A letter from Esther Wakeman serving in Thailand
Fall 2014 - Developing Global Citizens
Dear friends,
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Jim contributes detail about our student development projects for administrators learning about Payap's new strategic and action plans
Adding to the joy of working with our new president at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Dr. Sompan Wongdee (see my Summer letter), I’m delighting in my new assistant, Thosaphon Bunsiri (Jim), who is responsible for Student Development. Dr. Sompan reorganized Payap administratively and added Student Development to my portfolio. Jim was a student leader while he studied at Payap and graduated in Hotel Management. He became a teacher with us, and went on to do a master’s degree in Information Systems. He’s now completing his doctorate in that field. In fact, he graciously agreed to return to work full time as he completes his Ph.D. to help us in Student Development. I am so glad. He’s smart, organized, computer-savvy, people-savvy, and highly motivated to help with Dr Sompan’s vision to make Payap a great place to learn and work, and move us toward our vision of being an International Learning Resource, Developing Global Citizens.
Recently Jim astounded me with his effort to understand and support my passion to instill Payap’s core values into our students. Several years ago Payap’s board of trustees affirmed five core values that are rooted in the Christian faith and are shared by other religious traditions. The chaplaincy staff and I have been working to disseminate these values over the past three years and it’s been a bumpy ride at times. In a rather feeble attempt to clarify how these values are connected to our vision, mission, identity, and uniqueness, I wrote a five-page paper with charts and explanations and background and sent it to my leadership team. Writing things out this way helped me, but this long treatise in English was not exactly good news for my leaders. The next week I went to Jim’s office to talk about a possible new project through which we could instill these core values, and he walked over to his file cabinet and pulled off a 5-foot-long-pages-taped-together printout of my treatise and taped it on the wall next to us. The guy was seriously trying to figure out what in the world I was trying to communicate. It also was a gentle way to communicate to me my rather unhelpful communication!
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Dr. Sompan informing Payap leaders of our new strategic and action plans
In spite of my slight embarrassment, I grabbed the opportunity to pour out my heart, explaining my dream (and catching him up on some training stuff he’s missed during his studies off campus over the past few years). As I shared, he responded with practical ways we could do this project so that our teachers and students would not even quite realize they are learning the core values while learning them. His organizational gifts complement my vision gifts wonderfully. Within a couple of days he’d drafted the basic project proposal, and as we get budget and a few more details worked out, I’m hopeful we’ll be embarking on a new adventure with our students—empowering them to grow as global citizens as they serve their neighbors using their talents and passions and reflecting on our core values in the process.
Jim is one of many colleagues at Payap who is not a follower of Jesus, but who works with diligence, patience, and passion to support our mission of seeking academic and ethical excellence. Pray for my relationship with Jim that he will experience God’s love through me, and that together we can create an outstanding student development program over the next few years.
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Frosh pharmacy students celebrating their second-place award in the initiation cheering contest
Because both Jim and I are new to this area of work at Payap, we’ve been learning as we go. Our student government representatives are also new to their jobs, so we’ve had some struggles finding our feet together. We’re not there yet. Please pray that together this year we can create a foundation for the future in student government and leadership that is inviting and affirming—where students are truly the focus and are given adequate support and appropriate responsibility.
Please also pray that the chaplaincy staff and student development staff will enjoy synergy as our offices work together more closely—especially in the area of planting our core values in our whole community. Pray that I will have wisdom and creativity for this ongoing initiative so that it becomes something people value and enjoy.
Thank you for your support through prayer and finances. God is at work through a highly diverse group of people at Payap joining us together to bless our students not only with knowledge and professional skills, but with attitudes, life skills, and habits rooted in God’s ways that will help them flourish as global citizens in Thailand and around the world. Please prayerfully consider increasing your support through prayer and finances. And do update me on how I might pray for you.
Blessings,
Esther
The 2014 Presbyterian Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 224
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