(Oct. 28, 2011 - by Ralph Kurtenbach) With many residents of flooded Bangkok, Thailand, evacuating the city due to record monsoon rains, HCJB Global missionaries serving in the country have also been forced to temporarily relocate.
John and Esther Brewer have left Bangkok due to the potential of major flooding that could leave them stranded. The Brewers arrived at the Asia Pacific Regional Ministry Center in another Southeast Asia country Thursday evening. Janine also left her fourth-floor apartment in Bangkok earlier this week in an effort to maintain her travel plans.
"I'd be safe, but from what I understand I could be stranded here for up to a month and would miss my flight to the U.S. and on to Ecuador," wrote Janine. "So my plan is to stay with some friends who live close to the sky train."
Facing its worst flooding in half a century, conditions in the Asian country were expected to worsen this weekend when runoff water from the flooded central plains combines with seasonal high tides.
Janine, who coordinates English-language conversation groups in Thailand, said authorities expected floodwaters to crest this weekend, threatening to overflow some 45 miles of sandbag dikes that have been constructed. The death toll is hovering around 400.
"Everything has ground to a halt due to the flooding, and the two partners with whom we work most closely in Thailand are dealing with flooded houses," said Ty, director of HCJB Global's Asia Pacific Region.
In an effort to prompt people to leave threatened areas or hunker down in shelters, authorities declared a five-day holiday in Bangkok and in 20 provinces affected by the flooding. The holiday began on Thursday, Oct. 27.
"Please be in prayer for all the people here in Thailand," asked Janine, calling the flooding "a disaster that will have repercussions for years." Natural disasters at times increase people's receptivity to the message of God's love even when circumstances are at their worst.
It is so in this situation too, according to Janine who wrote that "Christian Thais are finding openness for the gospel as a result." The flooding has affected about 10 million of Thailand's 67 million residents, 95 percent of whom are Buddhist. It is expected to take more than a month for floodwaters to recede in some areas.
Janine already had plans to visit HCJB Global's offices in Ecuador where she served in administration and launched English-language learning ministry known as English Conversation Project.
The clubs began forming after the "English Conversation" radio programs started airing on Radio Station HCJB. Listeners plied the radio station with requests to converse in English, and Janine took up the new endeavor which has since spawned clubs elsewhere in the world utilizing radio and the Internet.
More recently she began moving the learning conversations to the virtual realm as Christian English speakers are being recruited and equipped to use Skype as a way to use English to reach out to people around the world.
The Brewers are helping with radio-planting efforts in Thailand with more than four partner community stations already on the air and many others in the planning stages.
Sources: HCJB Global, Far East Broadcasting Co., Associated Press, BBC
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