Sakchai Lalit / AP Thai officials arrange bags containing dead fetuses found at the morgue of a Buddhist temple in Bangkok on Friday.

BANGKOK – On the grounds of a Buddhist temple, dozens of white plastic bags lay in carefully arranged rows. Each sack was knotted at the top and contained the remains of a fetus. Thai authorities found about 2,000 remains in the temple’s mortuary, where they had been hidden for a year — apparently to conceal illegal abortions.

A strong stench had drawn police to the temple in Bangkok’s old city Tuesday, and authorities searching the mortuary — where bodies awaiting cremation are normally kept — initially found more than 300 fetuses. They returned Friday to find more than five times that number, according to police Lt. Col. Kanathud Musiganont.

From the moment I made my Asia ministry public, I have been asked, “Why Asia? Why would you choose to live and minister in an area of the world that is still developing?” To answer this question more articulately, please read on and allow me to acknowledge why I believe Asia is not only the place where the moving and stirring of God is happening, but why strategically, now is the time, and Southeast Asia is the place.