wun soot thay - final day

So tomorrow will be a sad day at school as it's the last day for a couple of the teachers - Khruu Kwan & Khruu Orr's. Khruu Kwan was my teacher for my first 6 months here and ้has not only been a great teacher but is now an awesome friend too. It'll be sad not to see her around school anymore (things at school will be changing lots in the next couple months for various reasons). But it's been exciting to see the way that she has been trusting God through all this. At the end of last week, she only had 4 lessons for the whole week - which wasn't nearly enough income. But this week alone, God has been great and has been answering prayer and providing for her and now, even though it's still not nearly enough students as she would like, she's got enough to be living on and paying the expenses (just). So praise God!!! i'm sure that in another month, she will have more then enough students - well, that's our prayer at least.

So tonight, we had a bit of a farewell dinner for for the teachers who are leaving at my 'favourite' restaurant - 'Goong-ga-tar'!!!

Anyway, for those who are praying, please keep on praying for Khruu Kwan (and Khruu Orr) as they leave the school, that God will be providing for them
- please also pray for the 'school' and the teachers there, that God will be looking over everything that happens there and be looking after all those there
- thank God for his provision and his care and sovereignty



at dinner with all the teachers and some other students


Me with Khruu Kwan and another fellow Aussie Helen

A few reflections

Every now and again, i do get a bit of time to reflect on life over here, how things are going, what i'm learning and being challenged by, what am i thinking about doing for the future etc etc etc. So i thought i'd share a couple of my thoughts as they stand for now. Of course, i know that God may have alternate plans for me, but we'll just have to wait and see what the future holds.

It's no secret that i am loving it over here. I'm loving spending time with my friends, making new ones, getting to know Thai's better, i'm loving the food, the weather (i'm surprised that i really haven't been too bothered with the heat at all), learning the language, getting a better understanding of the Thai culture, really thinking through issues of what is biblical vs cultural, being able to do what i want to do, when i want to and not having to work a 9-5 job. If only i knew that overseas mission was this enjoyable 5 years ago.... :) hehe But in amongst all that, it really is challenging thinking about the future and what that might hold. Everywhere i turn here, there are new opportunities that could be used to build relationships and spread the gospel. But realistically, how should i best be using my time here? Teaching english, trying to spend 1-1 time with people, helping the orphanage kids, discipling christians, doing graphic & multimedia stuff for businesses and people we're reaching out to, or even for various christian organisations over here who don't have the funds or the skills to be able to do it themselves? All of these things are 'good' things, some of which suit my current level of language better then others. But should God plan for me to stay over here long term, what should i do? Cos doing everything that i'm doing now isn't really all that strategic for the long term.

Right now, it's easy to say 'i'm a student learning thai' and have that as my 'main' objective for being here when people ask me what i'm doing. But the reality is that i'm checking out possible opportunities to be 'working' here long term as well, and all that i'm learning about language, culture and the 'state' of the church etc over here is also shaping my thinking on how i think i should best be using my time over here. One of the things that i am becoming more and more convinced of is the importance of ultimately seeing Thai's being trained up to a maturity as Christians where they can be reaching their fellow country men and women. The more i learn the language and culture, the more i realise that no matter how long i live here, i'll never know everything or how to speak to Thai's in a way that speaks to their heart. Let's face it, there are so many customs and cultural things associated with Buddhism, with respect for the King, kids stories and 'nursery' rhymes, culture etc which i might learn one day, but it won't ever have the same 'meaning' to me as it does to them. This was kinda of reinforced the other day when i listened to a talk from Oz and there was a passing quote by the speaker "i'm the king of the castle and you're the dirty rascal" which brought the point he was making to life and hit the exact meaning he was getting at. It meant so much more to me cos i can remember saying it often as a kid, and it was something that could be either so liberating or hurtful (depending on whether it was me saying it or not). But as adults, we might learn the phrase, but it just doesn't have the same meaning as it does if you actually experienced that in your life. No matter how long i may live here, i'll never have had a childhood here, so i'll never really understand what fun it was to pick lum yai as kids, or to live in a house of 10 kids cos all my cousins, brothers and sisters etc lived together. In the same way, they won't understand the fun we had on slip and slides, racing home to watch skippy or heading down to the beach and eating fish and chips. At the end of the day, it's Thai's reaching Thai's in the long term that will be most effective for bringing the Gospel to Thailand. How cool would be to be able to equip that many Thai's to be reaching other Thai's with the gospel, then being able to see them train each other up to a maturity in Christ. It just excites me so much to think of the possibilities that REALLY equipped Thai's reaching Thai's could possibly have. One thing i've come to realise is that Thai christians are just so passionate for wanting to serve. They don't just get involved in one thing, they get involved with EVERYTHING! They do whatever they can with whatever they have to be serving God. It's such an encouragement to see!

