Chiang Mai Times

Blown Away by God

2012-01-21T00:16:00.007+11:00

This morning as i was scrubbing out an oven, i unexpectedly found myself with uncontrollable tears as I was just blown away by Gods goodness and the amazing ways he teaches us and works in our lives. What started as an semi busy week catching up with friends over dinner parties, afternoon teas, lunches and bike rides turned into a bit of a mammoth week as i also found myself coming good on an offer to help a friend with some cleaning work at college. It really felt like a bit of a novelty to do some 'real work' for the first time in 4yrs, and despite some really long days (as i fit work around catching up with all my previous engagements), and not much time to rest, God has taught me some massive lessons in what it means to follow him and be on the 'other' end of partnering with people in the gospel.

At the moment, i've been going through the Psalms, and i was particularly challenged the other day by Ps 139:23-24 'Search me, O God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting'. It was a prayer that i found difficult to genuinely pray. How scary is it to challenge God to search and test my heart and anxious thoughts, cos i knew he'd find offensive ways in me. I've also also been challenged in what it means to fully trust and hope in the Lord, and to not put our trust in the things of this world. Over the week as i worked, the thought of earning money for the first time in 4 years was strange. i considered the many things i could do with it, the things i could buy, the places i could go, but especially using it to help fund some of my own setup costs in heading to Thailand. But as i thought through what it means to trust and hope in God for our needs rather than the things of this world, i felt God was really challenging me to be generous to others with what he provides. I found it interesting how right now, as i am in the stage of partnership development, i can be so single minded in seeking others to generously give of their time and money to partner with me, but instead, i never considered how i should be challenging myself with the exact same thing to others. So on my way home last night, i made some decisions to do about how i could do just that and to my surprise, God gave me an amazing peace about my decisions which in the past would not have gone down well. Within hours of putting it into action, I received an email from a friend advising me of the ways they were wanting to support me in heading to Thailand and it literally just brought me to tears! I was just seeing so clearly what it meant not to put my trust in the things of this world and to see how God's provides a spiritual family to support each other, and how God provides for all our needs. I can't begin to explain all the emotions and thoughts going through my head at the time. Only that I just had a sense of how amazing God is, how he is sovereign, how he is our provider and how he loves and cares for those who love and obey him.

Even though the past week has been nuts, it's been a week of great learning and encouragement and provision as God has continued to provide so many of the things i need for heading back to Thailand. In particular good friends who are willing to partner with me by keeping me accountable in my walk with God as I head back to Thailand in various ways. God is good indeed and this week, i have just been in awe of him! Please pray that i'll continue to be in awe of him and keep seeking to live my life in a way that pleases him.

In amongst all the lessons God has taught me, it's been a fun week of cleaning work. Here are a few pics of some moments we caught on camera.

Cleaning bathrooms

But a spider sent me into the shower for protection

The cleaning 'crew'

or maybe it was more like this

Fun with Shadows

Experimental Shots

2012-01-16T13:51:00.006+11:00

Over the past week I've been having heaps of fun with my new camera. Even though it's only a point and shoot i must say i've been pretty impressed as i've tested out a few of its manual functions. So I thought i'd share a few more pics that weren't sunsets

Out of the Black Shadows

2012-01-12T13:56:00.003+11:00

Those of you who know me will know that I'm not a reader. My philosophy in life has been 'if it's worth reading, they'll make a movie of it'. I figure, watching the movie is not only quicker than reading, it's visual and i won't get a headache from hours of staring at pages on a book.

Well, between Christmas and New Years last year, i went away with some friends from college and i was recommended to read an autobiography by Stephen Lungu called Out of the Black Shadows. Given that we weren't doing anything during the days i really had no good excuse not to read it. Plus I was intrigued by hearing my friends brief explanation of how Stephen became a Christian after heading to an evangelistic meeting with the intention of throwing petrol bombs into the tent, but as he heard the gospel message preached that night, instead of causing devastation, he accepted Christ.

After my record of taking 7 1/2yrs to read A Call to Spiritual Reformation, i can say i was shocked that even I managed to read this book in less than a week! It was an amazing encouragement and reminder to see how God can use the 'weak' things of this world to bring glory to himself. It doesn't matter that Stephen was abandoned as a child, slept under bridges, had to scrounge for food from peoples garbage bins, was never taught to read or write as a child, or was even ready to be a terrorist and kill Christians, God can and does use him to be bringing the good news of the gospel to the world! As i read this book, i was constantly challenged how God works in the most unexpected ways, of my attitude and judgement of others, to be generous to those in need, as well being reminded of the danger in cross cultural work as he tells plenty of great stories of cross-cultural miscommunications. I can't believe that i'm saying this, but i'd recommend if you get a chance to read this book, to do so. if i can read it in a week, i'm sure anyone else could read it in less than that!

Sunset Pics

2012-01-11T20:36:00.005+11:00

So now that I'm back home and have a new toy, I'm really enjoying the chance to try and capture some of the most amazing sunsets. So I thought that i'd share a few of the shots with you.

