How I Became a Missionary and Why I Continue to Be One

Thailand is less than 1 percent Christian, and church planting is one of the areas that we’ve been called to so that we exceed 1 percent, at least in my lifetime, but there’s a lot of work to be done and I hope my story of how God has called me into this work might inspire others to go to Asia where there’s a great need for the gospel.

Rawee Bunupuradah originally made this presentation at Mission 2025, an RCA Global Mission celebration event. Watch the video or read the lightly edited content as follows.

My formative years set the stage

My story starts out in the South Bronx. I lived most of my life, from my early childhood into my teens, in ZIP code 10457; if you know that ZIP code, you know it’s not a fun ZIP code. It had a lot of issues but as a child I thought that was normal. I grew up in that neighborhood because my parents moved from Bangkok, Thailand, to New York City looking for a better life for themselves and for their children, so they were Thai Buddhist immigrants. I remember very vividly going to the temple every week because that’s where the Thai community could be found, and I was formed to understand the teachings and the understanding of Buddhism. 

Outside of that, if you were to ask me what my childhood was like, I’d say I was home alone a lot. Immigrant families have to work really hard to make ends meet, and when I think about my childhood, I don’t remember much of being parented or guided or counseled or mentored by my parents. Now as I’m a dad I have to say with a grimace and some pain and some suffering that I was neglected as a child, which was not anyone’s fault because my parents needed to figure out a way of surviving in the South Bronx. But what did that form in me? I’d say I struggled with being known and feeling loved, struggling with understanding my purpose, my value, and my direction in life—always wondering where I belonged. As I carried that as a child unknowingly, unable to communicate those things into my teen years, I was a very angry person. I hated myself, and I hated the fact that I was Thai because once I went to high school and they found out I was Thai, they’d say, “Oh, you’re from the toilet of Asia, where there’s drugs and AIDS and prostitution.” All the vices for Asia were in Thailand and that didn’t do much for my self-confidence going through high school.

Fast forward through various events, especially my brother becoming a believer, and something began to stir in my own story and I began to ask many questions of why my brother, who had once told me not to hang out with Christians because they will brainwash you, was now one of them. How did that happen? And I wound up in college in a room of believers having a conversation about faith. I was trying to be antagonistic actually, and the topic of dating came up, and I asked, “What is love? You guys say you date to get married, but what is love?” And I was asking what is the truth? And what is love? By the Lord’s grace one of the ladies in that room took a Bible and shoved it into my face and told me to read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Outwardly, I said, “You guys are so gullible and stupid,” but the Holy Spirit was planting a seed in my heart. And if I were to speak honestly at that moment, I said, “If there is love to be found like this, where do I find it?”

Christ and his church changed me

Three years later I found that love. I came to a church for a Bible study. God met me, and I became a believer. And in becoming a believer, I ferociously began to study the Bible. One night I opened the Scripture and came to those verses in 1 Corinthians again, and I read them and I found that love. And I saw a vision of the cross. I saw Christ in his love for us, and I wept and wept and wept because I found the love, and I felt the love. My response to God was this: “God if you’ve loved me so well like this, how do I respond?” What I heard that night was, “Rawee, I am sending you back to your parents’ homeland and you will preach the gospel.” And I thought to myself, “Huh, what does that mean?” I had no idea what missions were. So for the next ten years, I was discovering what that meant. It’s because of Jesus and his love and the gospel that I learned to begin to love myself again and to love that I was Thai and to realize the desperate need for the gospel in that nation.

Related: What does the Bible say about evangelism?

So ten years passed—I graduated college and began to worship at the church where I came to faith: at the Reformed Church of Newtown in Elmhurst, Queens. I love this church. This is the church where I experienced salvation. This is the church that taught me to love the Scripture and to study theology. This is the church that helped me understand what it meant to serve. What I miss most while I’m in Thailand is this church and the fellowship of believers there. It’s real, it’s good, it’s edifying. 

When I entered the work force and began my career in healthcare, I found myself so dissatisfied with sitting in front of a computer. At the same time, I found myself loving more and more and wanting to be at this church serving. The joke going around then was that I had done everything in this church except preach at the pulpit. I had scrubbed toilets, taught Sunday school, led prayer meetings, and became a deacon, yet I had not preached.

That calling from that night began to dim, and I began to wonder whether that was just my own imagination or what, so as I began to grow at Newtown Church, I began to ask questions and say, “Well if God’s not going to send me to Thailand, then I’m going to do ministry here.”

Related: Five ways to embrace mission and revitalize the church

Scripture prompted the change in mission field

I found myself reading Scripture. Two passages in particular have been very formative for me and how I approach church: Romans 12:1-2 and Ephesians 4:11-12.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

“He himself granted that some are apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.”

So I began to invest into the church my time, my effort, whatever I could to see this happen and be true in me and within the brothers and sisters whom I was worshiping with at Newtown.

Then there was a season in my serving at Newtown when I began to feel bitter. Why don’t these people change? Why am I not changing? Why am I not transforming? So I began to enter a time in which I said, “I know Jesus is so good but why isn’t this church following Jesus?” And I thought the best thing to do was to go to seminary to see if maybe I got something wrong, so I registered for seminary. And my missions class humbled me deeply because it was in the mission class that I began to realize that the calling that God had for me was not me and my mission, but me being part of God’s mission. This quote still rings true in my life: “The church exists by missions like fire exists by burning.” And it woke me up to say, “Lord, I recommit myself to that calling. Please, if it’s your will, send me. Send me.”

