During my Unreached Network Internship year, I spent 6 months living in Thailand, serving the local church and community, as well as learning about Thai culture, for my third and final placement. I grew up in UK, so as you could imagine, the culture and life I experienced abroad was very different to what I had been used to. In this post, I have noted some of the cultural experiences that left the biggest impression on me during my time there.
The Spiritual Climate
The spiritual climate of Thailand is very different to that of the UK. It is estimated that less than 1% of the population holds no religious belief at all, with the vast majority (most sources state over 90%) identifying as Buddhist. This can be clearly seen when exploring the country, as almost every household will have a ‘spirit house’ or shrine outside their home, and each business will have a Buddhist statue of a sort in its shops. In the UK, it seems as if the majority of the population would scoff at the idea of the supernatural and spiritual coexisting with the material world, but in Thailand this is accepted as reality.
This presents both difficulties and opportunities for the gospel to take root in the hearts of locals. As the supernatural is widely believed in throughout most of Thailand, it means people are less likely to dismiss miracles as coincidence or wishful thinking, and belief in the existence of demons means there’s an opportunity for God to demonstrate His authority over them. One of the difficulties, though, seems to be that many Thai Buddhists seem to hold a belief that as part of Buddhism, you can believe and partake in aspects of other religions too, so they might not see a reason to commit fully to Jesus, even if they believe He exists. There may also be difficulty in people committing to Jesus due to family or community pressure, as Christianity may seem like a foreign concept to so many who’ve never been exposed to worshipping a God we can’t see, in Spirit and truth, rather than through traditionally-established rituals towards visible, yet inanimate, statues.
Nobody’s In a Rush
I had been told the culture in Thailand is people-oriented rather than task-oriented, which it is in the West, and my experiences of the culture was in line with this. The locals (and others who had lived within this culture for a while) seemed much more relaxed about the times and durations of meetings, with scheduling not being as fixed as it tends to be in the West. This took some getting used to, but it was nice not having to worry so much if I was running slightly late to something.
We held English conversation classes at the church, and one day those of us who led these classes were having lunch with a couple of the participants, and ended up being almost half an hour late to the class. In the UK, this would be considered rude, but it seems like in Thai culture, as long as you let the others involved know of the situation, it isn’t seen as a problem. The participants of these classes usually arrived about 15 minutes late too, and it never seemed to cause them any worry.
As someone from a culture which is more task and time focused, this more relaxed way of life was also, ironically, sometimes frustrating to get used to. There had been times when I’d searched up businesses and attractions on Google before visiting them, only to turn up and find that they were closed, with little to no information available about them online. It seems like search engines aren’t used as often in Thailand as they are in the West, with locals preferring to ask their friends and family for information instead, which brings me to the next cultural point I’d noted.
Community
There seemed to be even more of a communal atmosphere in the Thai church than in the UK church. In the UK, I see my church community one or two times a week, but in Thailand I saw fellow church members, both Thai and non-Thai, daily. The church building was the hub of our community, with many working there, or at least popping in at some point during the day.
I also noticed more of a willingness to share. An example is that it was more normalised to borrow a friend’s car if they weren’t using it at that moment. My experience is that in the UK, asking to borrow someone’s car can be quite awkward, but in Thailand, as long as there is established trust within your relationship with the other person, it doesn’t seem to be a problem at all.
How the Unreached Network Prepared Me To Go
The training I received from the Unreached Network was so valuable in preparing me to go to Thailand. Here are a couple of ways in which I had particularly found the training helpful:
At the beginning of the training year, we read Andy McCullough’s book, Global Humility. This book changed my perspective on cross-cultural mission and was a great foundational book to start the training off. Through it, I learned that as we (as Westerners) go out into the cross-cultural mission field, we shouldn’t go with the assumption that we are the only ones who are able to offer teaching about God, the church, and the Bible. In fact, it’s better to go with a humble heart that’s ready to learn, as well as serve. My experiences later on in Thailand showed me the benefits of arriving abroad with this sort of heart. As previously mentioned, the Thai church taught me a lot about community. Being in such a communal atmosphere reminded me of the early church written about in the New Testament, and I felt that many churches in the West could also learn from this heart for community.
We also had a module on the course teaching us further about the Biblical basis of mission. Before doing this module, I had known that God wanted to see people from all over the world saved, but the video course really gave me a much deeper awareness of how often God’s heart for the nations can be seen throughout the whole of the Bible. Learning more about God’s heart for global mission increased my heart for global mission. This was one of the wonderful ways in which I was prepared for going to Thailand through this training course.
Through the Unreached Network, I was assigned a mentor and placement leads, and these included those who helped me in the practical process of going to Thailand. Because of the connections the Unreached Network provided, finding my place and community in Thailand felt natural, and the transition period was much easier than I had expected it to be. I immediately felt welcomed and valued by the church community I served with, and was given schedules and plenty of support to help me to step into serving in a cross-cultural context.
Returning To The UK
After living in Thailand for 6 months, returning to the UK felt both foreign and familiar. After all I’d experienced God doing in me and others abroad, I felt I wasn’t quite returning the same person who’d left. There had been many difficulties in my time overseas, but ultimately, I wouldn’t trade the learning experiences for anything else that would have been more comfortable.
Do You Have a Missional Call You Want to Explore?
Join us online on 23rd March 2026 at 6-7pm (UK time) for our Unreached Network Open Evening!
We invite you to hear more about our Internship and Foundational Training programmes from this year’s participants. Learn about what they’ve experienced on the course so far, and what you can also expect through training with us. You will also have the opportunity to voice any questions or concerns you may have.
For more information about our Open Evening and to book in, you can find our events page here.
For more information about our training options, click here.
We hope to see you there!
