The Joy of Teaching the Gospel

A Letter from Myoungho Yang and Jiyeon Yoo, mission co-workers serving in Thailand

Summer 2024

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Dear fellow co-workers in God’s mission,

The hot Summer has gone, and the rainy season has arrived in June. It is still hot but not extremely hot. We recently had heavy rains and were worried it would flood, but luckily, it did not. In the morning, we could not see any water on the ground because the parched ground absorbed all the water because it had dried out during the sizzling summer.

Foot washing

Our new semester has begun. The student teams who participated in summer internships throughout Thailand returned. New students have arrived this year, and the graduates have left for their places of ministry. The school conducts a special sending ceremony when the academic year ends. Teachers and all other students gather and pray for the graduates, and teachers wash their feet. The ceremony does not last long, but its memory will stay in the students’ hearts for a long time. We hope the word of Jesus who washed feet of his disciples stay deep in their heart and help them to serve in the places of their ministry: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet” (John 13:14). Since students stay together almost every day from the first day of school until their graduation day, they feel like a family, and teachers feel that way too. We are pleased as we draw a picture in our heart that those students are doing their ministry for the expansion of the Kingdom of God in Thailand. How precious those graduates are when we think of Christianity in Thailand, which accounts for less than 1% of the population.

Last semester I gave lectures in Worship class for the first time since I came to McGilvery College of Divinity. I taught only some portion of the class because foreign teachers can only teach the whole semester alone after passing Thai Language Competency Exam, which is assessed by the Ministry of Education according to the Thai school regulations. Until then, we can team teach together with a Thai teacher and can give lectures for some parts of the course.

The sending prayer

Since I have only studied Thai for one year, it is difficult for me to speak Thai extemporaneously. I prepared my lectures in advance and gave lectures mostly by reading the lecture notes. It took a long time to prepare the lessons in Thai, but I am grateful that students could understand my lectures without any difficulties. Of course, I had a challenging time during the discussion and the question and answer portion. But I still enjoyed it because we did communicate anyway. I will team teach again this semester for the other course. I look forward to another joy in teaching the class. The Ministry of Education offers the exam only once a year in Bangkok in either November or in December. I hope that I can teach the class for the whole semester and offer new courses after passing this exam. I ask you to pray for this.

Myoungho lecturing during a class on worship

During this semester, I also plan to visit churches with our new students. Visiting churches is a good opportunity to get to know Thai churches and new students even though it is not that convenient to travel in a big truck. A couple of months ago we invited the students who visited the churches with us to our home. We prepared food for them. They ate all the food, which we thought was too spicy to eat because they are accustomed to spicy Thai food. Thai food has four strong tastes: salty, spicy, sour and sweet. Northern Thai (where we are living) food is less strong compared to Central or Southern Thai foods, but it is still strong to us.

As I am reading Book of Acts these days, I see that the Gospel is preached, churches are established, and the number of believers is growing in many places by the works of apostles and other believers. I pray that the same thing will happen in Thailand by the grace of God. How grateful it is that you and I are called to join in God’s mission in Thailand as God’s co-workers. We pray that all of us walk together with God, live as a person after God’s own heart, and fulfill God’s will in our daily life. I believe that God helps in this as Paul says, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6)   

Myoungho and Jiyeon from Chiang Mai