The Nehemiah Community

Student Volunteer Movement 2 is not a missions organization in the traditional sense. We’re not a “sending” agency. Ryan explained it with the story of Nehemiah. When the Jews went about the work of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, each household worked on the section of the wall closest to them. In this way, the workers were building independently and together at the same time. SVM2 wants to take the workers in each area of the world and unite them under the common goal of mobilizing this generation of students to the missions field. Each campus ministry and prayer group can continue ministering in the way they are called to and find works best in their cultural context.

Here is a rough quote/paraphrase from a passage of Ryan Shaw’s book Waking the Giant.

If enough areas and regions are activated, and if they communicate with each other and agree upon common points of prayer and goals for their region, a sense of united momentum emerges. As ministries and organizations serving the emerging generation around the world begin to implement similar strategies and points of focus, a massive and widespread international movement occurs.

Through networks and collaborations, the body of Christ can function in unity for His purposes, instead of doing things as individual organizations. We can do more for the kingdom if we unite under a common vision and work towards a broad goal using out combined resources and efforts.

Thai Church

Last Sunday I attended a Thai church whose pastor is one of our neighbors. This church will be helping the Shaws and I get work visas when our 3 month visas expire. It is important to me to connect with the Thai believers in Chiang Mai, to see their heart for the city. Many of the missions organizations based in Chiang Mai just see the city as a location, not as an opportunity to minister. Because of this many of the native Christians have negative feelings towards the foreign Christians. Instead we should be supporting and learning from one another.

The church felt like any small church in the United States. We sang worship songs before the message, with the words projected on a screen up front. Thai script is completely unreadable to me so far, but the first few songs also had the lyrics written out in the western alphabet. It was fun to sing along to the songs, having no idea what I was singing but knowing it was worship. I was surprised when two of the songs actually were translated into English! So at that point I could sing along to the music in my own language while the rest sang in Thai. I loved the idea of believers worshiping side by side in their own language but with the same words.

Our interpreter was a woman named Julie. She was a Filipino-American woman who had been living in Chiang Mai for six years. It felt awkward to have her sitting behind us explaining the sermon as the pastor spoke. I felt like it must be distracting for the rest of the congregation and tiring for Julie. I also found it hard to focus on the message when it was coming to me second hand. There were even a couple antidotes that Julie was unable to translate.

After the sermon and a couple more songs, we were dismissed and there was a potluck lunch! The church has a lunch every other Sunday where people bring some of their favorite dishes. The food was as tasty as it was unrecognizable. It’s always fun to sample the food that the native people eat and enjoy, as opposed to restaurant food where you never know if they are catering to your western taste buds.

As with most things I’m finding here in Thailand, I was surprised at how similar everything was to what I am used to. Besides the language, this church felt like any small church in the United States. The format of the service and the content felt very familiar. It’s hard to say if this is evidence of churches taking on the culture of the foreign missionaries who help them start or if it shows that we are all not as different as we think.

World Club Land!

The residential areas on the fringes of Chiang Mai are split into neighborhoods called Moobans. The mooban where I live happens to be called World Club Land. While it sounds like the name of a touristy resort or tacky country club, it is a simple mooban just like the others. One distinction it has is that it is the home of Grace International School where many of the students are children of missionaries. For this reason there is an abundance of foreigners in the neighborhood. I found it surreal the first few days here, seeing all of the non-Thais walking past my window. I was surprised to learn that the neighborhood was given its fitting name even before the school and the corresponding flood of Westerners took over. Apparently each mooban tries to take on its own feel, and with World Club Land they were going for a fitnessy, club feel. The school, which is open to all mooban residence after school hours, does have a plethora of tennis, basketball and racket ball courts, all of which I am not likely to ever use. But it’s nice that they are there.



One afternoon I took a walk down my street and was surprised by some of the huge houses down the road. My house is by no means grand, but less than a mile down the road there are some truly palatial properties! The remarkable thing is that just a couple minutes more down the road were some houses you would be fair in calling shanties. These are residences built from old repurposed timber, bits of metal and sheets of plastic. It’s always interesting to me to see places where conspicuous wealth touches elbows with the poor. (Sorry I don’t have more pictures, but it makes me feel creepy taking pictures of strangers’ houses!)

Lantern Festival

This week was the festival Loi Krathong. This festival is known as the festival of lights. Throughout Thailand lanterns are lit and set off into the night sky. Little banana leaf boats, often with candles, are released on the river. There are parades and fireworks and people out on the streets celebrating.

I joined thousands of people at a local college to light and release the huge lanterns. You may have watched the movie Tangled and seen the lanterns they let go. In Loi Krathong however, they have lanterns that are about as tall as I am!

One more.