What i also found weird to begin with here is how becoming a christian here isn't so much an individual decision, but a 'family' decision. You'll find if you're patient, rather then getting just 1 person become christian, you'll actually get a whole family become christian at the one time. Seems strange to us, but for a society that is really family oriented, it is actually really understandable. It's put a whole new 'spin' on the concepts of 'households' accepting christ and being baptised in the Bible. it's like those stories are just leaping off the page in real life over here, cos on many occasions, that's what happens. In addition to that, there are 'towns' of people who have grown up together for generations. They are close knit communities which, as foreigners, will find extremely difficult to penetrate. How cool would it be to have Thai Christians return to their own home towns to be 'missionaries' there, where there are no language or trust barriers that need to be broken. This is actually a true example of one of our friends here, Png, who comes from Payao (a couple hrs out of Chiang Mai). She became a Christian a few years back, and now through her witnessing to her own family, all in her immediate family except one brother in law have become christians and now an aunt and cousin have also become Christian. How cool is it to see God working through Thai Christians? Keep an eye out for future posts about Payao. There is a dying church in there, which is problematic as many of Png's family have just become christian, but with no really good church to follow them up or help them grow. We're currently planning to do a 3-4day 'mission' trip up to Payao with Png (she's our 'in'). We're not 100% sure what we'll be doing exactly there just yet - if an outreach thing, or just working with people in the church to get them enthused, or teaching some english as an excuse to also teach about God....not sure. But i'll keep you posted for sure.

anyway, these reflections have actually become a lot longer then i'd planned, and there's plenty more to say. So how bout i keep more reflections for a later time.

In summary tho, i think the whole idea of working closely with Thai Christians to grow to a maturity in the gospel and to help them create resources for Thai people is the likely plan for the future. As to what the means i'll be doing, not sure just yet but stay posted.

For those praying:
- please pray for wisdom as i think and pray about the future
- praise God for people like Png who are growing and spreading the gospel
- pray for Thai's to grow in maturity as Christians, and for more Thai's to become Christian

kaay bort - Church Camp

Despite feeling completely brain dead after just the first day, church camp was awesome! I never went to the camp expecting to learn lots from the Bible, mainly cos my lack of language was always going to restrict me, especially in relation to 'Biblical language'. But despite lack of language, God still taught and encouraged me way beyond what i thought was possible. I actually chose not to get interpretation during the talks/workshop/seminars etc cos i really wanted to try and push myself in my language. I knew if i had an interpreter, i'd get lazy and probably not bother listening or trying to work out what was being said in Thai. So after the fullest timetable i've ever sat through ie

Day 1 = 3 x 1hr bible talks, 1 x 2hr workshop, 1hr worth of testimonies and sharing, 1hr of small groups totaling 7hrs of formal heavy 'brain work' - all in Thai
Day 2 = starting at 7am with 'group quiet times' (still not sure how that works), 2x1hr session talks, 2hr workshop, 1hr of testimonies/sharing, small groups - plus preparing for the saturday night activity our cell group was organising, then 'homework' in prep for the following day's 'group quiet time'
Day 3 = 7am start group quiet times, then a church service - but lasting 3hrs, followed by baptisms in the resort pool (very cool!)


baptisms at the church camp

pretty nice really!!

