This post was originally published on April 21st, 2017.
It seems that every year during the Songkran Festival in Thailand a new record is broken. If it was a new record for the most water throwing revelers in the same place it would be acceptable, but instead it represents the high number of deaths and injuries on the highways and byways of Thailand during a week which has become known as “The 7 Dangerous Days of Songkran”. From April 11-17 there were 390 deaths and a record setting 3,808 injuries with 7,500 vehicles impounded.
This year Songkran week and Passion week virtually overlapped. The contrast between these two weeks was brought home to me as I was asked by a church to summarize the events of the Passion week by telling orally 11 Bible stories that occurred from Sunday to Sunday. I started with the Triumphal Entry and ended with the story of the two disciples on the Emmaus road. The 7 days of Passion week are all centered on the death of Jesus and his subsequent resurrection. The 7 days of Songkran center in on fun festivities and especially water throwing during this, the Thai New Year and yet is always followed by sobering statistics of death and carnage on the roads. Pray that the church here in Thailand and the missionaries that seek to support them will get the message of the gospel and meaning of the events of Passion week out to the 67 million Thai before it is too late.
