Land of The Free (part 1)

My parents lived in Chicago during the early part of their marriage. One of their friends was a guy named Mo, who always told the same joke. Whenever he wore a tie he would ask my mom if she knew where he got the tie. His response was always the same, "Thailand! Get it? 'Tie'-land!" I always thought it was an easy play on words, but now I know they really sell a lot of ties over there.

The past ten days of my life were spent in Thailand, seeing much of the work that God is doing over there. It was incredible and I miss it already. All of my mission experience had been in Latin America, where I knew the language and had a grasp of the culture. This was the first time I entered into a culture where I had know understanding of what was going on, nor did I speak the language. This was less of a challenge for me than what I thought it would be and although Spanish came out even when I didn't want it too, I was minimally frustrated by not being able to communicate with the Thais.

The team's and my primary task was to see what God is doing there and how North Park can build a lasting relationship with some of the ministries there until Jesus comes back. We saw two fish farms (one fresh- and one salt-water), a 3rd-culture church, and a foundation that has its hands in everything.

Much of my processing is still going on and I haven't even begun to work on my photos yet (all 600 of them), but as I further debrief and process, I'll be posting here.