A Brief Narrative of my Trip to Thailand
I will now put down my memories of the trip to Thailand. I am writing this at the beginning of Labor Day Weekend 2003, so it has been about 3 weeks since the team returned from Thailand. Since I came home, we have spent the last 3 weeks packing for our move to Oregon, driving, spending a few days in Carlsbad, New Mexico, more driving, arriving in Oregon, unpacking, and settling in our new apartment here. So if the memories seem a little out of synchronization, bear with me here!
We all met at the airport in Los Angeles in order to fly across the Pacific together. We met there and had a prayer at the airport, checked in our luggage and all, and waited for getting on the plane. The team consisted of Greg Burt, Frank Gazerro, Heather Gordy, Crystal Long, and myself. Greg, Heather, Crystal and I all graduated from NTBI in Waukesha together, while Frank has one more semester to go. Crystal grew up in Thailand – her parents are missionaries with the Yellow Leaf people. She was flying over there to live at her home again, while the rest of us were only staying for 2 weeks and then flying back to the States.
We arrived uneventfully at Bangkok airport. There was a slight hitch getting through customs, though. I had been tasked to carry the Stun Gun (used for snake bite treatments overseas) in my check in bag. Naturally it had to be a declared item, lest I get arrested for trying to smuggle something into the country, and I was really not interested in spending a couple of years in jail in Thailand. So the customs officer looked at my form, and had me open my bag and show it to him. Then he started speaking "actively" in Thai. Crystal was there, and she interpreted. He said that it was a weapon, not a medical device (which is normally the case). He said that people use stun guns to kidnap people, because if you hold it on someone it can knock them out. She explained that we were missionaries, and we used these devices to treat the hill tribes people in the mountains, and that there were lots of snakes there. He acted like he did not believe here and argued with her, and then he said, "Okay, you can go." Just like that. So we made it through customs!
Crystal's parents met us at the airport in Bangkok. They had a van waiting there which they had rented (along with a driver). We loaded the bags in the van and drove all through the night (we had arrived late) until we reached Chiang Mai in the morning. For those of you who have never been to Thailand, I will say this about the roads. They are truly in excellent condition. Apparently the country has put a lot of money into its road system, and the highways look just like they do in many places in the States. The consular sheet says driving there is still dangerous, because people are not very good drivers (like in Dallas or San Antonio), and that emergency services are rather poor. There are lots of motorcycles, because most people cannot afford cars yet. Take a look at my pictures on-line from the links at the bottom of the page, and you will see some of the good roads we drove on.
In Chiang Mai, we arrived at the hotel and checked in. Then we all got hot showers and ate breakfast. After traveling 48 hours straight, this was a welcome event. We met with Russ Sullivan and his family, who were hosting us in Thailand for the next two weeks. The next couple of days involved a little sight seeing in Chiang Mai, and seeing the Mission Headquarters in Thailand. Traveling in the city in Thailand is like traveling in a city in Mexico, only that you cannot read the writing. At least in Mexico you can read the names on the signs, even if you don't know what they mean. But in Thailand, when the writing is only in the Thai script, you are pretty lost. There are lots of cabs, though, and most of them know the English word "hotel", so you are never far from getting really lost.
We visited an Elephant Camp, which was owned by a Thai businessman, but the elephant trainers were all from the Northern Pwo Karen tribe. The missionary we were with told us they spoke very poor Thai. We were able to ride through the jungle on the backs of these elephants, which was quite an experience. We had baskets strapped to the backs of the elephants, which made sitting easy. At one point, the driver of our elephant asked if I wanted to get down and sit on the elephant's head, so I did. If you have never ridden on an elephant's head through a jungle in Thailand, you should try it some time! Especially when people all around are talking about why elephants sometimes go on a rampage for no apparent reason. That makes the ride pretty exciting!
We did some other touristy things that day. We saw the orchids, which are amazing. These flowers grow just hanging in the air. Their roots pull nutrients directly out of the air, and don't have to be in dirt at all. We also went to the snake farm, and got to pet a cobra. I don't think in America liability issues would allow tourists to actually pet a live poisonous cobra. But you can do it in Thailand. It's fun! When you pet the cobra, you are supposed to say, "Nice little cobra. Please don't bite!"
