Statistics don't tell the whole story but can be helpful to get a general idea of what is going on.  Missionary Dwight Martin collects data on the Thai church and recently released the data on Thai church growth in 2009.  Here is an excerpt from his report, along with some links for more information:

"At the end of 2009 there are 339,048 Christians, which is 0.54% of the total population.  Even though this is a very small percentage, the good news is that the percentage of growth is seven times faster than the biological growth rate of the country.  The number of churches continues to grow as well.  There were 170 new churches started last year (2009).   The need is still great in Thailand.  Over 47% of the sub-districts in Thailand have no Christian presence at all. This means there are 21,814,049 (about 1/3 of the population) people who have very little opportunity to hear the Gospel Message.  Please pray that God's word will penetrate this whole nation.

Living in a foreign culture, it is easy to be critical of the things that are not as "good" as they are “back home”.  But missionaries are incarnational witness of the Gospel and need to focus on the good and noble and praiseworthy aspects of their host culture, not only for the sake of keeping their sanity but also for the sake of honoring God and the people they have come to serve.  The Bible says, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”  (1Thessalonians 5:18 ESV).  So in the spirit of giving thanks, I’d like to give (in no particular order) ten reasons why living in Thailand is great.

As red shirt protesters swarm into Bangkok, blocking roads and surrounding military headquarters, I have been fascinated to watch the developments unfold on Twitter.  An assortment of foreign journalists, local expats, and Thai people on the ground are constantly tweeting (i.e. sending updates via Twitter) about the latest movements of the red shirt protesters.  While the up-to-the-minute updates are mostly reports of where the red shirts are now, you also get a fair amount of commentary from foreigners and Thai alike on how they feel about what's going on.  Here's a screen shot of the Twitter feed on the topic of #redshirts: 

 

 

 

thai_transportation

 

 

One of the more colorful aspects of living in Thailand is geckos.  On our walls. On our ceiling.  On our table.  Scurrying across the floors.  Converging upon the porch light in hopes of getting some yummy bugs for dinner.  However, geckos seem to have an uncanny ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, meeting some rather horrible deaths.   I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have opened up a door or window only to see a dried up, quite flat, gecko skeleton fall out of the space between the window/door and the frame.  Apparently when I had been closing up the house at some point, a poor little gecko didn’t move in time before getting caught in between a closing window/door and the frame.  Normally, geckos are extremely quick but unlike flies, they don’t have those compound eyes to anticipate what’s coming from behind them.  So, they get squished.  Regularly.  In anyone were to do some research, I wouldn’t be surprised to find “squished in door frame” to be one of the top causes of gecko death.

The idea that “Jesus died for sinners” is a very hard one to swallow for Thai Buddhists because the idea of substitutionary atonement is absent from their religion.  The Buddha taught that you are alone in the universe and that you must someday pay for your bad karma.  No one can pay off your bad karma debt.  You’re gonna get it eventually - either in this life or some successive life.  Everything bad that happens to a person in their life is the result of some bad karma from their past.  From this point of view, as you might imagine, Jesus dying on the cross looks a lot more like Jesus getting his just due for some bad karma in a previous life rather than the selfless sacrifice of the sinless Son of God.

One of the wonderful things about living in Thailand is the fruit.   Thai fruit is everywhere and is usually very delicious.  This is especially true in our current house where we have three mango trees, two jackfruit trees, and several banana and papaya trees.  This past week we invited over our new short term worker, Brent, and showed him how to pick mangos from the trees in our backyard.  He had a great time doing it and even lashed together a new mango picking pole from two bamboo pole brooms that are usually used for cleaning cobwebs off of the ceiling.  Our previous mango pole broke after termites ate the center out of it.

This morning I got up early and walked down to the main temple in Phra Phutta Baht to see the annual Flower Offering Merit Making Festival (ประเพณีตักบาตรดอกไม้) and take some pictures.  The two parallel roads leading up to the temple were filled with people waiting to put flowers and dry food goods offerings into the bowls of 3,000 monks who were assembled for the occasion.  See below for some photos followed by a bit of commentary.

 

 

I am convinced that I no matter how long I live in Thailand, I will continue to run into strange new creatures that I have never seen before.  The other day when I was bringing groceries into the kitchen, I saw on the floor what looked like a scorpion.  However, on closer inspection, it didn't have the telling scorpion-tale but rather a long needle tail.  I got down on the floor to take some pictures, hoping it was not too dangerous.  Eventually I scooped it up in a dustpan and threw it out the front door, not wanting to upset nature lovers who were saddened by my blog about killing the snake that got into our house.  Today, I learned from a fellow missionary that my scorpion wanna-be is actually a vinegar bug.  It has a better sounding name in Spanish, but my friend could not recall what the name was.  Apparently, the long needle on the rear of the bug shoots out a smelly vinegar type spray when the bug is upset or scared.  Fortunately, getting scooped into the dustbin was not disturbing enough to get shot with vinegar.

