#1. Christchurch St Ives, Anglican, Sydney 2007

Commissioning Service at Christchurch St Ives, 2007

I started this series of posts on facebook but I am reposting them on this blog so that it can be accessed on a more permanent basis.

The idea started when I spent a few days sorting out our photos so that I could find images to use for videos that I've been making for my mission agency, OMF Thailand.  Then I had the idea, to make use of all that time spent by making a photo timeline / journey of our missionary journey.  When I started, I had no idea that within a month we'd make the decision for our family to return to Australia.  

So this was the first photo posted on 30 September 2021 on facebook.  It was our commissioning service at Christchurch St Ives. So many memories in the past 13 and half years since that day.

Burning the Oven Top

 

We have an American couple of staying in our guest flat.  He had turned the gas burner, however, he had the glass top cover down (the photo has the glass cover raised).  Then he noticed a burning smell and couldn't work out what was happening.  He called me son who quickly pointed out the obvious problem, the glass cover was down!  The burning smell was the rubber stoppers on the glass that was being burnt.

It is funny how things that are obvious in one culture is not so obvious in another.  I do recognise that there are stove tops that have an electric element that heats on a glass top, so perhaps that was the confusion.  The things that you need to adjust to in a new culture.

Lazada - The Amazon of Thailand

 

People outside of Asia would probably never have heard of it, but Lazada is the Amazon of Thailand.  You can buy almost everything on it (apart from a car or house) and it is generally much cheaper than buying the same item in the shops.  We've bought everything from laptops, freezers, a kids pool, to mouth wash.  I would say that we have a Lazada delivery at least once a week and in some weeks 3-4 days in that week.  This week, my son ordered a hammock and my other son vitamins.  

Before my wife left to return to Australia, she made some Lazada orders knowing that she probably couldn't get the same items so cheaply there. 

Papaya - Wonderful Fruit of Thailand

I had papaya in Australia where I grew up and honestly, I don't remember it being that good.  On my honeymoon I was in the Cook Islands and the papaya there was amazing.  Thailand's papaya is just as good.  

We had a papaya tree growing in our front yard and last year it produced some great fruit.  But it grew too tall and I had to chop it down.  However, I used some of the seeds to plant new tree at the side of our house.  The 3 trees are now producing an abundance of fruit and it tastes great.

Papaya are really sturdy trees and easy to grow, even for novice like me.

Chaff Sculptures @ Huay Tueng Tao Lake, Chiang Mai

 

These sculptures were made from the chaff of rice fields at Huay Teung Tao Lake in Chiang Mai.  They were amazing.  

Thailand Media Network Meetings

 

This is the Thailand Media Network, a Christian network which aims to collaborate and help each other in various Christian media projects.  The network meets once every 2 months in Chiang Mai.  We have the meeting at our different organisations and this time I hosted the meeting at the OMF Mekong Centre.

This month we saw the preview of the new movie, "Soul Prison" which looks great.  It will be released in cinemas in Bangkok and Chiang Mai later this year.

I shared a video from the Bible Project Thai. 

Largest Baptism in Thailand's history

 

On the 6th of September the FJCCA (Free in Jesus Christ Church Association) baptized 1,435 Thai people in Phetchabun. These new believers came from 4 provinces. It was the largest number of people baptised in Thailand's history.

This movement is seeing "hundreds of Thai believers going village to village bringing the light of Jesus Christ to those who have never heard of Jesus". They say that "this is just the beginning of what God is doing in Thailand".

Here is a video from Dwight Martin, a missionary who is helping the movement of the baptism service and a testimony from one of the people who was baptised.

May God continue to protect and use this movement for his glory.

Bible Project Thai

I am the local project co-ordinator overseeing the team that is taking the BibleProject videos from English into Thai.  We have finally been able to launch the first two video after a series of unexpected setbacks some of which may have had a spiritual element to it.

We have a team of 5 Thai illustrators and animators, as well as a language adviser, translators and voice artist team. 

There are 73 videos to complete in the Read Scripture series, 9 in the Luke-Acts Series and potentially others in their 140+ video collection.

You can view the BibleProject Thai youtube channel by clicking on the link. 

May God use these videos for his Kingdom for many years to come.

Grab Food

Grab food delivery

One business that has benefited from Covid-19 is food delivery.  Grab Food and Food Panda are the two largest companies offering food delivery services.  We used it quite a lot when the restaurants were only allow to offer takeaway. We are not using it much now that the restaurants are open for dine in.  Apparently, Grab Food take a 30% cut so it is not cheap for the restaurant, though they would mark up their prices.  The delivery fee charged is based on the distance and for short distances it is as cheap at 10-15THB (less than A$1).  

Trip to Kanchanburi

Bridge over the River Kwai

We have lived in Thailand over 13 years and we haven't visited some of the most famous places in Thailand.  So with Covid-19 restrictions easing, we made the 700km road trip from Chiang Mai to the Bridge over the River Kwai in the province of Kanchanaburi.  It was our first long road trip in years as it is so cheap to fly everywhere in Thailand.  It was very crowded on the Bridge, but it would have been many more times more crowded without Covid-19 and all the tourists been locked out of entering Thailand.

Unfortunately, the Death Railway Museum was closed until the end of July so we couldn't go in.

The Commonwealth War Cemetery opposite the Death Railway Museum was a sobering reminder of the sacrifices of the WWII.

The Erawan Waterfalls is considered to be one of the most beautiful waterfalls in Thailand with 7 levels.

It was stunningly beautiful but we were sorely disappointed as they had banned swimming in the water due to Covid-19.  Kind of an overkill really as there hadn't been a new internal case of Covid-19 for over 30 days previous to that and people could still go into cafes and shopping centres and other public places and walk very close to others on the trial up and down.