A letter from Bill Yoder in Thailand
Christmas 2003
Dear Friends,
It has been an exciting year, but has passed by all too quickly. 2003 marks forty years since I first set foot in Thailand and Chiang Mai. I arrived in Thailand August 12, 1963, our Queen’s birthday, and in Chiang Mai August 15, 1963. On August 16, 2003 John and Martha (Grodzins) Butt, Hiroshi Tanaka and his wife, Michiko, about 500 friends and former students, and I celebrated the occasion in grand style. John, Martha, Hiroshi and I all arrived about the same time and have maintained our friendship over the miles and through the years. Tanaka-sensei is now the chancellor of Joshi Gakuin School in Tokyo, the oldest school for women in Japan, opened by missionaries in the nineteenth century. Martha and John are at Payap University here in Chiang Mai.
Former students and friends celebrating 40 years in Thailand, August 16, 2003.
This has also been a grand year for the McGilvary Faculty of Theology. We have 117 students studying in preparation for the ministry. We have increased our faculty by two members and we have sent a third faculty member abroad for further study. We are working very hard on having a master of divinity program in English in place and ready for students in September 2004. We are doing this in order to help the churches in this part of the world where theological education is very limited. We have great hopes for this new program, which should prove helpful in that students will no longer need a two-year intensive program in the Thai language before beginning their program. Through this program we hope to serve the churches of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, and China in particular.
Our McGilvary artist, Sawai Chinnawong, is currently in New Haven, Connecticut, under a program sponsored by the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, the Overseas Ministries Study Center, Yale University Divinity School, and the Yale School of Sacred Music as guest Artist in Residence. Sawai Chinnawong and his art have been a very special part of my life over the past twenty years. I am particularly pleased that he has received this recognition and opportunity in presenting his work to the wider world of Christian art.
Although this has been a very good year for the seminary in many, many ways, financially it has been quite another story. I support the scholarship needs of the seminary students from the interest earned on our endowments. The interest on the endowments has now fallen to one percent (1%!). Although the endowment has grown since 1986 from two million baht to over twenty-five million baht, the interest rate during the same period has dropped from 16-17% down to 1%. We have gained almost nothing over the years. Be that as it may, the scholarships were disbursed a month ago with the faith that the arrears of many hundreds of thousands of baht would be covered as contributions continue to come in from friends of the seminary. We need your help. And, of course, McGilvary will continue to need your help until the economy takes a turn for the better. Presbyterian Churches can help us by giving to Extra Commitment Opportunity Giving at the Louisville offices.
Contributions may be sent to: Central Receiving Service, Section 300, Louisville, KY 40289. Write the title (McGilvary Scholarship Fund) and the ECO number on the subject line (ECO #862414) of the check and put it on your cover letter, too. Send a copy of the cover letter to the Office of Global Education at 100 Witherspoon St. Louisville, KY 40202-1396. Or click here to give online.
My friends, we are living in very difficult times. Terror and fear seem to be the hallmarks of our lives these days. In the midst of such uncertainty we tend to strike out with bitterness, suspicion, revenge and cruelty. Christ did not die upon the cross for this. He died that we might have life, and have it abundantly. “There is no fear in love. Perfect love casts out fear.”
Even though he is in America at the moment, Acharn Sawai has done another beautiful Christmas card for me: “Light in the Darkness.” May the light of Christ’s love shine through the darkness of our times.
Grace and Peace,
William J. Yoder
The 2004 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 207