A few highlights of the past couple months in pictures

2012-01-09T14:41:00.010+11:00

Unfortunately I've been a bit slack in taking photos over the past couple years due to an old camera that was on its way out and the inability to decide on what new camera to get. So I've had to rely on the generosity of friends to share their photos, but hopefully those days are now over with a new Christmas present which will let me take my own photos :)

Anyway, here are a few highlights of the past months antics and new years celebrations with a big thanks to Don for many of the photos.

The last days of SMBC

I accidentally hit some random button on the camera as I took this photo but it came out with an awesome effect that I just can't seem to replicate

With College friends at a wedding

Graduating from SMBC

The SMBC Graduates of 2011

Christmas

first Christmas with the extended Chen family in a LONG time

Hanging With Friends

Chilling out at The Entrance

Food is always important - Homemade Sushi

Feasting on pork spare ribs

Hanging with Don, Bridge & Kath

New Years Eve

Chilling out on the balcony on NYE

One of the highlights of the night was a skywriter who began writing "Are you going to heaven?" (even though our shot only managed to get 'are you going to heave') haha

"How?"

The answer..."Trust Christ"

And we know this from the Bible in "John 3:16"

Everyone watching the skywriter

Still have the knack for sneaking into photos

The Bridge on NYE

Watching the fireworks with friends

Watching the fireworks

The Bridge at NYE

but not everyone lasted the whole night...

Mollymook

Mollymook Beach

Chilling with Tan

Matt & Lachie chilling out on the beach

At Mollymook Beach with Annika

experimenting 'action' shots with my new toy

Celebrating Lachies 2nd Birthday with a cake made of fried pancake mix and maltesers.

Happy New Year!

2012-01-02T13:17:00.004+11:00

Happy New Year!!

So 2011 is now over and 2012 has now begun. After a nice relaxing holiday with college friends at the Central Coast between Christmas and New Years where i even managed to read a whole book in a week (and no, it wasn't a little golden book), I got to welcome in the new year with friends at my place. My college housemate and I got to put on a braai (South African for BBQ using a Weber - or should I say 'Wieber'), and even got to experiment in cooking a 1.5kg pork shoulder which to our surprise, and relief, worked out really well. Then we watched the fireworks, played Wii, chatted, laughed, ate waaaay too much and had a really nice chilled out night.

The Braai with our pork and Boerewors

With Don, Bridgie and Kath on NYE

It's both exciting and scary to think about what this year, and the future, has in store. There are so many changes that will be happening in the next few months - preparations for heading back to Thailand, saying goodbyes to friends and family, moving over to Thailand and getting back into life over there. It's been a real blessing however, to be more excited about heading back rather than nervous and scared about the unknown that awaits. Over the past few weeks, God has given me a real peace and excitement about heading back. Many of the things that i imagine would usually cause more stress and anxiety in heading overseas feel like they have been taken away as God has steadily provided churches and friends to be supporting and partnering with me as I head back to Thailand. I've still got more Partnership Development to do which can be a daunting thought at times, but God's constant provisions so far have been a constant reminder to me that he is truly in control and sovereign over all things and will provide all we need. One thing i heard in a recent sermon from the book of James that has been challenging me is to be thinking about how i live my life now in light of Jesus' return. It definitely puts a whole new perspective on the way i view many of my momentary troubles and the way i know i should live my life now.

Over the next couple months before i head, i'm really looking forward to spending time with friends, sharing about the things God has been teaching me and ways he's been working, and the ways i hope that he might be able to use me in the future. I'm also hoping to get in a few more bike rides, sloth nights, maybe try out a few more pork shoulder recipes (or other random recipes i manage to think up) before i head off too. It's looking more likely that i'll be heading off late March now, but i'll keep you posted.

For those of you praying, please pray:
- praise God for the past 2 years that i've been able to spend at college and all that he has taught me
- praise God for his provisions over the past couple months in heading back to Thailand
- for wisdom in how i use my time in the next couple months, that i'll be able to spend quality time with people and be an encouragement to others
- that God will raise up people to be partnering with me in prayer and financially as i head back to Thailand
- that God will be preparing the way as i head back to Thailand with all the practicalities - visas, plane tickets etc

SMBC 2011 End of Year Dinner Video

2011-12-05T11:36:00.005+11:00

So, last year it was All the Single Ladies, this year, we decided to do another video for the SMBC End of Year Dinner, which we did to a tune from Mulan, renamed 'SMBC'll Make a Missionary Out of you'. Was heaps of fun filming, recording and editing this years video with lots of great memories from the past couple years. If you want to check it out, you can check it out on youtube here. Hope you enjoy :)

End of College

2011-11-25T17:46:00.007+11:00

It's hard to believe that 2 years have come and gone and i'm now finishing up college. It's been an amazing time! i've learnt so much, made some amazing friends, been challenged in ways that i never imagined, and to finish up my time at college i even got to present my project from the same platform as Don Carson at the college Projects Fair. Here's my proof (and no, i haven't just photoshopped my name onto it)

It's been an amazing privilege to be able to take a couple years out to go to college, learn from God's word and be surrounded by an amazing community of people, but now i am ready to get back into the 'real world' and am really looking forward to heading back to Thailand. There's lots of prep that still needs to be done before heading back. Top of the list is to start partnership development and start sorting out all the logistical aspects of getting visas, sorting out budgets and finance, cleaning out my room, getting all my shots, spending time with family and friends etc etc etc. I'd really appreciate your prayers for all of that.

