‘I teach English to university students in northern Thailand, the majority of whom are Buddhist.
I arrived in Chiang Mai in 2011, armed with my TEFL certificate and a few books on grammar and pronunciation. These and my experience of having spent two months at ‘The Centre’, a Christian outreach foundation, the previous year helped calm my nerves. I knew that some of the students I’d met before would still be there and I couldn’t wait to see them again. Two of them had Skyped me when I’d been struggling with the amount of work and lack of sleep in the middle of my Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA) course and those calls had hugely motivated me to keep going.
The Centre is close to two universities with around 50,000 students between them. We teach conversational English because although the students have already learnt English, to have help from a native speaker is a very attractive prospect. The ability to communicate well in English increases confidence and opens doors to a better career and future, both nationally and internationally. The Thai culture is very relational, and it is therefore easy to build relationships with the students. Indeed, it is a total joy and privilege as it gives us opportunities to link into what God is already doing in their lives and to introduce them to Jesus, so that they can encounter him for themselves
We seek to show the students God’s unconditional love and acceptance. At our weekly social nights, we eat together, play a game and someone will share their life story. Once students start coming along frequently and feel plugged in to The Centre, they talk about ‘the Centre family’. We sometimes use the Bible story-telling technique in our lessons, and one of the leaders from a local Thai church that we partner with holds weekly seeker Bible studies. These evenings begin with food and end with a time of sharing.
Soon after I started teaching English to one student in 2021, I told her the story of Zacchaeus using the story-telling technique. She was really interested and told me that when she was in primary school, some visitors had given each child a book about God and put another in the school library. She had read them eagerly but hadn’t heard anything more about God until our lesson. She is now baptised, growing in her faith, and is a keen member of a Thai church. It is a total thrill for me to read the Bible with her every week.
It is not difficult to talk to the students at The Centre about Jesus. They are very aware of the spiritual world and in times of trouble, stress or illness, the offer to pray for and with them is nearly always accepted. Indeed, it is often through answered prayer that students start to show interest in God. Praying with the students is also a great opportunity to share truths about God and his love for them. Often, we see God working graciously and gently in people’s hearts. One student told me over dinner one night, ‘I think the Buddha is important to me because he helps me with my consciousness, but God is love.’
‘One student told me over dinner one night, ‘I think the Buddha is important to me because he helps me with my consciousness, but God is love’.’
Teaching in small groups helps us get to know our students better and creates opportunities for sharing our lives with them. We also spend time with them outside lessons, in the club-like atmosphere downstairs in The Centre, eating with them in the excellent local food markets and generally showing love and support in appropriate ways. Celebrating special days (Valentine’s Day is very popular!) and playing games, including water fights provides lots of fun ways to share life. Giving thanks before meals creates another opportunity to pray for them.
A student who comes along to a weekly English language drop-in session we run in one of the universities recently shared her life story at one of our social nights. She said she was very nervous when she first came to The Centre.
She continued, ‘But I also felt that the people there were incredibly kind. I wondered, ‘Is this what Christians are like?’ From then on, I started visiting The Centre regularly – it became like a second home to me.’ She then explained that over the course of a year, she ‘spent time learning about God’. The turning point for her was when she prayed to God at a time of crisis and he answered her prayer. ‘After that’, she continued, ‘I started studying the Bible to learn more about God. Since then, I feel like my life has improved a lot – not because being a Christian makes everything perfect, but because whenever I face problems, I know I am not alone.’
Whether we see God at work in our students’ lives in big ways, small ways or none at all apart from knowing they love The Centre, we can know that it’s God’s work and we are privileged to be a part of that.’
Could you join the work God is doing in Southeast Asia?
We are seeking mature, godly TEFL evangelists to share the gospel, with opportunities in Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Get in touch to start a conversation.