Carmen Filbeck

Carmen Filbeck
A missionary’s story
From the beginning:
Carmen was born in Thailand to missionaries, David and Deloris
Filbeck. During her early childhood, the Filbecks lived in the north
of Thailand among the Lua Tribal people. David and Deloris were
the first missionaries to go among the Lua people. David learned
their language, developed an alphabet and translated portions of
the Bible in the Mal dialect.
Due to the Communist infiltration from Laos, the Filbecks were cut
off from the Lua people from 1974-1982. During Carmen’s senior year of high school, God
called her parents to return to Thailand. Carmen took a gap year and returned with her parents.
It was during this year in Thailand that Carmen heard God’s Call to missions.
Carmen returned to the US and entered into Nursing School. It wasn’t long before Carmen
realized that she needed to go to Bible College. The next year she enrolled in Ozark Christian
College in Joplin Missouri where she studied Christian Education. Later, Carmen transferred to
Milligan College in Johnson City Tennessee and in 1989 completed her BA in Elementary
Education.
In January 1990, Carmen arrived back in Thailand to begin
her first term of missionary service. After three months
of language school, Carmen moved to the northern
district of Nan, in the town of Pua,
the town she had lived in as a young
child. In Pua, she directed a Youth
Dorm for minority tribal students
who didn’t have schools in their
mountain homes. On the weekends, Carmen visited Churches of the Lua
Tribal people.
Here is Carmen sitting with some village kids coloring Bible
Story pictures after a Sunday school lesson. These kids loved
to color as they did not have crayons and pictures at home.
In 1991, Carmen moved to Chiang Mai, the second largest
city in Thailand and the economic and cultural capital of
northern Thailand. In Chiang Mai, Carmen joined the work
of her parents at the Center for Biblical Studies. CBS was
established to meet the needs of young Christians from
rural villages who lacked opportunity for education.
Students studied the Bible in the morning and in the
evenings went to adult education programs to finish their
high school degrees.
Carmen returned to work with CBS from 1995 to 1996. One
of the things Carmen enjoyed the most was taking students
out on Evangelistic Trips. Here she is with the new truck she
bought for the school.
Carmen returned to the US in 1996 and taught ESL in north Dallas
public schools. She also took some graduate work in Curriculum and
Instruction at the University of North Texas. In 2002, she moved to
California to be Professor of Education at Hope International
University.
While it was not in her original plans to spend 8 years in the United States, God used those
years to prepare Carmen for a specific ministry back in Thailand. While she was back in the US,
the Center for Biblical Studies merged with another Bible College and formed Lanna Theological
Center.
LANNA Theological Center is a merger of two Bible Institutes.
The Center of Biblical Studies founded by David and Deloris
Filbeck and the Chiang Mai Bible Institute founded by LaVern
Morse. This merger is in response to the rising level of
education among tribal Christian youth and loser government
restrictions for private schools. The College opened in May of
2003 with 58 students from three countries (Thailand, Laos,
and Cambodia) and 10 different language groups.
2004 – Present: Life Encounters.
Since 2004, Carmen has been involved in a variety of
ministries using English. Carmen has worked with the
Light of San Sai Church to hold weekend English classes
as an outreach in to the San Sai community.
Interns from the US and Australia, have volunteered in the
public schools in San Sai and helped with neighborhood
outreach programs.
In 2006, Carmen and LTC graduate, Phung, opened the Lanna
Institute for English, or LIFE. Since then, LIFE has developed into Life
Encounters Ministry.
Carmen has a great team working with her. Her sister
Catherine plays a key role as a volunteer in the Hua Fay
elementary school, a very poor school that serves immigrant
children from a neighboring country. Catherine’s partner is
Mai. Mai’s husband is a professor at LTC and the Director of
Resident Life.
In 2007, Melissa Northrup joined the team. Melissa came to LTC
as in intern and heard God’s call to return. She is active in both
the Hua Fai outreach as well as the English program at LTC.
In 2006, Carmen was asked to think about opening a new BA
program at LTC based in English. After three years of research
and trials, LTC officially opened a brand new program called
English for Ministry in May of 2009. The picture shows the
first class to begin this new degree.
Stay tuned…as the story does continue…….