Accepted

2011-11-04T21:40:00.002+11:00

The past few months have been busy reading articles, writing my final essays and my project as i finish up at college. I've also had all my interviews with Pioneers and Mission Partners and have now been approved and accepted by them, so it's all systems go in heading back to Thailand. Well, need to finish my project first, but once that's done, i'm sure you'll be hearing from me.

I've also I also got interviewed by Mission Partners recently. The interview can be found here. If you want a laugh, there's also a pretty bad photo of me too.

Learn to Swim Video

2011-06-25T14:42:00.002+10:00

So late last year, my friend and I thought we'd enter a video into a Swim Australia competition - and we won! Here's the winning creation

Gospel skit Videos

2010-01-22T18:10:00.005+11:00

Here's the first of 4 videos that were used for the gospel skit.
Starting with video 1 - God making the world

Video 2 - but man soon sins and the second video shows just some of the ramifications of our sin.

However,video 3 - God loves us all so much, that he sent his only son,

so that video 4 in the end we have restored relationships.

Unfortunately i don't have a video of the whole presentation that had a combination of skits, songs and narration. But i personally thought the whole thing was a great way of presenting the gospel and made Jesus death for us on the cross come to life and help us realise how much God really does love us.

Back in Sydney

2010-01-22T16:30:00.004+11:00

It's hard to believe that i'm now back in Sydney already!! Where did the past 1 1/2 months go? Unfortunately the busyness of 2 short term teams, border runs for visas, packing up and moving out of home, farewell parties and saying goodbye, arriving back in sydney and trying to sort out life back here has meant no recent posts. It's not to say that i haven't still been seeing God doing amazing work in people's lives and seeing God's word at work and changing people's lives, i just haven't had a chance to share about it all.

After the CCC team, we had a few days break before the CCC Melbourne team came along. Even though we had never met any of the team members before, within the first 20mins of meeting them, we knew that this was going to be a team that we would get along really well with and be a lot of fun to work with. We got to head down to Mae Tia and do a gospel skit presentation which had all sorts of singing, multimedia, videos and skits. The team did an awesome job of presenting the gospel there which was really exciting. We also got to go to another small village called Mae Jong and help a local church there with doing a gospel christmas outreach to the village there. It was great to see how us being there to teach the kids and run kids activities in the afternoon could free up so many of our thai friends to be able to put on the christmas party and organise to present the outreach presentation - something which we would never be able to.

The highlight of the second team would have to have been the 3 day Bethany Camp that we ran over New Year. Basically it was like a houseparty/youth camp for the 30+ kids from the Bethany House orphange. For me, it was a really exciting way how we could see the partnership of christians around the world coming together for the gospel. We had churches from Australia helping to finance the camp, the short term team helping run activities, but more importantly helping doing 8 amazing skits to help the kids understand the gospel more, thai friends from our church giving talks, taking music and forming relationships and getting alongside the girls and talking to them about all sorts of issues, as well as our team helping facilitate it all to happen. It really was a great way to see the many ways that we are all part of the same body of Christ and how we all have our various roles to play. What really encouraged me and fired me up after the first team was to see the way that God really worked in so many lives of the team members and others, and how many of them were so challenged by what it means to be a christian in our everyday lives, whether or not we are in Sydney, Melbourne, Thailand or where ever.

Kids and team at the Bethany Camp

Kids at the camp

kids doing activities at the camp

me playing guitar

maggie and denise with the puppet show

no i'm not constipated - just doing the 'chicken dance' after being the 'loser' in a game

After the second team left, it was pretty much all systems go to pack up, clean up and say goodbyes. I don't think there's ever enough time to say goodbyes. It was really tough having to say goodbye to so many that have become such close friends and even feel like family. Many of my thai friends are thinking of my time back in Sydney as a short term mission to sydney before i go back :) I quite liked that take on things :)

Cana House kids doing a dance for me at my farewell

With my Cell group at my farewell

Since coming back, it has been awesome catching up with so many old friends and family. In many ways it feels like i never left as things are still the same, but at the same time, i also feel like there is a whole new life and i know that i have changed so much in my thinking and way of life. I'm still scared about all the reading that i'm going to have to do for college, but am also really excited about getting more into the Bible and preparing myself for future ministry - hopefully back in thailand.

Hopefully over the next few months, i'll post up a few odds and ends about college life, reverse cultural observations etc.

For those praying, please be praying for all those who i've had to leave behind in Thailand, to continue growing in their love and knowledge of God. Please pray for me in my adjustment back to life in sydney and new responsibilities of being a student here. Please pray that i won't forget any of the lessons that God has been teaching me over the past couple years am that i will continue to desire after Him,

