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.

Colourful missionary life

Riding back on my motorbike from teaching English to a lone student, the thought entered my mind what a colourful (read “weird”) life I have as a missionary here. Last night I couldn’t get to sleep because at 12:20am a woman was screaming as if she was being murdered. Normally that would be pretty weird, but the woman (or man - we aren’t quite sure) who lives next door, is often shouting and ranting at all hours of the night. A neighbor has assured me that she might be crazy but not dangerous. Maybe he/she is schizophrenic because that other times he/she appears quite sane.

Tomorrow morning I have to play golf with a Japanese man who grew up in Korea and a Korean man who the Japanese man and I think has been involved with the mafia. This man seems to have no job and we’re not sure what he is doing with his wife and son in Lampang. Why else would you be living in Lampang of all places, not being able to speak Thai and for no apparent reason for being here? Apart from that he has been involved in a number of fights on the golf course in Lampang and a neighouring town from which he has been barred. I didn’t really want to play golf with him tomorrow but two days ago he turned up at our house with the Japanese man asking me when I was free to play golf with them. Unfortunately I didn't have an plausible excuses.

Now I can’t imagine being in situations like this is Sydney. As I said missionary life is never dull.

Another matter entirely. It has not rained for at 3 months in Lampang. Our househelp yesterday predicted that it would rain that day. It was overcast but there had been overcast days before and it hadn’t rained. I didn’t give her prediction much credence. Lone behold at around 1am in the morning (still disturbed a bit by the screaming woman) the roof started to roar with patter of heavy rain which continued into the morning.

Tonight only one student turned up to my English class. She was my very first student and only student for the first month of teaching. Unfortunately she probably my least capable student and I doubt that her English has improved at all. I’ve got to the stage where I’ve thrown out all the great teaching techniques I learnt at Macquarie Uni in my TESOL course. Tonight my aim was to get her to memorize 5 introductory questions.

Where do you come from?
Are you on holidays?
What do you do?
Where are you working?
How long have you been working in Lampang?

Questions 1 and 2 took over 30 minutes to memorize. It kind of went like this.

Student: Where are you come from?
Rich: Where DO you come from?
Student: Where do you come from?
Rich: O.k. Again please.
Student: Where are you come from?
Rich: No. Where DO you come from?
Student: Where do you come from?
Rich: O.k. Question 1 again
Student: Where are you come from?
And so on.

It wasn’t great teaching but by 9pm, the end of my class, she was getting there. To be honest, both of us went away happy that we’ve achieved probably more than we had in the last 6 months of teaching.

Spelling mistakes

I went to our son's school to enroll him for "Day Camp" over the summer at his school and find out what we needed to do to enroll him for the new school year starting in mid May. I spoke to our son's teacher who advised me that since our son had not attended 80% of his classes the regulations of the school would not allow him to progress up to the next class. We only send our son to the Thai school 3 times a week (he is only 4!) but most Thai send their children 5 days from 3 years old. So the teacher requested that we write a letter explaining why our son didn't attend 80% of the time. I had to ring my Thai language teacher and get our son's teacher to explain what she wanted because I was having difficulty understanding what she was wanting. Our language teacher then wrote out the letter we needed to submit and I quickly typed it up on the computer and went back to the school with letter in hand. Our son's teacher looked at it and said "there are spelling mistakes" and started to correct my spelling mistakes in pencil. So I had to go back home and correct the spelling mistakes and resubmit the letter. One of the spelling mistakes was our surname (used the wrong vowel ใ instead of โ). Makes you feel great when you can't spell your own name and have you son's pre-school teacher correct all your spelling mistakes. But that's missionary life for you.

