Participants:
Series Code: MTS
Program Code: MTS002206A
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00:11 Hi, my name is Daniele Kuhn
00:13 and I'm back here in Thailand 00:14 where I grew up as a missionary. 00:16 And today we get to interview my dad 00:18 and talk about his mission experience. 00:20 That and much more coming up next. 00:46 Wait, but I'm gonna give you the minute. 00:48 Okay. Okay. Okay. 00:50 Here. 00:51 Okay. 00:53 Hi, welcome to Mission 360°. 00:55 My name is Daniele Kuhn. 00:56 And I grew up in Thailand as a missionary. 00:59 As a kid, and today, 01:01 I'm going to be interviewing my dad 01:02 about his mission and his experience 01:05 in this amazing country of Thailand. 01:07 But first, let's watch a mission story 01:09 in the southern Asia region. 01:13 All the villagers raised to the airstrip 01:15 singing and dancing 01:17 when mission pilot Gary Roberts landed at Suminka, 01:20 a remote village 01:21 in the Indonesian province of Papua. 01:24 It had taken the villagers 10 years 01:26 to cut down the trees by hand 01:28 to clear the way for an airstrip 01:29 at their mountainous village. 01:31 And Gary's mission plane was the first to land. 01:34 This was a big event. 01:37 As Gary stepped out of the plane, 01:38 the crowd grew silent. 01:40 Their singing and dancing stopped. 01:42 "Is this a Seventh-day Adventists plane?" 01:45 a man asked. 01:47 The villagers had seen the Three Angels logo 01:50 on the airplane's tail. 01:52 Gary was surprised. 01:53 Suminka was the village previously accessible 01:56 only by a long trek by foot, 01:58 so he hadn't expected villagers 02:00 to have heard about the Adventist church. 02:02 The villager soon told him 02:04 that many of them were keeping the Sabbath. 02:06 The reason they said was 02:08 because of a Seventh-day Adventist dog. 02:12 This story started several years earlier 02:15 just across the border in Papua New Guinea 02:17 when an Adventist pastor named Moses 02:20 and a lay pastor named Darius 02:22 had the same dream on the same night. 02:26 In the morning, one said, "I had a dream last night." 02:29 The other said, "I did do but I didn't want to tell you." 02:33 They both had seen an angel in the dream 02:35 and the angel said, "Go to Suminka." 02:39 A few days later, 02:40 the two men set off on a three day hike to Suminka. 02:43 Arriving at the village, 02:45 they announced evangelistic meetings 02:47 would be held every evening for a week under a tree 02:50 on the far side of the village. 02:52 But by the day of the first meeting, 02:54 Pastor Moses fell ill with malaria. 02:57 He was terribly sick 02:59 and the villagers predicted that he would die. 03:01 "But if he gets better then we will listen to him 03:04 at the meeting," they said. 03:07 All day Pastor Moses was sick. 03:09 But at 5 pm he suddenly felt better. 03:13 He took a bath and preached. 03:15 Afterward he fell very ill again. 03:18 This happened all week. 03:20 He was sick until 5 pm, recovered, 03:23 took a bath and preached, then, he sank back into bed. 03:27 At the meetings he told the people 03:29 about the Sabbath 03:30 and cautioned against eating unclean meat such as pork. 03:33 Wild pigs are a popular dish in the Papua mountains. 03:37 When the week ended, Pastor Moses made an appeal, 03:41 but no one came forward. 03:43 Pastor Moses and Darius 03:45 returned home deeply disappointed. 03:48 They wondered why they had had the dream 03:50 without any results. 03:53 Back in Suminka, life resumed as normal 03:56 until Saturday morning, 03:58 the village's best hunting dog, Dolby, 04:01 got up and headed down the trail. 04:03 His owner and other villagers thought he was onto something, 04:05 so they followed. 04:07 Dolby went to the tree 04:08 where the missionary had spoken and sat down. 04:11 The villagers thought that was strange. 04:14 The next Saturday, Dolby did the same thing. 04:17 He got up, walked over to the tree and sat down. 04:21 He refused to hunt on Saturdays. 04:24 The villagers had noticed 04:25 that Dolby had stopped eating pork too. 04:29 He refused to hunt for wild pigs 04:31 and other unclean animals. 04:33 "Dolby has become a Seventh-day Adventist," 04:36 one villager said. 04:38 "If he worships on Sabbath, we should too," said another. 04:43 Many villagers began to keep the Sabbath 04:45 and stopped eating unclean foods. 04:48 Gary the mission pilot was so excited 04:50 when he heard the story 04:51 and he later called Pastor Moses. 04:53 The pastor was some distance away from Suminka, 04:56 so he contacted Darius 04:58 and told him to plan on spending a year 05:00 at the village, 05:01 teaching the people about Bible truths. 05:05 Today about half of the village of 200 adults and children 05:09 worship on Sabbath 05:10 and 21 people have been baptized. 05:13 Dolby still doesn't eat unclean food. 05:16 The villagers say he is a very healthy dog. 05:49 Hi, welcome to Chiang Mai. 05:51 I'm here with the most special guest, my dad. 05:54 And this is the first time in 10 years 05:55 that I've been back to the territory 05:57 where we used to serve as missionaries. 06:00 And we have a few questions for you, Dad, today. 06:03 The first question we wanna ask you is, 06:06 what are some of the memories you have serving here in Asia? 06:11 Well, Thailand is a wonderful place to be. 06:15 There are many, many, many, many memories, Danny. 06:19 I never forgot that, you guys went to school, 06:21 you were very small. 