Wayland students join Alaska church for service in Thailand

PLAINVIEW—While most students from Wayland Baptist University spent their four-week winter break from school at home relaxing, working and celebrating Christmas with their families, a few opted to trade home for a mission trip overseas.

Students Matt Anderson and Corey Jones joined members of Anderson’s home church, University Baptist in Anchorage, Alaska, together with volunteers the Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center and Wayland’s campus in Anchorage for a mission trip serving Burmese refugees from Myanmar living in Thailand.

In Thailand, the 25-member group was divided into smaller units for specific mission projects. One group conducted a three-day medical clinic in one of the local churches, with help from a physician in a neighboring country. They also installed water purification units for the Thai and Burmese populations in Ranong, which is near many of the areas hit hardest by the tsunami. Another group conducted carnivals for children in local schools, presenting Bible stories, singing songs and playing games in booths.

The team was well-received, with more than 80 patients seen that first day at the clinic and 100 students returning to the school, despite it being a school holiday, to attend a carnival staffed by the American visitors. The carnival was a hit for the children, who particularly enjoyed throwing wet sponges at the mission team who had their faces through a cardboard drawing of a gorilla, Anderson said.

“One thing I noticed is that every kid there was having a good time. They were all happy and smiling and all seemed healthy,” said Anderson, whose mother, B.J., organized the trip and was part of the medical team. “Even walking down the street, they were friendly and respectful to us. Respect is a big thing in their culture, and I thought that was neat.”

Jeff Anderson, professor of religion at the Wayland Baptist University campus in Anchorage, Alaska, distributes pencils to Thai students at a school the mission team visited over the holidays.

Anderson and Jones, both music majors at Wayland, took musical instruments on the trip to aid in worship and singing during at various times on the trip. Recent Wayland graduate Hayley Cox, a Plainview native who works for the Plainview Daily Herald and is pursuing her master’s degree, went along as well, documenting the trip in photographs and keeping an online blog about the group’s activities while helping with the children’s ministry team.

On the third and final day, the clinic had served about 300 people in the area plagued by malaria, dengue fever, cholera and infected teeth and diabetes, many conditions associated with poor nutrition.

Workers provided treatment and consultation for primarily gastrointestinal, skin and joint pain issues, along with spiritual guidance and prayer, leaving them all with vitamins and goody bags. They left the remainder of their medical supplies with the hospital in Ranong.

The team successfully installed three water-purification units, a unique system that creates chlorine from table salt to disinfect the water and make it safe for drinking. The simple, lightweight and cost-effective unit is designed for use in harsh environmental conditions and minimal resources.

Wayland Baptist University senior Matt Anderson takes advantage of the warm summer weather in Thailand to dive off a cliff into a lake in a Thai park during the New Year holiday spent ministering to Burmese refugees in Ranong.

The children’s team shared songs, Bible stories, crafts and the love of God with many school children, and they traveled one day to an island village where they ministered to the Mochan tribe, while the water team installed a purification unit.

The entire mission team spent New Year’s Day with the Burmese, enjoying a day at a Ranong park with worship, eating, swimming in the lake and even diving off cliffs. Other park visitors joined the group, curious about the white people.

The group worshipped at a Burmese church and was able to spend the last two days of their time in Thailand in the Similan Islands, a beach resort where they swam, snorkeled and relaxed a bit after a long week of work.

For Cox, the trip left a definite impression.

“I think I can safely say that interacting with the Thai and Burmese was the best part of the trip. It’s so uplifting to find that despite the language barrier, the culture differences and the distinction between our physical features, we are all the same people underneath,” she said. “It’s so amazing to travel to the other side of the world and see a reflection of yourself in someone else. God had touched our lives in an awesome way.”