Back to Timeline
Nong Song Hong, Khon Kaen province (Isaan), Thailandpersonal

A Calling Takes Shape in Northern Thailand

first-contactpersonalprayer

The earliest staged newsletter (July 2010) finds Philip already established in Thailand's Isaan region — based at Nong Song Hong, Khon Kaen — on OMF's "Tyro" placement program, fluent enough in Thai and Isaan to delight rural schoolchildren and hand out children's Bibles across a district of around 140 villages. By mid-2010 the plan that would define his life was already fixed: move to the southern town of Ranong, spend roughly a year more on language, then cross to the nearby island of Koh Phayam to work among the Moken sea-nomads. Among the Moken he is known by his Thai name, อำนาจ (Amnat).

This newsletter is where the mission's visible record begins. It does not contain a first-contact story: how and when Philip first encountered or chose the Moken pre-2010 is not in any staged source.