Trying to get settled

Even though we’ve back over a month already, we are not yet fully settled, even though we were able to move back into our old house.  One of the first major tasks we embarked on was trying to find a new house closer to the two older boys new school and a bit bigger than our current house.  However, after looking at a few houses we decided to put off looking for a new house to rent after we worked out how the traffic was around the school.  Some areas, even though a lot closer to the school, because of traffic can take just as long to get to the school as from our house 15km away.  There is a school van service but it costs 3,000baht per child per month which is a little expensive.  Also, it would mean getting up earlier for the kids (being picked up at 6:30am rather than leaving at 6:50am as we are doing now).  We also like the area we are living in now and the children have friends who they are playing with regularly.  Moving to a new area always has risks that it won’t be as good as the area we left.

The second major task was selling our van (as we no longer need to be transport students) and replacing it with a second hand car.  At first I put a deposit on a pick up truck (Ford Ranger 2010) which had low mileage and a good price.  However, during the week I had to think about it, I realised that it wasn’t the right car for us.  I didn’t like the colour (Black – which would heat up a lot more in Thailand’s hot sun) but also it would require around 60,000baht to put a carryboy on the back with air-conditioning and seats.  

I decided that a much smaller car, the Toyota Avanza would be a better option for us at the moment, especially when trying to find a park near the boy’s school and navigation narrow streets.  There are lots of Toyota Avanza’s on the second hand market.  I think it is the car of choice for missionaries in Chiang Mai as it can seat 7 and is reasonably cheap.  I ended up going with Toyota Sure because they would trade-in the van.  Although, I’m sure I would have got more for the van if I sold it privately and bought another Avanza cheaper somewhere else, doing it myself would take time and effort which I didn’t want to spend right now.

Normally, my passport and work permit are enough for the transfer of ownership of the car, but because the address in my work permit is Bangkok (and I’m buying the car in Chiang Mai), the transport office require me to get a Certificate of Residency.  Then I found out that Immigration are not supplying the Certificate of Residency for a couple of weeks while they do a software upgrade?

The third major task was getting a dog.  We have not been able to have a dog for the last 10 years in Thailand as we have moved around a lot.  However, since we hope to be in Chiang Mai for the next 5 years and don’t plan on any long periods overseas, we could finally get a dog.  In the end, my wife and kids picked out a 4 month old beagle.  We’ve begun the toilet training process and dog proofing the front gates and watching youtube videos on how to look after dogs. 

All of this takes times and a lot longer than it does back home.  So today, I lodged my application for a Certificate of Residency.  It is free to get it but it can take up to 3-4 weeks for the free option.  I paid a man in a store at immigration 500 baht for each certificate (I need 2) to get it the next day.  I don’t know how this works exactly, but I’m not asking questions.  This afternoon, I’ll try to dog proof the front gate with the plastic fencing I bought from Home Pro yesterday which I will attach with cable ties.

Once, the boys who are going to school start their after school activities and we have a better idea of how many trips back and forth we need to make to school each afternoon, then we can tackle the last major job of moving house.  That is the hardest and most time consuming task of all.  Then we can start feeling settled.

Unexpected Crash

I was on my morning ride and part way into my ride when I realized I forgot my helmet. I thought it would be ok as I had never been in an accident before and it was hassle to ride back home and get it.  What were the chances of being in an accident.   

But 15min later I was riding in on a 2-lane forest road and a motorcycle slammed into me from behind at full speed and I was thrown of my bike onto the road. I landed first on my bottom which took the brunt of the fall and it my head on the road but not too heavily.  I was in a lot of pain initially rolling around and moaning on the road.  The motorcyclist had slammed into me so hard that he fell on the road as well.  The crash must have made quite a sound as the two cyclists who were about 30 metres of so ahead of my had turned around and came back to see if I was ok and help me.  After a few minutes I was able to stand up gingerly.  One of the cyclists handed me by glasses which fortunately were not broken.  Another cyclist who was behind me stopped the traffic from behind and gave advice that I should get the kid’s details who slammed into me. 

So I took a photo of his ID card.  He was only 16 years old and his motorbike didn’t even have a license plate. I have no ID how he could have slammed into me like that.  I was riding on the side of the road.  I don’t think that I was riding around a corner.  He must have speeding or perhaps using his phone?  I didn’t really have a chance to ask him what happened.  I think I must have been in a state of shock.  The other cyclists were really nice and helpful which I was grateful for.  They asked if I could still ride and I said I could.  My bicycle’s hand bar was off centre, the seat wobbled up and down and the gears were not working properly initially but I was able to make it back home.