CCC Short Term Team

2009-12-13T03:29:00.003+11:00

Since the 2 Dec, we've had a short term team from CCC come. It's been really weird being on 'this' side of the fence this time round after being on the short term team twice before (when i came over with DPC). One of the strangest realisations for me is just realising how just 2 years ago, i was just like one of those on the team, who had next to no thai, knew no one here and had no idea of what was really going on around me. I guess it's the first time that i've really been able to stop and think about how much i've really learnt, grown and changed in the 2 years since coming over. So the time has been filled with orientation, spending time with the team, helping them to try and build relationships with some of our thai friends, going to schools, orphanages and hostels, running programs, helping out in various christmas parties around the place and generally trying to help the team get a better idea of what missions is all about and the needs over here in Thailand. One thing i know i wasn't quite expecting was how tired mentally i'd be in helping translate for the team. I reckon i've got to a point where just conversing and listening in Thai doesn't tire me out mentally like it used to, so i figured translating would just be a little bit more brain power. not LOTS! especially when talks end up being in northern thai! but it's been great practice and i definitely have a new found appreciation for interpreters. I think it's definitely one profession i'm not exactly cut out for :)

But one massive praise point, we went down to Mae Waang to help out at a christmas party for the hostel kids and their parents who came to visit from lots of surrounding hill tribe areas. That night, the minister that gave the talk about Christmas that night, gave one of the clearest gospel talks that i've heard since being here. And what was even more exciting was that every point he made, was right in line with the skit that we presented (which was a tweaked version of the gospel skit we did with the kids from church - there's a video of it on this blog). So everyone that went, got a good double dose of the great news of salvation that we have through Jesus. The minister down there was pretty excited too that our skit worked so well to reinforce stuff he had shared about as well. He was super impressed that everyone was so interested in the skit and were captivated in wanting to watch it from beginning to end. Apparently usually, many of them lose interest after a couple minutes then start talking and eating. But this time around, everyone was watching and even yelling to find out what was in the 'present' boxes. So a massive praise point for that night. Please pray for the many people who may have heard the gospel for the first time that night there. For God to soften their hearts, so they turn back to Him.

anyway, hopefully have a few photos to put up soon - after i get some of the photos off the team :) For those praying, please also pray for energy levels, especially for my sister denise who has been a real trooper with the team. The first team will be here til the 16th, then on the 22nd we have a 2nd team coming, with lots more prep that still needs to be done for that too.

Weekends Away with Cell Group and School

2009-12-04T12:41:00.007+11:00

It's been a pretty crazy past few weeks with weekend trips away with my cell group and then with the teachers and staff from school. The first weekend, we went to Pai with the cell group. It was an awesome time to spend together, hanging out, studying the Bible, checking out the sites, my biggest highlight was visiting the local church there. Despite being a tiny church with little growth in terms of numbers, it was so encouraging to go to a church that had a really good understanding of the bible and biblical theology, despite the church worker only having only completed yr 6 schooling and done about 6 months bible 'college'. Dare i say it, but i reckon she understood the bible better then some of the pastors of churches here that have all sorts of degrees under their belt. It was such a stark contrast to the couple weeks before when i went to Doi Mesalong and went to the church there with no pastor and a room full of hungry people to hear God's word. Here was a tiny church that was teaching the word faithfully, but yet to still see fruit. Please be praying for the church in Pai.

With the church at Pail

Cell Group silliness

more silliness

always have to have a 'jump' photo

Daa trying to take a photo

at the Pai post office ('pai'- sanee - kinda like the word for post office in Thai)

the group (and Boy's shadow) that went to Pai

Me, May & Kim

not quite the gong, but fun all the same

fun with lights

Last week, i was invited to go along to the school teachers and staff camp at Huay Naam Dang. Despite being FREEZING cold, especially as we slept in tents, and had 1 bathroom for about 20 of us, it was a really good time to spend with many of the teachers and staff who have become really good friends. My teacher and i the opportunity to share the gospel with everyone on the Sunday morning and we used the time to also challenge them with the becoming Christian. Even though none of them 'responded' as such, my prayer is that it would have planted a seed in their life to know that God's gift of eternal life is waiting for them. All they have to do is accept it. Please be praying for many of the teachers and staff who are not christian there, to come to a real understanding of the gospel and the implications that has for their lives. Here are a few pics from the weekend away.

Aor looking more like a portugese chicken

With lots of the teachers and an awesome view

pretty proud of this self shot :)

the car and load i had to drive on the way back

Sunset shot

eating dinner

fun and games

more fun and games

Group photo

Sunday School Teachers Social

2009-11-16T00:23:00.004+11:00

Yesterday, we finally managed to have a sunday school leaders retreat day. Originally, we were hoping to get away for a weekend to give the team a bit of time out and also to thank the team for all their hard work over the past couple years, but for various reasons, it was all a bit hard, so we settled on a day out where we could have a bit of fun, but also have some time out to sit and share about lots of different ways that God has been working in our lives and just how they've found the past couple years doing sunday school. We decided to treat the team to do some activities that we figured they'd never do on their own. So we went ATV'ing. Thinking that all those guys can ride motorbikes, we figured, it shouldn't be a problem at all to go ATV'ing since they're essentially riding bikes with 4 wheels instead of 2. How wrong we were :) haha Although they didn't all end up riding, we all got up to the top of the mountain and were able to see some of the most amazing views that i've seen in a LONG time. And honestly never expected to see in CM as usually the pollution hinders the view. But it was clear as and we were able to just see so much of God's amazing creation. Mixed in with a bit of off road fun and laughing at Kim who had the wildest guide riding her bike, it was a awesome time out.

Here are a few of the shots from the ride. What cracked me up was before the ride, we had to sign the indemnity form which had this awesome line about using the brakes. I must admit i HAD to use my brakes almost all the time as we were coming down the mountain, cos if it didn't i was going to crash into the bike in front. Thankfully they still worked.

