Thailand is a constitutional monarchy.  The King of Thailand has a significant moral influence over the country but the day-to-day affairs are handled by a prime minister and Parliament.

 

 

We are usually in Thai speaking churches but on occasion, we have had the opportunity to worship at an English speaking church while in Bangkok.  I don't know enough about any of them to give an unqualified endorsement, although at the ones we have had occasion to visit, the experience has been positive on the whole.  Check out their websites for more information, directions, and worship times.

Chaengwattana Community Church (http://www.cccthailand.org) is a standard evangelical type church, with a very American feel, located in northern Bangkok on Chaengwattana Road (not far from old Don MuangAirport)

The Evangelical Church of Bangkok (http://www.ecbbangkok.org) is located more downtown and I am told that it is quite international interms of worshippers and overall feel, but I have not been there myself

Christ Church Bangkok (http://www.christchurchbangkok.org) is an Anglican church in downtown Bangkok, in a large building that looks like it was imported straight from England.  Decent sermon when I visited a couple years ago on Easter.

 

International Church Bangkok (http://www.icbangkok.org/) describes themselves like this: "ICB's morning worship is in a traditional Presbyterian style. Evening worship is sort of InterVarsity meets casual contemporary. We are a church where anyone (Christian or non-Christian) can come and draw close to Jesus in an atmosphere that is safe, honest, and open. We come from a wide variety of countries, cultures and ways of thinking about just about everything. What we have in common is a love for (and an interest in learning about) Jesus. He is at the center of everything we do."

 

 

 

If you currently living in Thailand, please see the links in my article on A Brief Survey of Thai Bible Translations.

If you are living outside of Thailand, try contacting the International Bible Society/Biblica in your country.  Biblica is the publisher of the NIV and they may have available the New Thai Contemporary Version (similar to NIV)

 

In the USA, you can purchase the Standard version of the Thai Bible from the website of the American Bible Society.

 

The Thai King James Version (KJV) is available for purchase or download from Philip Pope's website.

 

In the UK, you can get either a full Bible (version unknown) or a Thai/English New Testament (update of Thai standard version) from the website of the Bible Society.

 

If you are looking for a modern easy-to-read translation, the World Bible Translation Center in Texas (USA) has an Easy-to-Read New Testament available as a printed book or as a free download.  The International Bible Society also has an NIV-like translation of the Thai Bible available for download on their website.

If you’re interested in an audio Thai Bible, a free MP3 download is available at Faith Comes by Hearing

 

Although Buddhism is the predominant religion of Thailand and has the official sanction and support of the government, there is freedom of religion for all people in Thailand.  There is no government opposition to the open and free practice of Christianity or other religions.  However, Thai Buddhists who become Christians (or Muslims or some other religion) often face opposition from their families and friends and experience social pressure to return to Buddhism.  This pressure can be very strong during family and community activities such as weddings, funerals, and neighborhood events.  To not participate in the Buddhist or spirit-worship aspects of these activities can be misunderstood as disloyalty to family or nation.

 

About 95% of Thai are Buddhist.  4% are Muslim and about 1% are Christian or other.  Less than 0.5% could be counted as evangelical.

 

Very few of our days look alike but in a typical week, Karl and Joshua ride to the local market to buy breakfast, chatting with the vendors there and then Sun takes care of Joshua from mid-morning until lunch while Karl works on sermon or Bible study preparation, language study or catches up on email and admin.  Once a week, Karl goes to Nong Doan to teach the Bible to a Christian couple living there, and occasionally goes to Nong Doan in the afternoon or evening to do visitation and evangelism together with Thai believers.  Sun is often busy with Joshua but also tries to study Thai several times a week while Joshua is napping or out doing errands with Karl.  Sun visits with some of the neighbor ladies and their children.  Depending on the week, we might have attend a prayer meeting with other OMF missionaries in the area or Karl might spend some time with Pastor Jarun of the PhraBaht church to discuss and/or plan various ministry activities.

 

During our home assignment in the U.S., we are in New Hampshire from October 2010 to January 2011, and from January 2011 until we return to Thailand in late 2011, we are based in Southern California.

During our past term in Thailand, we lived in a town called Phra Phutta Baht (or PhraBaht, for short).  Phra Baht is located along one of the major highways headed north, about two and a half hours north of Bangkok. You can find it on Google Maps by typing “Phra Phutthabat, Changwat Saraburi, Thailand” into the search bar, or there is a map in the About Us section

 

The town’s name means “Buddha’s Footprint”. The town is named after the Temple of the Buddha’s Footprint which is the focal point of the town.  Click here to see photos of the PhraBaht Temple (the website is in Thai but you can easily click through the photos to see what the temple grounds look like).