In all that, i pretty much managed no rest except at night to sleep. I honestly think that if i had to sit through a program like that in english, i would've been struggling too, but in another language....OH MY!!!!

But tiredness aside, it was a really encouraging weekend, where the speaker (Ajarn Chaiyan) kind of ran 'workshop' type talks rather then typical 'bible talks' that i'm usually used to in a camp setting. (On talking to some of my friends here, they said it was the first time they've had it in that style before too). Ajarn Chaiyan was really passionate in wanting to equip people to not only be thinking about evangelism and 'making disciples', but to be training disciples to be making disciples as well - in growing christians to maturity. So in doing so, he obviously presented the gospel to help people think about what they would say if they had an opportunity to help someone understand what it meant to be a christian. I had some friends who had never even thought about the idea that as christians, we should also be helping others to grow and become christians so they too can be helping others understand the gospel. It was really exciting to see people being challenged in ways they've never been challenged before.

Denise also had heaps of friends that went along. Despite Noy's husband not coming in the end (see my last post), there were others who came along and decided to accept christ at the camp! Praise God!! Please pray for one lady Jaa who decided to become a christian. Pray that she will have the opportunity to build on her new faith and build a solid foundation in Christ.

During the camp, all 15 of those who got baptised there got to give there testimony. Lack of language really is frustrating when you can't get the full story, but from those i could understand, i was so encouraged to hear how God worked in their lives, how they have been able to completely change and become 'new' people since becoming christian, to see how they just fully want to serve God in whatever capacity they can. It's just amazing. We had teenagers through to an 78 yr old grandmother get baptised! It's so amazing to see how God can change lives of all sorts of people of all ages!!

It was also great to get to know more people at church and meet new friends too amongst all the fun, games, silliness and food.

For those who are praying:
- please pray for all that went to the church camp, to keep on thinking about the things they learnt and put them into action
- pray for Jaa and other that wanted to become christians
- thank God for the teaching and wisdom of Ajarn Chaiyan
- give thanks for those who were baptised, for their lives to be a great testimony and witness for God

Here are a couple happy snaps of the weekend (sorry there aren't too many more, i actually ended up doing more video this time around for a change)



me and daa


our cell group dressed up as kids in our version of 'are you smarter then a 5th grader


some of our cell group


my new friend Preuk

Bye Bron :( but welcome to the church camp

It's been an awesome past 6 weeks having my friend Bron stay with me as she did her thesis research on muiti-national supermarkets vs local fresh markets here in Chiang Mai. I'm highly impressed that she managed to have more weight in her carry on luggage then checked in luggage on her domestic flight to Bangkok this afternoon. A mighty fine effort really. But i think my friend Oum still takes the cake in arriving at the airport 10mins before her flight was to leave with 50kgs of luggage as she was leaving Thailand forever to live in the US. That's definitely one stressful way of getting out of paying overweight luggage.

But back to Bron, it really was a huge blessing to have her over here. To be able to share with her my life over here, to have her really come to love Thai's and learn so much about mission as well and to be such an encouragement to myself, the dickson's and many other thai christians over here. I know that many of my friends over here will really miss her. I'm amazed at the impact she was able to have and the relationships she was able to build in the short time that she was here. The fact that some friends even made special visits to come give her a farewell present, or that we had to make special visits to receive presents or those that she had only met once were sending her presents as well to say farewell says a lot about what people thought of her. Many of them keep asking me when she's coming back and really want for her to come back. So Bron.....you gotta come back :) you know what we think anyway :) hehe

for those who are praying:
- please pray for bron as she heas back to Oz and completes her studies
- pray for her as she faces an 'unknown' future when she finishes her studies, that God will be using her to be bringing glory to him, and using her to help others to know Him more
- pray that she'll be able to keep up her Thai and that she will be able to come back and visit again soon


Here's us with the Cana House kids who all drew special pictures for Bron

Church Camp this weekend!!
This weekend is actually a 4 day long weekend for the Thai Buddhist 'lent' (i guess that's the easiest way to try and describe it). Which also means it's our churches Weekend Away. It's the first one of these things i've ever been to, and i'm actually really excited about going on a number of fronts. It'll be a great opportunity to be meeting and getting to know many church people better - well, i hope so after spending 3 days with them :) i'm sure it'll also stretch me to the max in my language as well - living with 130 thai's, listening to talks, doing bible studies, prayer groups, 'compulsory fun' events etc etc etc - all in Thai. It's gonna be great.

