"My name is Nick Walters and I'm a missionary
physician here at Bangkok Adventist Hospital, which is also known as Mission Hospital.
This is my 20th year of mission service.
To work here in Thailand I needed to get a medical license because I'm working here
as a medical doctor. The medical exams in Thailand are in the Thai language.
To learn an entirely new language with completely different grammar and tones was a bit of a
challenge, not just a bit of a challenge, it was an incredible challenge and the Lord
worked things out in a miraculous way for me to be able to come to Thailand, to study Thai and to finally
be able to take the exam and pass it.
To put enough effort into learning an entirely
new language, to take an exam, a medical examination in a written language that doesn't use English
characters was a big risk because I could have ended up wasting two years of my life doing this.
So part of it was the struggle with wanting to know what God's will was for me.
To trust that God would somehow work this crazy thing that I was doing, somehow work it out
so that way it would be to glorify His name and it turned out very positive for me and
it definitely glorifies His name because I was able to pass the boards in the Thai language.
If you had ever seen me in my Spanish class in high school you might have wondered how
is this ever possible for Nick Walters to do this? But anyway the Lord did work it out.
But many people think of Thailand, 'oh, that's a tourist destination; how come you
went there as a missionary? Isn't it like paradise, you go there first??'
Well there are some challenges. But ways that I've been able to help at the hospital here
because I have a personal feeling that Jesus' example of healing people physically,
mentally and spiritually is very important. And I can tell you living and working in a busy country,
especially a busy city, a capital city of Bangkok, Thailand, there's a lot
of stress here. There are a lot of people who suffer physical illness because of mental
and spiritual problems as well. And so because of that I try very hard to help with
their healing, not just the physical healing but the mental and spiritual, by bringing
those aspects into their life that they may not have even known they had a problem with,
and to show them that there are solutions for their problems. In fact, this would
have been one of the most fascinating things that I've been able to do. My Thai patients
will come to me and when I say to them, 'I think that we need to pray together because
I think you'll feel better after we've prayed together.' They say, 'yes'.
I've never had anyone refuse. And that's been a wonderful experience working here in
Thailand as people are willing to and more than happy to hear about this God that loves them.
[Singing]
My wife and I have at least once a month tried to have Bible study at our house, but it's
a little more than Bible study, we feel like they're almost like our children and so
it's been a wonderful experience to share Christianity and also support the Christianity
of our Christian students but also share it with our Buddhist students as well.
Our Adventist church is growing in Thailand. If our members throughout the world could
pray for our members or people who are struggling to become members of our church here in Thailand
because for a Thai person to choose to become a Christian is a challenge."