Dogs spoil the day again

Wat (Temple) Chedi Sao

Tuesday is our designated day off as the Lighthouse is open on Sundays (as the weekends are the days when most non-Christians are free). So we try to go out as a family during the day. Today we went to visit one of the famous temples in Lampang, Wat Chedi Sao. We were all excited as we got out of the cars. The kids and I started playing hide and seek in amongst the 20 shrines. I had finished counting to 10 and started off trying to find our two boys when suddenly I heard lots of barking dogs in the direction of where the boys were hiding. I quickly found the boys and saw about 10 metres away a pack of about 10 stray dogs surrounding a man and barking aggressively. Lisa with our baby daughter made steps to help the man, but I ordered her back to car and I was pulling our two boys in the direction of the car. As we were heading back I saw a monk coming to help the man and chase away the dogs. One dog came in our direction as we were retreating back but stopped. We got back into the car and Lisa was in tears. I didn't have to ask her why. There are very limited places we can take the kids for fun in Lampang and just when we'd thought we'd found another place it's ruined by a pack of dogs. There is no way we are going back there again with the kids.

Horror before the movie (WARNING this entry decribes some elements of horror)

Yesterday I watched this movie "Best in time" at the local cinema (I didn't know the title of the movie until just now when I was searching for the photo on google). The local cinema only had two movies showing, both in Thai with no subtitles (major reason why in 7 months I've never been to the local cinema). It was this movie or what looked like a B grade ganster movie. This movie would have only been rated PG and there were lots of school children in the cinema. I was terribly shocked then when a trailer for an upcoming horror movie was shown with such violence that I had to turn away for most of the trailer. It was definately R rated. Limbs being chopped off and bodily parts ending up in noodle soup being served up by a pychotic woman running a noddle stand. I read on a forum of a woman taking her two young children to a Disney movie recently and having the same thing happen. So just a warning, if you go to see a movie in Thailand, make sure you arrive 10 minutes late and miss the trailers.

The movie was nothing to rave about. Only understanding about 30% of it might have been a factor.

Tent-making vs full support

"To make tents or not to make tents? The question has relevance to church planters, not only because it is the biblical norm, but because more and more ten-makers are getting involved in the work of church planting. One must realize that if church planters are receiving the bulk of their income from donor gifts, then they are forfeiting their ability to be an example to the majority of believers... It is almost universally taken for granted that credible missionary work is the work of a paid professional who trains up indigenous leaders who think they must be fully supported. Westerners have carried this philosophy all over the world as if it were an essential part of the gospel. The expansion of the church, reduced to its elements, is a very simple thing. It asks for no elaborate organizations, no large finances, and no great numbers of paid missionaries. In its beginning it may be the work of one man who is neither learned in things of this world nor rich in the wealth of this world. Rather, it is one who has been with Jesus and is full of the Holy Spirit." (Tim W. Bunn; God's Plan for Church Planting - Church Planting Manual, Using God's Timeless, Supra-Cultural Principles; p.135-137; IMD Press, 2008)

What am I to do? I am one of those fully supported missionaries. It is true that fully supported missionaries have only existed for a couple of hundred years. Before that I think it is correct to say that missionaries all had jobs (i.e "tent makers") while they were spreading the Gospel. It is true that people do view missionaries with suspicion when they don't have a job. It is true that I probably would be a better example to local believers if I was working. I wouldn't have much time to do anything else though, especially language study.

I can't see ourselves giving up our financial support in the near future but I'll have to keep considering this issue and whether we do need to give up our support and find a job to be a better example.

What do you think?

Surprising things children pick up

I was talking to my 4 y.o son tonight after dinner. I don't know exactly how the conversation came up but it went something like this:-
Rich: We're here to tell people about Jesus because lots of people here don't know about him
Son: Yeah, lots of people in the world don't know about Jesus. What are we going to do?
Rich: Well, we need to tell people about Jesus don't we.
Son: Yeah.
Rich: Now I know its sometimes its hard being here and you know it's going to be hard when we get back to Australia too. You'll be a bit different from the other boys and they might tease you. But you can ask God to help you.
Son: I know. I'll ask God to forgive them because they don't know what they're doing.
Rich: (Pause in astonishment). Yeah. That's right son. Great thought.

