Ask a Mission Worker: How do you love the people and culture you serve?
In this column, we ask mission workers from around the SIM world to share honest insights, reflections and practical wisdom from their own experiences.

In this column, we ask mission workers from around the SIM world to share honest insights, reflections, and practical wisdom from their own experiences. Whether you’re exploring mission, already serving, or supporting mission workers through prayer or giving, we hope their words encourage, equip, and inspire you to keep walking faithfully with God’s global mission.
Moving to another country for mission can mean stepping into a culture that feels unfamiliar and sometimes, not immediately appealing. Ryan never expected Thailand to become a place he loved. So how did his love for the Thai people and their culture grow?
We asked Ryan.
When Ryan was originally considering places to serve, he thought Thailand might be the last place he’d want to go. He grew up in the U.S. state of Florida where it’s hot and humid, and he had enough of that kind of weather.
But when he went, he found his love for the people grow. “Maybe it’s a cliche,” Ryan says, but God gave him that “personality.” There were experiences in his childhood that lent themselves to understanding aspects of Thai culture. God was preparing him since he was young. Today, almost 5 years later, he can’t quite pinpoint what made the love for the people grow but he can tell there’s been a change.
The annual Songkran festival takes place in April. It’s the equivalent to a New Year’s celebration. People spray one another with water to symbolise the washing away of the past year and to welcome in the new. Pickup trucks full of people and speakers blare music so loud you can feel it in your chest.
In the midst of all the noise and activity, Ryan caught himself smiling.
“At least once or twice a week, there are moments where I just stop and have to smile at something that’s happened… and use the phrase, ‘I just love Thai people.’”
Ryan would be the first to admit that it didn’t happen overnight. The Spirit had to work in him just as it works in all of us. It’s hard to know whether genuine love settles in before you go. It’s not a given that love will grow when the novelty of a place wears off. When the honeymoon phase comes crashing down and is replaced by misunderstandings and frustrations, the Spirit has to do his work in our hearts.
“At least once or twice a week, there are moments where I just stop and have to smile at something that’s happened… and use the phrase, ‘I just love Thai people.’”
But, for Ryan, every week there’s something new – some discovery of the culture that leaves him smiling. Sometimes you just have to go and find out for yourself. Go and let the Spirit do his work. And if you catch yourself smiling at random occasions and whispering under your breath, “I love these people,” then the Spirit be praised!
I can picture Ryan’s smile in my mind. The one that starts in his eyes. Thailand may have been the last place Ryan wanted to go but now he loves the country, the culture and the people.
He only figured it out by going.
Today, Ryan is the personnel director for SIM Thailand and he is eager to see more people join the work of seeing Thai people come to faith in Jesus.
Please pray
-
For God to grow a deep love for the people and cultures of those who serve cross-culturally, especially when the experience is challenging or unfamiliar.
- For the SIM Thailand team as they seek to see more Thai people come to faith in Jesus, and for the relationships and opportunities God gives them to share the gospel.
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