Those who know me best, as well as those who only know me from my periodic postings on this forum, will not be surprised to hear that I am quite capable of arousing strong, negative emotions, even without trying to. Were I to put my mind to it, I think I'd be unequaled.
In the late 1990s, when we were living in the jungles of Nan Province here in Thailand, I ran afoul of some vested interests in the local area. Not only had I unwittingly built a house astride a trail used to transport illegal drugs, but my efforts to evangelize and help the Yellow Leaf people in practical ways in that area made me a stench in the nostrils of a large number of influential, powerful people. People who were accustomed to getting their own way.
A fair bit of pressure was brought to bear on me personally, but a great deal was put on the civil servants who ran the province. Their lives were made miserable – protests were organized, cooperation on projects was withheld, negative stories were run in the local papers. They were not happy. In fact, they were angry. And, they were not angry with the people who were making life miserable for them. They were angry with me!
One day, the Provincial Governor invited me to lunch. (Governors are civil servants in Thailand, not elected officials.) Wow, a power lunch! Not often that I get an invitation like that. Never before or since, come to think of it. We'll be able to come up with a plan to get things calmed down and still respect the human rights of the Yellow Leaf people, I thought.
Before we ordered our meals, the Governor fixed me with a stern look and said, "You're still a young man. It would be a pity if something were to happen to you." Ouch!
Another official who had joined us said, "Why, if you were to get shot, the Director General of the Police Department would come, the Minister of the Interior would come. . . it would be a big mess!"
This sounded a lot like I was being threatened. Maybe just warned. In any case, it sounded ominous. No longer hungry, I excused myself and suggested that if they didn't want this big mess, they may want to find a way to make sure I didn't get shot. I bowed and left.
We did not have coworkers at the time, so it was just my wife, two of my teenage kids and I alone in the jungles with the Yellow Leaf. I've always been of the conviction that I would make a poor martyr, but as I pondered the imponderable I realized that I wouldn't be around to find out, so maybe it wouldn't matter. We decided to stay put.
A Captain in the Royal Thai Army, assigned to the Internal Security Command, was a Christian. He was of a little different persuasion than me (charismatic), but he was very supportive and did what he could to help. He had a civilian assistant, an observant Muslim man, who spoke up in our defense before a crowd of angry villagers. "I believe that what this man is doing here is good," he said, knowing full well that I was a Christian missionary. We also had support from a number of Buddhist villagers.
Of course I called and kept the Field Committee up to date on our situation. These are the men who told us that it was their God-given responsibility to look out after us. They were our Shepherds, our spiritual leaders, and I was accountable to them. It worked out that one of these men made a trip that took him within ten miles of our house. Knowing our situation, knowing our relative isolation, knowing the threats against us. . . they kept on driving.
In fact, no member of the Field Committee ever came to see us during the entire ordeal. Eventually, the Royal Thai Army stationed half a dozen soldiers on our property to provide security, which we very much appreciated. But, an armed camp wasn't really a conducive atmosphere for doing missionary work and the Yellow Leaf were uncomfortable around that many guns. So, we eventually moved back to our present location.
Even mentioning these things this long after the fact raises questions, not about the field leaders, not about the organization, but about the spiritual condition of the one "whining."
Mosquito Bite, is it even possible to comment on leadership abuse at all, here or anywhere?
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