The smiling faces before we went...

Kim thinking she'd be able ride, before she realised she couldn't even ride straight on a the road

Kim eventually ending up on my bike

On the road

Some of the off road track

The indemnity form about using the brakes

the awesome views from the mountain

with the team on the mountain

Afterwards, we went to have lunch at a waterfall. It was a really good time of catching up and sharing about the different things that God has been teaching us over the past couple years. I was sooo encouraged by all the things they they've all been learning, challenged by, the ways that they've been changing their views about ministry, reading the Bible, serving in Church, becoming discerning in the things they hear and read, as well as thinking to the future of the church, training up other leaders and wanting to have others come to the same understanding that they too have come too. Not only that, but just to see the way that God is working in their lives! It's really exciting and something i'd love for you all to be praying for, for the continuing growth of these guys in their love for His word, and wanting others to understand it more and more. Please also pray for others in the church, and others in Thailand to also come to this understanding of God's word and want to be training others, so that it will be Thai's equipping Thai's in the Word. We feel so blessed to have such a dedicated team for Sunday School these past couple years. It's been such an exciting and fun time serving with them all.

the team at the waterfall - despite not being able to see the waterfall :) haha

an albino hedgehog that was at the ATV shop. very cool!! but not sure i'd want one for a pet.

Mae Salong

2009-11-11T02:59:00.008+11:00

Doi Maesalong

Last weekend, i had the chance to go away for the weekend with my friend and her family to Doi Mae Salong. It's a little village in the mountains just north of Chiang Rai. Apart from being freezing cold at night (i actually got to wear my flanny pj's here!) it was really nice to get away from the city, get some fresh air, drink some chinese tea (lots of the people there are chinese who have moved to Thailand, and their livelihood is mainly from growing and selling tea), cos of the lack of nightlife there, the evening was nice to just chill out, catch up on some sleep and spend time with friends.

views on the way to Doi Mae Salong

Markets at Doi Mae Salong

One of the big highlights for me in going up there was on the Sunday when we we went to try and find a church to go to. Given that none of us had ever been there, we had no idea if there were even churches there to go to. So after going for a little drive and then thinking maybe we shouldn't go too far down this road or we'll get lost, we stopped the car to think about what to do. When we looked up, we realised that we were right outside a church! Seeing the doors open and lots of shoes outside, we figured we may as well go visit that church. Biggest thing we were all worried was that they were all hill tribe people who might not actually speak Thai - they speak Arcaa - a hill tribe dialect. We all got out of the car and were soon greeted by some church people who invited us in - to sit in the front row! What was really weird walking in was that many of the people in there were dressed in their tribal dresses - which i usually only see down at the night bizarre. So it was really weird to see it at church and made me feel like i had really stepped into a whole new world! Was actually really surreal. Anyway, my friends dad had a quick chat to 2 of the guys who seemed to be 'in charge'. And next thing you know, my friend's dad is up giving the message for the day- with all of about 5 mins 'get to know you' time. All he said was translated into arcaa.

the church we went to

some of the people in church in traditional dress

Jai's dad preaching

After he finished his impromptu preaching we were told a bit of the history about the church. For me it was a real eye opener to the reality of many of the churches in Thailand, especially in the country areas. Basically, there's a church full of people who are hungry to learn from the bible, to know God more, but as simple country people who are mostly uneducated, this is just not possible. So it made sense to me when we arrived and they wanted my friends dad to preach to them. To see many of them want to respond to things he said, just demonstrated how hungry they are to learn more. But there's just no one there to teach them, and those that are there, aren't equipped to do so.
One thing that really touched me was that after church finished, we were invited to the church leaders house. While we were there, we had many of the church people to give us pumpkins, bags of tea, bags of rice etc as a 'thank you' for coming to preach and visit them that day. Many of them saw our coming as an answer to prayer as that week, they had tried to get a few people to come preach, but no one was available to do so. Then we turned up and they had someone to preach. Funny how God works at times. We thought we were just a bit lost and were thinking of turning around and heading back. Anyway, please be praying for the many churches in Thailand that are like this. This random visit really made me think a lot more about the needs of the church around Thailand so much more. Even though there are so many needs i see at the church i go to in CM, when i see a church like that, it makes me realise how even at grace church, how blessed it really is.

here are a few other photos from our trip

with Jai and Nong Dao

Dinner at the Golden Triangle

with Dao, Jai and Aom

Loy Kratong 09 and other random photos

2009-11-04T02:12:00.009+11:00

It's kind of weird knowing that there's only really a couple more months left here before i head home. This November is the last 'normal' month of being here as there will be couple short term teams coming in December pretty much until i leave. So i sort of feel like this last month, i need to make the most of it.

