Thailand means ‘Land of the Free’ and Thai people are proud to boast of being the only country in South East Asia never to be colonised by the West. However, with social inequality, corruption and people trafficking hiding behind the famous Thai smile, many people feel hopeless.
We’d never had to ask anyone for money. Tom had been working as a teacher for 8 years. Nerys was a community mental health nurse. We were comfortable financially. We’d saved up for a mortgage and bought a house. We enjoyed being able to give to church and other ministries without having to worry, and we loved having enough to go on holiday during the summer.
It costs a lot to send short-term workers overseas. But is it worth it? Would the money be better spent on long-term mission workers or supporting national workers?
When The Daily Mirror calls it a “modern day Sodom and Gomorrah”, you know you’re not living somewhere picturesque and idyllic. Pattaya is a difficult and dark place to live.
Somphon and her mother received a tract in a nearby city and became Christians – the first in their village. Somphon’s husband, a rice farmer who struggles to read, soon followed. Concerned for their village, the family built a simple church on their farmland and invited neighbours and friends to hear the Good News.
Every Tuesday lunchtime at a university in central Bangkok, a small group of students meets together. They study the Bible, share and pray together and talk about how they can live for Christ on their campus. These students are not Thai, instead they come from Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, China and Germany and they use English as they meet. They are part of a growing number of internationals coming to study at Thai universities.