My bottom and back are pretty sore and there will be quite a bit of bruising tomorrow but otherwise I don't think anything major. I am really thankful to God as it could have been a lot worse especially as I was stupid enough not to wear a helmet.  If he had slammed directly into my leg or landed on an outstretched arm there could have been broken bones for sure or even a serious head injury. 

My son was in tears (not so much for his dad's accident) but that I'd damaged his birthday present (his new bike only a week old).  Later on though he was much more concerned about my injuries.

I hope to try to meet up with the kid who crashed into me.  I want to get to know him better and see if there is an opportunity to share the gospel with him.  Show him that I’m not angry with him. 

Are you excited about going back to Thailand!

I was asked whether I was excited to be going back to Thailand by 4 different people last week at church.  My guess is that they expected the responsive to be a positive “Yes, we’re pumped”.  Maybe If we were going for our very first term, or if we were going for a holiday in Phuket.  But no.  None of us are really that excited about going back.  Not because we don’t like Thailand.  No there are some great things about Thailand and generally we like living in Thailand.  We are looking forward to seeing our Thai and expat friends again.

But no, we are not excited about going to Thailand because it means uprooting our lives again, packing more boxes and unpacking them.  Cancelling the internet and home phone, informing various government agencies, insurance companies, the electoral office and countless other places that we are leaving.  What to pack, what to throw away and where to put it all.  The children had settled into their Australian school and made good friends.  My oldest son was invited to his first AFL game to watch the Sydney Swans by one of his friends from school who was a member (so as a guest he could get in for free!).  Today wasting time I didn’t have wondering whether I should cancel our onward flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and change to a later flight because we only have a 1 hour and 20 minute window to clear immigration and get our bags and make it to our flight.  That seemed like enough time, but for the last 2 weeks the flight from Sydney to Bangkok has been on average 40min to 1 hour late every day.  

There will be a time when we are really excited to be back in Thailand (not going).  It’s not today.  But it will probably be in 3 or 4 months time when we’ve moved to our 10th house in just over 10 years and mostly unpacked and have some semblance of normality in our life again.

No we are not excited to be going but.  But we are resolved to go back because we know that is where God wants us at this point in our lives.  Because obeying God is more important that a life escaping hardship. 

So probably a better question might be, “how are feeling about going back to Thailand?” rather than “are you excited to be going back”.   

7 Things I've learnt in my first 10 years as a Missionary

It has been over 10 years now since we first arrived in Thailand as missionaries.  Over 20 years attending good Bible teaching Sydney Evangelical Churches and with an M Div, I thought I was pretty well prepared for the mission field.   10 years later I realise how little I knew and how much I have had to learn.  There have been a lot of mistakes I’ve made and things that I would not do again if I had the chance to start over.  We have had a broad experience in Church planting, Theological education, discipleship and now in leadership.  I feel now that after 10 years I know what I want to focus on in terms of ministry and what I think is effective and likely to bear most fruit in the Thai context.

Here are my top 6 things that I’ve learnt over the last 10 years. 

1.     Chronological Bible Storying

With the first person who showed interest in the gospel, I invited him over to my house to study the Bible starting from Mark chapter 1.   We read a paragraph and then discussed with him the passages that we had read.  I thought it had gone well, but when he didn’t turn up the next 2 Thursday nights, I knew that he was not interested.  Soon after, I came across a talk by Don Carson on “Worldview Evangelism” and that opened by eyes to the need to present the Christian Worldview through Bible Storying, from the beginning in creation to Christ’s return before the gospel can make sense for those without a Christian background.  I invited the man back to listen to the story of the God who created the universe his response to the stories was in dramatic contrast to the “Bible studies” which we started with.  He was eager to hear more and wanting to know when we could meet again.

So now I use Chronological Bible Storying as the main tool for evangelism.  Christine Dillon’s website, “Storying the Scripture” is a great resource to find out more.

