Red Shirt Protests Continue

It seems that almost everyday the headlines of the Bangkok Post feature the continuing protests from the "Red Shirts". Emergency rule has been declared in Bangkok banning public political gatherings of 5 people or more after the parliament buildings were stormed by red shirt protesters.

It seems the political situation in Thailand is escalating again and not much progress has been made in the last 5 years.

We hope that the political crisis won't escalate to the point where the airports are closed like they were at the end of 2008 preventing our planned return next month.

Unexpected Missionary Trials

One of the rooms at the Lighthouse were our team mates live

In Lampang recently, there was a big storm with lots of rain and we heard from our teammates that their neigbhour's pipe burst onto their roof and the ceiling collapsed flooding their bedroom. So Nick had to climb up onto the slippery roof while it was still raining and try to fix the problem while Trish mopped up the deluge of water in their bedroom. The water went through the floorboards and into the office and kidsclub area below damaging printers and network cables.

Also, we had friend who we went through Bible College with working in Indonesia who had to be medically evacuated because the wife was really sick with dengue fever from a mosquito. Soon after the husband suffered from dengue and one of their 3 sons as well. They will recuperate in Singapore for at least a month. It takes many months to recover from dengue. It is a very debilitating illness. They write: "The tiredness we are feeling is extraordinary. The 30m walk from the car was like a marathon. A 5 min conversation ends with the desire to crash out asleep"

Missionary life is full of unexpected surprises and trials. Without God we might despair under the circumstances. But what a difference he makes, that we go through these trials to serve him and for His glory.

Resolving conflict in Thailand

I saw an interesting forum discussion in the Bangkok Post today ("foreigners have got no rights" - Forum section) about a foreigner living in Thailand who had a problem with a neighbour's noisy dog (sound familiar). Basically some dogs were barking through the night and these foreigners couldn't sleep and neither could their baby. One day when the neighbours weren't home and as the dogs were keeping them awake, the husband sprayed some water on the dogs.

The next morning they found a letter basically with the message that if the if did that again, "you, your wife, your son will not be happy here anymore. Gentle warning". They went to police with a Thai friend, but their neighbours had been there before them to report the incident. The police said that the letter didn't mean anything and that they should understand Thai culture more.

Conflict resolution for foreigners in Thailand is a tricky business as we have experienced ourselves. Thais normally avoid direct confrontation at all costs and use third parties to resolve the conflict. This can be frustrating for foreigners who are used to more direct and immediate action. With our own dog problem we tried our best to resolve the issue through our landlord and other neighbours (though the outcome wasn't really satisfactory for us)

What we've been taught to accept is that another culture's way of doing things is not "wrong" just "different". The more we understand the culture the less "strange" some of the ways become (most of the time anyway).

The rest of the forum discussion is interesting to say the least suggesting possible solutions. I've taken a note of the link to a free dog whistle sound file which you can play through speakers out of your window into the direction of the offending dog to silence it.

How Thailand has change our son's writing

I was helping my son with spelling out this note he was writing and I noticed how he would start writing most of his letters from the bottom of the letter rather than the top. For example, with letter "Y" he would start from the bottom and write up. The same with the letter "a". I though this was really strange as most people write from the top down. Then I realised that this has resulted from our son's schooling in Thailand. When writing the Thai alphabet most of the time you have to start from the bottom of the letter and write upward. Hmmmm. What to do about it.

Blessings of Home Assignment

Date Night

Grilled swordfish

Lamb

One of the blessing of this home assignment has been the opportunity to have regular date nights. Before we came back, Sophie who had visited us with the Christchurch short-term team in Dec 08, offered to babysit with another member of the team, Jo while we were on home assignment. It was such an encouragement to received such an offer (especially as we'd been having a hard time when her email had come in). She then organised a roster of other people from the evening service at Christchurch so that we could have a date night once a week.

O.k we don't dine like this every date night, but we were given a gift from a friend to go have dinner by the waterfront so able to have this lovely moment last night.

Thanks so much to our babysitters, Sophie, Jo, Becky, Chloe, Dani, Craig & Heidi, Emma who the kids have loved.