We are sent by, and responsible to, our home churches in the United States but are working in Thailand through OMF International, an inter-denominational missionary organization that includes missionaries from a variety of countries and Protestant churches.  Sun’s home church is Calvary Church of Santa Ana and Karl is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

 

In the absolute sense, we will never be fluent in Thai, at least not in the way that a native speaker is fluent.  However, for practical purposes, both of us can hold our own in most conversations in Thai, although we often don’t get 100% of everything that is being said.  We can read and write Thai although admittedly much slower than we can read and write English.  The Thai language has its own alphabet and is read left to right.

We can share the Gospel in Thai and Karl preaches in Thai about once a month although it will take a long long time before we are anywhere near a native speaker.  Thai is a tonal language and that presents an ever present pronunciation challenge for us.

We have both completed OMF's Thai language curriculum which is one year of full-time language study, followed by two years of part-time language study.  But language study is never really over and we will always be learning and growing in our ability to speak and understand Thai.

 

Please see our What We Believe section.  If you would like to know more, please contact us directly.

 

Please see the Contact Us page for our current mailing address.

 

We are working alongside a Thai pastor and his church to plant new churches in the surrounding area, particularly the nearby town of Nong Doan.  That means that we spend time with neighbors, building relationships to share the Gospel in word and deed, and spending time with church members to disciple them and to do visitation and evangelism together.  A good part of our time, however, is taken up with Thai language study and taking care of our son Joshua, who is a very active little boy.  Please see the About Us page for further details.

 

Letters from the USA usually take about 7-10 days to reach us in Thailand, although sometimes longer.  Airmail packages take about 7-10 days to reach us although sometimes longer, especially if Thai Customs decides to inspect the package.  On occasion, a package never reaches us at all.  If you do send a package, please mark the value on the customs declaration slip. When no value is declared, Thai Customs official seem to enjoy grossly overestimating its value and then collecting a hefty import duty.

We can get most things that we need in Thailand although items like English language Christian books (especially those from a Reformed perspective) and quality age appropriate toys and books for Joshua are difficult to find.  If you would like to send us something, please see our mailing address on the Contact Us page.

 

Reformed literature in Thai is very hard to find.  If we define the term "Reformed" somewhat broadly, then some Reformed titles may be found at a various Thai publishers.  A few of those titles don't seem to be translated well, so I can not recommend them with confidence.

However, I can recommend the following titles from Kanok Bannasan (OMF Publishers Thailand):

The Holiness of God by R.C. Sproul
Concise Theology by J.I. Packer
Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
Today's Gospel by Walter Chantry

 

You may contact Kanok Bannasan to inquiry about ordering.  It is generally easier to order these titles from within Thailand.  If you need to order internationally, email Kanok to ask what arrangement can be made.

 

The Westminster Shorter Catechism in Thai is also available for download here.

 

Donations may be sent to:   OMF International, 10 W. Dry Creek Circle, Littleton, CO 80120  Please include a note with your check indicating that your donation is for Karl & Sun Dahlfred.  Monthly or Annual Support may be pledged by signing-up on OMF’s Website (www.us.omf.org/partner)

We expect to return to Thailand in late 2011.  Our exact location and ministry assignment upon return has yet to be determined.

During our home assignment, those in the U.S. can easily reach us via telephone.  You can find our current phone numbers on the "Contact Us" page. 

When in Thailand, Skype is probably the best way to call internationally if you have a reasonably fast internet connection.  Our Skype name is suninbj.  If you add us to your Skype contact list, please include a message to tell us who you are because it is sometimes difficult to guess the real name from the user name.

We seek to share the Gospel, disciple new believers, and train leaders for new Thai churches but the goal is not for Karl to pastor a Thai church.  As a particular church is being established, Karl may perform a variety of pastoral and leadership functions but always with the goal of the Thai church being led by the Thai themselves.

 

You can sign up to receive a hard copy (paper) and soft copy (email) of our prayer letter through the link on our Prayer Letters page.

 

We live in the small town of Pra-putta-bat, about 2.5 hours north of Bangkok, along a major highway headed north.  Chiang Mai much further north of us, about an eight hour drive from where we are located.  In the map below, point A is Pra-putta-bat, Point B is Bangkok, and Point C is Chiang Mai.  If you are familiar with American geography, it would be like driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco.  So no, we're not close to Chiang Mai.

 

 

 

If you would like only the email version and not the paper letter that comes in the mail, then please either notify OMF directly or send us an email and let us know.  We can ask OMF to take you off the mailing list.  However, please make sure that you tell us if your email address changes, otherwise we will have no way to contact you and you may unintentionally drop off of our prayer letter list.

 

This is difficult question because, as a non-native speaker, we will always be learning Thai.  But for practical purposes, it took about six months to get to a basic conversational level on some everyday topics, and about one to two years to begin to share the Gospel, pray, and enter into some deeper issues.  Starting at about the three year mark, I (Karl) started to preach in Thai.