I came to the U.S.A. in 1981 after finishing my master degree education in medical social work from Thammasat University and some graduated theological education from Thailand Baptist Theological Seminary. I came to help Thai and Laotian churches to find the ways to reach out to a big group of about 200,000 Laotian refugees, which came to resettle in America after the Communists seized power in Laos. I considered myself a missionary from Thailand who came to America to help Thai and Laotian people. I spent my first six months traveling all over Southern California, Texas and New Mexico to consult with many churches and social agencies and started a working plan for them to reach out to Laotian refugees. I finished my project in six months.

After that project, I decided to go to The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. to take more social-work courses to equip myself for the new challenge. I hoped to get a doctoral degree or at least some doctoral education so I could go back to Thailand to continue my work as a social worker and to do some teaching in college. While in Washington D.C., I felt a strong call from God to enter the ministry full-time as a minister not as a social worker. After praying and searching my soul for several months, I made another decision to come back to California to start working as an assistant pastor for a Thai church in Los Angeles and enrolled in Fuller Theological Seminary.

A few months later, a Thai Southern Baptist church convinced me to transfer my study from Fuller Theological Seminary to Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. I began at the Southern California Campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, and eventually moved to the main campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley. I studied three more years at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary to finish my Master of Divinity and Master of Religious Education.

While I was studying at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, I had a dream of starting a Thai church in San Francisco since there was no Thai Christian church in Northern California. I found out there were about 5,000 Thai people live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they had four Thai Buddhist Temples, one in San Francisco, one in Berkeley, one in Sunnyvale, and another one in Fremont. I began my Thai church in San Francisco on the first Sunday of September 1983, at the age of 28, with five female members.

We had to move the Thai ministry from San Francisco to San Rafael in the second year because of the insufficient space to grow a church and we also found out that Thai people did not concentrate in San Francisco, but they scattered around the Greater Bay Area. Along the way, we also expanded our vision to work with Laotian people alongside the Thai people. Since both Thai and Laotian people are very close in culture, history, language and origin, so it is logical to reach both groups in the same time.

Most of our church growth came from five Home Bible Fellowship Groups that I planted along the years, one in San Francisco, one in San Rafael, one in Richmond, one in Rohnert Part and the last one in Fairfield. I tried so many church growth methods from textbooks, such as knocking-doors ministry, telephone ministry, letter-writing ministry, visitation ministry, etc., but none of them work with Thai or Laotian people in America. However, over a period, I found that friendship, kinship and fellowship worked very well in our church.

I started Home Bible Fellowship in members’ house. I asked each owner to invite his closest friends and some close relatives to join in our fellowship of dinner, group counseling and religious discussion on the topics that related to their lives from the Christian perspectives. I would build friendship and fellowship with those non-believers for one to two years before I invited them to visit our church in San Rafael. That might seem too long for American standard, but Thai and Laotian people would never trust a stranger, especially a Christian. Because of this approach, many of our members became Christian in America and converted to Christianity through our Home Bible Fellowships. Since then I still go out four evenings every week to lead those Home Bible Fellowships because this strategy still works very well for Thai and Laotian people in America.

Even though Thai and Laotian people in our church are very close in culture and history; there are still some differences, which we need to work out all the time. Most of Thai people in America immigrated here for more than 20 years. They came from well-to-do families that lived in big cities and were well educated. Many of them were business owners or professionals in many fields. All of the Laotian people were refugees who ran away from their Communist government. They lost everything when they came to America. They came from all occupations with all levels of education and all kinds of backgrounds.

We use Thai language as a main language in our church and use Laotian and English languages as needed. Most Thais do not understand Laotian but all Laotian understand Thai. Many Laotian people were refugees in Thailand for many years before they immigrated to America so they picked up Thai language while they lived in Thailand.

Most of our members came from Thailand and Laos but they also came from dozens of ethnic minorities from both countries. Some of us are Chinese descendants from Thailand and Laos and speak many dialects of Chinese. All of the ethnic minorities from Thailand and Laos in our church have their own ancestors’ languages and cultures. So far, we have managed our differences well and live happily together in the same church.

For most Thai Christians, and me the difference in denominations do not mean much in theology or doctrine, show more in the differences in styles of worship, tradition and the clothes of ministers. I began my Christian journey as a fundamental-conservative Chinese boy in Thailand and grew up to be a moderate-conservative Thai preacher in America. Now, as a middle-aged man, a large part of my Theology is still based on conservative doctrine, while some of my teaching come from moderate theology.

Future Ministries:

One of my biggest dreams is to develop theological books in Thai and Laotian languages. Since I started the Thai-Lao School of Theology in 1983, I went back to Thailand several times to search for Thai and Laotian theological textbooks. I found just a few of them in Thai and none at all in Laotian. There is no incentive for professors of seminary in Thailand to write and develop any theological books. They do not have time to do this work and this kind of work will not pay them enough.

I began the first step of turning this dream into a reality by printing out my lecture notes from the courses that I taught in the Thai-Lao School of Theology since then. Now, I use these books as handbooks for my students and give them out free to theological libraries in Thailand. The second step is to rewrite those lecture notes a few more times in the next 10 years. The third step is to try to find a Christian printing house in Thailand, which is willing to print some of these revised lecture notes for a larger group of readers in Thailand and Laos. You can find those books at www.ThaiLaoSchoolOfTheology.com , free of charge.

I have never intended that those theological books, which I plan to produce, will make me any money or much fame because there are just a tiny group of Thai and Laotian Christians. Beside that, most Thai and Laotian people do not like reading anything too serious, but they love reading something easy. I will have a hard time trying to distribute those theological books to the larger audience. Finding a publisher who will be willing to take a chance of losing a lot of money by printing serious theological books will be even more difficult.

One day on my last trip to Thailand, I talked with a Christian printing house about the possibility of printing my theological book. He told me that there were only two options for my project. He said, “If you were very famous, then I would finance your project.” That was his first option. The second option, as he continued, “You must be very rich to pay for all the expenses of your project.” Neither well I am rich nor famous so I do not qualify for either option.

One of my Thai friends gave me a practical suggestion when I met him in Bangkok. He said, “Savang, the only way Thai people will buy your book is to give away a free ticket to see a soccer game inside each book.” What he tried to tell me were Thai people wanted ticket to see soccer game, the most popular sport in Thailand. They did no want my theological book. However, I still dream this impossible dream almost every day, and by God’s grace and mercy, my dream will become reality one day.

2006