Building a UB Church in the Golden Triangle

A First-Hand Look at Our Newest Mission Work: in Thailand

Steve Dennie

June 1994

Way up in the mountains of northern Thailand, just as remote as you can get, is a place called Lo Mah Village. Clustered around it are several small villages, all within a few miles of each other. This is the scene of the newest United Brethren mission work.

Director of Missions Kyle McQuillen spent five days there in April getting acquainted with the Akha people, who inhabit those villages. Accompanying him were Superintendent Peter Lee and Samuel Ng of Hong Kong Conference, and Macau mission director Luke Fetters.

The Akha (pronounced auk-haw) are Chinese immigrants and refugees who were displaced from Tibet and northern China, and settled in the mountains of Thailand and Burma. They don't speak the Thai language, nor the Cantonese or Mandarin languages common in China. Rather, they speak their own language, Akha. None of them speak English, so if you go without an interpreter--good luck.

The mission work is headed by a man called Teacher Lee, who is of Chinese descent rather than Akha. He has lived on the mountain for a number of years; in fact, he's married to the daughter of the local chief. Teacher Lee, who has some Bible school training, started the church and a children's school within the last 3-5 years. Despite his title, he functions as a pastor, rather than as a teacher.

Teacher Lee's contacts in Hong Kong led to a relationship with the UB churches several years ago, and the idea of starting mission work in Thailand began taking shape. Some Hong Kong pastors and laypersons, as well as Luke Fetters, traveled to Lo Mah Village in 1993 to investigate the possibilities, and liked what they saw.

The Akha are a peaceful, friendly people, and they are very receptive to the Gospel.

Into the Golden Triangle

"I lived in a remote area in Sierra Leone, but the Akha live in as remote a place as I've seen," says Kyle McQuillen.

The trip there began with a flight into Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, and another flight to Chiang Rai, a major city in northern Thailand. From there, they traveled another hour by vehicle to Mai Rei, a town on the border between Thailand and Burma, where they stayed overnight.

The next morning, the men climbed into the bed of a four-wheel-drive pickup truck (which was already packed with many other supplies) and headed into the mountains. After a dusty four-and-a-half hour drive over narrow dirt roads, they once again found themselves on the border with Burma.

"You just keep climbing and climbing until you reach the top of the mountain. Lo Mah Village is at the end of the line. It's not on the way to anywhere else. We didn't see any more vehicles until we started back down the mountain several days later."

Lo Mah Village lies in the Golden Triangle, the notorious center of the opium trade. The people sometimes see donkey caravans pass through the mountains, and know that they probably carry drugs. But the Akha are not personally involved in the drug trade and are not affected by it.

The Akha school is located in Lo Mah Village. However, Teacher Lee lives in another village, and the church meets in a third village. All of these villages form a close-knit community, and people constantly travel among them. The church services attract people from all of the villages.

Teacher Lee and the Chief

Teacher Lee's house consists of one big room with bamboo divisions. The Akha homes have a flat wooden platform--it looks somewhat like a stage--built across half of the house. That's where everybody sleeps.

McQuillen recalls, "On the third night, probably 25 people stayed there, mostly just village people. I honestly lost track of the number of people staying there. As we got dressed in the morning, seven or eight people walked around in the room. You just go ahead and pretend you have privacy. One morning as I was getting dressed, three or four kids came in and just sat on the ground and watched me. At night, people walked in and out while we slept."

McQuillen was quite impressed with Teacher Lee.

"The whole time we were there, he was very busy--taking care of us, going to see children in the school, preparing for the worship service, and visiting people in the villages. He was always on the go. About every half hour, I'd see him jump on his motorbike and take off somewhere. And he was very sensitive about being a good host. He made sure we had everything we needed.

"He is very easy to talk to. During those days, we spent a lot of time discussing various things. We talked about his vision for the work, his beliefs, his Bible college training. We discussed the relationships between Thailand, Hong Kong, and the general church, and issues of authority and accountability. (His primary accountability is to Hong Kong Conference, which is accountable to the Department of Missions.) I told him about our theology and organization, and briefed him on our other ministries around the world. Always, he was very open."

The village chief lives a short distance from Teacher Lee. He looks like a regular farmer--which he is. But he's much more than that.

"He is the largest landowner in the villages, and hires a lot of people to cultivate and harvest tea, which is the major crop. There is no local government as we know it; the chief is the government. If you want to build, buy land, or start any new program, you have to get permission from him. Out of respect for him, you wouldn't go to that area without visiting him, having tea with him, and letting him show you his tea lands."

