One aspect of the miraculous cave rescue in Thailand that the press failed to emphasize sufficiently was when the British diver popped up and asked how many were on that ledge. This was the first time we heard from a resilient 14 year old that knew enough English to say, “Thirteen”. Adun Samon grew up in a Burmese refugee camp on the Thai border and with the multi-lingual skills he attained there could have replied in Burmese, Wah, Chinese or Thai. Adun’s parents are believers and encouraged him to live at a church near Mae Sai where he enrolled in the Compassion International program and learned to lead worship.
Adun said that one day he wanted “to be a doctor and a famous professional soccer player for the Chiang Rai United Club.” What most impressed me about Adun was that on July 24th when the other 11 players were shaving their heads and participating in a Buddhist ceremony, Adun chose to worship God at a special thanksgiving service at his church where he was instructed by his parents to give special thanks to the family of Sgt. Unan who gave his life trying to bring oxygen to Adun and his teammates.
Statistically, 1 out of 12 amounts to 8%, which is 7 percentage points more than the .7% ratio of Christians to the Buddhist majority that we have here in Thailand. (We remain at that low figure despite 190 years of missionary presence here.) Pray that as we share the gospel that many more Aduns will be identified and nurtured in the faith so that the percentage of Christians will grow expediently.