So we wind up going to an orientation with Mesa Global, the partner ministry that I’m now serving in Thailand, and I was so convicted. John Bernard, the president, was there to welcome these possible candidates for mission work overseas, and he asked this very poignant question: “If you’re here and you look at the church and you look at how ugly it is and how problematic it is and how it’s dirty and how it has issues and you just find yourself critical and bitter and just not really liking the church, I need to invite you to leave the room right now. Our organization is about seeing the church shine.” And he read Ephesians 5:25-27:

“As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her and having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle and any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.”

That verse is also part of what led to me being a missionary. Shortly after that orientation, we wound up in Thailand, and we’ve been serving there for 11 years.

Related: How global experiences and mission led me to my call

What continues to fuel me for God’s mission

So, that’s how I ended up being a missionary, but maybe a secondary question is this: how am I still a missionary? Honestly, it’s been hard. I’ve burnt out twice and in God’s grace, he restored me. But as I reflect on almost 12 years of ministry, I want to share what has fueled missions for me, and I’m hoping that others may also be fueled by it. The first piece is a picture from Scripture: Revelation 7:9—a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. Does that fuel missions for you? If you have faith in Jesus Christ, the Scripture promises that you will be standing amongst the multitude. The missional question is this: who’s standing next to you? Who is God calling you to go out and preach the gospel, to care and love and serve, that they may have the opportunity to stand next to you and to party before the Lamb? Who are those people? For me, it’s Thais. I want to see millions and millions and millions of Thais before that throne, worshiping. Who is it for you?

What else fuels mission for me? It’s the realization that if mission is going to succeed, it’s all centered on God’s presence and his leadership. I can’t imagine what my life would be like if I wasn’t on mission because in the process of being a missionary I have experienced such a depth of relationship with God that I can’t imagine what else life would be like. God’s presence and leadership fuels missions for me.

And lastly, what fuels me is the desire to see the church alive and on mission. I want to see churches going out making disciples, planting more churches, developing leaders that will meet the needs of the times and seasons of our culture and society. That fuels missions for me—spiritual formation and disciple-making. We go back to the Great Commission: go and make disciples. We’re called to not just teach the Bible, not just teach theology, but we’re also called to see people become disciples of Christ, people who are becoming more and more like him in their thoughts, in their words, and in their actions towards the world. And that fuels my mission—that I would see people around me growing in their relationship with Christ and understanding their purposes, their giftings, and how they’re called to service in the kingdom too.

Finding my place in God’s mission

When I first announced to the church at Newtown that the Lord was calling us into the mission field in Thailand, an elderly couple at the church, who I only knew on the surface, Ruby and John Sai, waited at the entrance to the narthex to greet me, to shake hands with me, to embrace me, and to tell me that they approved of this decision. And, honestly, it was a bit of a mystery why that particular couple did that, why these elders and leaders took the time to affirm my call in that way.

Fast forward to when I’m in Holland, Michigan, on home assignment. I always like coming back during the summers because there’s a barbecue reunion amongst the missionaries who are in Holland and they have really good food and they have really good conversation, but I’ve always felt kind of strange going there because I was the only one with black hair; everyone else had white hair, and if you were to count the number of years of mission experience in that room it was close to a thousand years. It was an honor to be there and I stood there with humility, thinking, “Wow, I’m in the midst of giants.” And these older saints, who were on mission in various parts of the world, welcomed me and I shared a little bit of my story. And one lady came up to me and so sweetly said, “Newtown Church? (Yes) Was your pastor Ron? (Yes) That’s my nephew. His mom and his dad were in Taiwan.” And then she said, “Do you know John and Ruby Sai? (Yes) Ron’s parents discipled them.”

And it dawned on me that one of my struggles in life was always wondering where I belonged. And in that moment of realization, I experienced the pursuit of God on me. He pursued missionaries and sent them to Taiwan, and they in turn pursued and shared the gospel with Taiwanese, who then would move to New York City and be part of church revitalization in Elmhurst, Queens, and be elders and leaders there and retire there, and then they would see this dude named Rawee go to Thailand. And I realized I was part of the Reformed Church in America’s mission history in deeply rooted ways.

God has been doing things amongst us that we have not seen or we may not ever understand, but in that moment I understood and I cried. All my questions about whether I belonged somewhere cleared up, all my doubts about being called to the mission field cleared up, and I found myself knowing that I’m deeply rooted in the Reformed Church in America. I’m part of its history now, and I’m honored to be part of its branches now in Bangkok ,Thailand, and in the nation and kingdom of Thailand, reaching out on mission there to see more and more of this history written out.

Lord, bless us as we continue to be the roots and branches to the lost world that the fire of your mission would still burn brightly in our hearts and to those who are living in darkness. Father, I pray for some who may be stirred up and inspired. May they take that step of faith in obedience to you, in loving service to you to figure out your calling on them and the purposes you have for them. Thank you, Lord, for being our God and for leading us and loving us so well. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, amen.