Increasing Tension in Thailand

Well its happening again in Thailand. The army has been called in to disperse "Red Shirt" protestors in Bangkok. About 70 people have been injured. Normally these protests don't affect us in Lampang but the highway from Lampang to Chiang Mai has been blockaded by the protestors. I have to go to Chiang Mai every Friday but this week the appointment was already cancelled so I don't need to worry.

A fellow missionary has written already about what is happening with links to video footage so go there for the latest (Bangkok Protests).

Please pray for the situation in Thailand. I don't think it will get to the stage where we will need to leave the country, but I'm thinking maybe I should have applied for my daughter's passport sooner. I hasn't been done yet because it means a trip to Bangkok and we don't go there very often. We need to be in Bangkok next month to renew visas and apply for our daughter's passport. Hopefully things will have settled down by then.

Another bad movie experience

I went to see a movie at the local cinema on my afternoon off yesterday. Part of the reason for doing this is for language learning.

There were only two movies showing, a very graphic horror movie or the movie pictured above. I didn't know what the Thai meant so I only had the picture to go by. So I bought a ticket and went in not knowing really what to expect.

Unfortunately it was another bad choice. The plot is that a girl's school wants to have a guys football team, so it's the first year that the school allows boys to enroll. But, there are only 16 boys who come to enroll and 7 of them turn out to be transsexual. Need I say anymore. I guess in Australia we had Priscilla Queen of the Desert. But that was a one off. In Thailand there are many movies with a transsexual bent. It is reflective of the society where it is acceptable to be transsexual. At Thai schools you'll see some male students with makeup and lipstick, in male uniform but acting very feminine.

This is the other poster for the movie. Now if I had seen this before I bought my ticket I would not have been fooled.

A scene from the movie to give you a bit of an idea.

Fortunately there were trailers for some movies coming up which looked much more promising. X-Men Wolverine; Terminator 4, The Shinjuku Incident.

Almost Forgot Easter!

Focus like me Dad!

In Lampang there are no Easter Eggs or bunnies in the shops. No other tell tale signs of Easter either. No public holiday. And since we are not going to a local church on Sundays, no reminders of Easter coming up either. So today, when I woke up I didn’t remember that it was Easter (didn’t help that our 4 month old daughter woke us up at 4:50am either and wouldn’t go back to sleep!). It was only later in the morning that it dawned on me. Today is Good Friday. It felt a but of embarrassment that I could forget Easter!

We were planning on having an Easter outreach for last weekend but our team didn’t have enough time or energy to organise it in the end. Unfortunately, Easter this year falls on the weekend of Thailand’s biggest festival, Songkran so we couldn’t have it this weekend.

The streets all around the Lighthouse have been closed off by police now and it is difficult to get in unless you walk. The Lighthouse is very close to where all the action is going to be for the Songkran Festival.

Songkran unfortunately is a time when many people let themselves loose getting drunk and driving dangerously on the road. There were almost 500 road fatalities last year. We are praying for safety on the roads for us and for others.

In Bangkok the political situation is worsening with increasing demonstrations by the “Red Shirts”. About 100 taxis blocked the entry and exists around the Victory Monument and turned one of the busiest transport areas of Bangkok into a car part.

We have to be in Bangkok in mid May to renew my work permit and apply for our daughter’s passport. Hopefully we won’t get stuck in the middle of it all.

I've been there

Our son LOVES "Lightening Mcqueen". This is the double garage he build for Lightening (with a little help from dad).

Without doubt one of the hardest things about being a missionary is when your children suffer as a result. Praise God that nothing major has happened to our children but we’ve heard enough stories from other missionaries to be wary.

I was reminded again today when Lisa recounted our eldest son saying that he didn’t want to go back to school because some kids were saying things to him. Apparent he gave them his “frown” in return. He’s usually happy to go to school the next day so we aren’t worried. If there are ever tears or real determination not to go then we’d be much more concerned.

We’ll never truly know what’s happening at school with our children. Not only because we are not there with them, but half the time we can’t understand what the teachers are telling us either. It’s another thing we let go of and place in God’s hands not because we are super spiritual or the like, but because we have no other choice.

