A Great Visit to the ECHO Farm!

Great day today. We went to the ECHO farm in Thailand.

Our students were taught about farming and livestock techniques that will improve nutrition in their villages. They took notes furiously, indicating that they thought the information was not only important but they had a real interest in retaining the information.

So how does farming and raising pigs fit in with the Barefoot Doctor curriculum?

First, we know that good nutrition is a primary factor in preventing many illnesses and we know that medications often are much less effective in a malnourished patient. 

Second, if the barefoot doctor brings ideas for increased crop productivity to their village, then their message of Christ is better received. 

Waste from the pig is fermented in the tank on the left and methane gas is produced. The gas can be stored in an inner tube and then used to fuel the gas burners.

Bio-Char:  strips of bamboo are charged in a fire. The strips can be used as fuel to run an engine or used as compost/fertilizer for crops.

Thank you for your prayers.

CHE = Community Health Education (and Evangelism)

We are blessed to have Eric and Shannon Wiederholt back again this year to teach the next part of CHE to our students.  This is the third year they (and David Crist) have spent a week with our students.

Here is what is happening this week, according to Shannon...

CHE Week At The Barefoot Doctors School

THEME:  Increasing Confidence Through Participatory Learning

One of the core values of Community Health Evangelism or CHE, is multiplication.  Students have shared that over the past year, the compost training they received at the Barefoot Doctors school is being shared and implemented in several of their communities. They shared that modeling composting at their own homes, made neighbors curious, learned how to compost rather than burn their food and agriculture scraps, and are now composting on their own.  Hearing this affirming story of multiplication was very special to the instructors, Eric and Shannon Wiederholt. 

Many students voiced that over the last year, they felt their confidence in sharing health information as well as evangelism had grown.  Stories like having people come from other villages for a small medical clinic and overnight stay provide opportunity to show the Jesus movie to unbelievers are so inspiring to hear. One person shared that she was thankful for the opportunity to put the financial stewardship training she received at Barefoot Doctors School’s theology week into practice.

Helping couples resolve marital conflict was a strongly requested topic for this years' training.  Students spent the day using a simple and reproducible tool called the problem and solution tree to look at root causes or marriage problems and the fruits of those problems.  They voted on the most important ones and came up with solutions to those problems.

Today’s requested lesson was on Diabetes and carbohydrate counting for meal planning.  Students had fun creating a menu for men and women, using simple and reproducible props that represented portion sizes.  Information on health issues like diabetes can be intimidating and that is why the students practice teaching the lessons to each other, taking turns and working through questions they have, making culturally relevant changes to skits as applicable. 

Healing the Wounds of Trauma Through Forgiveness, SODIS Water Purification, and creating a map of your community’s microenterprises will round out the week in the classroom.  On Friday, the students will go on a field trip to the ECHO Asia Impact center nearby. Deep Rice Bed Method of Pig Farming will be the main topic learned as well as seed saving.  

Simon Percy's Report on the School

Simon Percy was the other Bible teacher instructing and encouraging our students for the first week of their training this year.  He shared the following report with the supporters of his ministry, Pastor Training International which is based in England.

Time has flown by and I have now completed the Bible Training that PTI has been doing in partnership with the Barefoot doctors. I shared the week with Rich Petersen who is the Missions Pastor at a church in Denver that supports the umbrella organisation, Frontier Labourers for Christ (FLC). I met him once before in 2016 with a different group of Barefoot doctors. 

Jung, the leader of FLC here in Thailand, explained that he gets many requests for people to come and teach at the Bible training week. But he prefers to stick with working with PTI because of its clear Biblical Teaching/Training. 

Not all the students are pastors, but those that are, tell me they have benefited enormously from the program, and all have become excited by hearing the word of God explained and taught well. Many of the women are involved in women’s programs in their churches, and appreciate the emphasis that is being placed on the need to keep the Bible at the centre of all we do. Others are evangelists, but feel helped as they transition from being an evangelist to be the pastor of a brand new church. 

