I was expecting another 3rd world Asian country with extreme poverty, poor infrastructure, dirt and confusion, but instead I have found peaceful well-ordered society set in a beautiful land.

I’m ministering in a Bible School near Chiang Mai, run by Living Word Ministries International. Before this trip is over, we will visit villiages in some outlying areas where I may get a different picture.

Another interesting curve ball for me is that I discovered that Chiang Mai is home for the headquarters of many missions organizations in Asia. Many have found this place to be a good base of operations, with religious freedom, a Christian School for missionary kids and ready access to the nations of Asia.

Thailand means “land of the free,” and one missionary here told me that he had more freedom to minister the Gospel here than he had while living in America. There he was arrested once and fired from a job once for preaching the Gospel. Here he is free to minister anywhere with very little opposition, even in Buddhist schools at times.

However, this great freedom had produced relatively little fruit, with Thailand having one of the smallest number of Christians in the world, estimated to be less than 1 percent. Here in the north, the percentage is higher though, especially among the tribal people, including a group called the Karen.

The Gospel originally came to the Karen in nearby Burma (now called Myanmar). God supernaturally prepared the Karen for his message of love. You can read about that in Don Richardson’s book, “Eternity in their Hearts.” A missionary named Adoniram Judson brought the Gospel to the Karen in 1813. Since then, many of the Karen people in Burma and Thailand have followed Christ. My interpreter here, who is Karen, told me that about 20 percent of the Karen people in Thailand and about 35 percent in Burma are followers of Christ. Amazingly, the Gospel has taken hold among these people, while the work among the Thai people has been difficult.

The Gospel came to Thailand at the same time that it came to Korea. Korea now is over 50 percent Christian; Thailand as I said, is less than 1 percent, at least by some estimates.

So we need to pray, that God will give us the key to the heart of the people of Thailand.

I have had a wonderful time preaching in the church here and teaching in the Bible School. Today I began a 4-day seminar on Evangelism, speaking to about 150 Bible School students, pastors and evangelists. They are a wonderfully receptive and hungry group of mostly young people, an army being raised up to take this land for Jesus.

Pray for our ministry here, and for the work that will continue, when I am gone.