Born in Bangkok, Thailand, as the son of non-Christian, Chinese parents, Thira Siengsukon (pronounced See-eng-su-kone) was raised in the Thai culture, educated in Thai schools and taught the Buddhist religion of his ancestors.
"When I joined an American missionary’s youth program at a chapel near my house, I heard about Jesus and the gospel for the first time," he said. "I compared Christian beliefs to the Buddhist beliefs taught to me as a child at my school and home. After three years, I surrendered to Christ, admitted I was a sinner and Christ gave me a brand new life in Him."
The 57-year-old Siengsukon serves as director of the Lao School of Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. He’s also an Asian missionary strategist and church planter for the North American Mission Board (NAMB) and the Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists (KNCSB).
After graduating from Trinity College and Thailand Baptist Theological Seminary in Bangkok, he and his wife, Montira, came to the United States so he could continue his studies at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Kan.
The couple soon developed a passion for planting churches and winning to Christ the estimated 169,000 Lao immigrants in America. He has served five years as the church planter and pastor of New Life Baptist Church, a Lao congregation in Olathe, Kan. — one of only 80 Lao churches in the entire Southern Baptist Convention.
Siengsukon then intended to return to Thailand — but God had other ideas.
"I couldn’t return to Thailand because I couldn’t find a Lao pastor to replace me. In the meantime, the Lord helped me see the struggles of most Lao congregations in the United States and the desperate need for biblical training for Lao pastors and church leaders," Siengsukon explained.
"The Lord spoke to my heart, asking me, ‘Why can’t you train them?’"
In partnership with NAMB, the KNCSB and Midwestern Seminary, Siengsukon founded the Lao School of Ministry in Kansas City, Mo., in 1988.
"My ministry equips Lao-culture pastors and church leaders, who are God-called, with a strong biblical education and practical training to serve the Lord and proclaim the gospel to Laotian and other people in the U.S.," Siengsukon said. "Our students are first-generation Christians who need basic biblical knowledge and background."
Although Siengsukon’s school has its headquarters at Midwestern Seminary, it’s difficult for most Laotian pastors to leave their congregations across the United States and travel to the seminary for their training. Most of the pastors cannot afford the expense, and their congregations cannot afford to do without them for the period of time required for their studies.
So instead of making the pastors and church leaders travel to them at the seminary in Missouri, Siengsukon takes the training to the Lao pastors. Twelve satellite training centers have been established — usually in existing churches — in Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A 13th center will serve four congregations in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio.
Currently some 100 students are participating in the 30-credit hour curriculum at their local sites. While Siengsukon makes the rounds to each teaching site on several weekends during the year, much of the coursework is done by correspondence and with local, qualified instructors who speak Lao.
Childhood sweethearts who’ve been married 32 years, Thira and Montira Siengsukon learned English early on.
The parents of two sons and well-educated — Montira Siengsukon has a master’s in education and Thira Siengsukon recently earned his doctorate at Midwestern Seminary — they both teach as instructors at the Lao School of Ministry.
They also must write all of the school’s textbooks and course materials in Lao because English is a difficult second language to master for Laotian pastors, church leaders and members, according to Thira Siengsukon.
"I feel that God led me here and prepared me for this because of the educational background I have," Siengsukon said, adding that he and his wife have worked with Laotians for 24 years.
His greatest joy in his ministry is "seeing the Lao pastors and leaders, my students, succeed in their ministries and produce healthy, fruitful churches that, in turn, plant other healthy, fruitful Lao churches so that many Lao-American souls can come to faith in Christ and live for Him."
Siengsukon believes the impact of his Lao School of Ministry even crosses the borders of the United States and is felt all the way back to Laos itself, a country of 5.9 million people surrounded by Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, communist China and Myanmar (Burma).
"Every year, Lao-Americans go back to Laos to visit their parents, their people," Siengsukon said. "Their relatives ask why they don’t practice their cultural traditions anymore. Then the testimonies start. They tell their people in Laos that they have become Christians because they now believe in Christ, and that Christ is changing their lives back in America. And they tell their relatives that ‘Christ can change your life over here, too.’"
Siengsukon said in Laos, a communist country, preaching and teaching the Bible are not allowed in public.
"But they can’t keep us from answering questions." (NAMB)
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