The focus of my teaching has been how to preach and teach Old Testament Narrative, and Christ in all the Scriptures. There has been a natural degree of overlap. In the workshops we focused on reading and understanding the life of Joseph, breaking it down into small units and deciding what is the BIG IDEA and the BIG AIM of each passage. It was very encouraging to see how many remembered the lessons from previous years when we looked at identifying the BIG IDEA and the BIG AIM in a passage. This year we added the question where can Jesus be seen? 

This morning (January 19th) I preached from Genesis 50:15-21. For many the idea that God uses suffering, even theirs, to accomplish his purposes is still an alien idea. But the studies during the week have helped to reinforce this and to make them confident that God will be doing the same with their suffering. They also find it understandably hard to forgive those who have been brutal to them and their family. Joseph’s willingness to forgive his brothers for what they did spoke very powerfully to many. 

Thank you for your prayers and support. Next week I and Johnny Malean will be doing Training with the Karen Pastors.

Thanks for sharing this report with us, Simon, and thanks for teaching in our school once again!

Bible Training Wrap-up from Pastor Rich

The week of Bible teaching ended this past weekend, and from all reports it was a great week.

Here is a wrap-up from Rich Petersen.

 It was a wonderful week with eighteen great students at the Barefoot Doctors Program 2020. The students were energetic, and eager to learn over the course of the week. Between Pastor Simon Percy and myself, we taught over twenty times and explored a great many biblical truths.

 I so appreciated the enthusiasm and thought-provoking questions from all of the Barefoot Doctors and I’m very excited to know that they will take back these teachings to their communities and churches throughout Burma. What a fantastic week with fantastic students!!! 

It was also my privilege to travel with Jung to an Ahka village to meet with the pastor, enjoy a Prayer Meeting with the locals, spend the night and preach the Word of God at their worship service on Sunday morning! Village life is very different from life in a city, and it was good to experience this place and it’s beautiful people! What a work God is doing in so many places. 

 

Thank you so much for your prayers, they DID make a huge difference in so many ways! Thanks to Frontier Labourers for Christ for allowing me this opportunity and for the many ‘eternal’ friends I have been able to make this trip.

Ho-hum day at the KLC ... What?

This Saturday at the Kalnin Learning Center was a typical day with our students helping to clean up and maintain the campus.  With many hands working, this really helps keep things up to snuff.

THIS Saturday, however, included a special event -- the arrival of Kyawt Tha to join the other students!

We are so happy that Kyawt Tha was able to join everyone else.  You can tell he is happy to be here also!  The main problem was that communication lines have been so broken up in the region where he was working that he was unable to communicate with his wife and six children.  God kept him safe while he was in the area where a lot of fighting has been happening.

Bible training for this session is done, and the medical training starts on Monday and runs for six weeks.  Here is a final shot or two of Bible week, including some pics of the good eating everyone has enjoyed. The first one shows Simon Percy visiting with our translators, Timothy and Abraham.

Bible Teaching Wraps Up!

Rich Petersen and Simon Percy have just wrapped up their teaching for this week, although their influence in the students' lives is far from over.

Here are some pictures of their teaching in the last two days.

At lunch on Friday, the students took time to share their thanks with these two pastors.  Student leader, Aung Kyaw Oo, spoke on behalf of the students (with the help of translator, Siripong).

A token of the students' appreciation was presented to both teachers.  It was an umbrella, if you cannot tell from the photo.  The Burmese call it a Pathein umbrella.  It is handmade, and it has handmade pictures on it.

Kyawt Tha is Safe!!!

We are so happy to share the good news with you that Kyawt Tha is alive and well!  He went missing in December while preaching and doing medical work in a village area far from his home.  His family did not hear from him for over a month.

We are grateful to God for protecting him and for allowing him to continue to serve the Lord as a Barefoot Doctor.  We don't know exactly what happened in Kyawt Tha's disappearance, but we praise God for watching over him.

The latest news is that Kyawt Tha (pronounced Jaw-Tah) will arrive in Tachileik, Myanmar on Friday and then travel to Chiang Mai on Saturday.  Everyone is excited for this reunion to happen!

Please lift up a prayer of thanksgiving to God with us!