The Rev. Dr. Don Persons, formerly a United
Church of Christ missionary connected with the CCT, has recently
completed his doctoral thesis, entitled "Learning the Bible
at Thai Community Church in Chicago: A Study of Contextualization
of Religious Education with Reference to Lamp of Thailand
Distance Education Ministries" (D.Min., McCormick Theological
Seminary, 2003). As indicated in the title, the thesis deals with
distance educational and contextualization issues related to the
Lamp of Thailand's Bible correspondence ministry through the lens
of the experience of a local Thai church in the United States.
A copy of Don's thesis has been deposited at the Payap University
Archives.
In the course of my research on the first
article in this issue of HeRB, I came across an interesting
and useful website that contains the genealogy of the Bradley
Family, including most importantly Dr. Dan Beach Bradley. The
site is that of "The Thomas Osgood Bradley Foundation (www.bradleyfoundation.org.),"
a foundation that "is a non-profit organization dedicated
to researching and publishing the history and genealogies of the
Bradleys of Bingley, Yorkshire and New England, as well as of
New Englanders who removed to the River Plate Basin area prior
to 1850, and to the preservation of documents and other materials
relating to their activities." The foundation maintains a
library in Miami, Florida. The website states, "Our holdings
include Town Histories and Records of several Massachusetts towns,
Social Security Records, Vital Records, Cemetery records, Marriage
Records and several published genealogies." It also notes
that the library is closed "temporarily," but that some
records may be available. Email inquiries may be sent to Saul
M. Montes-Bradley at saul@bradleyfoundation.org.
Dan Beach Bradley is listed as being part of the 8th generation
of the "Descendants of Danyell Broadley of Newclose and West
Morton."
Helen Knox Murphy, the daughter
of H. Gaylord & Lela Knox, Presbyterian missionaries to Thailand
(1920-1941, 1947-1961), has recently privately published a family
history, entitled Common Nobility: A Family Story (Houston:
Table Kitchen Top Publishers, 2002). The book includes substantial
chapters on her family's missionary life in Phrae from the 1920s
through to the end of World War II. It is useful, as well as interesting,
for the perspective it brings to that life, namely the perspective
of an "MK" (missionary kid) who is very self-consciously
a "TCK" (third culture kid). Helen describes her life
in boarding schools in India (Kodaikanal and Woodstock), as well
as her sometimes painful visits to the United States on furlough.
While actual material on Thailand and India amounts to somewhat
less than one-third of the book's 200-plus pages, Thailand suffuses
its narrative, providing a vivid portrait of how being born here
can permanently mark and enrich a life. The volume is liberally
sprinkled with photographs, many of them from Thailand. Spiral
bound, it is a fine example of what desk top publishing can accomplish
these days. Common
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Nobility is a welcome addition to the
shelf of books on the history of missions in Thailand. A photocopy
is available at the Payap University Archives.
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