06:23 And as you entered there, 06:24 the students would wai 06:26 and lift their right foot to the teacher. 06:28 That was very nice and very kind. 06:30 But some of the highlights for me 06:33 is how kind and respectful 06:37 the Thai people were. 06:40 I must admit that there has been a big school for me 06:45 a lot of lessons of the kindness 06:50 and respect that this culture has. 06:53 And they are not Christians, you know? 06:55 That's an interesting part. 06:57 They are not Christians and they're very respectful. 06:59 They avoid problems, they avoid conflict. 07:02 They will go in extreme lengths sometimes. 07:05 Do you remember you guys forgot your little teddy bear one time 07:07 with a taxi? 07:09 The taxi driver went all the way back to our house 07:11 to return that stuffed animal for us. 07:17 Yeah, those are good memories. 07:19 How has the church done, Dad? 07:20 And what challenges did you face? 07:24 Well, what my job was over Asia in general, 07:29 but in Thailand, 07:31 the church was very diverse with people, 07:35 many refugees, 07:37 not so many real Thai Buddhists, 07:41 with many refugees 07:42 and many immigrants from different places, 07:45 and also some hill tribe's people compose the church. 07:49 I don't think we have grown that much. 07:53 Actually, it's a challenge. 07:56 Real Buddhists, we haven't really connected with them 08:01 somehow, the church still need to break through 08:04 on how to connect with the Buddhists. 08:06 So they see that the hope of Christ, 08:09 the hope of a God who is alive 08:13 and who is interacting with us, 08:15 can still be something 08:17 for the Thai people to appreciate, 08:18 the Buddhist people to appreciate. 08:21 That's true. 08:22 Hopefully new missionaries will come out 08:23 we can continue the work. 08:26 Can you share, Dad, 08:27 a rewarding experience you had here? 08:30 My rewarding experience. 08:34 Oh, there are many. 08:38 I remember when you guys went to school, 08:44 and the first time 08:47 you actually went to school. 08:52 You didn't speak any English or didn't speak any Thai. 08:56 And mom was very worried 08:58 and actually she was quite stressed 09:01 because of so many things. 09:03 But eventually she got together with many friends 09:08 from different parts of the world. 09:11 They used to study the Book of John together 09:14 I think once a week or once, or twice a month. 09:18 And mom made friendships that lasted until today. 09:22 After 10 years, she still has friends 09:24 that during a difficult time 09:28 met together 09:30 and they were mothers stressed with their children 09:35 with travelling spouses, 09:38 and they got together to pray and study the Bible. 09:41 They were not Adventists. 09:43 And mom made some friendships for life. 09:46 That was a big lesson for me 09:48 that quite often somebody in the family 09:53 who is doing something that could be considered 09:56 more than the mission work, 09:58 the formal mission work that we are called to do. 10:02 Yeah, I agree. 10:03 I remember those Bible studies at home 10:05 when I came home from school. 10:07 And I remember that she still keeps in touch with them today. 10:10 Yeah. It's great, you know. 10:11 So when God calls a family, 10:13 when God calls the missionaries, 10:15 sorry, He calls a family. 10:17 Everybody is part of that call. 10:20 Yeah, I remember even trying to do the same with my friends. 10:26 Because we see so many challenges 10:30 and hear different stories. 10:31 What advice would you give someone 10:33 considering mission work abroad? 10:36 I would say since we don't have much time, 10:38 the most important thing is the connection, 10:41 that you adjust to the culture 10:45 that you learn the language. 10:49 Learning the culture, and the language, 10:52 I would say are the two most effective way 10:56 and efficient way to penetrate 11:02 in the heart of people. 11:05 And how has the church developed in this region 11:08 since you left, do you know? 11:10 Well, when I look to Asia and I see the billions. 11:15 I'm puzzled by the challenge and by the opportunity 11:21 that we have much needs to be done. 11:25 Very little growth, I would say. 11:27 Very little growth actually has happened. 11:31 And we need to pray that God will open ways 11:35 and means people to reach other people. 11:39 Since we're talking about culture, Dad, 11:41 what are the some things and some values 11:43 we can learn from the Thai culture? 11:46 Yes, this is a very interesting question, Danny. 11:52 I quite often thought, 11:53 "What could we learn from other cultures?" 11:58 And this one specially has the value 12:01 of respect and honesty. 12:04 The respect for life, 12:06 not only human life but animals is, it's very high. 12:11 The respect for other people is very high. 12:14 The respect for children, for elders, for parents, 12:18 it's very high. 12:20 I wonder if in many ways sometimes our Christian culture 12:25 has lost some of this most important aspect of life, 12:30 respect for other, respect for life, 12:32 for parents, for elders, for animals. 12:38 I would say, God can teach us 12:41 through many different ways 12:44 and very different cultures and even religions. 12:48 So we're learning. We are on journey to learn. 12:52 And before we can teach, we have to learn. 12:55 Thank you, Dad. 12:56 It was fun being a missionary kid here in Thailand. 12:59 Stay with us. 13:00 Mission 360° will continue after the break. |
Revised 2020-04-23