{"id":973,"date":"2018-07-12T18:23:27","date_gmt":"2018-07-12T11:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/?p=973"},"modified":"2024-01-31T18:26:25","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T11:26:25","slug":"lessons-from-the-rescue-of-the-thai-soccer-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/?p=973","title":{"rendered":"Lessons from the rescue of the Thai soccer team"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Recently I wrote a blog saying that \u201c\u2026 the world breathed a sigh of relief when the news came that the 12 Thai soccer team members who had been trapped for 9 days in a cave near the golden triangle had been rescued.\u201d A comment on my blog reminded me that they had been found, but were not yet out of the cave. Now that they have been safely rescued, we can rejoice and also pause to think of possible lessons that can be learned:<\/p>\n

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  1. Finding the lost is relatively easy compared to getting them safely out of the pit.\u00a0<\/u>Christian research groups have identified 7,000 Unreached People Groups (UPGs) globally, comprising 42% of the world\u2019s population. The approximately\u00a0 21 million Isaan people of Northeast Thailand number in the top 50 of these 7,000 groups. This Isaan group is a part of the more than 60 million Thai Buddhists that are in great need of a gospel witness.<\/li>\n
  2. Major obstacles and sacrifices will be faced in order to free those trapped.\u00a0<\/u>Trained divers took up to 6 hours in order to reach the soccer team. They faced strong currents, near-zero visibility, narrow passages and lack of oxygen (one of their number died in the effort). The human and financial cost of the effort was substantial, but was a minor concern when 13 souls were at stake. How much more effort and money should be expended when you think of the billions of eternal souls that remain trapped in the cave of sin and death, and separated from God and unaware of Jesus their only possible rescuer.<\/li>\n
  3. Access to Reached People Groups (RPG) is easy compared to unreached people groups.<\/u>\u00a0Reached groups have easy access to the gospel and would compare with people trapped near the mouth of a cave. Unreached groups, however,\u00a0due to their situation \u201cin the depths of the pit\u201d,\u00a0will require a massive rescue operation with national and international teams joining hands in the effort. For most, the idea of unreached groups brings to mind a remote tribe in the depth of a tropical jungle. However, in today\u2019s world, the vast majority of the unreached are more likely to live in \u201cconcrete jungles\u201d which are readily accessible (like Tokyo or Bangkok) but are still \u201cin the depths of the pit\u201d, untouched by the Good News. Such urban dwellers might have Christian neighbours who live close by yet they stay separated from the gospel due to their world view. The Thai soccer team was separated from the outside world by less than 500 meters \u2013 but those 500 meters consisted of solid rock. Similarly, these unreached people might be close in terms of physical distance, but the gospel has yet to penetrate the \u2018solid rock\u2019 of their world view assumptions and misconceptions. Yet when the gospel of truth does penetrate the darkness, we have seen wonderful changes when these people are \u2018brought out into the light\u2019.<\/li>\n
  4. After being rescued, people need to be brought to spiritual health.\u00a0<\/u>Once rescued the first major concern was the health of the soccer team. They had been in extreme conditions for over two weeks and were weak and many sick. The fledgling church in many parts of Asia is weak, often struggling, and in great need of strong biblical discipleship and follow-up.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Recently I wrote a blog saying that \u201c\u2026 the world breathed a sigh of relief when the news came that the 12 Thai soccer team members who had been trapped for 9 days in a cave near the golden triangle … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":974,"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/973\/revisions\/974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiang-mai-orality.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}