Category: Scott and Tan

It looked like the year was going to be just a lot more of 2022 and things started rather slow and dull.   It was probably just  me that was kind of slow and dull.  I had been sick since the week before Christmas and was frustrated because even 2 weeks into the year,  I was still feeling yucky.   

The Thailand Karen Baptist Convention’s relief effort we have been helping as they provide food and relief to the Internally Displaced People (IDP)in Karen and Kayah States of Burma was still going on with no end in sight  and the IDP numbers were reaching 500,000 in Karen State alone.  Some of these people have been displaced again and again as they have no place safe to stay and the Burmese military continues to shell and bomb them.   If we are getting ‘relief fatigue’ ,  I can only imagine how the IDPs feeling.   We hear that the trauma has been unbearable for a lot of people -hearing the planes everyday never knowing which one will drop bombs on them.     

Then suddenly a number of developments have taken place in the first two months of this year that have kind of kept us on our feet.  The top leadership of  one of MMF – TKBC’s funding partners came for a visit and wanted to see the border.   During the trip they proposed that MMF play a significant role in the management of their Burma program.  They have staff in Burma and resources to apply,  but can’t manage it since the country is falling apart.   They want to continue with the relief work, but they also want to see progress in the area of peaceful change.  What a challenge!  How do you bring about peaceful transformation when the country is embroiled in a civil war?  So we appreciate your prayers on hearing God’s will for us on this one. 

And then, as is typical for Burma,  when things are really bad, something strange happens that doesn’t seem to make sense.  In the midst of a country that has descended into chaos,  the Burmese military government just opened the  Northern land border between  Burma and Thailand last week.  I got a message from a friend who lives on the border today saying that I, as a foreigner,  can go to Kengtung on a border pass again now!  Our friends there, whom we haven’t seen in 3 years, are able to cross over to see us and we plan to see several of them in the next few weeks.   We will decide about going up Kengtung to see them on that side later.   So on one side of the country,  the continued fighting and struggle causes millions to suffer and be displaced while on the other side, the Eastern side,  life is normal,  business is booming and the border is open for us to travel back and forth like nothing is happening.   The military wants to bring in investment and show that life is normal.   But as soon as we begin to believe them,  something happens – like a bomb goes off in the streets or the bus station, or another church leader gets arrested and we realise life is not normal. 

 So we pray for wisdom to know how to move ahead and support our friends in Burma.  

Thank you for your prayers and support.  We also remember  to pray for you.  

With Grateful hearts,

Scott And Tan 

Dear Faithful Friends and Praying Supporters,

I am humbled when I read that so many of you have been praying for our family. Thank you. I am absolutely convinced that it has made all the difference. We seek to be Christ’s ambassadors and may sometimes play a small part in some amazing events and developments that only God could have brought about. Let me tell you about one:

Ten years ago last month, I had a revelation. [ One Pentecostal national missionary friend of mine was astounded. Probably, not by the revelation as much as that God gave it to a Baptist. Well, the Lord must have wanted to shake things up a bit if He gave a Baptist a word of revelation. ] I was doing my devotions early one morning and came across the phrase, “And they will know that the Lord is in that city” The reading was about Jerusalem, but it really struck me as relevant for the present. I felt prompted to ask God, what city are you talking about, Lord? I heard an almost audible “Chiang Rai” . This city. The nation of Thailand will know, maybe, even the world will know that the Lord is in this place. I was so excited and wanted to tell the world of my great revelation. But when I asked God what to do next, I felt the very strong reply: “just pray and ready yourself”. I was a little disappointed. I wanted to organize something; a big prayer meeting, make an announcement, tell the world. But immediately afterward, I got dengue, and by the time I had recovered from that our family had a crisis that took the wind out of our sails. But as I reflected and prayed, I realised, that God was serious. “ Just pray and get ready” So for 10 years, I have been serving God in the ways I think God has called me. And I have been praying. We have continued to enable, mentor, and encourage local national ministries, particularly with a focus on Eastern Shan State(Burma), as that was another very clear calling in 2013. So that has been where we have focused our encouragement and energy until Covid and the military coup has kept us away from Burma, though we are still working there – from a distance, from here in Chiang Rai.

Chiang Rai, our home base, has had a small but established core of Christians for a century. The early missionaries did leave some landmarks in the city: a school, a church, and a hospital, to name three. Slowly and steadily, the Christian Faith has taken root and grown, particularly among the ethnic minority people, who have had a growing presence here.

One week ago, this Pentecostal friend I mentioned above, called me. He has been gripped with a desire to organize a massive worship service of as many believers as the local soccer stadium