Christmas Day 2010

It wasn’t a typical Christmas for us this year. Normally in Australia we’d be at least one of our family’s houses with lots of relatives celebrating Christmas together for much of the day. This year we got up early (6:20am) not to open presents but to get ready for the boys school’s sports day. It was quite an event with all the children dressed up and then with a big band they marched through the streets of Lampang until they reached their school.

Our eldest son had been chosen to give a short welcome speech in English. The other two children in his year gave a welcome speech in Thai and Chinese. I was reflecting today that in Australia our son would be just a face among the crowd in his school. He wouldn’t stand out one bit. Here, being the only native English speaker in his year, he will always stand out and be chosen for tasks such as these. At the moment, I think he enjoys the attention, but there may come a time that he doesn’t.

I remember when I was a little older than he is now, I went back to Korea for a few months and had to go to a local Korean primary school. I can still picture in my mind the time when the WHOLE class got out of their seats when I wrote in my exercise book for the first time to see if I could write Korean (having lived in Australia - at that time very few Koreans lived abroad). Even though I looked like every other child, I was yet so different. I can still remember how embarrassed and afraid I was when one day my brother wasn’t there to read the daily English lesson over the school’s speaker system and I had to read in his place. It was so embarrassing trying to hide my tears.

Fortunately, my eldest son is more of an extrovert than me. His speech went off without a hitch in front of hundreds of on lookers. We were so proud of him.

We had a couple of hours at home when we could open the Christmas presents which had been waiting under the tree but then our eldest son had his piano lesson, then off to dance practice for our local church’s Christmas recital and finally for his Taekwondo Christmas party. We arrived home around 8pm exhausted!

Not a typical Christmas that’s for sure.

Merry Christmas and happy new year to everyone.  Thanks for continue the journey with us on this blog.

Rajaphat University

The South African short-term team has come and gone. The photo above is at the Rajaphat university in Lampang where we ran some English classes for these accounting students and also for highschool English teachers from surrounding provinces. It was a very enjoyable team to have and we were able to do some new things which we haven’t done before. I took 4 of the young men to the sports field near our house and we played 5 a side soccer (football for the purists) with another team which happened to be there. Also I was able to join some people playing boules.

In less than a month the an OCF short term team from Australia will be coming for 2 weeks and preparations for that team have begun.

School for the Blind, Lampang

We currently have a short-term team from South Africa helping us and last week they visited The School for the Blind in Lampang which is close to where we live. They helped teach English by singing songs, telling stories and playing games. Today, the team went to the Rajaphat University in Lampang to teach accounting students English. We are back there tomorrow morning with the team.

Loy Kratong

 Loy Kratong Festival in Lampang

Kratong

Last Sunday was the Loy Kratong Festival in Thailand. “Loy” means to float and “Krathong” is a small floating wreath or basket. According to Wikipeadia, “The festival is believed to originate in an ancient practice of paying respect to the spirit of the waters. Today it is simply a time to have fun...”

The Thailand.com website states, “The Loy Kratong ritual is a simple one. One needs only to light the candles and the joss sticks, make one's wishes and let it float away with the current of a river or a canal.

On that day, thousands of people will gather beside the canals and rivers. With kratong in hands, they light the candle, put some coins in the kratong and silently make a wish, and carefully place their kratongs in the water and release them to the current.

They watch intently as the float drifts silently downstream, hoping that the candle will not go out. Its flame is said to signify longevity, fulfillment of wishes and release from sins. Altogether it is considered a romantic night for couples or lovers. Couples who make a wish together on Loy Kratong are thought to stay together in the future.”

The origins Loy Kratong are disputed and no one really knows the true origins. Thailand.com states that, “Whatever the true origin ... Today, Loy Kratong offers a unique occasion to celebrate. It's a good time for people to make wishes and look to the future as they float their floral offerings along the waterways.”

Thai Christians in general have avoided participating in Loy Kratong because of it’s origins and association with the spirits and Buddhism. This alienates Thai Christians from other Thais and relating with non-Christians.

However, is there a way for Thai Christians to be able to participate in this festival so as not to alienate themselves from their friends, yet not be syncretistic? Could Christians infuse new meaning in this festival. Could the candle represent Jesus being the light. Could Thai Christians praise God that their sins are assured of being forgiven through Jesus while they release their Kratongs?

Undoubtedly, Thai Christians and missionaries will have vastly different views on this issue.

Tomato Sauce on Garlic Bread

After our son passed his Taekwondo grading and gained his yellow belt, we went of with some of his friends at Taekwondo and their parents for ice cream and then dinner to celebrate. We had a great time and it was eye opening culturally. I thought only western children went wild at restaurants (generally Thai children are well mannered when with their parents at a restaurant) but our son and his friends proved otherwise. I’m surprised they didn’t break anything, though the waitress was very quick in removing the glasses and replacing them with plastic ones.

Also, I was very surprised when one of the parents put a large blob of tomato sauce and lots of spices on his garlic bread. I’m looking forward to my next dinner with my son’s friends families.

Birthday Girl

Our little girl turned 2 today. Happy birthday!

Does my motorbike have "bad luck"?

