It’s not new.  It’s not innovative.  It’s not trendy.  It doesn’t produce immediate results.  But it is a key element to church planting and the long-term sustained growth of the church.  It’s pastoral visitation.  

As part of church planting efforts in the rural community of Nong Doan, Pastor Jareun and I have been visiting Mr. Ting, teaching him chronological Bible lessons and addressing various issues that come up.  Sometimes he gets it and sometimes he doesn’t.  “My sister is Catholic and worships Mother Mary.  Is that the same as what we do?” “I know Jesus rose from the dead but we still go through many reincarnations, right?”  It takes a long time to help inquirers and new Christians to get their mind around what the Bible teaches about God and ourselves.  Preaching and church attendance are an important part of the discipleship process but regular visits at home to go over the Scriptures and discuss matters more personally are an invaluable aid in helping people move from a Thai Buddhist worldview to a Thai Christian worldview, anchored in the Bible. 

Learning to read and write a language with a non-Roman script (such as Thai, Arabic, or Hindi) is challenging enough already so the thought of learning to touch type in that language can be daunting.  For myself, the time investment involved was considerable but typing in Thai is a ministry skill that I am really glad to have picked up along the way.

Being able to touch type in Thai opens up all sorts of possibilities that I wouldn’t have otherwise.  When I need to write up a handout or a Bible study, I am able to do it.  When I am preparing my sermon and want to write my notes, or at least key words and phrases in Thai, it is quick and simple.  When I type up a lesson plan for our kids club that I want to go over with some Thai helpers, I can do it up neatly and quickly in Thai so that we can all be looking at the same piece of paper.  When I want to send an email, leave a comment on Facebook, or chat online with a Thai friend, I can do it.  It is really freeing to not be consigned to cutting and pasting from the dictionary on my computer.  Cut and paste is so slow and tedious that if that’s the only way I had to do it, I would do very little on the computer in Thai and thus miss out on online opportunities for communicating with Thai friends and co-workers.

Mommy made his blanket into a cape.  Daddy took some paper from the printer and made a crown.  But it is King Joshua himself who thought to ride his trusty green buffalo to go fight.  Of course by the time we got out the video camera and started rolling, he needed a bit of encouragement to keep on riding.  The green buffalo has turned out to be one of the best ten dollar investment I have ever made.

If you have trouble viewing the video above, click here to view it on YouTube.