Training it in Thailand and other Anecdotes

I caught a train to my Level 2 Thai language exam in Lopburi. My first long train trip in Thailand! I nearly didn't get on my train as I was expecting a long train with at least 10 carriages. When a tiny two carriage train pulled up I couldn't believe that this was my train.

I prayed before I got on the train that either I'd be able to share the gospel with someone who sat next to me or have a good period of study. Well no one sat next to me so I nearly studied for 7 hours of the 9 hour trip!
I had a bit of a cough (no fever though!) leading up to the train trip so to allay the fears of the other travelers I bought some face masks. It wasn't so comfortable breathing so I took it off after about 30 minutes.
Then I happened to look across at the lady sitting across from me on the other side. She was wearing the same type of mask. Then I realised that I had been wearing the mask inside out! No wonder it wasn't so comfortable breathing through it! (Hint: the blue side goes on the outside, the white side on your mouth!). I don't recommended the "sprinter" train during the day. Even thought I bought a second class ticket, the aircon was broken and I had to flick the cockroaches off my arm a couple of times.
Well I passed my Level 2 exams (the speaking and listening parts anyway - the written section I'll find out in the next couple of weeks) and I was on the overnight "sprinter" back to Lampang. Much nicer than the day "sprinter". After an hour delay at the train station I finally board at around 11pm. This nice bed was waiting for me. Just the right size for me so that me feet just touched the end of the bed (so if you are taller than 171 cm - the bed will be a bit short for you). Lower bunk is definitely better than the top bunk I've been told. Unfortunately the European tourists opposite chatted away until about 1am so that I couldn't sleep. Urrgghh. Not the best night sleep I've had, but I must have had some patches of sleep here and there.
In the morning, the beds were put up and I was face to face with the person traveling on the top bunk who I hadn't met the previous night (he'd got on previous to me in Bangkok). A nice medical student from the U.K on holidays with his wife(?) who was in the top bunk in the next section as they had booked their tickets too late to get the same section. We had a nice chat. I asked him if he had any "faith" at all since I'd told him I was a missionary working in Thailand. He was religious until about 17 but then moved away. His issues lay with the question of who created God and he found it more reasonable for life to develop through evolution. He had obviously read up a lot on the topic and he explained to me why the second law of thermodynamics (which says that all things degenerate rather than improve) only applies to "closed system" and not open systems such as cells so doesn't contradict the theory of evolution. Unfortunately, we were approaching Lampang so I gave him some tips about what to do in Chiang Mai and we parted company.

The Unexpected

Last Friday night, Nick (Team Leader) and I were at the Lighthouse as usual for our International Student evening. The two weeks before that no one turned up so I was not that hopeful. I prayed for people to come but it was 7:15pm (15 minutes after the starting time of 7pm) and no one had come. Mentally I was packing up and preparing to go home in another 15 minutes. But then one of the Chinese exchange students, Sonya turned up. The Chinese students hadn't been at the Lighthouse for a couple of months, but Nick had bumped into them at the market earlier in the week.

Later in the evening, close to 8pm, two Thai uni students from the local Rajaphat University turned up. "Tee" had been once to the International Evening many months ago and brought along a friend. If Sonya hadn't come, we probably would have gone home before these two arrived.

So I left thankful to God for answering prayer and bringing students when we weren't expecting any.


Later this morning I'm off to the train station for a 7 hour train journey to Lopburi where I will start my level 2 language exams. I feel so unprepared. Didn't have much time to study this week, with discussions with the landlord about reducing the rent while we were away (they agreed - praise God!), North Thailand Team meetings in Chiang Mai and other things. Surprusingly, this will be my first long train trip in Thailand. Not that I'll be looking at the scenary much - I'll be desperately trying to review as much Thai as possible. Also, I had to change my train ticket a couple of days ago. I didn't realise that the exam was over two days until my team leader queried why I was only staying one day in Lopburi.

