several un-reached minority groups and has never had a white person live among them. Most of the local people have never even heard of the name of Jesus and when asked if they know of him it is not uncommon for them to respond “he doesn’t live here, try the next village over.”

We were able to help our friends paint several rooms of their house and tear down some old structures on the property. Although this doesn’t seem spiritual in and of itself, I know that we were able to greatly bless this family and help them to get into their house and begin their work much faster. I wish we could have stayed longer to see all of the projects to completion! Please pray for this family and that the Holy Spirit continue to make a way for them among these unreached people. What they are doing is an amazing part of fulfilling The Great Commission.


¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

           -Matthew 28:18-20

After a long day of painting and cleaning we were able to go down to the local river for a swim. As we walked through the village, we drew quite the crowd and a large group of village kids followed us and swam with us. There were at least 25 children from age 4-15 swimming with us. They would often just congregate around us and stare and when our friend who speaks the language asked them what they were looking at, they said they had never seen white kids before! I think it is pretty cool that my kids can say they have been to a place where they are the first white kids anyone has seen!

To sum up my time here, I will say this: I love this nation and its people and have been deeply impacted by it. I don’t know if I experienced “culture shock” here (maybe I will know when I get home!), but I have definitely been hit pretty hard with the reality that life here is vastly different than my Canadian life.  Many people here are very poor, have very little access to medical care, and live in very dirty and basic conditions. But none of that breaks my heart as much as the spiritual poverty that you find here. In Mark 14:7 Jesus says “The poor you will always have among you, but you will not always have me.” This verse becomes so real in this place, because although these people are materially poor, they have a rich culture and community that in many ways gives them something that us Canadians desire; however they lack the hope of Jesus.

Imagine with me: you grew up in an animistic culture and your grandparents and great grandparents have all carried out the same rituals, animal sacrifices and idol worship for as long as anyone can remember. Now you have a sick sibling and instead of taking this child to the doctor your parents sacrifice a goat in hopes that the spirits will have mercy on the child. But your sibling keeps getting worse and no one seeks a doctor because this must have been the will of the spirits or the bad karma of the family. This is the belief of millions of people throughout this nation who are either Buddhist or animist.

Now imagine this- you meet a missionary who has moved into you village. You have never talked to a farang (foreigner) before and you are surprised to find out that they speak your language. You begin to build a relationship and over time they share several stories with you about a whole different picture of God. First they tell you about the God who created all things, the Most High Spirit- all you’ve ever known is the worship of multiple spirits and deities and you’ve never been told anything about the origin of all things. They tell you about the fall of man, how evil, and sin, and shame, and bad karma entered the world. They continue to tell you stories until you finally have enough understanding to hear about God’s son Jesus who came into the world to reconcile all things, to take away our bad karma and our shame, our need for animal sacrifices, and has the power to overcome any evil spirits. They tell you that Jesus has made a way to overcome suffering and to have eternal life free of the endless cycles of building good merit, never being good enough and being reincarnated over and over again. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice once and for all, doing away with animal sacrifices and giving us a way to have a relationship with the God who created all things.

After hearing all these stories you encounter the Holy Spirit who opens your heart to these truths. You sense the love of God and true peace for the first time and you tell the missionary you want to have a relationship with this Jesus and this God who created all things. But then you realize that if you decide to follow Jesus you will no longer be able to participate in spirit worship and animal sacrifices that have been done in your village for centuries. Your family may disown you and they may withhold your government documents which means you can no longer leave the country, and will make it difficult to get a job. You count the cost, yet you know that what you have heard is life changing truth so you decide to follow Jesus anyways. There are only a few other people in your village who have made this decision, but the missionary tells you about God’s plan for the church and the fellowship of believers so you join together and being to learn what it means to follow Jesus. There are many challenges ahead of you as you face family and community pressure as well as the struggle to transform your way of thinking from an animistic world view to that of Christianity.

These are the real struggles that new believers face in this nation. And this doesn’t include the fact that openly sharing your faith is against the law and the government in general is not favourable to Christianity and could potentially imprison you if anything you do becomes too public or causes too much of a wave. We are so blessed to live in a place that has freedom of religion, and freedom of expression. Please join with me in praying for this nation and these people. God is really on the move here, but we need to pray for the strengthening of the local church and for courage and great faith in the midst of trial for the national believers.

Oh, ya know, just a bowl of live frogs for sale at the local market :)

The local teachers love Jonah!

Here are the cool new soccer uniforms we were able to buy for the kids.

Here are a few pics of the river we were able to swim at.