“People built tin shack homes and lived over the top of storm water drains where there would be dead animals and rubbish.”
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A short visit to Thailand for the first time in 2008 was all Wayne Coady needed to know he wanted to spend more of his life helping others.
After three more trips to Thailand the pastor at Dubbo’s Church of Christ, along with his wife Wendy and son Ben, decided to relocate to the country where they would work with the poor from 2015.
Just last month, the Coadys went to Thailand to finalise their plans to work with evangelical organisation, Pioneers, choosing to settle in Korat, about three hours’ drive north-east of Bangkok.
In 2008, the family spent their first visit teaching English to people living in the slums and establishing churches.
“To see what we have and see what they had, even just for a day was life changing,” Pastor Coady said.
He said the family had never felt such a “strong calling before” and came back to Australia determined to return to Thailand to continue working there in a few years’ time.
At the moment Pastor Coady said the main goal was to focus on learning the language and culture in order to help with their work.
“One of the avenues people use to get out of the poverty cycle is to learn skills such as learning how to speak English as a sort of trade language, so we’ll probably be teaching them.”
The plan was to first go for one year to make sure they could survive living there, with the aim to encourage, strengthen and work alongside people who shared their passion to being involved in compassionate work.
“Thailand is a very odd place where it is quite industrialised and wealthy but there is a huge discrepancy... there’s lots to be done,” he said.
Pastor Coady said the family was looking to leave at the end of January, 2015.
