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.

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.