Presbyterian Mission Agency Christian Volunteers during COVID-19

A Letter from Sharon Bryant, serving in Thailand

October 2020

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Dear friends,

As all of us have learned, life under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been challenging. Tomorrow, Ms. Atchima Wongkhiao and I will head up to Nan, Thailand, to check in with the three Christian Volunteers in Thailand who are living there. It will be our first road trip in many, many months and we are not sure what to expect. What we know is that the COVID-19 virus is not spreading within Thailand and that Thailand has moved from the first country outside of China to record an infection in February to the 144th country in the global pandemic list today. Thailand, a country of 70 million people, has identified 3,686 cases of the virus and recorded 59 deaths. The latter number has not changed in two months. Everyone wears face masks in public. Temperatures are taken of visitors in public buildings. Contact tracing is standard practice.

The school year began in July and, as I write this, only two schools have been briefly shuttered when cases of the virus appeared. Since then, there have been no problems and the schools will complete their first semester in the middle of next month. Teachers are wearing face masks or face shields, as are children – even those in kindergarten. We have gotten so used to the tape on the floor that guides us in social distancing that all of us now know how far one meter is without measuring it. Skipping steps on escalators and facing the wall in elevators is now normal behavior. We may even continue to do it long after COVID-19 disappears. It will become another folk legend, like the one where children cut the ends off of a roast because their grandmother did so, without knowing that their grandmother did so because her roasting pan was too small. I sometimes wonder what other COVID-19 practices will be preserved or shared through stories with future generations who have not lived through these days.

A chart in the Bangkok Post of the status of COVID-19 worldwide.

Kindergarten students wearing face masks at school.

A Zoom call with Christian Volunteers in Thailand and their children.

As you might imagine, one of the greatest challenges that Thailand faces in this school year is the lack of foreign teachers. With teachers who returned to their home countries because of the COVID-19 pandemic and people unable to enter Thailand due to immigration restrictions imposed to control the pandemic, the schools are hampered in their ability to hire foreign teachers. Thailand estimates that there are 7,000 English teachers in the country now and that it needs an additional 10,000 to meet the demand. The irony is that, even with the severe shortage of native speaker teachers, the requirements for teachers have increased. Teachers being employed today must possess a university degree and a teaching certificate, both of which must be certified or authenticated by a government agency and/or the university itself. This creates a challenge for those who have been out of school for a while and might not be able to locate those original documents.

Our weekly Zoom Check-In calls with Christian Volunteers in Thailand continue every Thursday evening. Through these calls, we have heard stories of special joys, as well as stories that challenge us. CVTs who returned to their home countries to visit family have been unable to return to Thailand and, after many months, their visas and work permits have now expired. If they choose to return when the borders reopen, they will have to begin the process again.

Still, there are many joys to report. Since my last letter to you, I have Zoomed in to visit several Sunday School classes in the USA, as I have been unable to visit in person. I have also Zoomed in to visit with a Texas chancel choir that is preparing music for livestreamed services of worship. In recent weeks, I have also seen the children of our CVTs and alumni join our weekly Zoom Check-In call. I think we have all learned some new technology during these months that have gone by. In some cases, the technology has helped to keep relationships alive and lifted the spirits of those who cannot venture outside. As we move closer to the holidays and times when we look forward to being with family, I trust that we will find ways to re-imagine how to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas in this year of challenges.

Please pray for all our CVT volunteers and alumni as they continue to share the love of God with the Thai people through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as they look forward to the holidays, many of them in a land where they are not fluent in the local language, and far from family and friends.
Please pray for Thailand as it faces the challenge of political unrest and turmoil in the midst of this COVID-19 pandemic, that its leaders might have wisdom and patience to deal with young people worried about their future and the marginalized who struggle to survive even in the best of times.

I thank you for all you do to support me and my work with Christian Volunteers in Thailand. Your prayers, your letters, your emails, and your contributions to World Mission of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) make all of this possible. And those things are needed more than ever today. Thank you.

May God keep you safe until we meet again,

Sharon L. Bryant

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Tags: Thailand