But the other really exciting thing about it is that there are also a heap of non-christian friends of Denise and John's who are going to be going. A couple years ago, one of their friends became a christian, so brought her mum along to the church camp last year, where her mum also became a christian. However, her husband has been really anti christian since she became a christian - forbidding her to go to church or even read the Bible. So, she got around that by leaving her Bible at work and reading it in her lunch hours. However despite his hard heart to christians over the past couple years, this year he and other non christian members of her family have decided to come to the church camp which is REALLY EXCITING!!!

For those who are praying, please pray
- for this family in particular, that God will be working in the hearts of the non christian members of the family and helping them to understand what Christianity is all about.
- for the church camp to go smoothly and that many people will learn lots and be challenged by the Bible
- pray for Ajarn Chayan as he gives the talks
- pray for me to understand more then less this weekend

One of the fun parts of the weekend is the 'party night' that our cell group will be running on Saturday. We're basing on the show 'Are you smarter then a 5th grader' or the Thai equivalent of that. I'm seriously impressed with the creativity of some of the guys here and the technical skills that many of them have. God really has blessed many of them. That aside, it should be a great night of fun, encouragement and edification as we challenge those who come to the camp - are you smarter then Cell Moses (the name of our cell group). The host for the show is my friend Pi Tor who's the panda keeper at the zoo, so they thought we'd have a couple of mascots for the night - Lin Hui and Xuang Xuang. Here's a couple of us having a bit of fun with them at our 'rehearsal' night


me with the panda's


Jao with the panda's


See if you can guess who this cute kid is - one of questions that will be asked on the Party Night


ok, and here's just a random shot of me turning more thai..... hmmmmm......

My first hair cut

Cos i'm pretty lazy, i hadn't actually got round to cutting my hair at all since i got here despite the fact that i live right next door to a hairdresser! So yesterday when Kim made mention that my hair was getting pretty long, i mentioned that i should probably get it cut soon, at which she kindly offered to 'help' me. So i figured, why not? Hey, she'd cut her brothers hair before - about 10 years ago. How bad could it be?

what my hair was like before kim attacked it


Kim in action - not sure about this really.....


evidence of the damage


the end result

So there's the hair cut. Thankfully, nothing too outrageous really, but strangely enough, it did open new doors for a really good conversation with my new teacher (Khruu Jai) today at school on our various views of teaching the Bible and whether or not it is something we really need to take seriously or not, and if so, how seriously should we really take it? How we actually got onto the topic from me getting my haircut and subsequently looking 'younger' then i already looked, i'm still not really sure. But what does it matter anyway? it opened up a great door to talking about the Bible and our views on it. I was really encouraged to hear my teacher agreeing with me, that we need to take teaching the Bible seriously, as i was saying i am still not able to teach the Bible here, even to sunday school kids. I was saying to her that right now, i'm helping in a team that teaches kids the bible each sunday, but i'm not actually teaching the Bible at all. I'm happy to do the activity or even the odd magic trick, but when it comes to teaching the Bible, I'm scared that if i do it in Thai, i might something wrong. Actually, i know i'll accidentally say something wrong, just cos i don't yet have all the language. I was pleasantly surprised to have her totally agree with me that it's better to wait and be sure that we teach the Bible correctly then she went onto tell me about many stories that she's experienced or heard of when 'pastors' and other church leaders say it doesn't matter if they didn't know how to teach or understand what they were teaching. that 'anyone' could do it. She understood the importance of teaching the Bible correctly, so how could you take it so lightly and send 'anyone' in to do it? This conversation then led onto me being able to share with her what we're currently doing in Sunday School, in teaching the 'Big Picture' of the Bible, how God created the whole world perfect, but man rejected God and sinned, with the 'rest' of the bible showing us God's plan to bring his people back to himself ultimately through Jesus, so eventually, we will be in a new creation with God where everything is perfect again. I actually surprised even myself that i was able to explain that in thai, and i think my teacher as well :) haha But having said that, there's still a loooong way to go before i'll be teaching the kids myself. I'm happy to sit back, listen and learn and encouraging those Thai christians we're training up for the time being.

