Thailand Journal 10 – Sept. 3

Today we participated for the 9^th consecutive year in the annual

community medical outreach. Pathways to Health is modeled on what we do here in Thailand. It is a coordinated project by the University, Mission Hospital, and the Thailand Mission. As I mentioned before. Walla Walla University mission teams have been full partners in this endeavor. Over the years we have had a full day of a wide variety of services – medical, dental, optical, social etc. It has been a life changing experience for so many of those who come on the trip. The desire to dedicate some of their lives to overseas mission has intensified. In addition to the services mentioned above, today we did something new for the first time: Dr. Nick invited the two medical students (Libby and Devyn) to join him on some home visits in the village nearby. What a blessing! Oh, another thing, I was delighted to hear that Pastor Somchai was recently elected as President of the Union and chair of the University’s Board of Trustees. I’ve been working closely with him over these many years in Thailand when he was Mission president, and Mission Hospital Administrator. He has been the moving force behind these wholistic medical outreach events. We have been honored that he and Dr Pornpan have always

planned them so that we from Walla Walla University can be fully involved. I was especially delighted to have the new President of AIU visiting the outreach today as well. In recent years one of the highlights of our trip is the visit to the Tiger Temple. However,
because of the controversy surrounding that place, I’ve decided not to go there this year. Instead we will be visiting Koh Samed Island in the gulf of Thailand. We drove the 4 hours to Rayong on the main land, and we are staying at the Hub de Leaf hotel tonight. We’ll take the ferry to the Island early tomorrow morning. We had a delightful dinner at a Korean restaurant to end the day.