2. Seeking People of Peace (Lk 10)

In our initial period of Church Planting we opened an outreach centre and provided English classes for adults, kids clubs, a mother’s group, international student evenings and a whole of other activities which would be a help to the community but also help us to find anyone who might have an interested in Christianity.  We had up to 8 missionaries working at the centre at one point in time.  After 5 years of work, only 2 people had become Christians.

When we moved to another minister after that, instead of an outreach centre with a focus on programs to attract people to come to our activities, we focused on going out into the community and by telling Chronological Bible Stories tried to find “people of peace”.  People of peace (Lk 10) are people who God has prepared in a community, who are people of influence and can open the doors for the gospel.  So after 3 months of visiting café after café in town, I came across an owner of a café who was a person of peace.  He listened to the 8 Chronological Bible Stories and soon after he and his whole family became Christians and a church was started at their bakery.

So now, instead of focusing on large programs which attract people, my focus is on going out and finding people of peace.

3.     Reproducibility

Initially my focus was on what I could do as a church planter.  Now I see the great benefit in focusing my efforts on empowering local workers.  To enable effective empowering of local workers they need modelled what they can do themselves, rather than what I can do.  For example, English teaching as a bridge for evangelism cannot be reproduced by local Thai Christians.  Complex methods of evangelism and preaching cannot be reproduced by the majority of people in the church.  Or methods which require more money and resources than can be provided by local Christians.  Promoting these methods disempower the local Christian an Churches.

So now I ask myself the question, is what I’m doing something that can be reproduced by a local Thai Christian.  If not, then it I would think hard before doing it.  If the training I’m doing, is not being reproduced by a local Thai Christian within an appropriate amount of time, then either by training is too difficult or I’m not teaching them effectively and something needs to change.

4.     Multiplication

I want to focus on multiplication of disciples and churches right from the beginning.  What I do on day 1 will affect how things are done on day 100.  So in my training on disciples, I want to make sure that the person I disciple, is going on and discipling others.  In terms of Churches, I would want to see a Church right from the beginning have a vision to church multiple other churches.  Not to think that only after the church grows to at least 50, then and only then think about planting another church.

Discipleship making movements or Church Planting Movements ideas have been influential.  Effective multiplication has happened when the focus has been on obedience to the knowledge people have rather than just growth in knowledge. 

In 1902, Andrew Murrray made the observation that one disciple, wining one person to Christ each year and building them up to do the same in successive generations, would win the whole world in just 32 years. 

5.     Disicpleship

Growing up as a Christian I was never really discipled in what I consider to be real discipleship.  That is an older and more mature Christian who invested in me and had a deep and meaningful relationship with me in which our lives were shared and he helped me on a path to maturity.  That meant that even though I had been a Christian for a long time there were areas in my life which were still not mature.  4 years ago, someone starting mentoring me who had a lot of experience in mentoring and in ministry.  He has helped me so much in areas which I had struggled with most of my Christian life and also in making difficult ministry decision.

I now believe that discipleship and mentoring is something that every Christian needs to grow as healthy and mature disciples.  So now I invest much more time in discipling and mentoring to help others become more mature and effective as Christians or as missionaries.

6.     Faithfulness AND Fruitfulness

If our ministry after an appropriate amount of time and effort is not bearing fruit (in growing and multiplying disciples) then we will at the first instance examine what we are doing to ensure that we are using effective methods of evangelism and discipleship.  We will not assume that it is as a result of it being “hard ground” (a community not responsive to the gospel).  We will be asking the question “How can we change things to see more fruit”. 

It is not a matter of “if we just preach the gospel faithfully everything else will follow”.  We need to consider how we are preaching the gospel in that cultural context to ensure that the message is understood.  We also need to consider all of the principles listed above (points 1-4)

If after we have evaluated our methods and attempted different ways of evangelism and discipleship yet are still seeing little fruit, we would pray whether to move to a different area.   In the absence of any direct guidance to stay, we would move to a different area to see if it is more fruitful. 

We will avoid the error of thinking that being faithful to ineffective ways of evangelism and disciple is being truly faithful to God.  For example, using Western methods of evangelism which were developed with a presupposed Christian world view in a Thai Buddhist context, no matter how hard you labour and toil would not be considered true faithfulness.

7.     Latent Racism

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Missionaries need to be careful of latent racism.  That is racism inside of us which we don’t preserve.  The thought that we know better than the locals about how to do ministry or that our methods and ways are better.  We need a humility and respect for the local believers and their contexts. 

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