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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.  Only about 0.58% would be counted as Protestant, the majority of which would probably fall under the category of broadly evangelical.

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.

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 regularly teaches and preaches in Thai 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.