Are You a "Chris?"

As I have written before, after teaching classes at our government school Amy and I eat lunch with the teachers and principal. We usually spend at least an hour talking and eating. Which is a very important part of outreach in Thailand as Thais are very relational people who will not listen to those they do not know and trust. Well, this last week we had an answer to prayer. During one of our normal conversations with the principal and a visitor from the District Education Office, they asked if our organization (Hope International Schools) was a "chris." Well, we should have caught on but didn't until they said "Buddha" ... "Chris." It was at that point when we realized that they were asking if our organization was Christian. This question launched us into a conversation about whether we were Christians and the difference between Catholic and Protestant beliefs. When the principal held up his hands making a cross symbol and asking, "Array?" Amy and I were able to share with him about what the cross was and why Jesus died. I'm not sure how much he understood but I am so thankful we had the chance to open the topic. Both men had a lot of questions which is a pretty big answer to prayer. Please pray that we will be able to continue the relationship when we return to Thailand and that both men but especially the principal would recognize their need for Christ and truly seek for answers.

Love

In honor of Valentines' Day I decided to post something that I recently read on a YWAM website, I am not sure of the original author.

1 Corinthians 13

If I speak with the tongue of a national, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or clanging cymbal.

If I wear the national dress and understand the culture and all forms of etiquette, and if I copy all the mannerisms so that I could pass for a national, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor, and if I spend my energy without reserve, but have not love, I am nothing.

Love endures long hours of language study, and is kind to those who mock his accent, love does not envy those who stayed at home, love does not exalt his home culture, is not proud of national superiority.

Love does not boast about the way we do it back home, does not seek his own ways, is not easily provoked into telling about the beauty of his home country, does not think evil of this culture.

Love bears all criticism about his home culture, believes all good things about this new culture, confidently anticipates being at home in this place, endures all inconveniences.

Love never fails, but where there is cultural anthropology, it will fail, where there is linguistics, it will change.

For we know only part of the culture and we minister to only part of the culture.

But when Christ is reproduced in this culture, then our inadequacies will be insignificant.

When I was in America I spoke as an American I understood as an American I thought as an American, but when I left America, I put away American things.

Now we adapt to this culture awkwardly, but He will live in it intimately, now I speak with a strange accent, but He will speak to the heart.

And now these three remain; cultural adaptation, language study and love, but the greatest of these is love.

After I leave Thailand I certainly won't be remembered for my language ability or skill at blending in, I can only pray that I might be remembered for Christ's love expressed through me.

God of all "gods"

This week we have been working hard to finish all of the necessary projects before our final inspection early next week. Yesterday, we spent the whole day cleaning up the outside. All I can say is that I am thankful we are doing this in the "winter."

Okay two pieces of information. First, we were listening to and singing along with praise music while we worked. Second, we were sitting in front of a large Buddha statue, which will soon be moved to the community temple. At one point I found a bit of irony in the fact that we were sitting before a "god" while worshipping the God. We choose to worship the almighty God who hears, sees, and acts on behalf of His children. Buddha is a "god" I can see and touch but who has no life, no power, and no love. He made no sacrifice to bring me to himself, he did not create a way to bring me life, nor does He love me unconditionally in spite of my flaws: only Jesus Christ chose to do that.

"Give thanks to the God of gods, for His loving kindness is everlasting. To Him alone who does great wonders, for His loving kindness is everlasting." Psalms 136:3-4

Road Trip

Every three months our little group makes the four and a half hour trip up to Mae Sai (the border into Burma). This time our good friend Khruu Ooy (who usually does most of the driving) decided to turn the ritual into a girl's road trip. So at 6:30 am on a Saturday morning we raced around our house packing snacks and grabbing all the pillows in our house. We (our group of five housemates) and four of our Thai co-workers piled into a rented van which comes complete with a driver. The van was so comfortable, and with air conditioning and comfy reclining chairs it was even more comfortable than our house. We started off the morning with barbecued pork on a stick with sticky rice, one of my favorites that I will really miss when I come back to the States. We had such a leisurely trip laughing, talking, and sleeping. We reached our more anticipated destination at about 11 am, Doi Tung. Upon arrival we made trip to the bathroom where we all paid 3 baht, took off our shoes for the trip down the stairs, and then put on the special bathroom shoes which everyone shares. I'm not sure I'll know what to do in the States where one does not have to slip off their flip-flops in exchange for a pair of questionable community shoes, roll up their pants, and carry their own toilet paper into the bathroom. Anyway back to the actual story.

Doi Tung is called the "Switzerland" of Thailand. It was the former residence of the late mother of the King. We were allowed to walk through her beautiful yet simple villa. She had spent much time in Europe and the house and gardens reflect that style. We ate a quick lunch of mixed fried vegetables with rice (another of my favorites) and even enjoyed one of the best cups of coffee I have tasted in Thailand. Then came the highlight of the day...the garden. Picture the most gorgeous garden ever set in a hilly landscape with many fun details which really add to the effect. We spent quite awhile walking around and taking over one hundred pictures.