Last month I lent a fellow missionary my motorbike to use while we were going to be away. Unfortunately, she was just learning and lost control and accelerated into a busy street and was hit by a car. Praise God that she wasn't injured seriously.

When I returned from holidays a Thai friend told me that I should sell my motorbike because it was “bad luck”. 5 people have already had a crash on this motorbike since I bought it less than 3 years ago. I should really sell it and buy a new bike to escape this motorbike with bad luck.

Another missionary was able to buy a virtually brand new car very cheaply as the owner had hit a Chinese person on a bicycle (which was bad luck).

From a western perspective, we would argue that there have been so many accidents because all the people who had crashes were new or relatively inexperienced riders. So that is why people had accidents. But for many Thais, in their worldview, you cannot ignore the “bad luck” of the bike.

Rare honesty from a church planter

I’ve been reading the book “Church planting is for wimps” by Mike McKinley and in one chapter he bemoans the fact that most church planters are not honest about how things are REALLY going in their church plant. Most church planters overemphasize whatever good is happening and hardly mention the difficulties. Mike’s book was a refreshing change as he honestly recounts the damaging effects that church planting had on his marriage (and thus warns others not to make the same mistake.)

The following is an extract from a prayer letter from one of my missionary colleagues and I’m grateful for his honesty as I can truly relate to his sentiments.

“Dear Friends & Family,

“How is church planting going?” I donʼt particularly enjoy answering this question but I wish I did. With only about 3 months to go until our home assignment in the U.S., it is time to look back at our first full missionary term in Thailand and ask, “What has been accomplished? What do we have to show for ourselves as we head back home and meet with supporters?”


I wish I could tell you that new churches (or at least one new church) has been planted. Or maybe that a small group Bible study of some sort has started that we hope will grow into a church. Or at the very least, weʼd like to report about some promising new believers who have come to faith while weʼve been here. We know that in Thailand people are coming to faith, new small groups are starting, and churches are being planted. The statistics that came out for 2009 said that the number of Christians in Thailand is growing seven times faster than the biological growth rate of the country. That is great news. I just wish that we were seeing some of it in our neck of the woods.


Weʼve tried a lot of different things but nothing seems to have taken off.... [he goes on to list all the things he has tried]


With all the failures, one might be tempted to throw in the towel and go home. But the funny thing is, leaving the mission field has never crossed our mind. “And why not?” you may ask. Because the ultimate success of church planting in Thailand does not depend upon our efforts but the promise of God. Christ said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt 16:18). If Christ has said it will succeed, who are we to say it wonʼt?”

Fishing in Thailand

I'm currently on holidays in South Thailand at a guesthouse owned by our mission.  It is right by the beach and kid friendly with all meals and laundry included in the service, so it is much more convenient and relaxing than staying in a hotel.  On Sundays they have a church service at the guesthouse as all the guests are either missionaries for Christian workers.  The highlight so far as been hiring a local fishing boat and going fishing with one of my collegues and his father in law.  Caught a nice bream and lost another one big one.  Definately will be doing this again sometime.

Deep Church

There are so many books on church planting and church how do you decide what you should read and what you shouldn't?  On the front cover of the book "Deep Church" by Jim Belcher, it had Tim Keller's endorsement "This is an important book", and that was enough for me.

And being 3 quarters of the way through it, I agree that it is an important book.  It suggests a "third way", that doesn't have to be "traditional church" or "emerging church" but a "third way" with a mixture of both.  In my opinion though, Belcher in his "third way" leans much more towards a traditional model in the end and I wonder in reality what he offers is that much more different than a traditional church.

What I like about this look is that Belcher is very balanced in his assessment of traditional church and the emerging church.  Something which generally I find is handled very poorly.  Most of the time, writers say they are trying to write a balanced view and in love but in the end they fail on both counts.  They end up just taking snip shots at the other camp to justify their own positions.

Evidence of this balanced view is that on the back cover you have endorsements from people like Mark Driscoll (Traditional camp) and Rob Bell (Emergent camp).

Belcher's background is interesting.  He knows and dialogued with the some of the main emergent figures as they were just "emerging" but ended but being a Presbyterian minister and started his own church in this "third way" model.  But he was once part of ministry team of 17 at a 5,000 member congregation, then he became disgruntled and started a small organic church in his home.  He's really read up on all the traditional and emergent conversation, actually visited some the churches of the emergent leaders and talked to them.  Then he went out and tried to start a new church with the ideals of his "third way".  Once his church grew he faced the problem of some of his key original church planters being unhappy about the structure and vision of the church as it grew and the Presbyterian denomination had to step in to help resolve the conflict.  This is real experience and not just someone writing from theory.

So this is an important book to read especially in the traditional vs emerging church debate and one I'll need to go over again.

Home Schooling

One of the difficulties missionaries face is the education of their children so that when they eventually return to their home countries, their children can fit back into their home country’s schooling system. In Thailand missionaries have many different options depending on their location. In Bangkok or Chiang Mai there are excellent (but expensive) International School with either a British or American curriculum. Little supplementing would be needed for Australians such as ourselves.  There is a small international school in Lampang with a British program but after starting with this option for our boys we decided that it wasn’t the best for them as they were not learning enough time. After much soul searching and research (mostly by my diligent wife) we decided on our children going to Thai school supplemented by home schooling. 

