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, May 13, 2012

God's Providence

As keen as I was to find a place of my own and also buy a car in the first few weeks, having conference the week after we arrived kinda meant that house hunting didn't really start until I had already been here for 2 1/2 weeks. It's been a real blessing to be able to stay at my sister's place with no time pressure to move out, but at the same time, I think it would be really good for me to find my own place so I can feel like I'm fully settled. Initially, I was really keen to find a place in my old neighbourhood. It was familiar and really convenient to get to my sister's place, church and the city area. However, every place I went to look at and was interested in had something 'wrong' with it. If it was in a great location, it was either really expensive or really old and run down, places that were affordable and had lots of potential had nightmare landlords which just isn't great for foreigners here. I don't think it was so much that I was being overly fussy (well I hope not) but if I'm going to be here for the long term, I'd prefer to try and find somewhere that I'd be happy to (and god willing, be able to) stay long term so I wouldn't have to keep moving. As I look back on those first couple weeks of house hunting, I realise that it really was God's sovereignty in keeping me from getting a place that end of town, because as I began to think about my friends and where they all live I quickly realised that they all live on the opposite side of town which would make it much more difficult to be building relationships if i were in my old neighbourhood. So, it seems, God was closing lots of doors on places in order to send me to the other side of town. Having never lived on the other side of town, it's been an interesting task trying to find good neighbourhoods that had the right size house at the right price, or that even had houses available for rent etc etc etc. The choice it seemed was to either live out in the suburbs in a slightly 'nicer' houses, or closer to the city in a smaller place in tighter streets. Kinda like Sydney really. So, I've decided to take advantage of my singleness and go for something a bit closer to the city. After a few weeks of house hunting, I decided on a house which had actually interested me from the outset, but to be sure, I also wanted to check out other houses in the area. I finally got to meet with the landlord this afternoon (who had been away for the past week) and it's now official that i've got a place to live :) Huge point!! But that's not all. As most of my time has been taken up house hunting over the past few weeks, I hadn't really looked at cars at all. (Coming back long term this time, my parents were keen for me to get a car). So this past week was the first time I've really gone out to look at cars. God was absolutely amazing. After doing a bit of research on the net about new and used car prices, i thought i'd hit the used car market and see what was available. On my first day of looking, I came across the perfect deal. A 2nd hand Mazda 2, only 1yr old, and has only done 7,500kms. It was an amazingly good deal which many of Thai friends are amazed by, so this monday, i'll go pick up my car.
my new car God is truly amazing!! So much to give praise to God for. For those who pray: - Praise God for the provision of a house and car - Pray that I'll be able to use both to glorify God