This time of the year is the Thai Loy Kratong festival. This year, i didn't really have much planned, but ended up at my neighbours place a few nights making kratongs. Not that i made the same design at their house, but maybe the practice helped a bit as somehow, i managed to come 'second' in the school kratong making competition yesterday, which i find highly amusing.

me and my kratong

It's been cool spending a bit more time with the neighbours, playing with fireworks (brings back lots of cool childhood memories), trying to launch a kom fai (floating lantern) only to have it catch on fire and burn up. Apparently according to buddhist beliefs, me having burnt my kom fai means that i'd have bad luck for the next year. I actually thought it was pretty funny, and even had a chance to chat to the neighbours a bit about religious beliefs. Some of them seem pretty keen to get me to become a buddhist when i return after going to bible college. But going to loy kratong with them was actually really insightful in seeing how buddhists here actually see the festival as well, as last year i just went as a tourist.

Anyway, here are a few other recent random photos of the past few days:

Loy Kratong at the school

launching kom loys with the neighours

the remains of the kom loy that i tried to launch

on a tiaw up the mountain

decked out to head into the cave at san kampang

the typical 'jump' photo

using kim as the donger

fun times at the church camp

Hong Kong & China

2009-10-28T03:19:00.013+11:00

Despite being chinese, until just last week, i had never actually even been to China. So i was pretty excited when mum and dad asked if i wanted to go to Hong Kong and China with them for a trip with my aunties and uncle to visit my grandfathers old town, the church my great great grandmother had helped start, plus an uncle who had been imprisoned 3 times for his beliefs. I had always wanted to go visit the village my grandfather had come from, as i had been told stories of it since i was a little kid. So to go back to the village with all dad's sisters and brother (plus another new found distant relative) was just an awesome opportunity that i couldn't pass up. I thought i was just going to go visit the village, see the church and the grave site of my great great grandmother, then meet this uncle - but i ended up with HEAPS more then i was expecting. Not only did i get to do those things, i also got to see the house and room that my grandfather was born in, meet all sorts of relatives i never knew i had, find out stories about our family's past that i had no idea about, go visit a street that belonged to our family, see a 'mountain' that used to belong to our family before it was taken back by the government, eat heaps and heaps and heaps of new foods i never knew existed and find out some of the most encouraging stories first had from people who had been persecuted for their beliefs and stayed strong in their faith despite the circumstances. It was awesome! Everyday was just jam packed with meeting relo's, travelling, sight seeing - but none of it was the usual 'tours', it was like our own personal family tour. It's a trip i'll really treasure forever. Hopefully one day i'll get to tell you some of the stories about our family in person. too much to write on a blog. But here are a few photos of the trip.

the view of Hong Kong from The Peak

with mum and dad

the Bubba Gump restaurant

meeting my grandfathers 2 younger sisters for the first time

crazy toilet sign in a restaurant

all happy on the train to china - before we got lost...

meeting long 'lost' relos i never knew i had

the 'new' building of the church my great great grandmother helped start

at the grave of my great great grandmother

The outside of the house my grandfather was born in

outside the room that my grandfather was born in

Our family 'street' in Swatow, China

standing in our family street with all the relo's who went on the trip

the house of my great great grandparents

outside the massive church that my great great grandparents went to

inside the church! Check out the 2 grand piano's in there!

Some of the crazy foods we ate

Flying Squirrel

2009-10-13T15:00:00.003+11:00

While my sister has been away, i've had the job of babysitting her 2 flying squirrels. I was actually quite excited about it at first, until they refused to come out of the cage, then one of them started biting really hard and the other became so scared, it just ran from me. Not to mention how much they smell as well, or how much wee and poo they leave when running around the house. So what turned out as an exciting couple of weeks of babysitting has turned into a slightly longer feeling 2 weeks.

Both Kim and I have been bitten really hard by one of the squirrels ('Skip'). Unfortunately i didn't have any bandaids in the house, so Kim had to settle for a home made bandaid, consisting of rolled up tissue and rubber band.

Anyway, last night i was feeling a bit sorry for the squirrels having been stuck in the cage, so thought i'd let them out for a run. Usually they just run around the furniture and don't do much, but last night, one of the squirrels decided to go up on the curtain rack and do cool jumps from there to the ground. I actually managed to get the camera out in time to catch it doing it for the second time, so though it'd share it with you. It almost makes them cool pets again....almost.

Deb in another dress? is it possible?

2009-10-13T03:07:00.004+11:00

Yes, can you believe that I have been to another wedding and worn yet ANOTHER dress. And there is photographic evidence to prove it as well. It's never ceased to amaze me how many weddings and funerals i've managed to go to over here when only 2 years ago, i didn't know anyone over here apart from my sister and a few other misso's working over here. So it's nuts to think that i've been to 5 weddings in 2 years with one more to go next January. Last weekend, i was able to go to the wedding of a cousin of my good friend where my friend was the bridesmaid. It was really encouraging to hear and finally understand a good proportion of what was going on and the message that was given that day. I still remember the first wedding that i went to here where i had to help with the music and i had absolutely NO idea what was going on. So to compare back to that time, i feel like i've managed to come a long way with language which is nice. I was also able to help translate what was going on to a few other foreigners who have only been here for a few months and had no idea what was happening.

Anyway, thought i'd share a few photos from the day. There is still something about Thai weddings and decorations that i think is ingenious! if i am to ever get married, there are some things i reckon are definitely the way to go, and others that i think better to steer clear of.

The wedding car

In the church

In the church

Nong Dao, my friends 'pseudo adopted' daughter

me and Dao

with Jai, Mac and a couple of the kids from church

those of us in green or borrowed apparel from Jai

with the bride and groom (and other friends)

the boquet - who needs real flowers when you can use chocolates? ingenious!

