Friends in Bangkok

Thank you.

I have been listening to your podcasts for over a year. I have shared them as I travel in Asia and Africa. I have read many of Greg Boyd’s books that have deeply touched our lives. We are serving God today because of His wonderful character of love that is modeled through Jesus Christ. Thanks for feeding us from a distance through the technologies we enjoy today.

My wife and I have been serving the poor for 33 years and the last 27 years have been based in Bangkok, Thailand. We had driven from Bangkok and were on the Phuket, Thailand bridge on the 26th December 2004 when the 3rd wave of the tsunami hit. 11 of us, including the husband, had come to spread the ashes of a friend who loved the sunsets of Phuket.

And for the last two years, we have been deeply engaged in relief, rehabilitation and long term development in Southern Thailand and Aceh. Greg’s book, ” Is God to Blame” has been a God-send during this time. When people try to speak for God, usually what comes from their mouths next is nothing like the God I know.

My wife and I and a team of workers were in a village on Easter Sunday 2005 that pre-tsunami had 12,000 people and post tsunami had less than 100 people. I talked with a young Muslim worker who was to have been married in February 2005 but his fiancé died during the tsunami along with two cousins and many friends. We talked for an hour. This man was mad at God. He said that the tsunami was God’s judgment on this Muslim nation. I told him, no, God is not like that? This world is not like it was when God created it. Sin had affected it. We wept together as we listened and talked about the loving God at the center of the universe. He ended the conversation by saying that he was still angry at God and that I don’t believe like you believe today, maybe one day…..”

That is our prayer.

Maybe one day, people will see who God really is through the incredible life of Jesus.

Thank you for speaking, for writing, for worshipping and loving God and for loving your neighbors. May God continue to multiply your efforts. We will see if we can get Greg to come here to Thailand at some point to share this life more personally.

Friends in Bangkok, Thailand