DOWNLOAD PDF - JULY 2009 DAHLFREDS PRAYER LETTER

Dear Friends & Family,The beginning of July saw the start of two new evangelistic efforts in Nong Doan.  Every Wednesday afternoon, Karl is teaching English and Bible to students at Anubaan Nong Doan Elementary School.  The school called him up to come teach English, and Karl negotiated with them to teach for free as long as he could use Bible stories as part of the curriculum.  During every class hour, Karl will teach just English for 50 minutes and then gets the last 10 minutes of class to tell a Bible story in Thai.  The first week, first through third graders heard about how God created the world.   Next up will be the creation of man and the fall.

A few days ago,  I got a call from a teacher at Anuban Nong Doan Primary School.  “Can you come and teach English to our students?  How about one day per week?”  The teacher was disappointed to hear that I only had one half day per week available but nevertheless wanted to meet with me to discuss the details and said that they would be able to compensate me for my time.I arrived at the school the following afternoon, expecting to meet with this one particular teacher but instead found myself sitting at the head of a table with all the school’s teachers gathered around, about 15 teachers in all.  We initially talked about day and time, but when the chair of the meeting turned to me and asked how much money I needed, the discussion got more interesting.  “I don’t really need any money, actually.  I am happy to teach for free but the only thing that I ask is for permission to use stories from the Bible as part of curriculum.”  I assured them that I did not intend to pressure the children to change religions or try to get them to convert.  I merely wanted to use some stories from the Bible as part of my teaching.  The teachers discussed this idea back and forth for a bit.  One of the concerns was “What will the parents think?”  They feared that some parents could misunderstand my intention and think that there was some foreign teacher trying to convert their kids.  Into their conversation, I threw out another option, “Or, instead of using Bible stories as part of the English teaching, for every hour of teaching, I could do 45 minutes of English, and then 15 minutes of a Bible story in Thai.”  They liked that I idea more but were still not enthusiastic.  The chair of the meeting, whom I was seated next to, turned to me and with a big smile on his face and asked, “Can’t you just teach English?”  I gave a big smile back and didn’t say much of anything.  This is a Thai way of saying, “No”.  He understood and realized that I wasn’t going for it.

One of the most common and accepted roles for Westerners in Thailand is that of English teacher.  Since there is such high demand for English teaching, it is common for missionaries to teach English as a way to get to know people and to share the Gospel, either inside or outside of the classroom.   But is this a good idea?  Is it a good use of a missionary's time?  Is using English teaching as outreach honest or is the missionary being deceptive in teaching English when his real goal is to share the Gospel? 

My friend Rich, a fellow missionary, recently did a post titled "Is Using English Teaching as Outreach a Deception?".  Rich does a good job of laying out the various perspectives on this question and there is some interesting discussion in the comment section.  I also included some comments there regarding my experience and convictions regarding this subject.   For those who have used (or thought about using) English teaching as evangelism or have wondered about it, Rich's post and the subsequent comments give some good food for thought in framing the discussion.