So my wife goes into our oldest son’s school 3 afternoons a week for an hour to supplement my son’s education following the Sonlight curriculum (American). We hope it will be adequate but we won’t really know until we go back to Australia in 3 years time. One of the great things about OMF is that twice a year they organise Home Schooling Week where homeschooling families get together and have a week of homeschooling with the help of teachers from overseas. So we are off tomorrow to Bangkok for our first home schooling week.

Home Schooling Fun - Volcano Experiment

Lighthouse Shirts

It was months in the making as the team discussed the finer details of the shirt design, but our Lighthouse shirts have been printed and they look great. We are already planning a second printing only 2 weeks after the first one. There will be some minor modifications on the second printing. We’re going have a small Lighthouse logo on the front of the polo shirt (but not the T-shirt). In Australia I’ve been involved in making a shirt, logos, signs but here the team has had to do it all. Great experience. Our students have asked for the shirts too.

In Thailand you have special colours for each day of the week. Last Saturday I happened to wear by purple Lighthouse Shirt (I have a navy blue one as well). And the colour for Saturday - purple! I matched. Now I intend to buy a yellow (Monday), pink (Tuesday), green (green) ,orange (Thursday) shirts and red (Sunday) for the second printing to add to my blue (Friday) and Purple (Saturday) ones. Unfortunately, the rest of my team mates don’t share my enthusiasm to fit in culturally with Thais in wearing the right coloured shirts on the appropriate days.

On the back is the Bible verse from John chapter 8 verse 12.

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

Our Girl with Curls

We don’t know where our daughter got her curls from as both Lisa and I have straight hair (though it must be from Lisa’s side of the family as Asians don’t have curly hair right? I think Lisa’s brother had curly hair as a child). But it is definitely a point of interest and conversation with Thai people we meet. Is it natural they ask? (Yes, it is. I don’t think she’d be patient enough anyway to sit while having curls put in).

Having children can definitely make things harder living cross culturally. You take longer to learn the language as you have less time. They get sick. They can be very tiring.

However, (apart from being a great blessing) people usually are more open to talking to you if you have a child with you. Thai people generally love children. We had a young workman at our house when it was being fixed up and he loved just playing with our daughter. I can’t imagine that she’d have the same reaction back in Australia.

Also, our children have opened up new relationships with parents at school and at Taekwondo. They are great at breaking down barriers.

So there’s some of the bad and good of having children on the field.

Water Tank & Pump installed

For the last two years we’ve endured varying levels of low water pressure in our house, especially upstairs where during the evening when we want to bath the kids, the water pressure is too low for the water heater to work. So this has meant using the downstairs bathroom (which is smaller) and going upstairs to get the kids clothes. Somedays, the water only trickles during the day throughout the house (during the dry season).

Now that we’ve decided not to move house, it was time to get a water tank and pump installed.
On Monday the installers came in the early afternoon and at 5pm they said that they’ll be back tomorrow to finish the job. They hadn’t finishing installing the pipes or connecting the pump with electricity. I told them to come at the same time as I was busy in the afternoon. So the next day I’m waiting at home for them to come but they still haven’t come at 3:20pm so I give the store a call. “Sorry, the installers are busy with another job. They can’t come today”. I thought “you could have at least called me” though I didn’t say it.

The next afternoon they came (late) and when they had finished the job, the pump kept turning on every 10 seconds even though none of the taps were on. “There’s a leak in the pipes under the ground somewhere”, the installer said. So they would need to come back tomorrow to install new pipes.
Anyway, by the end of the week, everything was done and now we don’t have to wake up and go downstairs to have a shower which is nice. The water pressure is greeaaaat!

As a point of interest, the installers had this bag full of joints for the pipes. They dumped them on the ground and whenever they needed a particular joint they would search for it. I didn’t think it was a very efficient way of doing it really. What if they use up a couple of the joints and then forget to replace that particular size. They would need to go back all the way to the store to get another one.

Son's Birthday Party

Just before our son’s 4th birthday party was due to begin it started to rain which is not good news. Thais don’t like to go out in the rain for the fear that they will get sick. At 4:15pm (the party was schedule to start at 4:00pm) there was only our team mates there and I was starting to get worried as we’d bought quite a bit of food already. Soon after that people started to trickle in. By the end we had a decent turnout, with about 4 of our son’s friends from school, our neighbours and English students.

The dinosaur cake was a hit, so much so it was hard to get the kids away to take a picture.

We had fun games such as pin the horn on the dinosaur and carry the the dinosaur egg on a spoon. Thai children have never played such games so they had great fun.
Birthday parties take up a lot time and effort so we’re relived the next one in our family isn’t until November. They are a great way though to meet the parents of your children’s classmates.

Aidan's Dinosaur Birthday Cake

Lisa spent most of last night making this magnificent dinosaur birthday cake for our son’s 4th birthday party today. It has been raining most of the morning. Hope it stops or not many people may come as Thai don’t like traveling in the rain. We’ve invited the teachers and our son’s classmates from school, the English students at the Lighthouse, our neighbors and other friends.