I'm finally here! I arrived in Chiang Mai just yesterday morning, but it seems like it’s been a lot longer. Ryan and Kelly, the couple I will be working with here, have been showing me around. Last night we took a quick drive around the city in an attempt to get me oriented. The city of Chiang Mai is over 700 years old, but the name translates to “New City”. The original town was enclosed by city walls and a moat. The old city walls are still intact in many places, if only in bits and pieces. Chiang Mai is a popular tourist destination, as well as a major hub for missionaries. A large portion of the population is foreigners, which makes for a very unique environment.

I will be living in a house just south of the city. I am renting a room from a woman who has been teaching at Grace International School for 4 years. This is the school where many of the local missionaries send their children. Sarah has been busy with parent teacher conferences this week, so I met her for the first time just now. She won me over instantly by buying me oreos.

Student Volunteer Movement 2 has set up their office in a house in the neighborhood where I live. These first few days Ryan and Kelly are letting me take it easy with orientation meetings in the morning, time to rest and get organized in the afternoon and then exploration trips into the city. This afternoon Kelly and I ventured out and tried the most common form of public transportation: Songthaews. Songthaews are covered trucks with two benches in the back. They travel down set routes, designated by their color. Luckily there are plenty of songthaews which run up and down the main road near our neighborhood.

Our goal was to make it to the Big C, the nearest shopping market. This turned out to be an incredibly easy task. Kelly and I simply waved one over and hopped in the back. When we neared the market Kelly pushed a red button on the roof, just like you might do in a bus. We hopped off and I paid the driver 10 baht, which is the amount Kelly’s Thai housekeeper advised was normal. Kelly told me she asked Pinim first so we wouldn’t be “taken for a ride.” She meant taken advantage of, since we literally were paying to be taken for a ride!

Give

Pioneers is the missions agency which handles my financial support while I am overseas. All donations should be sent to my account and Pioneers will send me a salary each month and reimburse any unexpected expenses. They will provide you with a tax-deductible receipt when you send money to my account.

Every donation to Pioneers must include my full name and my account number: 111599.

There are multiple ways to support me financially during my time in Thailand. Please visit this link to give a one-time gift:https://ww4.pioneers.org/tabid/215/Default.aspx?view=givinginfo&id=-2&name=MISSIONARY

Here is information about automated giving through the Pioneers website:http://www.pioneers.org/Give/AutomatedGiving.aspx

If you would like to send a physical check, please contact me at blbrassea @ gmail . com.

Thank you!

Student Volunteer Movement 2

While in Thailand, I will be serving with the organization Student Volunteer Movement 2. SVM2 sprung from a group of missionaries’ observation of revival among this generation of young believers. It is an international network of students, leaders, churches and organizations serving a grassroots missions movement to spread the word among the least reached of God’s children. The internship, which will be starting in May of 2012, will serve to prepare young believers from all over the globe to be an effective witness to the world. My role will be helping with the administrative work and logistics of the internship as well as some more direct roles with the interns such as leading bible studies and outreach trips.

Learn more at www.svm2.net.

The Beginning

My journey started at New Years when I had a strong feeling of renewal and decided to do a ten-day Daniel fast. I felt that the goal of my fast should be to focus my attention on God and to seek his direction for my life. I have been working as an insurance broker for the past three years but have always wanted to find something more inline with my gifts and passions.

During this time of fasting, my friend Julie was approached by missionary friends of hers, Ryan and Kelly Shaw. They were planning to start an internship with their missions organization, Student Volunteer Movement 2 (SVM2), and need help with the administrative work.

Julie shared this news with me in an email and (half) jokingly asked “So, you want to move to Thailand?” At the time I didn’t consider this decision for myself, however, the more I walked and prayed with her through this, the more I began to picture myself in this new Thai life. I spent hours lying awake considering what it would be like to go, in the morning thinking it was ridiculous only to lose more sleep the next night. After the third night with visions of Thailand dancing in my head, I asked Julie to give Ryan my email address. During these nights I’d asked myself, do you feel “called” to this? Is God asking you to go? I didn’t feel exactly called but instead felt the word “gift” come to mind. God sees me and knows my dreams. “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart!”

After Ryan and I exchange a few emails, he asked me to consider joining them in Thailand. By this time Julie was leaning towards not going, and the fact that my friend would not be with me made the choice become more real. In the end I couldn’t take the idea of saying no. After considering all the angles I knew I didn’t want to live my life knowing that I had passed up this opportunity. So I told them yes.

Since then, life has been a whirlwind of events. God has been pushing me out of my comfort zone, transforming my ideas of who I am in him and what it means to be a “missionary.” I spent a week of orientation with Pioneers (our mission sending organization), was baptized at my home church, and wrestled with the emotions of preparing to leave my family and friends for 14 months. I am excited about experiencing a new culture and also exploring what I’ll be doing there as a servant of God.