Thailand Coming Into Focus

Six months ago this was a Dream. Two-and-a-half weeks on the other side of the world seemed almost too good to be true: one week with friends in the city of Lampang and one week in Bangkok teaching English and sharing a Christian worldview. In Bangkok, we'll be working with our Thailand Global Partners and a small group from East Cooper Baptist Church in Mt. Pleasant, SC.

And now, at last, as Lewis Carroll's Walrus so eloquently said, "The time has come," to hop a jet plane for the Far East!

We will spend our first week visiting Drs. Nirund and Petcharin Jivasantikarn in the city of Lampang. Nirund is the retired president of National University and  the founding director of the American-Thai Foundation. His wife, Petcharin, is a highly regarded Lampang physician. Don visited them a decade ago and fell in love with this city of 56,000 located 60 miles southeast of Chiang Mai. 

The  elephant is the royal animal of Thailand and Lampang sits in the center of elephant country.

However, Lampang itself is known as the Rooster City and there are paintings and sculptures of roosters on buildings and on light poles throughout the city.

We're looking forward to visiting one of the elephant conservation sanctuaries in the region where elephants are trained, rescued, cared for and treated with great respect. Maybe we'll even get a ride!

Thailand has a population of 69 million: 94% are Buddhist and only 1% are Christian. 

 

We're looking forward to developing our understanding of the fascinating people and culture of Thailand. And we're looking forward to sharing our knowledge of English and our Christian world view.

Please keep us in your prayers over the next three weeks.