Walking down a street in Southern Thailand it is not uncommon to see a Buddhist temple, Chinese temple, and a Mosque within blocks of each other. This kind of religious diversity is one of the key reasons why Southern Thailand has been and is so unreached. And in all of these religions even though they do not specifically believe in spirits, the people all still believe in appeasing the spirits to protect them.
Splitting into two teams we set out to help with English at some schools, though both schools were predominately Muslim, they did in fact have both Muslim and Buddhist teachers. In these schools they had specific classes to learn about Islam and how to pray, also are let out early on Fridays to go pray at the local Mosque.
After helping in the schools with English, we venture out into the community to find local fields to play sports. We started by playing soccer or "futbon" at a local Chinese school, and then split our efforts to play "takraw" outside of a government office. Both of these sports bring in Thai males of varying ages helping us to reach a large demographic.
Though in all of this religious diversity we have realized that the people of Southern Thailand have two things in common; they really like soccer and they really are lost.
Splitting into two teams we set out to help with English at some schools, though both schools were predominately Muslim, they did in fact have both Muslim and Buddhist teachers. In these schools they had specific classes to learn about Islam and how to pray, also are let out early on Fridays to go pray at the local Mosque.
After helping in the schools with English, we venture out into the community to find local fields to play sports. We started by playing soccer or "futbon" at a local Chinese school, and then split our efforts to play "takraw" outside of a government office. Both of these sports bring in Thai males of varying ages helping us to reach a large demographic.
Though in all of this religious diversity we have realized that the people of Southern Thailand have two things in common; they really like soccer and they really are lost.
Pray that doors will open through sports to develop relationships that will lead to spiritual conversations.