Reflections on the Parish

(some comments which I wrote on a friend's blog in regards to the issue of the place of the traditional parish http://tubemantravels.wordpress.com/)

Dear Craig,

I was reflecting more today about the issue and my concern about the parish model is that perhaps the basic unit is too big. By that I mean, in a parish, you usually have one minister looking after say an average of 50 people. I think it is very difficult for the minister to pastor this number of people effectively especially when they have to prepare a sermon or two each week. Also the burden of ministry falls largely on the minister and 90% of the congregation are just spectators (come on Sundays, listen to the sermon, go home - what was the sermon about again?).

The model we are trying to work with here in Thailand is to set up house churches for lack of better word. Groups of 8-12 people meeting as church in a home. In this sized group there is accountability and everyone is forced to serve and participate. So instead of big group of 50 meeting in a church with the minister doing most of the work, you have 5 groups of house churches. The minister/church planter going around to the groups, training them, keeping them on track, encouraging them. But he is not leading these “house churches” - that responsibility lies with an elder/s in each group.

Perhaps these 5 house churches can meet up for one big meeting once a month for a celebration meeting.

Whereas in a parish model the minister is spending up to 50% of his time preparing a wonderful sermon which, if we are honest, goes in one ear and out the other for many people, in the house church model, he is spending more time encouraging and training the people to serve.

Also with 5 house churches instead of one bigger church, you have 5 different areas you are reaching into the community and not just one.

What do you think?

What I’m talking about is not just a glorified biblestudy, but actual church in a home. Remember our T.C Core biblestudies and the bond and fellowship we had there. If we were to tweak it so that we are meeting as a church and not just doing biblestudy, you can imagine something of what we are trying to achieve.

For us, we’re trying to implement this house church model. We don’t know if it will work yet. (We need our first believer first!). However, the traditional model has struggled in Thailand. Part of the reason is that apart from in the major cities, churches can’t afford the rent on buildings and don’t have money to pay a full time minister.

Cheers,

Rich

Reflections on church traditions

One part of me (and my wife and probably a good number of other people) thinks I shouldn't write this post. Being Asian I'm very good at conflict avoidance and not rocking the boat. But some things really need to change.

To be honest, in Australia I never had problems with the ordination services of friends I attended. But since being in Thailand and thinking long and hard about church and church models, I saw the photos above on facebook of a friend's ordination and was quite dismayed at some aspects of church tradition still being practiced today.

Why do bishops need special hats, staff, medallions, fancy robes and candles? Why do we need a procession with incense (?) burning, long stick with a cross, a picture of Jesus? What does that say to the person in the pews? Perhaps it is justifiable in the Roman Catholic tradition where the priesthood of all believers denied, but this was a protestant denomination ordination.

I'm sure my friend who was ordained would have been happy to be ordained without the garb. Unfortunately, it is go along with the tradition and be ordained or protest and be unable to be a minster in that denomination.

It may not be so much of a problem in Australia to just go along with tradition, even if you disagree with it, because what does it matter anyway. But in Thailand, traditions like this get incorporated into church life and causes great problems. In Thailand, ministers are set apart from the ordinary Christian and very much exalted above the laity. At an all church worship meeting I went to in our region, all the minister were ushered to the front 3 rows of the church. After the meeting, they went into a special room at the back of the church to have lunch together while everyone else had lunch outside.

With ministers holding such exalted positions it is very difficult to convince ordinary Christians that they can actually read and interpret the bible for themselves and apply it to their lives. It leads to the thinking so prevalent in Thailand that without a full time paid minister and a church building that you cannot be a real church. It leads to Christians leaving everything to the minister and doing nothing for themselves.

When will the day come when enough people will stop towing the line and say enough is enough. This is wrong. We need to change it. Or as some commentators foresee, will the traditional denominations in the West continue their slow decline and in some distant future the problem will solve itself.