After our conversation on all that in class, my teacher and i ended up having another great conversation about singleness and how we felt about it. My new teacher is a year younger then me and single as well. something that she does struggle with at times, so it was great to be able to talk to her and try to encourage her to be patient and wait on God's timing. To not be hasty about it and get married just for the sake of getting married and bowing to family and peer pressure to get married. Unfortunately our time then ran out.. another lesson with a new teacher where i didn't quite get to open the textbook :) haha but to me, it was a great day of learning new vocab, being able to encourage my new teacher as a christian and push myself in trying to have 'deep' conversations with someone who is at a similar stage of life to me. So i really thank God that so far things are really working out well with my new teacher.

For those who are praying:
- please pray for Khruu Jai, for her to keep on trusting in in God for contentment (now that's a word i do need to learn in Thai)
- thank God for opportunities to get to know Khruu Jai more and that we do get on well as teacher/student already
- pray that we'll be able to get to know each other more over the next few months

here are a few 'fun' photos in the past week:


At a recent picnic day at the hot springs, we saw this sign "Bathing with the bowl and bathing in the basin for men"


i'm not so sure 'cripple only' is the most polite way of describing the disabled toilets


At our upcoming church camp this weekend, we're going to have some mascot panda's for the 'compulsory fun' night our cell group is running. It was seriously hilarious seeing May and Musir get into these suits and attempt to breakdance and the like. Can't wait for the actual night!

Parents & Teachers - (sounds like a scary combination)

It's been a great past week with my parents visiting Chiang Mai for the week. It's hard to believe that it's been 6 months since i last saw them as the year has seriously been flying. So cos the folks were around, i tried to keep my diary as empty as possible last week so i could spend a bit of time with them. It was great to be able to head out to lunch, dinner and go on various 'tiaws' (outings) with them and the family for the week. Despite a few late nights watching wimbledon, it was actually quite a restful week not being out every night with various commitments or dinners with people. So i do actually feel quite rested and that i've caught up on a bit of sleep and rest. But somehow it's meant that this week (now that my parents have left) has completely filled up, so we'll see how long the 'R&R' will last for :)


the family with mum & dad at Tiger Kingdom


playing with the tiger cubs


me with one of the cubs

Even though i wasn't out and about heaps last week, there was still plenty of 'stuff' going on to pray for and to give thanks for. I'm just so encouraged and humbled to see the way that God orchestrates things in His timing, and how nothing is really a 'coincidence'. Here are a couple examples of this and things to pray for and give praise about.

- Please keep on praying for my old teacher Khruu Kwan. Yes, she's my 'old' teacher now. :( For various reasons (nothing bad) i've had to unexpectedly change teachers. Initially we were both really sad about it as we are really close friends and enjoy being 'student & teacher'. Plus i was just starting to see all these amazing things that God has been teaching her and showing her and it was great to be able to encourage her in those things on a regular and timely basis. But despite not being teacher/student now, my initial frustrations of not being able to spend as much time with her were quickly dissolved as God has shown me he has things in control and that our friendship goes far beyond the walls of a classroom. Since 'parting ways' last week we've still managed to catch up over breaks, lunches and dinner, which has been much more relaxed and we've been able to talk about more things in more depth too. So my initial worries really needn't be worries at all. It's actually probably better this way too. I should know that God has it under control!

