By Suzie, CBF field personnel
Toward the end of our PPDA season in the U.S., Kirk and I enjoyed a week with partners in the Washington, D.C. area. We loved reconnecting with friends at Fredericksburg Baptist Church, who have stood with us in prayer and support for the B people since 1999. The FBC family even provided the funds to build our B village house which is still used today for not only our family but for visiting students, researchers, project teams and partners. We shared with FBC friends our joys AND burdens, and that the B church is quite small and struggling, even though the B New Testament was published in 2016.
The next day we spent the day in D.C. As Bible translators, we were eager to visit the Museum of the Bible. One section has an oval exhibit showcasing published Bibles from every language around the world. We were thrilled to find the Northern Thai (Kammuang) and the B New Testaments, having invested years in both communities, and were struck to tears as we saw them on the shelf. We both had to sit down as we felt so burdened by the sad reality that the B New Testament is not only sitting on a shelf in the Museum of the Bible, but it is collecting dust on other shelves in Thailand. We prayed together there on the museum bench for the B church and friends who still live in so much fear of spirits and alcohol addiction.
Though publishing the New Testament after 18 years was cause for much celebration (and that was a SWEET celebration at General Assembly last year!), what is the point of having the Book if it’s not read, understood or its Author embraced? It was a sobering moment as we prepared to return “home” to Thailand in March. Would the B New Testament just be eaten up by the termites in village homes? Why would God allow us to invest 18 years in something that wasn’t being used?
Fast forward six weeks.
In our village house, around the bamboo table with Somchai, long time co-worker and translator. He shared about division in the B village church, the Thai pastor’s decision to leave and that they were not holding services anymore. The church members were not only B people, but Khammuang and other tribal groups. For this reason and the fact that their supply pastor was Thai, they had been using the Thai Bible in church. Now that there were so many problems and no pastor, four B believers decided to meet each afternoon for home fellowship, dusted off their B Bibles and began a new way of doing church.
Around the table, they sang B worship songs from YouTube, read passages out loud in the B language, and while listening to the passage, others would draw or doodle what they were hearing. They began interacting with God’s word in a whole new way, in the B language of their heart. Somchai says it’s like God’s word has come alive again as they sing, read, listen and draw.
They celebrated communion together, served on banana leaves. A neighbor joined the fellowship and said that he was ready to embrace Jesus. His father came over and started yelling at all of them for being Christians, but they continued in worship and the young man stayed. Eventually his father gave up and walked home. The man said that he has seen the power of God in the lives of this tiny community, and that he needs God to help him battle addiction and depression. He wants to know the Author of this Book. And this Author is at work in ways we can never imagine, even through church divisions and conflicts.
Why do we question His ability, His timing and His ways, when He tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and unmovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” (NLT) May we and the B church stand on these promises and treasure the gift of His word in our hearts.