Kenneth had his first service in the Chinese language in August 1929. The Chinese were delighted and "could even understand me." It was a strange experience for him to be taken for a "babar" (half Chinese). He was the only white man to speak both…
Kenneth signed a "ministry contract" with Kru Pram Wari to go to seminary training and return to be one of his pastors. Ku Pram was a very personable man, but the plan never worked out. Kenneth does not know what became of the man.
Kenneth talks about the time it took for the mail to travel to its final destination. He recalls visiting the Huiat Church with its variety of people groups and Chinese dialects. He understood quite a bit in each dialect.
Kenneth reads a letter about his mother's health. He learned that the cancer was completely removed during the operation. Victorine Smith had become the housekeeper because of Mae's failing health. Kenneth had problems with the Huiat Church. The…
Kenneth reads a letter to his mother, who had told him for the first time about a sore on her breast. He urged her to see a doctor (he later learned that she had an operation). He also advised her to keep for herself the $900 she had inherited from…
Kenneth was in a chapel when a gangster came in to see him, along with two companions. He looked like a coolie but he seemed educated. He told his story to Kenneth, how he ruined his life as a spoiled child of a wealthy father. He worked in a rice…
Kenneth had to rush to Bangkok for teeth problems. On his way back home he met a Syrian refugee and an agnostic German who gave Kenneth an inflatable leather pillow. Upon his return Kenneth found that Dr. Bulkley had returned from furlough. Peggy was…
Kenneth describes Chong, its jungles, snaky vines, agriculture, religious beliefs, and other customs. He remembers the governor cutting down the trees and thus offending the populations because trees were sacred and believed to have a spirit in them.…
Kenneth talks about the Nanhalung show that would run through the night. People would hear the drum and walked in the dark, with torches, to the place where the sound came from and gather for the show. Kenneth heard the drum beat while studying Greek…
Kenneth tells about his beginnings in Trang, how he took time to survey the vast area of some 2,000,000 people in preparation for his evangelistic tours and church planting, the people he met that were helpful, etc. His first goal was to establish in…
Kenneth explains that their cook, Nai Dit, took a day off to build a huge trap to catch a mongoose that was coming into the kitchen at night to eat the food. Kenneth was pessimistic that the huge and complex trap was going to catch anything, but it…
Kenneth is back home at last after six weeks on evangelistic tour. He and Margaret were so excited to get together again that they couldn't sleep. Kenneth talks about the children growing up and learning well. He recalls with amusement having a…
Kenneth recalls a big meeting in the market place in Ban Don during which he encountered opposition for preaching that the soul that sins will die (Ezekiel). This reaction gave him the opportunity to engage the crowd, because this kind of reaction…
Kenneth continues to read about his third evangelistic tour in which he gave the Gospels to the district chief who made sure that each home in the district receives a copy of the Gospel. The people who did it were all volunteers and probably happy to…
Kenneth wrote home about their move to Trang. Margaret and the children had gone first and he was left behind moving the furniture. He hired freight cars for the move. The climate was better in Trang and there was some sort of port.
Kenneth visited Chun Pon and preached two or three times a day. He was working to get the Gospels to some 5,000 villages, and it took a lot of walking and traveling. He preached the gospel the "apostolic way" and distributed a lot of literature.…
Kenneth was gone for an evangelistic tour and visited an awful town where there was a murder about every week and bad women and men skylarking all over the place.
Kenneth wrote a letter to his parents about his preaching on the street. He was going around with 2,000 Gospels, had preached the night before to a very large crowd, and handed out a great profusion of the Gospel of Luke.
Kenneth reads a letter he wrote about his concern for Margaret mental state, his desire to see her do something outside the home, expressing the need for her to get back to writing again and doing other things beside run the home every day.
Kenneth tells of his preaching in Bangkok to his fellow missionaries, challenging them for their lack of zeal. Most of them, he though, were living too soft a life. The response wasn't very enthusiastic.
The Landons discovered that their best cook, Ah Chuan, was deceiving them about money for the groceries. It got to the point where their monthly bill was much higher than that of other missionay families that had more people to entertain. Kenneth…
The Landons went on a vacation, each to a different destination. Kenneth wrote Margaret about his vacation and all the fun he was having while preaching the gospel as well. He tells about the songs he was learning every day.
Margaret stopped her language study because the strain had become too much. Kenneth went on and took his second year exam. He passed all the tests, but he was downgraded because the teachers had to grade him on the basis of two years in the country…
The Siamese in Bangkok had tried to keep the Landons there but other missionaries were resentful of Kenneth's ability with the local language and culture. The mission sent him to one of the worst fields in Nakhon, on the east coast. This turned out…
Kenneth's Siamese teacher taught him the high, scholarly Thai language of the Bible, and this turned out to make him sound funny when speaking the language in ordinary conversation. He was told that he spoke Siamese like the Bible.