But 2 main things to be praying for Khruu Kwan are:
1. to find a church they can settle into and feel comfortable in
2. also for trust and obedience to God for the future.
Church: This year, for various reasons, she and her family haven't really been going along to church. i've been really hesitant to 'push' her in going to church as i don't want her to go to church out of obligation, but out of her want to meet with God's people and have fellowship with them. A couple weeks ago, i invited her along to my church as John was preaching. At that service, there were several things that really struck her and she was keen to keep on coming. so the following week, she came back with her kids too. However, my initial hopes of her coming along to Grace church have for the moment been put on hold. Last week, she thought she'd go back to her former church It's kinda a long, weird story, so i won't go into all the details but here's a short summary to give you the idea. It seems that every time they've tried to go to that former church this year, they have been prevented from going for various reasons - mainly sickness. They're seeing it as some kind of spiritual attack from Satan not wanting them to go there. So last sunday (since the past 2 sundays were fine at my church), they thought they'd go back to the other church to see if it was all ok. But once again, she got sick and they had to leave before the 'worship time' even started. They're seeing it as an attack from Satan, and are determined to keep going to that church to not let satan win. I can totally understand why they think as they do and why they are so determined to beat satan, but i also think there could be another spin on it. That maybe it is God working to get them thinking about going to an alternate church? At the end of the day, it is God is ultimately in control, who 'allows' satan to have as much or as little power. So who's to say it's not God's plan for them? I haven't said my thoughts to my teacher yet, as i think it's important for her and her family to work on understanding God's plan for them themselves and the last thing they need is for me to come waltzing in and telling them what i think and what they should do etc. Besides, i know i don't even know the whole story, and still have much to learn about Thai culture and understanding, so it's hard to know what advice is good to give and not give. So please pray for my teacher and her family to really seek God and his guidance in this. That i will be able to be an encouragement to her, and provide advice if needed. Pray that they will settle into a church soon - wherever it may be

2. At the end of this month, my teacher is finishing up at the school and is hoping to teach privately. However currently she has no other students, which is a big worry for her, especially as she still has a mortgage, car loan, school fees for 2 kids etc to pay still. However, it's been so amazing to see how time and time again, God keeps telling her not to worry and to trust in Him. I know what she's like and had this been the same situation 3 months ago, she probably would've taken back her resignation. But this month, she's actually turning to the Bible and constantly reading verses about trusting in God's plan for us, that God does have a plan for us. She knows it to be true and it's so encouraging to see the way she is trusting completely. But also to see the way that God is helping her to trust, by providing people in her life to support her in ways she never imagined. It really is in the times of uncertainty and 'desperation' that we learn what trust and dependence on God is. Please pray that she will keep on learning these lessons and remembering how God has been working in her life to grow her closer to God.

Another exciting thing i've really been encouraged by in the past week is to see a couple of Thai friends of ours, Maggie & Ice, just taking hold of all sorts of opportunities to be reaching out to the Thai community for the gospel. Last week, while in a massage place in Big C (like a big supermarket crossed with a Kmart), he got talking to the massage ladies about the fact he can speak a little bit of english after another aussie friend called him and he had to speak some english. Immediately, a group of the women were interested in wanting to learn english in their lunch hour, so Ice thought it could be a great opportunity to teach them english and introduce them to Jesus in the same way that we do it at Baan Tawai on Monday nights. So, being an english speaker, Ice asked me if i could help him with it. Admittedly, at first, i was a bit reluctant as i really don't like teaching english that much, but i'm also really keen to be working alongside Thai's and learning from them too, and if doing this meant i was helping to open opportunities for them to open doors for the gospel, why should i be selfish and not do it. So Monday, we went for our first session and can i say, it was awesome!! I not only had heaps of fun, i can see the potential of building relationships with these ladies (and potentially other workers in the complex who also want to come) and eventually introducing them to Jesus. And Ice & Maggie are awesome people to do just that. I'm hoping that as i hear them speak about Jesus to them, i'll also be able to learn more language in how to do that too. Ice is really excited about this opportunity and now, so am i. Please pray for us as we get to know these ladies and build relationships with them and hopefully introduce them to Jesus. I'll keep you posted on more of this as it unfolds.......

anyway, here are a couple of amusing menu items we saw at a recent restaurant we went to


how do you like your 'eyes' done?


caramari - don't think you can get much more asian then that spelling