Myrt D - Texas

Bob and Myrt took their family of seven on an adventure of a lifetime to Thailand for many years of missionary work during the 1960s.  The memories there are truly prized possessions for them and now their grandchildren as well.  Their time spent there has connected families across both generations and continents.

 

~Claire

 

 

When we got ready to go to Thailand as missionaries, our friends Pat and Archie wanted to know how they could help us. So they got together and they put on a big $100 a plate dinner at the Hilton Hotel, the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Hollywood. And in order to go to the dinner you had to give $100; some gave more.

 

We left for Thailand on January 29, 1963 and got there on February 11. We were there for seven years. Eight years total, but we spent about nine or 10 months here in the United States on leave.

We had a lot of good times in Thailand. That was a great period of our lives. I stayed in town most of the time.  We had a nice house with a big tree in the yard.

We went to language school and it was tough. But then we moved up to Chang Mai and they had already established some churches up there. So, we visited them and Bob preached for them and helped them out. Then, we started a preacher training school there in Chang Mai. It worked pretty good. But it's tough working as a missionary in Thailand. You can't make any tracks too quickly.

 

We went to Phrao one time. Bob stopped our Volkswagen microbus about 2 miles from the church building in Phrao. I looked at my children and said, "Now, look, this is not the Waldorf Astoria. We are going to sleep on the floor, on mats, and it's not going to be real comfortable. But for one night you just got to be tough. They are going to serve you some food that you're probably not going to like, but eat it, don't complain." So they had one dish; it was little old larva and they made some kind of a dish out of it and put it on rice. I said, "You need to eat that." And I ate it too.

I told them to not complain. I told them, "I want you to be optimistic. God is going to work through us on this trip."

 

It was nice, though. We liked it. It was a great decision to go there. It was really a nice place to live. It was a good experience. And it was a good experience for the kids.