I guess I have one leg up over some other missionaries, because I’ve been there - I’ve been in the situation which my son is in almost 30 years ago as a 5 y.o Korean child moving with my family from Korea to live in Sydney Australia. Backing in 1981, though unthinkable now, my brother and I were the only Asians at our school. We knew we were different, there was no mistaking that. In someways our kids blend in a lot better than I did. It would be worse if they were blond and blue-eyed. I saw our team leader with his kids the other day at the shopping centre and they get a lot more attention (cheek squeezing, stares, pointing) than ours do.

I also appreciate first hand now, what my parents must have gone through enrolling me in school with limited English and having to feel out forms and do all sorts of things they would have had no clue about. Will my kids have the new found respect that I have for my parents now in 30 years time I wonder?

Googled by translation

It is not every day that I'm praising Google. But I just discovered Google Translate, the free translation service by Google. I'm testing it on the Chronological Bible Stories I'm translating. It has translated what has taken me 2 months so far in ... oh about 1 second! It is not a perfect translation and there are errors in it, but for a beginner language learner like me it is going to save loads of time! I'm like a kid with a new toy!

Hard Decisions

Our househelp, Samon is a pastor’s wife. Her husband is working at a new church plant in a nearby town. He receives some financial support from Korean missionaries but not enough by any means to live on. So her husband is going to ask the Korean missionaries if they could raise their financial support. If they are not able to get an increase, they will seriously consider an offer to be the pastor of a more established church in another province. They don’t want to move but they are really struggling to live on their current income, even with what we pay Samon (which is at the high end for househelp wages).

Unfortunately, this is a common problem within the Thai church. Rural churches cannot afford to pay their pastors enough for them to live on. Compounding the problem is that pastors think it is demeaning for them as a pastor to get a another job to supplement their income. So either pastors move to a bigger church in the major cities or quit being a pastor and find secular work.

I’m not sure of what Samon’s husband was doing before he started this new church plant. But I wonder if he would have gone through with it, if there as no financial backing from these Korean missionaries? I would say not. OMF in the past have provided funding for pastors of churches OMF has setup, but are in the process of a gradual withdrawal of all such funding and has a policy of not providing such funding in the future. It has created an unhelpful dependence on missionary funding and rarely are churches successfully weaned from such funding.

I don’t know if we contributed partly to their current financial situation too. Last year, Samon was mentioning how her husband was thinking of borrowing some money to by a motorbike as Samon was using theirs to come to our house to work. They would have to pay quite a bit of interest on the loan so wanting to help them out, I offered to provide them with a loan at no interest. Samon would pay back the loan over a number of years from her wages. Samon’s husband up buying a cheap car instead of a motorbike. It has been useful for their ministry in picking up members of their church and taking people to camps and things. But I’m sure that the running costs of the car and the increased cost of petrol has added to their financial burden, canceling any benefit of the interest costs they saved from borrowing from me. I guess could argue that if I hadn’t given them the loan they would have borrowed the money from the car dealer with the additional interest expense and be in a worse situation. It is hard to know what they would have done.

It would be a great loss for us if Samon had to leave. We are praying that she won’t have to. We try to help out when they additional medical costs or when she gets a fine for not having a driver’s license. I’m not sure that there is much more that we can do. It would be hard to find someone who would be as trustworthy and hard working as her.

Rising Political Tension

In Thailand there is again rising political tension. Towards the end of last year it was the "Yellow Shirts" (Pro Monarchy, Anti Taksin) that blockaded Government house. Now it is the "Red Shirts" (pro Taksin). I hadn't really noticed this rising political tension until this week when going home from teaching on Wednesday night, I saw a crowd of "Red Shirts" gathered near The Lighthouse watching an erected big screen with the ex-prime minister being broadcast from an undisclosed location overseas. I noticed the "Red Shirts" were gather again last night coming home from the International Student night. Then I read in the paper that Taksin has been broadcasting nightly this week to his "Red Shirt" supporters. Taksin is trying to overturn the current government and return to power in Thailand, though his wording is along the lines of if the current government continues to mismanage the financial crisis and Thailand can't find anyone else, then he is willing to take over again. I'm thankful that my parents are flying out of Thailand today. There is nothing much to worry about here in Lampang, but I don't want to have to worry about my parents if something eventuates in Bangkok.

