November 18, 2011—In a borrowed home safe from Bangkok’s flood waters, Nate and Maam Beckman remain clustered in a four-bedroom house filled with 20 evacuees from their church plant. The Beckmans’ coworkers, Duane and Hannah Scott, found shelter at a missionary friends’ home as the Scotts awaited the birth of their fourth child. Baby Benjamin arrived on November 1, 2011, right after flood waters peaked at more than four feet high back in the Beckmans’ and Scotts’ Bangkok neighborhood.
The muddy, pollution-fouled waters are receding, but high tide in the Gulf of Thailand could keep the threat of flooding alive until the end of this year. Duane described the events of late October 2011: “I’ll just use the word crazy—not desperate, not life threatening, not panic time—but definitely crazy.”
Close fellowship creates ministry opportunities
Thailand’s worst flooding in five decades interrupted the missionaries’ ministry but did not stop it. In fact, God brought the evacuees to the perfect place. Within the crowded walls of the Beckmans’ temporary home, Nate and Maam maintain their weekly Bible studies and Sunday services. Some of the evacuees—church members’ friends and family—are not yet believers. A few of them are joining the studies and worship times.
Bangkok’s flooding began in mid-October, when water from July’s exceptionally heavy monsoon season seeped downward from northern Thailand. As church members were driven from their homes, the Beckmans (whose family occupies the same building as their church) began housing them. When the number grew to 20, more streets had become impassable and food supplies were dwindling. Nate and Maam made the difficult decision to leave the neighborhood to protect those under their care. Because of Hannah Scott’s pregnancy, she and her family tried waiting out the flood but later found other shelter.
Thankful the losses weren’t worse
On November 10, Duane and a missionary friend, Matt Jones, returned to Bangkok to survey damages. Thankfully, the church building sits several feet above street level and took in only four inches of water. The Scotts’ home some distance away sustained about three feet of water in its lower level and 6-12 inches in the higher level. On November 16, the Beckmans returned temporarily and found that their home above the church was dry, but an electrical fire had gutted the row house next to them, cracking the wall and tiles in Nate and Maam’s house. The city shut off electricity, and Thailand’s muggy heat rotted the food in their refrigerator, ruining the appliance.
Nate and Maam and their two children hope to return permanently soon. If flood waters stay down, the Scotts will return after cleanup. In the meantime, Nate is doing a series on November 20 called “Why God allows problems to come into our lives.” He asks prayer that the unsaved people in the crowd would respond. Nate added, “Pray that God would have a victory.”
How you can help through World Relief
Baptist Mid-Missions’ World Relief Fund is helping the Beckmans and Scotts meet church members’ current spiritual and physical needs and will be available as members reestablish themselves after the flood waters recede. To learn how to give toward World Relief, click here.