 I think we should enter this cake into a competition or something!

Weekly Routine

 Birthday Invitation for our son's upcoming party

Since coming back to Thailand in mid-May, after 3 months our family has established a routine of sorts.

I take the boys to school usually in the mornings with our daughter in toe. Our daughter is at the very cute age and draws lots of giggles from the students as she waves to them goodbye each morning.

Then on Monday and Friday mornings I have 2 hours of Thai study with my language helper. I’m so glad to have finally found a language helper, and have these two sessions locked in.  When things get busy language study can be the first thing which gets left undone. I try to have at least another 1 or 2 sessions of language study by myself during the week if possible.

Thursday mornings we have a team meeting. Friday afternoon I prepare my English lesson for my Saturday morning English class. Sunday mornings we are at church. Once or twice a month I’ll get up before dawn to play golf with a group to doctors and my friends Kawano finishing before 9am to leave plenty of time to get back for church. Sunday afternoons we alternate between a team BBQ and an open BBQ for all our Thai friends.

Three afternoons a week I take our eldest son to Taekwondo during which I have an hour to chat with the other parents many of who have children in the same class as our son. If we can we try to get to the park once a week to meet new people though lately this has not been possible.

Any spare time, we will try to meet up with our Thai friends or try to keep up with the back log of admin. This is a typical week when we don’t have any special activities on. Next Sunday we will have our middle son’s 4th Birthday so we’ll be busy preparing for that this week.

It doesn’t sound like much but somehow we find ourselves up until 11pm most nights trying to get things done. I’m looking forward to finishing my formal language in the next year or so the possibilities this will open up to do other things which we don’t have time for now.

What one thing you would change about seminary

This is an extract from "The Gospel Coalition Blog" where they asked some key professors of American Seminaries the question "What one thing you would change about seminary".

"I was recently in China, talking with the president of a house church network of more than 1 million people. He asked me for advice on preparing the next generation of pastors. I looked at him and said, “The only thing I know is what you should not do.” He smiled and asked, “What’s that?” My reply surprised him. “You should not do what we have done in the West. The results of that approach have become clear.”

The agenda of evangelical seminaries is set primarily by scholars. Professors decide how students will spend their time; they determine students’ priorities; they set the pace. And guess what. Scholars’ agenda seldom match the needs of the church.

Can you imagine what kind of soldiers our nation would have if basic training amounted to reading books, listening to lectures, writing papers, and taking exams? We’d have dead soldiers. The first time a bullet wizzed past their heads on the battlefield, they’d panic. The first explosion they saw would send them running. So, what is basic training for the military? Recruits learn the information they need to know, but this is a relatively small part of their preparation. Most of basic training is devoted to supervised battle simulation. Recruits are put through harrowing emotional and physical stress. They crawl under live bullet fire. They practice hand to hand combat.

If I could wave a magic scepter and change seminary today, I’d turn it into a grueling physical and spiritual experience. I’d find ways to reach academic goals more quickly and effectively and then devote most of the curriculum to supervised battle simulation. I’d put students through endless hours of hands-on service to the sick and dying, physically dangerous evangelism, frequent preaching and teaching the Scriptures, and days on end of fasting and prayer. Seminary would either make them or break them.

Do you know what would happen? Very few young men would want to attend. Only those who had been called by God would subject themselves to this kind of seminary. Yet they would be recruits for kingdom service, not mere students. They would be ready for the battle of gospel ministry."

Richard Pratt, founder and president, Third Millennium Ministries; former chair of Old Testament, Reformed Theological Seminary:

Soularium

I was introduced to this recent resource (by Dr Larry Dinkins) to help talk to people about spiritual matters, especially people you’ve never met before. It is called Soularium and it consists of 50 different photos of people, places and situations in life.
A person is given all 50 photos and asked these questions:-


1.a. Which 3 images would you choose to describe your life right now?
1.b. What do each of these images represent about your life?


2.a. Which 3 images represent what you WISH were a part of your life right now?
2.b. Why? What desire (ความปรารถนา) does each image represent?


3.a. Which image would you choose to describe God? (If they say “I’m an atheist” ask: which image describes that?”)
3.b. Why? What does it say about God to you?


4.Think about your life so far. Which image best describes what you’ve experienced spiritually?
4.b.Why? What does that image represent?

5. When you think about your spiritual life or journey, which image best represents what you wish were true?
5.b.Why? What does that image represent?


This resource was developed by Campus crusade and is being used on university campuses in the states.


You can see the responses of people to the above questions at the My Soularium website.


You can purchase the Soularium set from Campus Crusade here.


Dr Larry Dinkins whose been using it says that it’s the best resource he’s come across in getting someone you don’t know talking about spiritual matters. I’m about to use it in my English class this Saturday. Unfortunately, the photos are more suited to a western context, but Dr Dinkins is organising a more Asian set to be produced.

Recent Activities at the Lighthouse & Lampang

It has been a busy time at the Lighthouse and in Lampang. We recently had our son’s birthday party combined with kidsclub at the Lighthouse. It was chaotic with nearly 40 children. This was the beautiful rocket ice cream made by Lisa.