Day in a life of a missionary

Unwillingly woken up at 5am by our baby's crying. Tried in vain to get back to sleep. Two other children woken up by the baby. So the day starts much, much earlier than I'd like. Rush our two boys to their respective schools and then start journeying to Chiang Mai where we are due for our language checks at 10:30am. On the way to Chiang Mai I notice that the rear window of the car is unusually opaque. I suspect that it is due to the fuel leak I discovered yesterday afternoon under the car. The petrol is decreasing faster than normal and I quitely praying that we get to Chiang Mai. Arrive in Chiang Mai at 9:45am, earlier than expected so we try to make it to the insurance agent to renew my car insurance. Take a wrong turn. Make it to the insurance office at 10:10am. Rushing out by 10:20am. Notice a large pool of petrol collecting on the gutter next to our car. Hmmm... petrol leak is a bigger problem then I thought. Arrive 5 minutes late to my language check. Pass our language checks. Relief. Our plans to have a nice lunch in Chiang Mai deferred. Need to rush back to Lampang to try to get the petrol leak fixed. 1:45pm, the mechanics inform me that tt is a major job to fix the leak so we won't get the car back until noon tomorrow at the earliest. The service centre offers to drive me back home but I say that I need to pick up my kids from school. No problem they will take me. Pick up the kids. Watch bits and pieces of Australia vs Ubekistan in the world cup qualifer online. Feel guilty that Lisa is watching the kids as she is very tired. Diner, bath kids, rush off to teach English at the Lighthouse. Two students ring to say that they can't make it. Only Tai turns up. We start working on a translation of the Chronilogical Bible Stories. Back home. Read the SMH online about the Australia vs Ubekistan game. Get ready for bed. Glad day is over. Lisa and I are both pretty exhausted. Golf tomorrow at 5:45am!

Getting cheaper mangoes - just keep my mouth shut

My language teacher was sharing with me this week about a conversation she had at the market. She asked a lady selling fruit "Why does the sign say 20 baht per kilo?", because she knew that the price should be 15 baht per kilo. Oh, it's the price for the foreigners. My language teacher relayed his conversation with a hint of disgust.

Last week I'd gone to the market and asked in my best Thai, "how much a kilo" for the mangoes I wanted to buy. "60 baht", the seller replied. I thought this was a reasonable price as I heard my wife telling me only a couple of weeks ago that they were selling for 80 baht a kilo. This week I went to the same seller. This till I didn't open my mouth. I just picked out the mangoes I wanted and waited for the seller. She said 40 baht a kilo! So by not opening my mouth I saved myself over 30%! I guess I can pass for a Thai when I don't open my mouth!

The King and Taksin

I’ve just completed a language model on Thai culture. Of interest, when referring to the King of Thailand what you say, literally translated is “the lord who sits on my head’ or ‘the lord above my head’; and the form of address to the King is ‘the dust under your royal feet’. I went to see a movie at the local cinema in Lampang a couple of weeks ago and was reminded again of the position of the King in Thailand. Before each movie begins, everyone in the cinema stands and pays tribute to the King who we see on the screen bringing prosperity to the land and people (raindrops of the King’s image falling on the fields, forests and mountains). Even our language teacher, an elderly Christian lady, complained bitterly to me that people outside of Thailand knew the name of the infamous recent ex-Prime Minister Thaksin, but not the name of the King of Thailand who was so much more significant and important!

As the world’s longest living monarch and one who has provided much needed political stability during his reign, the King of Thailand is much loved and revered by the Thai people above almost everything else in Thailand. However, the King is now over 80 and recently for the first time ever, could not give his annual speech to the nation because he was unwell. His health is deteriorating and there is much concern as to what will happen to Thailand on his passing and the political turmoil which might arise afterwards.

The political situation in Thailand is easily forgotten in a city like Lampang far away from the flash points in Bangkok, 6 hours drive away. However, reality hit home a couple of months ago when the “Yellow shirts” (anti Thaksin), blockaded Thailand’s international airport for several weeks in protest of the government. This almost prevented the short-term team from the Christchurch 6:45 service arriving. They ended up landing in an ex-naval airstrip 2 hours south of Bangkok and getting a private van up to Lampang. The “Yellow shirts” succeeded to a certain extent and the then government (pro Thaksin) lost power and a new government is in power. However, now the “Red Shirts” (pro Thaksin) which oppose the “Yellow shirts” are now protesting against the new government. Last month, I was surprised to see a motorcade of “Red Shirt” protestors passing through the streets of Lampang (and causing a traffic jam!).

Please pray for the King of Thailand and the political situation in Thailand, that God will use whatever happens to the King and the political instability to turn Thai people’s minds and hearts towards God.