An Akha Church Service

About a hundred people--quite a crowd--gathered on Sunday for the worship service. All ages were present, from young children to older adults. The women were decked out in their distinctive headdresses with big metal beads, but there was nothing dressed-up about the men, many of whom wore tank-tops and old shirts.

"I asked Teacher Lee if these people came just because we were there. He said, 'No, this is how many people we have every Sunday.' I could tell. I looked around as they were singing, and could that they had sung that song before; they knew it. This wasn't just a village crowd that had come to see the foreigners."

The congregation met in a small home--a mud and bamboo hut with a thatched roof, dirt floor, no windows, poor lighting, and a door at each end.

"The place was wall-to-wall people, and because of the poor ventilation, it was hot. Most of the people sat on the bed platform or the dirt floor (there were no chairs), and some stood outside with their head in the door. We stood up throughout the service."

The service lasted about an hour, and was mostly a praise service. It included choruses (they were taught some new ones), Scripture reading, a testimony by Samuel Ng, and times of prayer. There was no instrumental accompaniment with the singing--not even a tambourine.

When McQuillen spoke, his words were translated three times. Peter Lee translated his words from English to Cantonese. Then Samuel Ng, who once lived in China and also speaks Cantonese and some English, translated Peter Lee's words into Mandarin. Finally, the wife of an Akha pastor who rode up the mountain with them translated Ng's words from Mandarin into Akha. So McQuillen had plenty of time to think about what he would say next.

At the end of the service, McQuillen had the privilege of baptizing six adults and four children. "Since we didn't have anywhere to baptize them by immersion, we baptized them by reaching into a water bucket three times and sprinkling them on the head as they knelt in front of us."

Thailand is 95% Buddhist. However, Teacher Lee says most of the Akha people are animists--they attach religious significance to inanimate objects and worship them.

"He showed us a spear he kept in the back of his house--a spear almost identical to one I brought home from Kenya years ago. He said the people worshipped this spear for many years. It was a symbol of power and strength."

By contrast, most of the new Christians in our churches in India come out of Hinduism, and the new Christians in Hong Kong and Macau most likely come out of Buddhism.

The Blessing of Getting Soaked

"The day before we drove up to Lo Mah Village, we learned that we would be there during the Thai New Year. It started the day we arrived and ended the day we left.

"The Thais have a custom, especially with young people, of throwing water on people as a blessing during this holiday. I'm sure that's how it started out--as a religious thing. But kids get ornery. It's not a cup of water they throw on you. Rather, they dump a whole bucket of water on you or spray you with big hoses. As we traveled along in the car or walked through the town, we'd feel this bucket of water come over our head and down our back. Walking through the market in Mai Rei, every now and then we'd get soaked.

"As the celebration progresses, it gets worse, so the day we came down from the mountain was the worst. Just walking along, you would pass large groups of people, kids mostly, with water to pour on you.

"Before going up the mountain, I wrapped all of my canvas bags in a plastic bag. But someone in the village wanted the plastic bag, so I gave it to him, and didn't have it coming back down the mountain.

"As we drove through some of those little villages, the driver stopped. In their tradition, if you stop, you can get a blessing--though I noticed that he kept his window up. When the truck stopped, people would come pour water over us. In addition, we passed open trucks with kids in the back who would dip buckets into big vats of water and dump them on passing vehicles and motorcycles.

"By the time we reached our hotel in Mai Rei, we were soaked to the skin. Sam and I took everything out of our bags and spread them out in our room to let them dry.

"The Akha are a very cheerful people. They really laughed when they soaked us. We laughed too, even though it got kind of ridiculous. One thing I know--I'll never go back to Thailand during their New Year."

The Beginning of a Solid Work

This is the second mission venture begun through the vision of Hong Kong Conference (the first being Macau). They've been involved there for two years. Hong Kong oversees the work and supports it financially, which includes paying Teacher Lee's fulltime salary and living expenses.

The UB Department of Missions isn't putting any money into Thailand, except for the funds raised through Vacation Bible Schools this summer. The school at Lo Mah Village is the designated VBS mission project. The money received will go toward buying literature, books, and clothes for Akha children. All such support will be channeled through Hong Kong Conference.

Our work in Thailand began as a simple invitation by Teacher Lee--"Come, see what you think." Now, strong relationships have formed, and the groundwork has been laid for a solid United Brethren relationship. It is a wide open door, an opportunity to take the Gospel to a place where no other Christian group is ministering. And God has opened the door to us.