I’ve been in Thailand for a few days now and I can say with confidence that I really feel like I’m in Asia now. The Philippines was a great bridge from Central America but this is it. I’m here. In Bangkok one of the first places I went after arriving at the YWAM base was the open air market. There were lots of stalls of clothes and random stuff, a carousel, a ferris wheel, and lots of stands selling all sorts of crazy asian foods.
One stand sold about a dozen different kinds of bugs. I went with some of the members of my team and ate crickets. I’m working on editing a video for my teammate Sarah to post on her blog so I will either post it on here or post a link to her page. There was also a 711 on almost every corner. It was beautiful. So many coke slushies for like 50 cents.
The next day a few of us took a trip to the Grand Palace. The architecture was absolutely stunning. So much color and detail. However, at the same time it’s such a dark place. So many people worshipping at the temples. While at the YWAM base we had a cultural briefing and we were given some statistics. 95% of the population in Thailand is Buddhist, 4% of the population is is Muslim, and only 1% of the population is Christian. Pretty daunting statistics.
It’s so apparent even walking around the small fishing village where my team is doing ministry this month. Almost every home has some sort of statue or spirit house outside of it. To keep the spirits out of their own homes. But like this line from a song I listen to “When there is dark, our God is light.”
