Praying for God’s heart for the Thai People
As our team prepares to go to Srikhoraphume, a province in Northeastern Thailand, we’ve noticed the need to understand Thai people and their culture. Today, we were able to embark on a day-long adventure through four different Buddhist temples. We are partnering with YWAM in Thailand, and they invited us on their Bangkok Temple Tour, a tour completed with most visiting groups.
Buddhism plays a very important role in the life of the majority of Thais. Over 94% of Thais profess to be Buddhist. These beliefs are mixed with Animistic and Brahmin practices, such as leaving offerings or flowers and incense at spirit houses.
A few facts about Buddhism:
– Every man from a Buddhist family is expected to become a monk for some period in his life, for as little as a few weeks.
– There are around 200,000 monks in Thailand.
– Every temple in Thailand has resident monks, with the exception of Wat Pra Gaew, the official King’s temple.
– People go to the temple to build up their ‘merit’, and to pray for specific things they want, such as blessing in their everyday life.
– People bow down three times and give offerings of a couple of flowers, three candles and three incense sticks. By doing this they are declaring that the Buddha, the Teaching, and the Order (the monkhood) are their refuge.
As we traveled by chut-chuts, boats, taxis, bus, sky-train, we were able to pray for the people of Thailand. My heart began to break for the Thai people, who don’t even realize the bondage they are in – of trying to make merit and appease the spirits. My desire is for the Thai young people to be reached with the gospel – even while they are in the Thai education system. I want to see the young Thai Christians stand firm in their faith and be bold in speaking about Jesus with their friends. These are my prayers for the people of Thailand.
Tonight, we embark on a night journey to our ministry location. We plan to be involved in various types of ministries, such as discipleship, teaching English, playing sports, and prayer walking and intercession in the town of Srikhoraphume.
We will be staying at Prakittikulsampan Church inside the town. Srikhoraphume is a district within Surin province in the Isaan Region (NE Thailand). Srikhoraphume has quite a diverse mix of people with several different language spoken – mainly Cambodian, Dui (Cambodian dialect), Thai, and Lao. Pastor Sutad has a ministry focus that encompasses many different areas – as I have listed above. This province in well known for local superstitious beliefs; there are very few Christian in this down, district, and province. We truly pray that these people will soon come to know about the one true God!
Please be in prayer for our team and the outreach that will soon take place.
Kup Kuhn Kha/Kup (Thank you in Thai – phonetically)
*Information taken from the YWAM Temple Tour Guide
