“The most important parts of our jobs as pastors is teaching parents how to share their faith with their children.” P’ Noi, pastors wife, 2008
Back in 2008 when I was new and green in Thailand, I had the enormous blessing of living with a Thai Christian family for a short time. I learned so much about culture, language and I made great friends. P’ Noi and Ajarn Bin* had two young kids. Her husband was an exceptional church planter, leading a growing church that God birthed through his soccer and visitation ministry over the course of just a few years. Several times a week I would go to church with them and get to know the families who worshipped together. And every day P’ Noi and I would study Thai and talk about Christianity in Thailand and Thai culture. This particular lesson she passed on to me was one of the most important.
“Thai Christian parents don’t necessarily understand that they are the ones who need to share their faith with their children. You see, normally in Thai culture Buddhism is passed from one generation to the next through the school system. So parents don’t actually pass on their Buddhist beliefs to their children. Once parents become Christians, they kind of assume that the church will take on that responsibility. And as a church we do have kid’s programs, but the most important thing we do is teach parents how to share their faith with their kids. Because Buddhism is so ingrained in the culture and school system, if parents don’t intentionally share their Christian faith with their kids, their kids will be more influenced by Buddhism than by Jesus.”
As I’ve been in Thailand and worked with families in low-income communities over the past decade, I’ve found P’ Noi’s insights right on. I’ve met second-generation Christian parents who told me that their kids were Buddhist while in school and would likely become Christians after. She said it was the same with her and her husband - their parents did not teach them about Jesus when they were kids. It seemed normal and natural to her and it had never occurred to her that she could teach her kids about Jesus.
In January 2022, the Santisuk Families wholistic family development program formally launched. Five families, some Christian and some not, committed as a family to attend every training, every fun day, and receive mentoring for an entire year. The act of making that commitment in and of itself is very impactful. We kicked off our first official event with a training in January on Family Culture. The main theme was leading your family into the Shalom of God. After that training, the most frequent feedback we received from those families was the following:
“I learned that I cannot just pass off my child to someone else. I must teach my child about Jesus. I’m the one who is responsible to raise them to know and love God.”
Praise God for P' Noi and such wise mentoring so many years ago. I am so thankful for all that I learned from this godly woman. And Praise God for this fruit in the families I now engage with 15 years later. We look forward to so much more that we believe God wants to do in low-income families in Bangkok!
* Names have been changed
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