Mission

Help all Thai people be able to understand the Bible.

ช่วยคนไทยทุกคนให้เข้าใจพระคัมภีร์ได้

Problem

A number of factors limit the ability of many Thai people to understand the Bible in such a way that they connect it to life. Of course many of these factors are common to many other language groups globally. Obstacles include the following:

• Reading Frequency – While 94% of Thais are literate, we find that many Thais seldom read, and are therefore do not read fluently. Many will admit to not enjoying reading. We find many who were never required to read a chapter book in school.
• Core Knowledge – Learning and understanding are compounding process, where new information is attached to existing knowledge and patterns previously stored in the brain. We find that many Thais to be limited in the kinds of knowledge and understanding that can help them to process new information and ideas from the Bible, whether it be written vocabulary or knowledge of the ancient Near East.
• Language Differences – While central Thai is taught in schools, many commonly speak a different language at home. This especially impacts those older and less educated.
• Writing System – The Thai writing system lacks capitalization, rarely uses punctuation, and does not space words apart other than for sentence breaks. This adds an extra challenge for infrequent or non-fluent readers, who may struggle recognizing unfamiliar words or proper nouns, or have difficulty grouping words into meaningful thoughts.
• Lack of Christian heritage – Thais of course general lack the Bible-based vocabulary, idiom and concepts that permeate Western languages.
• Royal Language –

Proposed Solution

We believe that these challenges and more can be addressed through building a new phone app that approaches Bible reading in a new way. This app will have the following features:

• Built-in, easy-to-access reading aids
• Selectable translation algorithms