Meet Theresa Lange

...our missionary wife to Thailand

Theresa Lange grew up spending her first years on a farm. She had five brothers and sister and they had work to do such as rock picking, weed picking, lawn mowing, and taking care of their animals. They loved getting together with relatives for the Christmas holidays, sledding and playing games with their cousins. Later, they relocated, her first experience with a major change in her life.

She grew up in a Catholic family and her parents faithfully took her to church every Sunday. When she moved out on her own and attended colleges in the Fargo, ND area, there was never a question in her mind about whether she should attend church on Sunday mornings. If you wish to read her salvation testimony it can be found on here in the Beautiful for Thee January 2010 issue of “This Really Happened To Me.” That was her second major change.

Following her salvation, she became a member at Fargo Baptist Church where she met her husband to be, now missionary Jeff Lange. For several years they worked together in a variety of ministries there. Then God opened their hearts toward one another and they were married.

Today the Langes have three children: Jonathan,age 7, Grace, age 3, and Faith 20 months. They are homeschooled. Raising Godly children is a very high priority for Theresa. She has been blessed to hear much preaching and teaching on Biblical child training. She states that her priorities for raising their children are: to love and nurture them, to love and reverence their father, and to be a keeper at home.

The Langes are currently in their third term as missionaries to Southeast Asia and are in Thailand. Communicating in a new language was a very big change for her, but she clung to the verse “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”

In order to gain just a little flavor of what ordinary life for an American missionary wife in Thailand is like, I’d like to share some of Theresa’s ‘stories’ about preparing for, and being on, their foreign mission field.

Learning the Language

Before going to southeast Asia, Jeff and I went to a Baptist linguistics school to prepare us for the new language and culture we would meet. It was a tremendous training ground for me. Among the courses were ones on how to make the sounds that are in various languages, how to distinguish tones that some languages have, how to recognize and deal with culture shock, and how to translate the Bible into another language. The Lord blessed us by helping us get through the study in half of the normal time. Our time in linguistics school in Texas acquainted us with being the ‘odd ones!’ One day I felt like an alien in my own country. While at the checkout counter, I asked the cashier where I could get a bag of ice, and she asked me what I had said. After repeating it, she then directed me to the pharmacy where I could get an ‘ace’ bandage. Finally, the customer behind me interpreted that I wanted a bag of ‘ice,’ (his southern slide on the ‘i’ in ‘ice.’).

Driving In Thailand

On a humorous note, a car video game played in my youth actually turned out to be a preparation for driving in Thailand. Here in Thailand, one rule to remember is that the lines separating the lanes on the road are just guidelines; they don’t mean much. In the mountains, the heavy trucks that are creeping along will drive partly on the shoulder of the road to allow you to pass. Cars coming toward you will move over a bit too, to allow for you to pass in an imaginary lane in the middle of the road. During traffic jams, there will be four lanes of traffic when there are only three lane markers present. Many motor bikes will travel against traffic, so you must move over a little to allow room for them. The people next to your lane will do likewise. Everyone inches over a little bit and therefore, you see that the lane lines are only loose guidelines. A rule of the road is “might is right!” in which the smaller vehicles must yield to the larger. Yes, those fast reflexes I practiced on my car video game come in handy here.

Shopping In Thailand

Groceries are mainly purchased down the street at a shop-house. Meat is in bags in a cooler and customers get as much as they want from these bags. I normally buy groceries early in the morning when the grocery lady first gets back from the market with the goods. When I am purchasing food, people ask me what I am going to make. They are interested in what my family eats and delighted when they discover that we can make some Thai food. Thai people are interested in how we live. We have learned to live in a ‘glass house,’ so to speak. People peek into our home. They take pictures with our children. We are a novelty to them and therefore have the opportunity to live as godly Christians among them. They want us to conform to their culture. They are happy if we willingly taste and enjoy their food, especially their spicier dishes, including their very spicy Penang curry, and fried termites.

Here, we show respect to elders by greeting them with a wai (hands in the prayer position up to the face and a bowed head), removing shoes at the door, and talking quietly. Having an impatient attitude is frowned upon in Thai society. Thai people generally talk and laugh in a quiet manner, determined to show self control.

Working With the Hmong Christians

Working with the Hmong Christians really stands out in my mind as being a special time. We rented a small one-bedroom brick place that was located near the Hmong refugee camp. It was a blessing to regularly visit the Christian ladies. Jonathan would normally accompany me on a walk to the camp. We would purchase fruit in the nearby market and enjoy it with the folks that we visited. He would play with his Hmong buddies while the ladies and I conversed. There was a day that especially stands out in my mind when some of the ladies assembled together in one of their makeshift bamboo homes, with a plastic tarp roof and a dirt floor. A couple of the ladies found bamboo shoots in the jungle and brought them back to share with us. Young bamboo shoots are very good; a little older ones are bitter tasting, somewhat like some people who tend to get bitter as they age and have experienced hard things. It was interesting as I looked around that bamboo house that day. Many of the ladies had had bad things happen to them. One of them had a cousin that was killed by a land mine. Another was saddened by separation from loved ones. Living in the refugee camp was not easy, especially for those who remembered the nicer homes that they had left in order to enter the refugee camp. None of them had much food. They were satisfied with older, bitter bamboo shoots, and their faces were sweet and happy with the joy of the moment. The verse “to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet” came to my mind. (Proverbs 27:7)

(Author’s note: In 2004 an earthquake followed by a tsunami forced Lao-Hmongs to live in refugee camps in northern Thailand, having had their belongings swept away in the storms. According to my recollection, they have since been repatriated and are scattered throughout Laos. Missionary Jeff Lange has the privilege of visiting the Hmong Christian groups there in Laos.)

How very much Theresa appreciates those who have helped her grow in her walk with the Lord. First of all, there is her patient husband who has a large vision for reaching the lost.

Her parents and her husband’s parents taught them a hard work ethic , and also how to be faithful spouses.

Her Pastor and his wife have been a great encouragement to her, answering her questions and visiting their mission field. She has gained so much from her pastor’s teachings, which now they are still privileged to hear on the internet.

Two missionary couples, the Tom Gaudets and the Milton Martins, have given her much help and and motivation for their work. An important word of advice that she received, is to get to know the One living inside herself as her Best Friend because He would be with her when no one else could be.

She appreciates the blessings she receives through our prayers and encouraging notes and thanks us for supporting (just being there) her. She would ask that we fast, pray, and beseech the throne for the people of Thailand. She’d also like for us to pray for her to be the number one encourager and admirer of her husband, and to keep her children’s hearts so that they can reach out together to the lost around them.

Thank you sincerely, Theresa, for sharing a bit of your life with us, and for living your life for the salvation of souls in Southeast Asia.