The next day we had our fortnightly Sunday afternoon BBQ to which we invite all our Thai friends and those coming to the Lighthouse. We had the most people ever with 11 adults and 4 children (not including our team). We were having some great discussions too.

Finally we enrolled our eldest son in a Taekwondo school. At first he didn’t want to go but I persuaded him to just have a look. If he didn’t like it he didn’t have to go. We’ll from instant he stepped into the door he was wrestling with another boy and he couldn’t get enough. He wanted to go everyday after that. Many of the other parents send their children 5 days a weeks, but we can’t send our son more than 3 times a week. It has been a good chance to speak to the other parents for an hour many of whom are parents of children in our son’s class at school.

How social class can alienate people from church

I was reflecting on this quote this afternoon which I think has huge implications for how we do church.

“People are often unaware of how much the culture of their church is shaped by their social class. Someone on the door of a church, for example, may hand a newcomer a hymn book, Bible, service guide and bulletin with a smile and greeting without realizing how intimidating these can be to someone from a non-literate culture. The social activities to which the poor are invited, the decision-making processes of the church, the unwritten dress codes, the style of teaching, all can be alien to the marginalized. As a result, however warm the welcome, the poor can feel marginalized within the church just as they are outside...

If our congregations are full of respectable people, then it may be that we have not truly grasped the radical grace of God.”

P. 79 Total Church: A radical reshaping around gospel and community (Tim Chester and Steve Timmis)

If we are preaching sermons that only those with a university degree could appreciate, with references to the “Greek” or how “the NIV gets it wrong here”, are we surprised that the majority of the people in the congregation are from the middle or upper class and there are hardly any working class or poor people? Can we really think that just by preaching the truth that everything else will somehow fall into place?

How a church treats (or mistreats) the marginalized is an important measure of a church.

Spolit brats get iRate at Apple

I was surprised to read this insight from a non-Christian journalist this morning.

“There are lots of reasons why Jobs (Steve Jobs the CEO of Apple) is under siege, but the most potent is the spoiled brat phenomenon of humanity.

The more we humans have, the more we want, the more dissatisfied and ungrateful we are.

Even though iPhone and iPad devotees revel in the functionality and design of the devices, at the same time we take them utterly for granted, as a natural extension of ourselves.

Of course I'm going to email on the bus. Of course I'm going to watch trashy TV shows on my iPad at the gym. Of course I'm going to read the newspaper or a book on my iPad in bed.

These things that were unthinkable 10, five, even one year ago, we now simply expect.

What we need is an app for gratitude, not cynicism, for just taking a moment to appreciate the magnificent achievements of the human mind, which are captured in that slim, sleek device our ancestors scarcely could have dreamed possible.”

From: Spoilt brats get iRate at Apple, Sydney Morning Herald, 31 July 2010 Miranda Divine

Oversupply of Presbyterian Ministers in the US

 Tim Ryan, who lost his job as a pastor at a megachurch in Mechanicsburg, Pa., now works as a carpenter.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (Joblessness Hits the Pulput, May 17, 2010) "Right now, the Presbyterian Church in America, which includes about 1,700 churches, has about five pastors looking for work for each of its 54 job openings, about twice the level before the recession, said the group's business administrator, John Robertson."

Seems like there is quite an oversupply of Presbyterian ministers in the US.  I wonder if some would consider relocating to some rural Presbyterian Churches in Australia.  Or there are always needs on the mission field.

US Center for World Missions

Last week Nick (team leader) had a chance to visit the US Center for World Missions (where the Perspectives course was developed), courtesy of Larry Dinkins an ex-OMF Missionary to Thailand who works there.  After Larry gave a seminar to the faculty on storying, he organised a meeting with most of the faculty to discuss evangelism amongst Thai Buddhist and our situation in Lampang.  Many of the faculty are experts in their fields and it was an amazing discussion.  It was a but surreal meeting many of the people who write articles for the Missions Frontiers magazine which I used to pick up at Bible college.  I certainly left the meeting with many things to think about.

I can say the same after the Threshold conference.  The sessions didn't help me as much as I had hoped, but hearing the testimony of a group which had started an organic church in Gainsville, Florida last year made me long for the community they had.  Many of them sold their homes to move to Gainville to join the new group which formed out of last year's conference.  The US economy is pretty bad so not all of have found jobs and are still living off the proceeds of their house sale.  The sense of community and love from what they were sharing was amazing.  I got many of their contact details so that I can keep up with how the group develops in the future.

I think the two things above made the trip worth the large personal expense of flying to the US.

In the US for the Threshold Organic Church Conference

I'm in the US right now to attend the Threshold 2010 conference, which is conference for those wanting to plant "organic churches".   I'm here with our team leader from Lampang.  Yesterday we had an opportunity to go to the US Center for World Mission with Larry Dinkins who used to work in Thailand with OMF.  It was an amazing time to chat with some of the staff at the US Center for World Mission about the issues we face in trying to reach Buddhists in Lampang and setting up organic churches.