10th Wedding Anniversary in Krabi, Thailand

Morning at Poda Island, in Krabi, Thailand

Signs reminding us of the tsunami

Our daugher with her new dress

We have hardly been to any tourist areas in our first term here in Thailand. So our 10th wedding anniversary gave me the opportunity to take the family to a tourist destination instead of our normal holiday location in Pracuap which is owned and run by our mission. We chose Krabi because it is less touristy than Phuket. Even though it is the rainy season the weather has been really good with only a couple of raining periods so far. One of my highlights was our trip to Poda Island today. About 25 minutes by long tail boat to small but beautiful island. We were the first ones there, but within minutes other boats started to arrive. About 20 minutes later though, the most unexpected thing happened. A tourist was walking towards where I was sitting and he sort of looked familiar. I looked again and I though he looks like our mission's Thailand field director but it couldn't be. He saw me and then had a confused looked on his face and then we both realised that it was who we thought it was. Our field director was on holidays with his wife and son and daughter-in-law. We couldn't believe that we'd happend to be at this remote tiny island which is only accessible by boat on the same morning and we'd actually crossed paths! Unbelievable!

Krabi is a great place for a holiday. Lots of things to do for active young couples like snorkling and rock climbing. However, with 3 young children, most of the time is at the beach or in the pool. In a few days we go to Chiang Mai for my language check and then back to Lampang to start packing for our home assignment and tying up as many loose ends as we can.

Day at the Bakery

Phii Nuu's daughter and son

Phii Nuu with the Boys

Phii Nuu was my first English student at The Lighthouse. She has been faithfully coming to my Wednesday night English class almost without fail for the last 11 months. Other students have come and gone but Phii Nuu will be there and if see can't like last week she will turn up and say that she can't come or phone me.

A couple of weeks ago Lisa took the boys to Phii Nuu's bakery because they were studying the letter "B" in home schooling. The boys at a ball of a time and so did Phii Nuu, her children and the bakery staff (or so she told me).

We continue to build relationships in Lampang and we hope that we can have many more like this one where we can go beyond the superficial. Phii Nuu's son is studying English at Chiang Mai University and is thinking about doing further study in Australia.

What I'm reading Now: "Raising Godly Tomatoes"

Before and since our eldest son's birth, we must have read and bought over a dozen child rearing books at least. We even attended a 24 week course. Still raising our children and shepherding their hearts has been a challenge. I think most parents would struggle with this issue especially with young children.

Here is the latest book on Christian child rearing I'm reading - "Raising Godly Tomatoes". I'm half way through it (so is Lisa) and we have started implementing the principles in the book. Like some other Christian child rearing books, first time obedience and 100% consistence are basic and essential principles. Although there is a strong emphasis on training the child's heart which I like. So although obedience is required, it is cheerful obedience which is the goal (unlike perhaps the book "Train up a child").

Unfortunately for those looking for a quick fix, this book isn't for you. To make this method work you have to spend a lot of time with the child at first. It is very intensive and time consuming training - be warned.

The author has 10 children and is open to the possibility of more. She home schools as she believes that this is important in preventing worldly influences to impact on their child before they are adequately trained.

There is spanking, though never in anger and only on the bottom.

I think this is one of the better child rearing books and we'll see how we go with it.

See their website for more info.

Closure of Tutoring Schools

Excerpt from an article in the Bangkok post (full article click here)

"The cabinet on Thursday approved the temporary closure of tutoring schools for 15 days starting Monday to limit the spreading of influenza A as the Public Health Ministry confirmed three more deaths from the virus. The move came after the Public Health Ministry reported that many students have caught the virus while at tutoring schools.

All tutoring schools throughout the country will be closed from Monday until July 28, the cabinet decided..

The temporary closure was necessary because most tutoring classes were in airconditioned rooms, which facilitate the spread of the virus because the students are in confined spaces, Deputy Education Minister Chaiwuti Bannawat said.