 

We live in the small town of Pra-putta-bat, about 2.5 hours north of Bangkok, along a major highway headed north.

 

 

 

Siam is the old name for Thailand and I have never known why and how that name change came about. A Bangkok academic is now petitioning the government to change the name back to Siam in order to make a step towards creating greater peace and unity in the nation. For those who are curious about the history of the name change from Siam to Thailand or wonder how on earth changing the country's name could do anything in the way of reconciling a divided nation, check out the Bangkok Post article "What's in a name?" The comments on this article are at least as interesting as the article itself as people weigh in on whether they think the change is a good idea.

 

Siam is the old name for Thailand and I have never known why and how that name change came about. A Bangkok academic is now petitioning the government to change the name back to Siam in order to make a step towards creating greater peace and unity in the nation. For those who are curious about the history of the name change from Siam to Thailand or wonder how on earth changing the country's name could do anything in the way of reconciling a divided nation, check out the Bangkok Post article "What's in a name?" The comments on this article are at least as interesting as the article itself as people weigh in on whether they think the change is a good idea.

How do very different denominations work together to do church planting? This is the big question that remains to be answered as the 7th Thailand Congress on Evangelism in Bangkok came to an end this past week. The conference brought together three of the largest Protestant church groups in Thailand - the Church of Christ in Thailand (CCT), the Thailand Baptist Convention, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand (EFT). In the past, these large denominations didn’t get along very well so it is encouraging to see leaders and members of these different groups coming together in order to pursue the goal of proclaiming Christ throughout Thailand. A few years back, the involved denominations had formed the Thailand Evangelism Coordinating Committee (TEC) and came up with Vision 2010 which aims to see a church planted in every provincial district (อำเภอ), a Christian group in every sub-district (ตำบล), and a Christian presence in every neighborhood/village (หมู่บ้าน).Throughout the conference pastors, Bible college professors, and other church leaders from the various groups preached on the themes of Obedience, Faithfulness, Unity, and Cooperation. Listening to the preachers, worship leaders, and other speakers up on stage, I got the sense that the goal of the week was not so much as to spell out how to work together in unity, but rather

Although Buddhism is the predominant religion of Thailand and has the official sanction and support of the government, there is freedom of religion for all people in Thailand.  There is no government opposition to the open and free practice of Christianity or other religions.  However, Thai Buddhists who become Christians (or Muslims or some other religion) often face opposition from their families and friends and experience social pressure to return to Buddhism.  This pressure can be very strong during family and community activities such as weddings, funerals, and neighborhood events.  To not participate in the Buddhist or spirit-worship aspects of these activities can be misunderstood as disloyalty to family or nation.

 

About 95% of Thai are Buddhist.  4% are Muslim and about 1% are Christian or other.  Less than 0.5% could be counted as evangelical.

 

Thailand is a constitutional monarchy.  The King of Thailand has a significant moral influence over the country but the day-to-day affairs are handled by a prime minister and Parliament.

 

We live in a town called Phra Phutta Baht (or PhraBaht, for short).  Phra Baht is located along one of the major highways headed north, about two and a half hours north of Bangkok. You can find it on Google Maps by typing “Phra Phutthabat, Changwat Saraburi, Thailand” into the search bar, or there is a map in the About Us section

 

The town’s name means “Buddha’s Footprint”. The town is named after the Temple of the Buddha’s Footprint which is the focal point of the town.  Click here to see photos of the PhraBaht Temple (the website is in Thai but you can easily click through the photos to see what the temple grounds look like).

Thai political tensions are flaring up again. At the end of last year, yellow-shirted protesters flooded Bangkok trying to force the resignation of the then-current government which had the support of former prime minister Thaksin and the red-shirt protesters. The yellow-shirts succeeded and now that a yellow-shirt supported government is in power, the red-shirted pro-Thaksin protesters have taken to the streets trying to get the now current government to resign. Confused yet? I am. Here is

I am beginning to think that I should just look at run-ins with snakes as part of life here. Sun had just finished some language study and left her notebook and MP3 player on the desk in our office/guest room while I finished bringing some laundry in from outside. Leaving the reading lamp on the desk turned on, Sun and Joshua went across the street to the community center where there are some exercise machines and neighbors to talk to. I went into the office to finally do some reading for language study and catch up on email. Walking up to the desk, I jumped back in fright at the sight of a snake sunning itself under our reading lamp. The snake then quickly slithered off with a start, likely just as surprised as I was.

 

English edition available from: Amazon  Double A Book Tower (Bangkok) DCO Books

 

Fascinating autobiography of Daniel McGilvary who was the father of missions in Northern Thailand, whose ministry spanned over 50 years from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s.  McGilvary interweaves into his first hand account many stories about the people and places that he knew, all the way from the rural Thai countryside to the royal palace in Bangkok.