“Is that a spirit tree?” Gabriel asked his friends, pointing to a stately tree whose canopy had just been slashed back to create space for a new building. Rumor had it that the tree was a spirit tree, and we wondered what people thought about the drastic pruning. “No,” one boy replied. “I used to believe in spirit trees, but I don’t anymore.”

“They’re going to build something there,” Gabriel said.

Obviously shocked, his friend turned to another Thai boy, and Gabriel caught only a bit of the rapid exchange that followed—something about snakes coming to the building.

These kinds of conversations shed light on the deep-down beliefs that underpin people’s worldviews. We are both blessed and challenged as we seek this understanding in order to present the liberating Biblical worldview in heart-transforming ways.

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