Pictures

The Chicken Temple. Cockfighting leads to freedom for Thai from Myanmar overlord. Temple built in Chicken's honor.














The magnificent Golden Buddha at the Golden Triangle where the Heroin trade is the real gold. Look at the boats in the foreground for perspective.














These statues are spirit warriors based on ancient Thai fighters engaging cobras as assistants.
These warriors who were the inspiration for these statues were active during the time when Siam ruled this part of the world, including several other modern nations.














No matter where you look, you're going to find a Buddhist temple.















They are very beautiful.














And the people are very devout and very warm.














It's a spiritual culture here. Lots of mixtures of things like Hinduism, which had a real foothold on Siam for many years.














This lady is reading palms for cash at the market. Another example of the hunger for truth that these people have.














Here are some of the most gentle people you'll ever meet. They're friendly and they're working a lot harder on finding the truth than most anyone you'll ever meet. What an amazing force for eternal life they could be. Someone has to tell them, though.














When there is a spiritual vacuum, greed comes in and takes advantage of the weakest first and foremost. Here many girls are bought from hill tribe families as early as 11 years old and sold on the open market. Even in a city such as this, the red light district is always busy.















However, God has quietly been moving families here for about a decade now. They're from all over the world. Our class has been working on a presentation for the Family Learning Center which serves as school and community center for the mission families. Their work is critical.















The kids are pretty sharp. Most speak several languages and have a pretty sure idea of what they want to do when they get older.
















Like most Christian schools, there's a time of worship and praise. About 10 Buddhist children go here. Many have come through the doors and have become Christians from this natural setting. We're told that most of them become followers of Jesus.















But they're still kids and they like to play. Come to think of it, so do I. That slide looks wide enough even for me.















Speaking of play, here's Aim. He's one of our students here and he's a local guy who has become Christian recently. He's also well known on the Chiang Rai hip-hop dance circuit and here he's showing off some of his... uhhh... def... ummm... moves...? I'm too square for this - but enjoy watching his enthusiasm and witness.



Not bad for people who have been shooting for about 5 weeks. I'm enjoying watching them take up the challenges of production and am really trying to get them to tell stories. I keep comparing them all to Luke, the grand storyteller of the early church, and from what I've seen, they really seem to have taken that mantle on and want to change the world. That's the way they should feel at this age.