Message from the Executive Director

by Richard Haney

On my first visit to Southeast Asia three years ago, I spent two weeks in northern Thailand visiting NGOs and teaching seminary students about global development. I was glad to return again earlier this year with most of Frontier Fellowship’s staff to explore ways we can learn from and care about unreached people groups in this part of the Buddhist world. During our two weeks together, we visited numerous ministries in Thailand and Myanmar and heard countless stories of how the Good News is transforming communities.

I’ve written elsewhere how Thailand’s peoples evince a culture of gentleness and respect. A Buddhist is enjoined to respect the Buddha, the Buddha’s teachings (dharma) and the Buddhist monks. At the same time, a kind of folk religious impulse is displayed in the Thai people’s use of amulets and spirit houses to protect them from evil spirits. The Thai religious culture is complex.

Our team had a wonderful visit with long-time mission workers Allan and Joan Eubank. In the 1990s, Allan reached out to Presbyterian Frontier Fellowship, asking us to help congregations engage the Wa people with the Gospel. At the time, the Wa were caught up in the “Golden Triangle” drug trade and a partnership wasn’t possible. God has faithfully worked through the Eubank family and other workers in the years since. There are now numerous congregations among the Wa who are sending out their own missionaries to share the Gospel with their nearby neighbors. It was a poignant moment to recall this part of our history during a visit to a hostel where young Wa people are now being discipled.

While a few of our staff over the years have explored God’s work among Buddhists, our history of engagement with unreached peoples has leaned primarily to the Muslim and Hindu worlds. God is inviting us now to a more strategic and intentional engagement in the Buddhist world. We’re excited to listen to the Spirit’s promptings as we consider ways to meet, connect with and work alongside new global partners who love and follow Jesus Christ in Asia.

As you read the following pages, pray with us about new ways congregations can participate in making the Good News of Jesus more accessible to Buddhists of Southeast Asia. How might God be calling you to join us in this new venture?