The city of Chiang Mai, Thailand, competes with the Athens of Paul’s day for its religious diversity. Situated in the mountains, the city is peppered with hundreds of mosques and ancient Buddhist temples and shrines. Three years ago, when Thai Nguyen met Southwestern Seminary professor Keith Eitel in a shopping mall in Chiang Mai, he—like the Athenians— had long been praying to an unknown God.
Although Thai was born in Vietnam, his family fled the country after the North Vietnamese overtook South Vietnam. Fleeing first to Indonesia, his family finally settled in Brisbane, Australia, where Thai was raised. While growing up, he never heard the Gospel, and he only heard negative reports about Christianity. Nevertheless, he sought for truth.
“I always felt like there was more to life than what the world tells you, what society tells you.” Thai says.
After finishing school, Thai pursued a career in rugby that took him to Canada. When he returned to Australia, he studied the culinary arts and took a chef apprenticeship. Through this apprenticeship, he received a scholarship to work as chef at a five-star hotel in Paris.
Still unfulfilled, he pursued a career in Muay Thai kickboxing. At the age of 22, he was invited to Thailand, where he trained with other professional Muay Thai boxers. This form of kickboxing, entrenched in the beliefs and customs of Buddhism, is Thailand’s national sport.
“Being exposed to (Buddhist spirituality) sparked more of my interest in spiritual things and in trying to understand and figure out that there was more to life,” Thai says. At one gym, the group would pray before and after training, and Thai began to wonder why they prayed, and to whom. Soon, he began to pray, although he refused to accept any established religion, including Buddhism and Christianity.
“I was more determined to find God, but I guess I wanted to find God on my own terms,” Thai says. “I was completely adamant: I was going to find God without any outside influence, without anyone pressuring me toward anything.”
Knowing nothing about prayer, Thai prayed for his daily needs. He prayed for success in his career, and he sensed what he then thought were signs of God’s favor: He won a fight in Thailand and received media attention that guaranteed a fight in Singapore, all expenses paid. He then fought the Canadian champion of Muay Thai in Calgary, Canada.
“After everything I had tried,” Thai says, “I was sure this was the one thing that was going to define my life. I was going to be a fighter, and that was what was going to make me happy,” Thai says.
But when Thai returned from his fight in Canada, he felt empty. “I definitely think it was God showing me that nothing in this life is going to bring the joy that is found in Him,” he says. Confused, he packed his bags and bought a ticket to Chiang Mai. He again joined a gym, but his misery grew daily.
“One day, I just didn’t go to training,” Thai recalls. “I never usually missed training at all, but that one day, I went down to the shopping mall and was just sitting outside and just feeling awful.”
While sitting in the mall, Thai noticed a group of Westernlooking people who seemed to be lost. One of the people, a student at Southwestern, approached him and handed him a Gospel tract in the Thai language. Ten minutes later, Keith Eitel, professor and dean of the Fish School of Evangelism and Missions at Southwestern Seminary, approached Thai and asked if he spoke English.
“Ya, mate,” Thai replied. “I’m Australian.”
With this introduction, Thai told Eitel about his own search for God and for truth, and Eitel shared the Gospel with Thai and gave him a Bible to read. It was the first time Thai had heard the Gospel. Upon Eitel’s suggestion, he began to read the Gospel of John, and he was struck by its truth.
“I think when the truth speaks out to you, it sticks to you,” Thai says. “I’ve read a bunch of different books, and it felt like everything else was just like plagiarism on the Bible.“
After Eitel returned to the United States, he stayed in touch with Thai. For a time, Thai struggled with the message of the Gospel, but in March 2009 he confessed Christ as Lord and asked for the forgiveness for his sins.
Soon after this, Thai accepted Eitel’s suggestion that he move to the United States to study in the College at Southwestern. He moved to Fort Worth in the fall of 2009, where he is working toward his Bachelor of Arts in Humanities degree with a concentration in missions. Before he came to the college, many of his friends told him that he would receive only a onedimensional degree.
“But it has been the complete opposite,” Thai says, “being able to study world religions, and looking…at the whole development of human thought. To have the Christian view underlining all this and to see how Christianity makes sense of everything else has really strengthened my own faith.”
Thai says his studies have taught him to think for himself and to recognize truth and falsehood in a way he once could not: “I was really unable to discern what was wise and unwise, what was truth and not truth, and what was biblical and unbiblical,” he says. “I think so many people just go through life, aimlessly wandering and just swallowing everything they’re fed.” At the college, he is learning to assess the truth for himself — “learning how to chew before you swallow would be a good way to put it.”
This summer, Thai returned to Chiang Mai. This time, however, he traveled as a participant in the same missions program that led to his salvation and ended his search for an unknown God three years ago. Having come to Christ through missions, he says, “I can’t see myself doing anything but missions.“