Friend’s Wedding

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.” Revelation 19:7, NIV.

IMB missionary to the 6 million Northern Thai, Quintin Ratliff has noticed that one of the challenges in sharing the Gospel with his people group is the perception that to become Christian you must forsake your Northern Thai identity. “They think that to be Christian means becoming a foreigner in their own land,” said Ratliff.

Recently a Northern Thai believer named Aoum was planning his wedding. Quintin challenged him to think of ways he could incorporate Northern Thai traditions without compromising his commitment to Jesus. Aoum said, “I’ve been a Christian for a long time now. I don’t need to follow old traditions.”

While Quintin understands the new sense of freedom that his Thai brother feels, he is saddened that Aoum doesn’t see the witness that maintaining his Thai culture while living out his Christian faith can have in the community. In the case of the wedding the freedom to adopt the traditions of Western Christianity may be a stumbling block that reinforces the idea that being Christian means being a foreigner.

Pray that:

The Holy Spirit will show Northern Thai believers the impact that maintaining as many cultural forms as possible can have in helping other Northern Thai to feel more comfortable in considering being Christian.

God will bless Aoum’s new family, and that the witness of a Christian family will be attractive to family and neighbors who are spiritually lost.

IMB missionaries will have wisdom to teach Thai believers about contextualization that builds bridges to the culture without being unfaithful to Christian beliefs.

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.