04/13/2026
As I type this, I am sitting on a hotel balcony seeing my final sunset on this visit to Bangkok. Boats sail lazily down the Chao Prya river, while cars and motorcycles buzz down various streets and highways, and metro train wheels squeal.
It’s a far cry from the city I visited with my family when I was a 12 year old many decades ago. Then, Bangkok was an up and coming east Asian country with plenty of chicken sate stands, night/floating markets and just such a different world than any I had seen before. I was convinced it was the best city I’d ever seen which at the time included such cities as Manila, Tokyo, Chicago, Rome, Athens, Addis Ababa, Mumbai, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
And so, I was excited about coming back again to see if I still loved it. The short answer is, I did. Though so much had changed, The Thai people are still the warm and open people I remember.
If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen a few posts about my trip, none of which explained the purpose. So I will do so now.
Years ago, my father let me and my siblings know that he wanted to start a non-profit to help people in need. My father lived and worked in several developing countries and had first hand perspective that most Americans haven’t. He had a name in mind for this yet to be created organization which was based on his name (Charles) and my mother’s (Laura). The name was CandL (Charles and Laura) to which he added an el suffix which in Biblical names like Israel, or Gabriel means “of God.” Together, dad and I worked on getting the name registered, and a website name saved. We have recently been approved as a non-profit, 501 c(3) organization by the IRS. I had hoped to have been able to get things going before the Lord took my father home, but as I type this, it’s been nearly a year since he left us. Being recently retired, I now have enough time to get things started, and this trip was part of that start.
In Thailand, I had identified four potential partners in advance of our visit and had two additional impromptu meetings over the course of our stay.
My siblings and I have been praying and discussing which of these ministries and organizations we’d like to partner with. Once everything is in place, we will start raising funds so we can provide as much support as possible to our final list.
Why Thailand?
The easiest explanation I can give fellow believers is that after nights of intense prayer the Lord spoke to me in dreams. I shared one of these dreams on Facebook:
The people and organizations we met with these past three weeks are involved in the prevention of human trafficking, the rescue and restoration of victims of trafficking,.
If you have ever had any interest in fighting trafficking, please keep an eye on this space. God bless.