The spiritual side of Thailand is very interesting. It is a Buddhist country, primarily. They say between 1% and 5% Christian, while all the tribal groups are animistic. We were able to talk to one Buddhist at length on one of our bus trips, which was great. One thing that I hope everyone reading this will understand is that Buddhism and Biblical Christianity are not compatible at all. There is a trend among even moderately conservative branches of Christianity to say that Buddha had a right view of the world, and to study Buddhism's philosophy of life will help you as a Christian. My friends, let us rid ourselves of this ridiculous notion right now. I will tell you about Buddhism from a little bit of study and from an in depth conversation with a Buddhist.
Let me say this, first of all. It is not "judgmental" or "bigoted" to take a critical view of the other world's religions. If that were the case, you would have to say that Christ Himself was a bigot, because he called those of other world religions "heathen." Christ proclaimed Himself as the only way to the Father (John 14:6). So before you get angry at me for believing Him, you must examine Christ's claim on Himself and determine what that really means. If you want to say that Jesus Christ is the only way for you, but Buddha may be right for someone else, you do not really believe in Jesus Christ as presented in the New Testament. Please be consistent in your faith, my friends. It is this inconsistent, wishy washy, no absolutes Christianity that is driving so many young people away from the faith.
We met Steve (not his real name) on the bus traveling from Chiang Mai in the Northwest to Udon Thani in the Northeast. He was an American from Oklahoma City. We struck up a conversation by asking him where he was from and all that. After all, you see another American in a foreign country, you naturally want to meet him.
He had an interesting experience. He had taught English in France, Vietnam, and was now teaching in Thailand. We talked at length about Vietnam. In particular I asked him about the tribal groups which were still in existence in Vietnam. I had read about a missionary many years ago, before World War II, who had traveled around French Indochina teaching the gospel to the hill tribes there. I was wondering about the condition of those tribes since the Vietnam War and everything else that has happened. Steve had some very interesting stories regarding the hill tribes in Vietnam and the government over there.
When he asked about what we were doing, we told him we were missionaries. We told him about New Tribes Mission and how we reach out primarily to remote tribal groups, which is why I was interested in hearing about the hill tribes in Vietnam. So I asked him about his background, if he came from a Christian family or not. It is important to know someone's background before explaining more about missionary work, because there are many people who are Christian in name but have never really learned much about how missionary activity is fundamental to the Christian faith. So when I asked him, he said "Actually, I come from a Buddhist family." It turns out his father had converted to Buddhism as a Vietnam veteran, and had taught his children Buddhism. Steve's mother, however, would bring him to church growing up, so he was taught Christianity on one side and Buddhism on the other. He embraced Buddhism, and after talking to him, I understand why.
First, his experience with Christianity was very negative. The church he would go to growing up was apparently very legalistic. Christianity to him was a set of dos and don'ts, with a whole lot of hellfire and damnation preached in between. I am sorry for him that his experience was basically Christianity without Christ. Perhaps if as a young man he had been taught Jesus Christ the Son of God, rather than "follow these rules because if you don't you are going to hell", he might have embraced Christ instead of Buddha.
As I learned from Steve, and as I read about in some Thai literature, Buddha was a prince in a country in India. He left a wife and a child to seek "enlightenment." When he found enlightenment, he learned what are called the "4 Noble Truths." These are as follows, in a nutshell.
1. All mankind is subject to suffering.
2. The reason we all suffer is because we have desires.
3. In order to stop suffering (and reach enlightenment), we must rid ourselves of all desires.
4. The way to rid ourselves of desires is by following the "8-fold path."
The "8-fold path" consists of 8 principles, which if a person practices consistently, he should be able to achieve enlightenment. These are things like right thinking, right speech, meditation, etc. I don't know them all, because our discussion with Steve was mainly centered on the first and second noble truths. In examining these truths, Steve told us that Buddha himself told his followers to question and examine all that they were taught. This is a good thing, because it gave us the freedom to try and get Steve to question his own beliefs.
Many of you at this point might be thinking, "George, why aren't you questioning your own beliefs." That is not the issue here, but just to give it an answer, I will say this. I have consistently and thoroughly examined all my beliefs, and I continue to do so regularly. I have found faith in Jesus Christ as the only begotten Son of God, God incarnate in the flesh, and the literal truth of the Bible as God's truth revealed to us. The ONLY consistent philosophy of life is that which I have just stated about my Lord Jesus Christ. Christ and the Bible continue to stand up to every test which philosophers try and throw out. Every doubt I have ever had about God, Christ, or the Bible has been answered, so that I do not have doubts any more. But let me tell you, my friends, that doubt and disbelief are as much a personal choice for you as what you choose to have for breakfast in the morning. Faith must be grounded on facts – this is true. But the facts are there – right there in front of you, for you to embrace. Choose to believe, my friends, not to disbelieve.