Weekend Away to Pijit

2009-09-30T02:19:00.005+10:00

I had the chance to head away last weekend to Pijit, a small town about 5hrs drive south of Chiang Mai. I went with my friends family as it was the 100 day 'after death' ceremony of the young child that they have had to 'pseudo adopt'. That's a whole other story about having how Jai and her family have had to look after this little girl. But the short of it is, her mother abandoned her when she was not even a year old after trying to abort her when she found out she was pregnant. Her father is supposedly trying to work to earn money to support her (but who knows really where most of the money goes), so she was left to the grandmother and grandfather to look after. However the grandmother was ill and passed away (hence the funeral) and the grandfather still needs to work to earn money, so is unable to look after her. So they were going to send her away to an orphanage if my friend and her family would not take her. Despite being distant family, they felt they had to take her on, and it's been really encouraging to see, that despite the big changes and sacrifices they've had to make to take her on, how they've got a heart to want to help her to come to know God and to give her a good chance in life.

Back to the time away, it was a really interesting time away. In addition to getting some time out with my friend and her family, it was also a real insight into 'country' life and many customs that i still know very little about and can barely understand. It seems that this 100 day ceremony is like one last attempt by the family and friends to help the person who died be able to go to a better place in the next life. The monks come along to the house, chant all these various things (which i was told no one actually understands as they use a really ancient language), the bones of the dead person are there so they can be blessed. Afterwards, the monks get a special meal, and the dead person is also given plates of food as well. After the monks eat, they then go, then everyone else can then eat. The thing that struck me most was just the lack of certainty that these people could ever have with regards to what really happens after we die. It made me really want to praise God for giving us such a confidence and living hope that we know that we will have a resurrected life after this world. Seeing a house full of people who were there at the 100 day ceremony really made me think how many people are out there who are yet to know Jesus and what he has done for us. Please be praying for all those that do not yet have the same hope that we have.

Here are a few pics from the weekend.

me with Im and Jai

Dao, the 'pseudo adopted daughter' of Jai

Dao's old house

the ceremony

the monks that came

at the house

3 months to go

2009-09-19T22:44:00.004+10:00

I can't believe that there's only 3 months to go before i have to head back to Australia. And one of those months is going to be completely flat chat with 2 mission teams coming, so i'm feeling like now is when i'm really having to make it count in spending lots of time with lots of people. Only problem is finding that time.

I was pretty stoked to get a phone call from my parents a couple weeks back saying that i had a free ticket home as they had some frequent flyer points to use. God in his goodness has timed it perfectly too, in that the only flights available were on the 13th January, which allows me to get the 10 day visa extension and hopefully saves me a trip up to the border as well.

So the diary is filling up quickly over the next few months with weekend trips away with friends, cell group, the school teachers, the sunday school teachers, church camp, a trip to HK/China with my parents, a wedding and i think that leaves me 2 spare weekends, and that's all before december when the short term teams come. Each week is pretty full too with catching up with friends, preparing bible studies, activities for the SS kids each week. There's lots to do and not much time. So your prayer for time management would be awesome.

We're just about to finish a series in Sunday School on 'Jesus, this is your life'. Thought i'd share a few of the activities that we've done with the kids each week. The plan is to make it into a book which we'll bind together, so the kids will have a book of 11 weeks of stories about Jesus - from his birth, his baptism, temptation, calling of disciples, power of sickness and nature, healing lepers, eventually to his death. Hopefully the kids have got heaps out of it and have been understanding important truths about Jesus and his life and what they all mean.

Here are some pics of the first few weeks of activities we did. I tried to make most of them a bit more exciting then just colouring in, so i tried to make little mechanisms so when jesus is baptised, he actually goes under the water, or when the man is lowered through the roof, he actually lowers. It's can be a bit of a nightmare doing it with the kids at times, but hey, it's a bit of fun too.

We can all be part of God's family, no matter who we are

Jesus is baptised (when some friends saw jesus coming and going, they thought it was the story about Jesus rising from the dead. haha)

Temptation of Jesus - tried to get the kids to think about things that they are tempted by that could cause them to do things that aren't pleasing to God

Calling of the disciples

Jesus has power over all. The wool actually lowers and raises the man

Jesus is the good shepherd. i wanted to do it so there was a sliding gate and when you open it, the sheep more down, but all proved to be a bit too complicated, so ended up with an opening gate.

Washing of the disciples feet

Jesus heals the leper - basically tried to show that all the things that make us unclean, are moved to Jesus - so the cloud and yellow cellophane that has words about things we do that make us 'unclean' slides over to Jesus

Unfortunately i could only find a decent pic of a boy to use.My niece wasn't too happy about that idea, so she decided to make the boy into a girl. not a bad effort i reckon.

Skirmish!