I would like to live here. :) It is surrounded by gorgeous mountains.

A picture with all the housemates before we go our separate ways.

Us being silly girls and imitating the statue behind us.

Under the waterfall.

My lovely roommate and I "fighting."

My sweet friend Brittany.

All of us at dinner.

We encountered our semi-normal situation where random Thai people take pictures of us and ask if we will take pictures with them. One might think that as the farang (foreigners) we ought to take pictures of the people here, however, the opposite is true. (When my parents were vi sting we went to the Royal Palace. While walking around the grounds several of the gardeners whipped out their cameras and asked to take pictures with us.) Anyway after our adventure in the gardens we climbed back into the van to drive to Mae Sai.


Mae Sai is a hard place to visit and is never really a pleasant experience. I am always confronted with the dilemma of how to love the overwhelming number of people who are in need. I struggle within myself to justify my un-Christlike attitude towards these people all the while knowing I should do something but never quite knowing what that thing is. I am always convicted in that city of what God's love for every person looks like and how I should be living it out, which is something I pray the Lord grows in me because I am not very good at it.



After Mae Sai we drove to a restaurant and ate dinner right next to the water. I am going to miss the Thai way of eating dinner where everyone orders a wide range of things that sound good and as they arrive at the table one at a time everyone shares them. Several hours later the van brought nine weary travellers back to our house around 10:30 pm where we promptly dropped into bed. So ends one of our more memorable and enjoyable border trips.

Recent Happenings

In searching my brain for stories of things that have happened in recent weeks, most of what I remember are the times we spent painting our building, scrubbing the floors, and cleaning the bathrooms. I now have a greater appreciation of Cinderella after scrubbing our entire building on our hands and knees; a product of the statement "Who needs drop cloths?"

(You can't really see how much dirt is caked on our legs from crawling on the muddy floor.)

I was so thankful to learn how to tile after two days straight of scrubbing floors. I was taught by our great friend Rob who selflessly comes to our school building most days and slaves away doing hundreds of jobs that we have no idea how to do. After a bit of a safety lesson he even let me use his special hand saw tool. (Daddy aren't you proud. ;) )

In preparation for our upcoming visits to the States(yay!), we made a trip down to the Walking Street/Sunday Night Market. Before we were even half-way there our approximately thirty-three year old car began to overheat. While this is not unusual it is still a bit of an annoyance. We pulled over into a gas station where Vente (our car) has overheated before. We put water in our radiator at least once a week (maybe we should try actual radiator fluid) so we carry a big bottle of water for the sole purpose of cooling Vente. Disclaimer: while the things I'm about to mention are probably not bright ideas we were told to do them by people who know more about cars than we do. Anyway we pour water on our boiling hot radiator but that soon gets old so one of my roommates touches the radiator cap. We all say "No! Don't take the lid off the car is too hot and it might explode!" However, our roommate says, "The lid isn't hot at all" and proceeds to twist it off. About a second later a geyser of dirty brown liquid erupted from our radiator. All of us who had previously stepped away from the car jumped even further back almost falling into a weird canal thing. Thankfully no one was hurt and we cooled Vente down with more water and were able to make it to the market after all. Lesson learned: really...don't take the lid off of the radiator when the car is still hot.

Yesterday, we had a special English as a Second Language training session with a woman from Australia. We are so thankful for all of her hard work and the time she has taken to help us. It will be invaluable. The training began yesterday morning and a headache that I had gotten a couple days before just continued to get worse. Thinking I might find some medicine I ran to the little shop next door. The one that when we sing our praise songs every morning we are able to watch the man and woman in their kitchen as they prepare food that they sell during the day. We share a wall and our buildings are extremely close. When I walked in I was so excited that he understand my question (I was speaking Thai) but he didn't have anything I could read the label for which made me a little uncomfortable. That was sad, but it necessitated a trip to the 7/11 which is exciting because that means...motorcycle! The trip is fairly short but is a pain to make in the car and takes twice as long. So, because Khruu Ooy wasn't there to stop me I borrowed Gordon's motorbike and headed off to 7/11. After a bit of a wobbly start I did pretty well, I even drove past the cars at the stop sign and pulled up next to the other bikes at the very front. I was nervous about having to cross traffic several times but the Lord protected me and it was great fun!

