Kenneth and Margaret helped two men get an education to work in mission. The two turned out to be very fine men. One decided not to go into mission--he did not have the personality for it. Instead he worked in a bank.
Kenneth and Margaret describe the monsoon rain and its sudden, violent hits. Kenneth explains the rainy season process and the crop seasons it gave for different areas in the peninsula. Some regions had three crop seasons while others had two. A…
Brad was pleased with the news of Kenneth and Margaret's move to Thailand to the mission field--for him it was a natural religious step. Mae was not, and she was afraid that she would never see her son (Kenneth) again. She was right; she never did.
Kenneth tells of how he began thinking about missions in his two missions classes at Princeton. Until now he had thought only of working in the United States. He shared the new idea with Margaret and she was deeply disturbed by it.
While at Princeton Kenneth met a missionary called Van Ness. He tells how the preaching of this missionary urged him again for mission. Kenneth then met with Mr. Speer the next week in New York to discuss his desire to go to the mission field.
Kenneth tells about his decision to go into mission business and to do so rapidly. This upset Margaret, but it was Kenneth's way of doing things, and it will always be thoughout his life. He reads about his visit to New York to talk with people on…
On January 19 Kenneth wrote his parents to announce Margaret's pregnancy. "And Mother, if you have loads of good advice for Margaret, I know she'd appreciate it," he wrote.
Kenneth and Margaret left their apartment and stayed for free at the seminary. They began to pack, applied for passports, and bought things they would need in Siam.
Kenneth talks about taking Margaret out for a walk every day pretty much against her will. "I guess I'm incorrigible; I never improve," Kenneth says. Each day they would walk farther and Margaret was getting stronger.
Kenneth was given money from the church to pay the note off on his car and take it with him to Siam. Mrs. Ridgeway presented Kenneth with the gift and tried to make a speech, but she began to weep instead. Other people in the congregation began to…
Kenneth had wanted a good pictures of both his father and mother since college days, and for his birthday that spring of 1927, they sent him pictures which they had specially framed and which he kept the rest of his life.
Kenneth was called in to New York in April for further examination because the doctor suspected a heart problem. The heart specialist cleared him, but the mission board doctor remained skeptical. Finally, after a long interview, the doctor…
Kenneth preached his last Sunday at Columbus. He only had his final Bible conference to do before leaving for Siam. He talks about his travel arrangements, the shipment of his car to Siam, and his travel expenses.
Kenneth reads an account of his ordination from the Meadville newspaper. It was May 10, 1927 (contra an earlier account in which Kenneth insists that it was April 19, 1926). The articles describes the hymns, the sermon, and the ordination prayer…
Kenneth speaks of the disturbance in China that started in March of 1927 and filled the country. It was a civil war between the Kuomingtang forces of Chiang Kai Shek and the various warlords of the country. It has been a guerrilla area ever since.
Paul Fuller invited the Landons to his house for tea and to meet the Prince and his daughter, who was an expert tennis player and who asked Margaret to be her tennis partner in a tournament in February. Kenneth also was asked to become member of the…
The Landons were learning about 30 new words a day, and memorizing two verses from the Siamese New Testament. Each week was a significant advance in their learning of the Siamese language.
The Landons inadvertently paid their servants more than necessary. By the time they left the town, one of their servants, Ah Sim, owned three shops on the marketplace. She hadn't owned any when she came to the Landons.
When Kenneth tried to have Harvard take Prince Damrong's library he got on the telephone and called the heads of various departments, including Dr. Keyes DeWitt Metcalf, the head of the library and the most famous librarian in the U.S. at that time…
One of the reasons Margaret and Kenneth resigned from mission work had to do with the role of the national church in Thailand vis-a-vis the missionaries. They both believed the mission was absolutely backward and without vision, that the mission…
Kenneth recalls the Siamese wedding he attended. After blessing the hand of the couple, he sat down at the stairs. This caused quite some dilemma, as many of the bigwigs of the town were there. As to not be impolite and through confusion, they ended…
Kenneth tells of the lak muang. This post was supposed to hold a spirit who would protect the city. Traditionally, someone was crushed or impaled by the lak muang, and their spirit would stay in the area. Kenneth recalls seeing many of these in his…
Upon being asked about Thailand in the modern day, Kenneth makes his assessment. He reports that they will always survive and be independent, as they really know how to get along.
Kenneth tells of the Landon's different career spurts. He describes them as quite fortuitous, as Margaret wrote her book, and the war spurred great interest in Southeast Asia. Kenneth was also fortunate in that he was the only one in the Foreign…