Jack Kinnison, son of an Air Force officer, had made the world his home when he met Lynn Penuel, who grew up in Birmingham. Together, they’ve spent most of their adult lives in Thailand, spreading the gospel and teaching Thais about Christ.
“The Lord brought us together,” said Kinnison, recalling how he met his future wife in 1968 when both were students at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas. “I was called to serve in missions shortly after I was saved at age 18. Lynn had been called to the missions field when she was a young girl in GAs.
“After we completed our masters’ degrees at seminary, the then-Foreign Mission Board (now International Mission Board) appointed us to serve in Laos, Vietnam. We were there when the Communists took over. We transferred into Thailand in the spring of 1975. We’ve been serving there ever since.”
In Thailand, Jack Kinnison is team leader for the Eastern Regional team, comprised of four IMB missionary families and several Thai nationals. Teams focus their attention on reaching people groups — natural social networks that share culture and sometimes language. Eastern Thailand has a diverse cultural mix, so there are several such groups.
The Kinnisons work closely with the ministries of the Baptist Hospital at Bangkla, where they are based. Lynn Kinnison also oversees the work of Thai Country Trim, a cottage ministry begun in 1982.
“At seven Thai Country Trim centers, Thai ladies make such items as Christmas ornaments, Bible covers and baby quilts. These projects provide the ladies a chance to make some much-needed personal money,” Lynn Kinnison said. “We also provide them with spiritual food through prayer, Bible study and group sessions.”
Jack Kinnison said one obstacle he, Lynn and other missionaries had to overcome is the vast difference in languages. “Thai is a difficult language, because it’s a tonal language,” he said. “To the untrained American ear, what sounds like one word may be another. It usually takes a missionary about 18 months to learn the language.”
Sometimes non-Thai speakers make mistakes that send their listeners into silent laughter.
“One missionary, saying a prayer, meant to say, ‘God, the great God,’” Kinnison said. “Somehow, his inflection was wrong and he ended up saying, ‘God, the big mama.’”
Although the Kinnisons have developed friendships and close associations with many Thais, they must work and pray hard for every person brought to Christ. The vast majority of Thais are Buddhist. In the eastern region where the Kinnisons serve, there are 4 million inhabitants, but only 3,000 are Christians. “Though rain falls almost daily June through October, the ground remains spiritually hard,” commented Kinnison in a prayer tract.
Three of the Kinnisons’ four adult children were born in Thailand and all four grew up there, home-schooled by their mother during the elementary and middle school grades. All four attended Auburn University.
The Kinnisons have close Birmingham ties, too, and the couple considers Lakeside Baptist Church in Birmingham a home away from home. The couple has spent previous stateside assignments in Auburn or in Birmingham, where Lynn’s mother, Mary Penuel, lives.
However, during their current stay in the United States, they’re in Fayetteville, N.C., at the home of their son, Air Force Capt. Phil Kinnison, and his wife, Tanya.
The couple’s oldest daughter, Karen and her husband, Michael Crane, another MK (missionary kid), live in California. The two anticipate going to Southeast Asia as IMB missionaries.
The Kinnisons’ youngest son, Christopher, recently completed a two-year term as a journeyman with the IMB in Cambodia. Their second daughter Laura, a teacher, and her husband, Paul Maning, live in Atlanta.
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