Today at the Thai school that Amy and I teach at our classes went pretty well. Although they were interrupted by the principal coming and taking pictures of us, which when you are either talking or making exaggerated faces to keep the students' attention are not very flattering. Then, he asked if we could Skype with a couple from Australia who often visit Thailand and volunteer at this school. We had actually heard about them before from the teachers at this school and some mutual friends (Rob the guy who helps at our school being one of them.) We had a nice visit with these people and look forward to meeting them in May. We also had a long talk with our principal today over lunch, he is trying to learn English and is doing really well! There is still some confusion about whether certain words are in English or Thai because the Thai speakers think he is speaking in English and the English speakers think he is speaking in Thai. However, after him saying "What?" when I'm speaking and me saying "Aray na?" when he is speaking we are able to understand each other pretty well. Which reminds me of something very exciting. This last week I read my very first sentence written in Thai letters. It was..."The crow has large eyes." well in English anyway. :)

After teaching we headed back to our school to continue our "manual labor" which the teachers at our Thai school think is hilarious. We began painting the front fence which at two o'clock in the afternoon receives direct sunlight. Amy and I began working with a bucket that had a hole in the bottom and had to be held in just the right way and with one pair of flip-flops between the two of us. Things such as shoes can be forgotten when one takes three bags, a change of clothes, and random things such as water bottles and coffee mugs to work in the morning. So we stood on one foot because the pavement was burning hot. After a little bit Brittany joined us and we continued the painting. We must have looked pitiful with our bucket and lack of shoes because our neighbor lady brought out three straw hats for us to wear. We thought it was so sweet of her to notice our dilemma and act on our behalf.

Last story for this extremely long blog. On Tuesday mornings Amy and I sit in a meadow for a little while and have our quiet times. (We drop our roommates off at another Thai school and then have some extra time in which it would be pointless to drive back to our school just in time to turn around and drive the Thai school where we teach.) Anyway last time we were in the meadow we saw this crazy dog run and stick his head through two rails in a fence. He started howling and Amy and I felt so bad for him. We were deciding how we could rescue him as he squirmed and struggled. Just then he was able to pull his head out of the fence. We were relieved that we didn't have to help him and went on with our time. About half an hour later later the same dog came and rammed his head through the same exact spot on the fence. This time we didn't feel so bad for him because...well... he should have learned his lesson. We joked about how sometimes we feel like we are that dog, trying to accomplish something that just cannot be done. However, today as we sat in that meadow that same dog came and jumped into the fence again! As we were laughing at his stupidity he was able to squeeze through the fence. We were quite surprised. I'm not sure how he was able to manage that feat, but we took it as a sign from God. ;) Sometimes those impossible things really are possible, we might just have to try what seems stupid a few times before we get it right.

The Steadfast Love

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

His mercies never come to an end,

They are new every morning,

New every morning,

Great is thy faithfulness oh Lord,

Great is thy faithfulness.

On several recent occasions this song has brought tears to my eyes. One being when five Thai children who had been through some of the worst situations I can think of sang this song in Thai as a farewell to their English teacher. I can't even convey in words the sweetness of their voices proclaiming the steadfast love and faithfulness of their God in light of the circumstances of their lives.

The second time this song has caused tears was earlier this week. The last two weeks have been awful, words cannot describe the pain and frustration that overcame virtually our whole team. It was as though we were knocked down in a fight and as we struggled to get up we were hit again and again. Almost all of our deepest hopes were met with painful disappointment. Everyday was a new circumstance that just caused us to say "WHY?"

The battle I have struggled with is believing in who God is more than in what I can see. I can clearly see pain, disappointment, doubts, and fear. But I can not clearly see God as my loving Father and the giver of good gifts. I was reading James 1:2-3 where it is written that we must consider it all joy when we face various trials because the testing of our faith produces endurance. I was thinking about faith as the conviction of truth, the truth that all I am is dependant on Christ. In the midst of these trials that threaten to tear me apart...do I believe that Jesus Christ is good? Do I believe that His love is unending and unfailing? Do I believe that He is faithful to accomplish His good purpose?

In stormy circumstances truth is not always seen and certainly not always felt. However, I am reminded and choose to believe...

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
His mercies never come to an end,
They are new every morning,

New every morning,
Great is thy faithfulness oh Lord,

Great is thy faithfulness.

Opportunities

What does it mean when chalk, unidentified fried meat with claws, and bare feet all occur at the same time? Teaching! Yep, yesterday I began teaching Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade English at a school in our area. Praise God! *On top of our responsibilities preparing for our school the English team is volunteering at two nearby Thai schools. We will teach until the end of the term (March). The purpose of volunteering is two-fold: first to build community relationships and second to allow us to develop our teaching skills.* This school is really abnormal for a Thai school and is fairly experimental. They are gaining recognition for their unique approach to education, I am impressed by what I've seen. It has been a joy to be there, the students are attentive and respectful. The other teachers, after a brief case of nerves, have been very kind and welcoming. We have begun to build relationships with them over lunch (where the meat with claws comes in). They have given my roommate and I Thai names, names of flowers. I am so thankful for this opportunity. Yesterday upon arriving at this school we observed their morning assembly which included prayers to Buddha and a time of meditation. This school is a place where truth and light do not normally reside. Amy and I get the opportunity to go and love the people, both students and teachers with the love of Jesus. I am so thankful they have graciously opened their doors to us and pray that we will be effective witnesses (and teachers).