As many of you know, we are being sent out by our church to support a like-minded church in Thailand, one of the largest unreached countries. Out of 70+ million people who call Thailand home – whether temporarily or permanently – less than one percent identified themselves as Christians. While students learn about various religions in their social study classes, most Thai people have never heard the gospel before. And that is almost my story.
I grew up in a small city in Southern Thailand called Trang. I am an only child, which is not that unusual among my peers. I was raised by loving and caring parents, who, like most Thai people, had never heard the gospel. They raised me to be a good, upright member of the family and society, and as a result, I was quite good at being an obedient child . . . as long as obedience is defined exclusively externally.
Because on the inside, there was nothing to brag about. I was raised in a Buddhist home, just like most people in Thailand. Growing up, we believed in karma – the belief that moral actions lead to positive outcomes and evil actions lead to negative outcomes, whether in this life or next. In a belief system that makes me the determiner of my future, a concept of God is quite unnecessary! I would not say that I was fully an atheist. It’s probably more accurate to say that I was an agnostic – whether God exists or not, it doesn’t make any difference. I, surely, didn’t care!
As a result, I was very good at external moral acts while never really paying attention to what was going on inside my own heart. Pride and self-righteousness were the defining marks of my life. With the focus on the moral external actions, it was quite easy to find someone else and say, “I surely have not sinned like that person does; I must be doing pretty well.” If I had a particularly immoral season, I just needed to wait till the next magical temple visit with my family; after some prayers, rituals, and almsgiving, poof! the despair of the immoral actions goes away – replaced almost immediately with pride and self-righteousness.
And then everything changed . . .
Well, the Lord, in his wise and mysterious plan, relocated me from Southern Thailand to Southwest United States (What region of the US is Colorado even in? Western? Southwest? Midwest?). Providentially, I landed at a private Christian high school, and almost immediately my Christian classmates befriended me. Over time, casual conversations paved the way for spiritual conversations. Through these conversations, I heard the gospel message for the first time.
Prior to this, I had thought that all religions were essentially the same: religions exist to teach people to be good, morally upright members of the society, and while each religion has its own founders, supernatural powers, myths, and teachings, they are all just trying to make people do good things and avoid evil actions. I thought Jesus was just a guy who “discovered” Christianity. I thought the Christian concept of God is no more than a cold, distant, impersonal judge. So when I heard the gospel for the first time, even though I did not believe it, I thought, “that was very kind for someone to give up his life for other people.”
Over many months, the persistent (and at times annoying) gospel sharing and kind actions of my Christian peers awoke my curiosity. I started to look into this more. I tried reading the Bible to find out what Christians believe about who God is and what Jesus did. In all these, the Lord was slowly, yet persistently working in my heart. Eventually I not only became convinced of the existence of God and the historicity of Jesus, but the Spirit also convicted me of sins, particularly pride and self-righteousness. I then trusted Christ for the first time!
The journey of living as a Jesus follower has not been easy. My parents have treated me lovingly, even after I told them about Jesus, but every now and then they have shown strong opposition to the gospel. The Lord, however, was kind in sustaining me. Even in the moments where I was tempted to compromise, his Spirit has enabled me to count all as lost – for the sake of knowing Christ more. Slowly and steadily, my love for the Lord and his word grew, and at the same time there has been the growing awareness of my sins and shortcomings, which drives me to the gospel that provides the forgiveness of sins, the power to pursue holiness, and the hope that one day God will complete the work he has begun (Phil 1:6).
This would not have been possible without various faithful Christians who took time to pray for me, read the Bible with me, and taught me what the Christian life looks like. I am grateful for churches and campus ministry that helped shape who I am. Over the years, my desire to serve the Lord and his people grew into an aspiration for pastoral ministry. As my aspiration grew, the Lord also grew my love for Thailand. I am grateful that he is leading us to serve Him there, that more Thai people will hear the full gospel without having to go across the world, and that Christ may be known, loved, and worshipped there!
And that is my story – an ordinary story of how our God works in extraordinary ways to bring people to himself!
What’s your story?
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