Back to Steve. We began to ask him some pointed questions. Questions like this. "You say that the reason we all suffer is because we all have desires. But have you ever considered why we have desires?" He thought for a moment, and said he had never considered why we have desires. He said that Buddha taught that there are some questions for which there is no answer. Our response – that there may not be an answer in the Buddhist philosophy, but there is in the Christian worldview. The reason we have desires is two-fold. First, we have godly desires, which God put in our hearts. These desires include the natural affections we have for one another, for family, and for friends. Second, we have sinful desires, which are a result of our having inherited a sin nature from Adam, the first man. ”Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." Romans 5:12. So here we have the answer to something fundamental to our very existence, right there in the Bible. Yet Buddhism fails to answer this question.
Another issue we discussed was the results of this Buddhist philosophy. According to Steve, the internal suffering of guilt is a result of social conditioning and desires. Therefore, he reasoned, he did not have to feel guilty about anything bad he did. If he did something we would consider "bad", (for example to have an affair), he should not suffer in guilt over this because the guilt is the result of external influences in his life, and his desire to abide by normal social standards. Therefore, if he can overcome his desire to please others in his society, he does not have to feel guilty, which is suffering. Do you see where this is going? The upshot of it all is that the first thing to go in the Buddhist society is the restraint against immorality. A natural man has only his internal sense of right and wrong to restrain him from immoral activity. If this internal sense of right and wrong is not really internal at all, but is something external imposed upon us by social conditioning, what is to stop us from casting it away and just doing whatever the heck we want to all the time?
This is evident in a society devoid of morals. The first thing to go is guilt. Now I ask you again, is this Buddhist philosophy compatible at all with Christianity? At the most basic, fundamental level, the two philosophies conflict. Thai society is based on this Buddhist philosophy, and there is a lot of immorality in Thai society. There is a lot of immorality in a lot of other societies as well that are not Buddhist, so it is not really because of Buddhism that they have immorality. Man's sinful tendencies transcend all societies. Now don't get me wrong – there are some good points in the Buddhist philosophy. The fact is they do try and rid themselves of sinful desires such as lust, greed, anger, etc. So there is some balance there, to a certain degree. And also, since most of the common people do not get deep into the philosophy of Buddhism, they never learn to totally rid themselves of guilt, and there is still a natural restraint against rampant lawlessness.
Most of the Buddhism we actually saw in Thailand involved people taking food or drink offerings to idols. Steve told us that was not true Buddhism. In fact, a careful observation of those practices would reveal it as animism more than Buddhism. Read below something wrote in my journal the first day we were there, as we were traveling on the van to Chiang Mai:
· As we drove over the tallest part of the mountain on the way to Chiang Mai, there were hundreds of little boxes on posts, decorated like miniature Buddhist temples. The driver honked the horn as we drove by. Our hosts then old me that the houses were the houses of the spirits on the tallest part of the mountain, and the Thai people honk to wake them up for protection as they drive by.
The rest of our visit consisted in mostly working on helping our missionary host family in construction on their house. We installed a grounded electrical system, chopped down trees, cleared brush, and cleaned the general area. It was very good to be there and get a first hand view of what life as a missionary is really like, living there in a cross cultural setting like that. We also got to visit the Yellow Leaf tribe, who were nomadic before the missionaries contacted them. They are now settled down and beginning to be prosperous. The missionaries there are close to presenting the gospel to them. It took them 20 years to learn the language and culture. That takes a lot of patience and endurance, and you have to know God has called you there, if you are going to be willing to wait that long.
I don't have time to write everything we saw and did right now, as it would be much longer than this already too long narrative. So, I hope you all enjoyed this. Next time we are out visiting, if you have read this, and want to know more about our trip over there, I will be glad to talk about it! I enjoy talking, but I also enjoy listening.
Most of you who read this are believers, who share the same beliefs I do. However, I know there are some of you who still have doubts, and some who may have rejected God in your life entirely. My biggest prayer for you is that if you do not know Christ, that you will choose to believe and put your faith and trust in Him. If you are a believer, like myself, my prayer is for your continued growth in the faith, and I ask that you will pray for ours. We were greatly encouraged and strengthened by our visits with friends across the country this past summer, and are looking forward to seeing you all again.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. George
Chiang Mai Photos	Nakom Phanom Photos (where we did the work)	Yellow Leaf Photos