I have posted this comment on behalf of Peggy Morton:
BANGKOK, THAILAND, Dec 10, 2010 (Reuters) – The Thai military played a larger role in the killing of civilians during political unrest in Bangkok this year than officials have acknowledged, leaked state documents seen by Reuters show. Ninety-one people were killed and at least 1,800 were wounded during the unrest in April and May. More than 30 buildings were set on fire. It was the worst political violence in modern Thai history. (excerpt from a much longer expose.)
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Alert.net: Thailand is a constitutional hereditary monarchy with King Bhumibol Adulyadej on the throne since 1946 – the world’s longest-reigning monarch.
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The words underlined in bold above jumped out at me as I read these excerpts. Suddenly I find myself supernaturally in the midst of a chilling, bloody, civil war, a war that brings to mind the slaughter of Jews and Gentiles by the Eqyptian Pharoahs, when the Pharoahs felt threatened by a Christian uprising. The current Thai monarchy is feeling threatened by the “red shirt” protest movement and is quick to send in national troops to “control” the uprising of the people. I sit here in the natural, just having been given a scarf made in Thailand, brought to me from a missionary returning from a trip to the country. She so kindly thought to bring a Christmas gift back from her trip. Little did she know the mantle of grace shifted from the Thai people, to her, and then to me. A very small group of christian missionaries are currently in Thailand, striving to lift a handful of Thai people out of abject poverty and into Christian beliefs. I think of the hands that made this scarf, hands probably used to sitting, and bowing, and praying to a Buddhist God, while I sat in church with the scarf resting on my shoulders, and prayed to Jesus to save these people for their own monarchy. I pray that the oppression of a corrupt, heredity monarchy, be lifted so that the people could be set free to live in peace. My friend was quick to point out that Thai people are full of grace and love, they are a giving people without the expectation that they are due a better life, a new life in a new country. They are happy to live in their homeland, and strive to give from their heart and to live their life in peace. Interestingly, the word “Thai” in the local language means “the land of the free.”
1 Thessalonians 1:6-10: “You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcomed the message in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. 7 And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 The Lord’s message rang out from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia—your faith in God has become known everywhere. Therefore we do not need to say anything about it, 9 for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”
Ras and Bev Robinson Blog 