Holistic Missions

Bamboo structures guarding the path to a village
or fields aimed at protecting people from
spirits wishing to harm them.

Especially in our early years in Thailand, most of the villages we visited were already Christian. As an agricultural missionary, I worked to help people better support themselves by introducing new crops like coffee and helping with village-based irrigation and water systems. Marcia was heavily involved in helping young people get an education. On a couple occasions, we’d meet other westerners that upon hearing we weren’t serving as a pastor or church planter would say something to the effect, “Oh, so you’re not a real missionary.”  

Real or not, one of our first lessons learned while visiting villages in the more remote areas was the value of the holistic style of mission work that the American Baptists and TBMF practiced. Traditionally, the Karen were animists where their belief system is based on keeping the spirits appeased. If any spirit is left unappeased, then some calamity can be caused to affect the offending person or family. So, if there was a crop failure and a family was left with an insufficient rice supply, they might acknowledge that it was a lack of rain, a fungus, insect damage or whatever, that caused the crop to fail. At the same time, they knew that causing the drought, fungus, insects or damage was an offended spirit.

The situation was similar with health issues. A case of malaria or dengue fever might be caused by a mosquito bite, but the reason behind that bite was an offended spirit. Heart disease, kidney stones, the flu, digestive problems, natural disasters, man-made calamities, whatever the issue was, the belief was that there was an offended spirit causing the problem. 

When bad luck, disease or calamity affected
a whole village, the shaman might dictate
that the whole village had to move. Here are the
 remains of an abandoned village site.

The solution for an offended spirit was to appease that spirit with the village shaman serving as the go-
between for the people and the spirit world. A person that was sick or had suffered a crop failure would visit the shaman, explain the problem and the shaman would discern how the spirit had been offended (often by reading chicken bones), and prescribe what must be done. Usually, the offended spirit could be appeased by an animal sacrifice and/or some payment to the shaman.

So, in the mind of an animist Karen, everything in life is a spiritual matter. Crops, food, money, health, weather, coincidence, luck, love, grades on a test, jobs, what critter crosses your path (which could be an omen for good or bad) when you go out for a walk, everything was up to the spirits. Into this environment and mindset then, evangelists and missionaries were sent. A missionary presenting the “Good News” that through belief in Christ our sins will be forgiven and we’ll have eternal life might sound good. But, the Karen animists were concerned more about how they can live today and survive until next week all while keeping the spirits at bay.

Platform where a sacrifice had
 been offered to the spirits

Therefore, an evangelist that could come into a village and say, yes, I want to teach you about Jesus Christ. Yes, believe and Jesus can forgive your sins and open the door for you to go to heaven. Yes, with Christi’s help I can also help you produce crops, fight drought, fight bugs, and fight crop diseases. And yes, with Christ, I can also help provide you with medicines that can help you when you get diseases and yes, I can even help your young people get educated. Your children will be able to read and write. They’ll know the laws of the land and they’ll know what their rights are and they’ll know how to help you really be a part of Thailand. An evangelist who can say “Yes” to all those things and more and back it up with action, will get a lot further than someone that only preaches and then leaves, never to be seen again.

Early on, even in the days of Adoniram Judson who started the Baptist mission work in Burma in 1813, the Baptists have taken a holistic approach to missions. The goal for evangelistic efforts was to develop a long term relationship with the people they were working with, and work to establish a self-sustaining church that was interested in all areas of a person’s life and could take action to help.

In America, I feel like too many of us compartmentalize our life. We might be one person at school, a little different person at work, a little different person at home and still a little different at church. The Karen however, seemed to consistently be themselves no matter where they were or what they were doing. Their traditional faith led them to have beliefs that affected all areas of their life. If faith in Christ was to replace their animistic beliefs, then Christ had to be interested in all areas of their life as well. We were glad to be a part of showing that yes, Christ was indeed interested and able to lead, guide, protect, heal and help with anything and everything in life.