by Wayne Bridegroom

Tell these stories to your children over and over, to generation after generation… so says the Scripture.  Well, here’s another one.  It goes far beyond any local church.

Castro took over Cuba in the mid 1950’s as a communist dictator.  It didn’t take him long to kick all the missionaries out.  A mere five years later I was in Guatemala for the summer with the California Yearly Meeting of Friends to help agricultural missionaries in the Chiquimula and Jocotan region.  I quickly learned a sad truth.  The best and brightest national believers were sent off to Guatemala City or the US for seminary training.  They never came back to their own towns and villages.  Thus, their excitement about a new fangled thing called TEE (Theological Education by Extension) was explained to me.

If I recall correctly, the Anglican Church had developed a TEE curriculum in Spanish for their work in South America.  In God’s foresight that curriculum was being implemented by Christian & Missionary Alliance teams in Cuba.  Yes, they had to leave Cuba but were repositioned in Laos, specifically to work among the Hmong people in the mountains of that country. The Alliance missionaries worked diligently to translate the Spanish TEE material into the Thai language.  Thai and Lao are cousin languages similar to British and American English.  Why Thai?  Because the numerous tribal groups in the mountains of Laos (Hmong, Mien, Khmu, Prai and many others) all spoke Lao.  They had to learn that language in order to do business.

So, this “disaster” in Cuba was “exiled” to Laos.  That TEE material produced a very solid and biblically educated Hmong Church.  Fast forward to the exit of the US from Vietnam and the fall of Saigon in ’75.  The Russians began flights over Hmong villages, gassing those people, for helping the Americans during the war.  It didn’t take long for there to be a mass exodus from the mountains of Laos to refugee camps in Thailand.  The Lao Christian people began arriving in my neighborhood here in Modesto in the early 80’s and the Hmong quickly followed.

It was February of 1985 when Nyia, Vue and other Hmong leaders approached me asking if they could use our facilities.  I was leery because I had heard stories of hatred between the Lao and the mountain tribes, including the Hmong.  They assured me, “Yes, what you have heard is true.  But we are Christian now and we have come to love the Lao people.”  Not once, have I had any problem between our Lao and Hmong believers.  And due to the TEE material, in all these decades, not once have I ever preached in one of the Hmong worship services.

Yes, Fidel Castro had plans, but God had bigger plans and our Baptist church was the beneficiary.  Hip hip hooray for TEE material!  Oh, by the way I used that Thai TEE material, while personally using the English translation, to develop leadership in our mountain Lao (Lao/Prai) congregation.  And if that’s not enough, I’ve got a lot of really great Lao, Hmong and Cambodian friends. What a privilege to have witnessed the glory of God in my lifetime…  and to be able to share it with you.