Preachers' Training

It all started with the preachers.

When Paul Brown visited Thailand in 2004, he met the preachers of the small churches in the mountain villages. The direction of his life changed. He loved the church he had pastored for the majority of his life. He was committed to the people. But there was a need in Northern Thailand that drew him.

These men were mostly illiterate. They could read the LaHu Bible, but the translation wasn’t the best. They had no other books. They had no Bible radio or tv programs in their language. There were no good Bible Conferences to attend to increase their knowledge of God. All they had was the Bible and what they figured out on their own. They were responsible for leading a church, but had so little to offer.

There were Bible schools around, but they were far away from the villages. The pastors were poor – too poor to abandon their farms and families and take months out of the year to study. But someone could go to them.

Paul felt called by God to help these men. II Timothy 2:2 became his life verse. He felt God’s call to teach these Hill Tribes men so they could teach others, too.

“It’s a multiplying ministry,” he would say while visiting churches in America to raise support. “I could teach sound doctrine to one person, or even one church at a time. That would be an ‘adding’ ministry. It would be a good thing, but not the best. If I teach pastors and give them sound doctrine to give to their church members, the Word multiplies and feeds many.”

He spent the next ten years doing exactly that. There were difficulties and pitfalls along the way, but the flame of his passion for teaching preachers never dimmed. As soon as possible, he began his preachers’ training. He would take one week a month and teach sound doctrine to pastors who came to study with him. They would take home their notes and preach those truths to their churches.

At first, he used rented facilities. They were primitive, but the Hill Tribes people are used to “roughing it.” At home they slept on the floor, so they had no difficulty in sleeping on the ground in a tent or on the floor of the makeshift classroom. In rainy season he taught in an open-sided pavilion with rain dripping through the roof and puddling on the ground. He ignored the mud and water he stood in as he taught. The men didn’t notice, and Paul didn’t either as he focused on explaining sound doctrine to the men he came to love.

Better and larger facilities in the next rental house came at the right time, as the number of men coming to the monthly training grew. Word spread about the ‘farang’ or ‘foreign’ preacher who taught things they had never heard. While they had the Gospel, they knew little more than most Sunday School children in the U.S. But Paul had a way of putting big truths in small, understandable bites. The men soaked it up and invited others.

Although he was 62 when he arrived in Thailand, his energy and zeal for teaching these men never flagged. He loved them and gave them his all.

For several years he rented property for the mission until the day came that the Lord provided a permanent place. Supporters gave generously as Paul raised the money to buy the land and to build the first building. For the first time, we had indoor facilities for the men. As the ministry continued to grow, we needed more room, and built the second building.

Americans couldn’t cross the border into Myanmar, but students for the training would come to us. The pastors there eventually started a Bible school on the Myanmar side. II Timothy 2:2 came about. Those he taught were busy teaching others what he had taught them.

A group came from Laos and said, “Would you come and teach us? We will provide a place the men to stay and for you to teach. Just teach the Bible to us.”

A group of men who were from the LiSu tribe offered the same. “We want the training, too, in our own language.”

And Paul was praying for direction. He had about 60 men coming each month to the LaHu training. Another 20 were already committed to come from Laos. But by then he was 72. He poured his heart out when he was teaching. He taught six classes a day each training week. Could he take on two more groups?

The answer was “no.” His work was finished. On March 13, 2024, his life and ministry came to an end in a fatal motorcycle wreck.

At first it looked like the preachers’ training would end, too. The staff stepped up and carried on with the various ministries and areas of service the mission had taken on over the years. But they are both young men and didn’t feel qualified to teach these older men.

In January, 2025, the newly organized Grace and Peace Baptist Church of Mae Ai restarted the preachers’ training with the help of guest teachers. We appreciate those who came to help teach. We’re still praying, though, for God to call someone with a heart like Paul’s to teach and mentor these men on a permanent basis.

Wichai organizes the training and oversees the logistics of hosting the men. Ai Donkham, who had been Paul’s faithful interpreter into LaHu for most of the ten years in Thailand, has recently had to step down because of health issues. Moses has taken his place as interpreter and is doing a great job.

Paul is no longer here to lead, but we are so happy that the work that meant so much to him is still going on for God’s glory. As God promised, the work he started is multiplying through the jungle villages. Those he taught are still teaching others.