I haven't slept more than about 3-4 hours in each of the last 3 nights due to jet lag and long hours of travelling, so I'm off to bed.

New Additions to our family

We have two new additions to the family given to us by fellow missionaries going on home assignment for a year.  They are two kittens which are just over 2 months old.  On our first term we were given a dog by some missionaries leaving Lampang and then quickly ended up with 8 extra puppies.  We decided that we weren't a dog family with our children so young.  They were like have extra children.  Cats apparently are less maintenance so we thought we'd give them try.

Well the kids absolutely love them and we hope they won't die from all the attention they are getting.  I love the fact that it was so easy to get them to use the kitty litter.  So far they are so much less work than the dogs were.

What! We have a new prime minister?

O.k. For all the Australians in Australia reading this, this is old news already.  But I only found out today that Australia has a new prime minister, and our first woman prime minister.  It happened 5 days ago already!  It shows how out of touch we missionaries can get living away from home.  I can't believe that only 5 days later, it wasn't that obvious on the Sydney Morning Herald online either.  There was a video clip of Julia Gillard (the new prime minster) moving into Prime Minister's office and I thought that's a little old.  Has Kevin Rudd (the deposed prime minister) gone on another one of his overseas trips.  I couldn't believe that she had deposed him (I didn't see it in her and neither did Kevin Rudd or the majority of the nation I'd think).

Stunned.  Unbelievable. Better go and break the news to my wife.  She's think I'm joking for sure.

Doing things "badly" but "wholeheartedly"

This year’s OMF Thailand’s conference speakers were Stuart and Jill Briscoe.  One thing which struck me and some of the other missionaries was when Jill advised us to do thing badly and wholeheartedly rather than not at all.  The context was when she had moved from youth ministry to become a pastor’s wife for the first time.  She had no idea about what being a pastor’s wife involved.  So she went round with a piece of paper and asked the congregation for their expectations of her as the pastor’s wife.  When she went home and read this extensive piece of paper she realised that she had none of the gifts to meet the expectations of the congregation.  In despair she went to her husband and showed him the list and he confirmed, “Yes, you have none of those gifts.”  What should she do then.  Her husband advised, “Then, just do it badly”.  When people saw her trying but doing it badly, what happened was two things.  People started feeling sorry for her and asked her “can I help you with that” and secondly, she stated to see that by doing it, she developed gifts she did not have before.

In my experience and that of many missionaries, we are put in situations where we just have to do things badly it needs to be done and there is no one else.  Before coming to Thailand didn’t think I was any good at cold turkey evangelism.  But after giving out giving out about 50 or so flyers advertising “The Lighthouse” (our outreach centre), it became almost second nature and people saw that I have a gifting in making new contacts and evangelism.

In the church culture in places like Australia and America, we’ve grabbed on to so much of the teaching on leaderships and gifts that we don’t tend to get involved in particular ministries unless we are “gifted” in it.  So we leave everything to the small minority who are considered “gifted”.  Perhaps if people were encouraged to do things even if it means doing it “badly” but “wholeheartedly”, then people would “discover” more of their gifts and more work could be done instead of the few doing everything burning out. 

On another topic, if we focused first on the character of our leaders (before putting them in leadership positions) rather than focusing mostly on their gifting, we’d have better leaders leading our churches.

Wrapping the Good News for the Thai

This extract from an article, "Wrapping the Good News for the Thai" by Alan Johnson highlights one of the problems we face as we try to share the Gospels with Thais.

"Although there were a number of experiences over time that helped to bring the reality of the complexity of communication home to me, one stands out in particular. I was conducting an English lesson with a couple of Thai high school students and we were working through Luke 5 in the English text. We came to the point where I wanted to discuss the meaning of the passage and some of its implications and since they were unable to converse easily in English I said that we would switch into Thai. I asked the question, why did Peter fall on his knees and say that he was a sinful man? Without a moment’s hesitation the young man said, “Because he killed all of those fish!” I have to admit that his response caught me totally off guard. He was reading the text through his “Buddhist eyes” of the principle of not taking life. It made me realize in a much clearer fashion that the worldview, beliefs, values and assumptions of my listeners were causing them to make different meanings than what I was intending, even when those understandings did not surface in conversation.

This started me on the process of trying to understand the meanings that people would be making in their minds from the terms and concepts that we use when we share the Gospel. It became clear to me that Thais were not simply rejecting the Gospel or Christianity, in reality the situation was much more complicated than that. At least part of their lack of response is a rejection of the linguistic and stylistic wrapping in which we as missionaries and local Christians were presenting the message. When the “wrapping” makes no sense it keeps them from ever getting to the wonderful gift of the Good News inside."

English teaching opportunities galore

Since we've been back there have been plenty of new opportunities to teach English in Lampang.  I've started to teach at a local tutoring school for highschoolers (photo above).  The co-owner of the academy (Golf) I've known since our first months in Lampang.  For part of the lesson I'm using the "Big Picture Story Bible" and reading one of the stories with comprehension questions afterward.  With over 50 students it's hard to teach conversational English.  I'm teaching there again this afternoon.  A woman went to Golf this week asking if he was able to help her son prepare for an interview for an American Foundation in Thailand which gives Thai students a chance to study and travel overseas.  So Golf directed her to me.  So this week I'm helping this woman's son with interview skills.  Also, I was contacted by a couple who run a fruit drink shop, whether we could help at another tutoring academy which had just opened.     