The cabinet also asked owners of online game shops to cooperate by closing their business during the same period, because many young players had also caught the infection."

My friend in Lampang owns a tutoring school in Lampang and he has had to close his school. He joked in an email for us to make most of the opportunity and for us to play more golf together (he has only recently started playing).

I'm trying to imagine if such a thing could happen in Australia. If the Australian goverment order all tutoring school in the country to close, just giving a couple of days notice, I'm sure that the government would be sued for compensation. How can you prove that a tutoring school is facilitating the spread of the virus? Why not just close the problem tutoring schools? How can you close tutoring schools and not other schools? But this is Thailand.

Early Home Assignment

Well the big decision we referred to in a previous post... We will be going on an early home assignment in August for 6 months. We’ve had some health issues in our family which began soon after we arrived in Thailand. We’ve been trying to deal with it as best we can in Thailand for the last two years and although there has been some improvement the problem has not gone away. We have been thinking and praying through the issues for the last couple of months but it was really at the recent OMF Conference that we were led to the conclusion that we needed to go for an early home assignment. We hadn’t seriously thought about an early home assignment before conference but God seemed to bring the right people to conference this year to help us come to this decision.

This has not been an easy decision. I was a bit emotional at conference at the thought of leaving Thailand earlier than we had expected. We were really starting to enjoy living in Lampang and the children were about to start at a new school. Although it is not a convenient time to return home for home assignment I guess there is never really a good time to be on home assignment. However, as a few people have suggested, going back now and getting these health issues sorted out may enable us to stay longer in the long term. If, as we hope and pray, we will be serving in Thailand for 10, 20 years, 6 months is much.

The next month will be pretty hectic. I have to finish one more language module and do my Level 2 language exam before I leave. I will go to our landlord soon and ask if he will lower the rent for the next 6 months while we are away so that we won’t have to pack everything up before we go. Not having to pack up everything will save us so much hassle.

After nearly two and half years in Thailand it is a bit surreal thinking that we will be back in Australia late next month.

Cross outside our house

A fellow Dutch missionary was sharing about their work in the rural region of Isaan in Thailand and how the simple action of putting up a cross outside their house attracted various people inquiring about Jesus. I'm not really big on putting up crosses but I'll willing to give it a try. So here it is. A small cross outside our house. Unfortunately you can't see it driving past as there are trees in the front of the house blocking the view of it. However, people walking by should be able to see it.

This cross is no ordinary cross though. I bought it in the Evangelism workshop at conference. It has a hole drilled in its shaft and you can put chloride crystal in it and then you swirl the bottom of the cross in a large beaker of water which is red because of the poured in it, the red water turns clear again. It can be used for as an evangelism aid to show how Jesus can clear up our sin stained lives for anyone who comes to our house after seeing the cross.

OMF Thailand Conference 2009

We returned last night from the OMF Thailand Conference at around 10pm after 8 hours of traveling. We are tired but very encouraged by the conference. The conference helped clarify an important decision we had to make which we will make known soon. God seem to use the conference and the conference speakers to speak to our situation.

This couple (right hand side) have served in Thailand for over 40 years and are being recognised as they are returning home next year to retire (from missionary work in Thailand anyway - not from ministry). It is very rare for any missionary to serve in any country so faithfully for such a long time. I don't know if we'll get there one day but we pray and hope so.

The North Thailand and Isaan region team were responsible for organising the conference this year so I was helping with registrars and IT related issues.

Dining Out and our growing girl

We like dining out in our front lawn whenever we can. It can be a bit difficult right now in the wet season though. We've had one or two conversations with neighbhours we haven't met before doing this.

Our little girl is growing! She is quite an attraction when we go out. About 10 different people must have stopped and looked at her in her pram today at the restaurant at lunch. The majority of people guess that she is a boy (incorrectly). At lunch, we heard one waitress scold another waitress, "Of course it's a boy!". Obviously, the pink dress somehow doesn't give it away here in Thailand!