Welcome to PlaaPlaaPlaa!

So you may be wondering why PlaaPlaaPlaa? What are those strange fish symbols above? What is ปลา and what does it mean? In short, this is a blog site, so surely there's going to be plenty of rambling. Unfortunately BlahBlahBlah was already taken, so I had to settle for the 'Plaa'. But there's actually more to it then just ramblings. The first fish symbol is actually a Christian symbol meaning ICTHUS - a greek acronymn which means "Jesus Christ is God's Son, the Saviour". The other strange letters you see in the last fish is actually the thai word for fish which funnily enough is pronounced "Plaa". So when you put it all together, this site is going to be my ramblings in telling people about how Jesus Christ is God's Son, the Saviour in Thailand (with plenty of good stories about food in between). Happy reading.

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Happy Easter

So it's been an interesting weekend celebrating Easter in a country that generally has no idea what Easter is about and therefore don't actually celebrate it, let alone have it as a public holiday. So it means it's generally business as usual, but it's up to Christians to make the time around their usual schedules to fit in Good Friday services and dawn services. So Friday morning, bright and early - actually, not bright - it was still pitch black, at 5.30am, we had a worship and prayer meeting at church til 7am. For those who know me well, you'd probably know how much of a morning person i am, so it was a bit of a struggle to get out of bed originally, but despite being tired, i must admit it was a really great way to start the Easter weekend, to be immersed in the Bible and prayer, being reminded of what happened in the Garden of Gethsemene to Jesus death on the cross. And then during prayer, cos i didn't really understand everything that was going on, it was great to spend some of my own time in prayer.

Then if the morning wasn't enough, we also had a special service on the Friday night where more people showed up, but again, a great night to be reflecting on what Easter is all about. The other 'interesting' thing that happened which i couldn't help but be amused by at the time was a video that they showed with a collage of 'Jesus' images but all to the song "(Everything I Do) I do it for you" by Bryan Adams from the movie Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. I must say, i can understand why they chose that song, but unfortunately it was amusing as they obviously don't understand the context of the song - especially with the line - i'd lie for you. But despite that, it was a good night for once again reflecting on what Christ has done for us.

Then this morning (sunday) we had a 6am worship and prayer service next to a lake. I really was a beautiful setting to have a dawn service at but unfortunately i forgot my camera (again - it was too early for me). Then after the service, a group of us walked back to church and whilst doing so, handed out a heap of tracts along the way. i found it interesting that there was no attempt to try and talk to people about the gospel, or even say who we were or where we were from, or to even say 'happy easter'. So i asked. the happy easter - well, basically no one would really understand that anyway - so fair enough. But after asking about whether they say where we were from they decided to change tact and mention that we were from the Grace Church in Chiang Mai. So who knows what will happen in the future. It's great to see them so keen to be trying to share the good news of salvation - especially at easter.

For those who are praying, please pray that many of the christians here will have a better/clearer understanding of how they can be sharing their faith and making the most out of the opportunities to share the gospel.
Praise God for the opportunity this Easter to once again remember the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