Obviously, we can't take up all these opportunities, but they have been a way of making new contacts and hopefully through them we can find people who are seeking Christ.  It does show that more and more people know about us now than before.

However, if we had some short-terms staying for an extended period of time, they could take up these opportunities and our team for other opportunities.

Our son's first romantic card

When I checked my eldest son's school bag today I found this card inside.  Our son's first romantic card from a girl in his class (who apparently is his best friend).  O.k. she spelt his name wrong, but English isn't her first language.   Even at such a young age she knew that in matters of love it is best to write in his own heart language.

 

We've been amazed at our son's ability to adapt to change.  He has been in 4 different schools in the last 2 years.  Yet every time he has adjusted and made friends so easily, even when he can't speak the language.  He has such a good attitude.  Last week I saw him taking one of The Lighthouse flyers off the top of the cabinet and I asked him what he was doing.   He replied that he wanted to give the flyers to his friends at school so that they could come and learn about Jesus at The Lighthouse.  Wow! 

Although our eldest son can breeze through change our other two children have found it more difficult.  Our middle son still cries everyday when we drop him off at school and have to leave him.  We hope he settles soon.

Mistakes you make living cross culturally

When our son was chosen by his teacher to be the class representative for the upcoming Teacher's day at school  last week we didn't think much about it.  We just thought it involved giving a 'wai' (A Thai greeting where you put your hands together like when you pray) to the teacher.  The teacher asked us to buy some things which we didn't know the meaning but we were going to ask our neighbours to help so no big deal.  However, today talking to our househelper, who is a Christian, she explained that what our son will be doing is part of a Buddhist ceremony and not only will he have to "wai" the teacher, but a monk as well.

If we had known earlier we would have told the teachers that we were Christians and that because of our beliefs it is not appropriate for our son participate in Buddhist rituals.  However, he and the other representatives from the other classes have been practicing what they are to do in this ceremony for the last few days.  Teacher's day is tomorrow, so it is too late to replace our son with someone else.

It raises difficult questions as to what is cultural and what is religious in Thai society?  The 'wai' is so much a part of Thai society that to not 'wai' someone would be quite rude.  However, does a 'wai' to a monk make it something different?  Is that idoltory? 

We want to convery the message that we respect Buddhism and Buddhist, yet there are somethings we as Christians cannot do as it is dishonoring of God.  Making these choices as a newish missionary is so hard as you don't understand the culture nor can you probably seek clarification as our language is yet inadequate.

Why aren't they following the Bible?

This was in a recent prayerletter from a missionary working in another country ...

"6 months after becoming a Christian Mrs E went with a friend to her church. She enjoyed the preaching but thought the praying was strange. First, they all prayed out loud together. She felt like she didn’t have anything to say and couldn’t concentrate and so kept quiet but felt foolish. She didn’t want to just pretend and make a noise. Then the pastor and others were speaking gibberish. She wondered if it was English? She said it made her most uncomfortable. She was there for communion but was told it was only for baptised people. She was also told that if she wasn’t baptised then she wasn’t yet a Christian. She felt rejected by the very people who ought to feel most like her family. She said if she hadn’t loved Jesus she would never have visited that church again. I now have to spend my time explaining the church to her! She often asks, “ but why aren’t they following the Bible?" It's hard to explain!"

Makes you almost want to cry or bang your head against the wall.

It's arrived - finally!

Today was a joyous day.  Our homeschooling boxes from the US arrived.  We'd thought they'd never come. We'd be following the boxes journey from the US starting 24 May on the Fedex tracking system. Each day we'd check with interest where our boxes were that day.   It traveled to Canada, then China and finally to Thailand on 29 May.  It looked it was going to make the estimated delivery date of 31 May.  But then there was a dreaded "clearance delay".  Our boxes were held up in customs again and we were fearing the worst.  Googling Fedex clearance delays in Thailand, there were some horror stories of exorbitant duties being charged and how bad Fedex was.  Well on Friday, after almost a week our home schooling boxes cleared customs.  They reached Chiang Mai Saturday morning and they were on a Fedex delievery van.  This was it we thought.  However, by Saturday evening nothing.  There was an update on the tracking system - "delivery exception - Business closed.  No delivery attempt" and the package was back in Chiang Mai!  What!  Another let down.  I doubt that they even came.  We were home for a large part of the day and my mobile was switched on.

Anyway, today our Sonlight homeschooling boxes arrived.  I had to go out and meet the Fedex van at the petrol station because he had no idea how to get to our house, even with our househelper explaining in Thai.  I didn't even mind paying the extra 1,200 baht "clearance charge".  We got the boxes!  So the home schooling journey can now begin.

Happy faces

I also extended my motor bike license today and it only took about 10 minutes!  Thanks Peter and Karl for your suggestions about using the address on my work permit.  It worked at the transport office at Big C.  PTL for days like today when things go well.

