Next Steps in the Buddhist World

by Katie Archibald-Woodward, Multimedia Storyteller; with Frontier Fellowship Staff & Ministry Friends

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For the last few years, Frontier Fellowship has been praying and dreaming about how to engage in the Buddhist world more strategically, asking God to show us what we need to learn and lead us to partners who are making the Good News of Jesus known within the complex religion of Buddhism.

In late January, most of our staff—along with a Board member and a few family members—traveled to Thailand and Myanmar with eyes and hearts open to what God might show us. Storyteller and photographer Katie Archibald-Woodward accompanied us to help us tell the story. Here, Katie reflects on our travels and some of the lessons we learned and insights we gained.

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I walk out of our Chiang Mai hotel, the air ripe with the smell of burning fields, common in Thailand. Crossing Night Market Street, a main thoroughfare that will come to life with vendors and visitors as the sun begins to fade, I emerge onto one of its offshoots and feel like I’ve passed over a cultural threshold.

Hotels flank the entrance of the road, each with a spirit house outside. Below the throne of one small Buddha statue, employees set out an offering of libations and pears. Motorbikes, rickshaws and cars whiz by as handfuls of construction workers, most in flip-flops, prepare to repave the road. A woman passes me carrying two large baskets of longsat (local citrus fruit) on either end of a bamboo pole. So begins our week of ministry visits in this bustling city in northern Thailand.

In contrast, we depart a week later for the verdant deltas of Myanmar (also known as Burma). As our plane descends into Yangon, we’re greeted by the famous Shwedagon Pagoda, ablaze in the setting sun.

Yangon’s beautiful parks and shaded sidewalks are a remnant of its British colonial past. Beneath the trees and alongside the ponds, it’s common to see a dappling of colorful umbrellas, under which adoring couples stroll arm in arm.

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Frontier Fellowship has come to this part of the world to learn more about how the Good News of Jesus is being made known to Buddhists. One of the first lessons imparted to us––Buddhism is a complicated religion, difficult to describe because it finds unique expression in each of the cultures that claim it.

While Buddhism is the majority religion in Thailand and Myanmar (87% and 76% respectively, according to the World Christian Database), people groups, languages and religious practices vary from region to region. A church planter in Thailand explained, “Trying to nail down the tenets of Buddhism is like trying to nail Jell-o to the wall.” The practice of blending and assimilating Buddhist beliefs with local cultural traditions, as well as the propensity toward individualistic rather than communal worship, results in many forms of Buddhist belief and practice.

Assimilation poses challenges in sharing the Gospel. People might readily adopt components of Christian faith but be reluctant to give themselves wholeheartedly to it. Why? One pastor explained, “To be Burmese is to be Buddhist––they’re inseparable.” In Chiang Mai, another pastor agreed, “To be Thai is to be Buddhist.” Christianity is perceived as a religion for white Westerners. “Not only are you changing your religion,” the pastor continued, “but you’re changing your people.”

When asked what has been most effective in introducing people to Jesus, numerous Christian workers agree that it takes an investment of heart and time––time to build genuine relationships and commitment to living an authentic faith within the context of the community being served. As one pastor noted, “You may talk with a person many times about Christ, but really they’re watching your life. The real fruit comes from living with the people and being with the people for a long time.”

This long-term investment is one of the things that awed us most about those we met serving in ministry in these regions. An American couple, church planters, spent decades in relational ministry among the Wa before someone felt ready to be baptized. Today there are numerous churches among this people group and Wa Christians are reaching out to neighboring groups with the Gospel. An organization serving children with AIDS spent its early years helping children die with love, grace and dignity. Now that antiretroviral therapy is readily available, their ministry focuses on helping children live and thrive from infancy to college and beyond. Another organization is working meticulously to introduce Jesus through high-quality, culturally relevant film productions. Still others, like a seminary in Yangon, are nurturing and training men and women to shepherd growing churches and plant new ones.

After centuries of faithfulness and fortitude in sharing the Gospel with the peoples of Southeast Asia, Christian workers today see churches that are beginning to blossom, particularly among ethnic minorities like the Chin, Karen and Wa people groups. As is often the case, the message of Jesus resonates among people who have long been marginalized, persecuted and oppressed by the powerful majority within their societies. Despite the risk of family estrangement and further marginalization, many are drawn to the liberation Jesus offers. In Him they find relationship with a God who loves them, is with them in their suffering and brings hope through the promise of justice. This Good News transforms every part of life.

As we celebrate God’s good work in Southeast Asia, we also recognize that many more people in the region have not yet heard and received the Good News of Jesus. As Executive Director Richard Haney was quick to observe,

While ethnic minorities have really embraced the Gospel, there are very few followers of Jesus among the much larger Thai and Burman people groups. We’ve realized that the stubbornly resistant frontier in these two countries are the ethnic majority. That’s where we want to see seeds of the Gospel grow.

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Walking through the swiftly passing days in Thailand and Myanmar, we asked God to show us specific ways Frontier Fellowship might join some of the ministries working at the forefront of frontier mission among Buddhists. God is faithfully responding to your prayers and ours with wisdom and discernment. Richard is in conversation already with a few new ministry friends about a return vision trip to Southeast Asia as early as next year. Frontier Fellowship is honing in on official partnerships with one or two ministries. Another visit would help further deepen those relationships and also allow the team to introduce others, like you, to what God is doing in this part of the Buddhist world.

We continue to pray, and invite you to join us, asking that the Good News of God’s Kingdom will bring lasting justice, mercy, freedom, peace and joy to all who suffer and to all who seek enlightenment and truth in the Buddhist world. We are confident in God’s creative power to answer the questions and concerns that keep many Buddhists from embracing Jesus. And we trust Him to give Christian workers the compassion, vision and stamina needed to invest their lives in loving relationships over the long haul.

We thank God for drawing Frontier Fellowship more intentionally into the Buddhist world. Thank you for joining us on the journey. May God’s extravagant love continue to transform lives and communities among Buddhists, and may we each know our role in faithfully proclaiming this Good News to all peoples.