If you want to help your missionaries with kids on home assignment, this is a great way of doing it.

Home Assignment Events

Lisa speaking at a Christchurch Women's Event

Sharing with a Christchurch Biblestudy Last Night at our home

Our display table

As you can see we are continuing to share about Thailand and our 1st term at different events. Soon we will be shifting from Home Assignment "sharing" mode to preparation for our return. Our medicals have been completed. We have a meeting with OMF still to go. Our recommissioning service will be at Christchurch St Ives, on Saturday 1 May at 4pm. Time is flying and before we know it we'll be in Thailand (God willing).

Marketing Spin

O.k this post isn't about missions or related to our family but it is amusing. We have basic medical cover with medibank private and I received a letter in the mail today outlining some changes to our cover. This is what they say:-

"The main change is that you'll no longer receive benefits for renal dialysis and most of the services that are currently restricted on your cover. While some restricted services will remain due to Government regulations, this change should give you more certainty about what you are and aren't covered for. (emphasis mine)"

The fund is taking away lots of previously included benefits BUT on the positive side we'll get much more certainty about what I'm covered and not covered for. Gee ... I'd be much happier with the cover than the certainty of knowing what I'm not covered for. Talk about positive marketing spin.

Thai Dictionary on ipod

We bought an Ipod Touch in the post Christmas sales mainly to play music at our home. But almost everyday I hear about this or that new Ipod/Iphone apps ("applications") so I did a search today for some apps. I discovered a free Thai-English, English-Thai dictionary. It doesn't look too bad on a cursory glance. Much easier than carrying around a dictionary everywhere. Unfortunately, the NIV or ESV Bible which you can use offline wasn't free and cost almost $8. I'm sure there are lots of more very useful apps.

Pirate Day

Our son, far right

Our son is really enjoying Kindergarten. So much so it is hard to take him out of school for any medical appointments. It is such a change from his attitude to school in Thailand. We hope and pray that this will change once he has more Thai language.

Thai Tempo

Thai Tempo

OMF Thailand publishes a web prayer letter once a month called the Thai Tempo. Here are some exerpts from the latest update which has encouraging news:-

“My Hope for Thailand” Report The main event took place on December 19, 2009. On this day about 50% of Thai churches participated and more than 41,000 of their members were involved in reaching out to over 200,000 of their friends and neighbors to tell them about Jesus. We now have the responsibility of calling the church leaders to find out what God did during this time. The news is exciting! We have recorded over 6,580 decisions of people who have decided to become Christ followers, from all corners of the country. We anticipate by the time we finish calling all the leaders we will have recorded more than 12,000 new Thai Christians. This is an amazing work of God in a land where only half a percent of Thailand's 65 million people are Christians. This is the first time there has been a national harvest of this size in this country. As we are calling, our staff also has the privilege of documenting miraculous works of God that happened during these meetings. Each of our staff members has recorded dozens of reports of healings, people freed from demon possession, people being freed from addictions and families being reconciled. (taken from “CrossTies Asia” January 2010 newsletter)

And something from Lampang from our Team Leader:

The Bible? No Problem! A few weeks previously, I was asked if I would consider going to the Lampang Cancer Center, located just outside town, to teach English. I explained to the Administrator that whilst I taught English, my purpose was also to expose Thai people to my Christian worldview and that I would be using Bible passages as my English teaching texts. He had no qualms about that and we set a date for me to start early in January. I have been there many times already and its been really awesome! The staff have been given two hours per week off during working hours to study English. So I have a class that ranges from 12 to 24 educated and motivated nurses, doctors, radiologists, IT specialists and clerks who are practicing their English and hearing about Jesus. (Nick Bekker, church planting, Lampang) Pray for God to reveal Himself to these English students as they hear about Jesus Pray for them to make progress in their English so that they feel this is a worthwhile endeavor Pray for English classes throughout the country, which are means of making contacts and helping communities. The English class at the International Church in Bangkok (highlighted in the Thai Tempo a year ago) continues and has over 100 Thai and Burmese each week

Please let me know if you want to be on the email mailout for the Thai Tempo. You won't regret it.