Sleepless ideas for making new contacts

I couldn’t sleep one night last week.  Perhaps it was because my mind was racing with new ideas about how I can make new contacts here in Lampang.  Here are the ideas which we popping into my head sometime from midnight to 2am.

1. I could try to find a Buddhist monk to meet us with.  I’ll ask him to teach me about Buddhism in Thai.  That way I can improve my Thai as well have an opportunity to talk about Buddhism and Christianity.  Last week at church, I heard a testimony from a Buddhist monk who had converted to Christianity in the last two years.  Last year I’d seen this monk all robed up coming to church and I’d wonder what he was doing there.  Maybe he could introduce me to one of his more open monk friends

2. Go to the local universities and offer to lecture a subject in Christian History or an Introduction to the Bible.  I would have to teach in English as my Thai is not good enough yet.  But maybe it could be parts of an arts or philosophy or those majoring in English.

3. Go to some of the bigger private schools in Lampang and ask the head of English department if they want me to meet one on one with some of their Thai English teachers to improve their conversational English or pronunciation.  1 hour a week.  That would undoubtedly lead to questions about life and deeper questions.

4. Ask my friend who runs a tutoring school whether he has friends or students who want to keep up their English and offer to meet up with them one on one.

5. Try to find students or Thais wanting to study in Australia and run a course to help improve their English or help them in the process.

I have no idea if any of these ideas will work but over the next few weeks I’ll try some of them if I don’t lose my nerve.

Pulling my hair out

I went to the transport department in Lampang again today to try to renew my motorbike license which had expired while in Australia.  I was there yesterday and they said that I needed a medical certificate before they could renew it.  So I went to the hospital, wait and hour and got the medical certificate.  Today, they advised me that the statuary declaration of my place of residence which I had completed at the Australia embassy in Bangkok last year was only valid for 1 year and therefore 3 months out of date.  I had to get a new one.  That means I either have to drive 6 hours to Bangkok or fly there and then pay another AU$50 to get a new statuary declaration.  It is extremely inconvenient.  I'll nearly pulling my hair out with all the bureaucracy I have to go through to just get simple things done.

Oh by the way, she said, your medical certificate only lasts 30 days.  I don't think I'll get to the embassy within the next 30 days, which will mean another trip to the hospital to get a new medical certificate.  I guess I should be thankful that she at least told me in advance and not when I went back there. 

Personal effects stuck in customs

We had boxes sent from Australia with mostly used clothes, toys and homeschooling material.  Personal items brought to Thailand are legally free from customs duty if I have a work permit (which I do) but the customs department at the airport are asking for THB 25,000 (AU$923) as customs and other charges to clear the items.  All the items in the boxes combined are probably not worth that much.  It is so unreasonable.

But we are in a bind.  It has cost AU$600 to send the boxes to Thailand.  Some foreigners in this situation have basically told customs that they can keep the boxes and they'll just buy everything new, after which customs have dramatically reduced the fee. 

But our son's school shoes are in the boxes which we needed last week as well as personal things which we'd really like as soon as possible.  It's got me so angry and I'm normally a pretty calm guy. We are trying to negotiate with customs now.  But everyday that passes they levy a storage cost for the boxes.

House hunting Thai Style

Apart from some "farang" (foreigner) exclusive suburbs in Bangkok or Chiang Mai there are no real estate agents in Thailand.  So when you are looking for a house you have one of two options.  You start driving around town for signs like this one above.  I've spent hours doing this without much luck.

The other option is to ask your friends if they know of any houses for rent.  Well, after giving up on the first option, we've been asking many of our Thai friends if they know of any houses for rent.

We haven't seen inside this house but it doesn't look much bigger than our house.  We may see it tomorrow. It is in a good location though.  The problem with our current house is that it is:-
1. A neighbour's dangerous pit bull escapes once in a while, viciously biting people or killing other animals.
2. Noisy schizophrenic who keeps us up at night (though our neighbours haven't seen him/her for a couple of months now)
3. There are so many dogs living in our and surround streets that at night when one sets them off, they all start barking disturbing our sleep.
4. The house gets extremely hot as there are no shady trees and because of the way it is built.  Although it has a good number of rooms, in the hot seasons we can't use the rooms without air-conditioning because it is boiling.
5. Electrical wiring is terrible. The extension cord burst into flames when I tried to start the washing machine.
6. Very low water pressure, meaning that during parts of the day, the water is only trickling
7. The house is a bit small for 3 very energetic kids, especially when they can't play on the street because of the threat of the before mentioned dog.

The good thing about the house though is that we've got some good neighbours who we've become friends with.

We can put up with a lot of the above, but we are here for another 3 and half years and there is enough to deal with living cross culturally, so if we can take away some of the additional stresses we think it would be worth moving.

I liked this house at first.  However, Lisa's got much better house sense then me and she made me realise that this house is actually smaller than the one we have.

 Also, this is what the kitchen looked like.  What kitchen you ask.  Exactly.  We'd have to buy a whole new kitchen.

So the search continues.  It been so great to have our Thai friends do the hard work for us in trying to find houses and great for our relationship.  I think they feel good in being able to help us out.