2009-09-06T23:18:00.004+10:00

It's been YEARS since i've played skirmish (or paintball). We've been talking about going to play it with for the past year, but we only finally managed to go play yesterday with our cell group. And can i say how much fun it was, how cheap it is to play over here (but maybe not so cheap by thai standards) and how amazed i am that i managed to get away without major bruises after battle and how it was a great day of bonding for our cell group. The last point was actually the biggest highlight. Given all that's gone on in the past few months with our group, we decided to go play a game of skirmish to encourage one of the guys who hasn't been coming to cell group to give the group another go. As he's someone who loves guns and 'warfare', he was keen to come along, which was really exciting for us. Of course after a day, well morning out on the field, there are plenty of good stories about who got who and just general craziness. Somehow i was the only one who managed to avoid serious bruising, although, after getting shot in the face, i got a good taste of what's inside a paintball, and can i just say, it's not nice!

Anyway, here are a few shots from our day out

breakfast at church before heading out

everyone looking all innocent before the games began

ready for action!

ganging up on Musir

the girls trying to look scary

but really not that scary

the girls trying to guard the fort

Kim

Love this shot of Daa

Musir trying to a Kungfu Panda

Making Chiang Mai Sausage

2009-08-31T03:44:00.002+10:00

I must admit, i've been a slow starter at getting into Masterchef Australia. But after seeing all the posts that friends had on facebook about it, and after my sister got back from Australia and talked about it, i had to find out what it was all about. I've only managed to see some of the finals series, but what i have seen has inspired me (and most of Australia i'm sure) to get into cooking. After seeing an episode on making sausages, i was suddenly inspired to want to learn how to make sausages. A friend and i thought we'd give it a go. After looking up lots of various recipes on the net, we figured we could get the stuffing sorted, but what to do about the intestine casing and how to stuff it. We didn't have any of those fancy machines that they had on masterchef! And there's no point buying something like that for an experiment that'd most likely taste terrible :)

So thank God for Mac and her aunty and Uncle. Mac is a good friend of my friend. Her aunty and uncle run a shop that makes and sells Sai Oowa (the thai name for the Chiang Mai sausage). So a couple saturday's ago, we went over to their restaurant, and i got the low down on how to make sausages. One of the best things i learnt - you DON'T need the fancy machinery that i saw on the TV to make sausages. An old cut up water bottle works just fine. Ok, so you'll need to really get your hands into it a lot more, but hey, it makes it more fun too.

here are a few pics of my cooking lesson.

trying to work get the intestine back onto the end of the bottle after i accidentally lost concentration and let it go

it really was fun making it

getting a bit of help from Mac's uncle in how to tie it up

the sausage all stretched out

and the final product!

Verdict: it was YUM!!! i was given a long length of sausage that i was going to take around to my sister's place to share with the family. But it never actually got there as i ended up eating it all myself :) hehe

Joshua Cell Groups lives on

2009-08-21T01:11:00.002+10:00

Thanks for all those who prayed for the cell group i go to. It's been an interesting past couple of months and last weeks prediction that there would be no more cell group was thankfully a wrong presumption. However, having said that, there are some MAJOR changes that have happened and a really exciting future i feel for the group. After months (literally) of meetings and 'discussions' over what the group should be like and essentially whether or not we should study the bible, those who were in favour of having a 'fun relaxing' group have all decided to leave the group. As i try to understand where they were coming from, i do think i have a bit of an understanding as to why they might have been pushing for a group like that, but at the same time, it didn't help those in the group to be growing in their knowledge and understanding of God and helping them grow as christians.

So, there were a few old faces that returned to the group last week when they realised it could possibly be the last week and we'd have to make decisions about the future. Despite the 'advisor' for the group pushing for us to shut down after he himself announced he would be stepping down as advisor and also taking a break from the group, the entire group voted to keep on going. As soon as the decision was made, there was an restrained excitement by that were left in the group, that we could finally be able to do what we wanted to do - study the bible, as well as have fun. it's not that the two things have to be mutually exclusive! All the decisions about where we would meet, what we will study, who will lead the group, what will we do in our time together (all the things we'd been 'meeting' about over the past 2 1/2 months), we agreed on within a total of about 2 mins!

So as of tomorrow, i will start taking the group through a 6 week series in the book of Philippians. :) I'm really excited about the fact that we are going to start to study the bible seriously - the first time in almost 3 months, and everyone is really pumped about it. Please pray for me, especially with language, that i'll be able to help the group grow in their understanding of Philippians and especially of God, but please pray especially for the group, that they'll (for the first time for some) really start reading the Bible and letting the Bible speak for itself. Pray that they'll learn great truths about God and that as they are challenged by those things, their lives will be changed as a result too. So exciting times ahead for Joshua. it's like we've made it through the kiln and have come out the other side more refined :)

Long weekend to Bangkok

2009-08-19T02:55:00.006+10:00

A couple weekends ago, i was able to get away for a long weekend to Bangkok with Kim and Da. We've been wanting to go away together for about a year now, and it wasn't until a few weeks ago that we FINALLY found a time that all 3 of us could get away. Thankfully Da has a 'sister' who lives in Bangkok, so we stayed with her and just went on lots of day trips each day. worked out to be a pretty cheap holiday in the end (can't complain about that).

What i found pretty amusing was that for some reason, people in Bangkok can tell that i'm not Thai, and as a result tried to make me pay all the tourist prices - which at times is like 5 times the 'thai' price. But after a bit of reasoning and showing of my thai drivers licence etc to prove that i wasn't just here as tourist, we finally got away with paying the thai price, but had to put a good fight.

So we got to check out Ampawaa, a floating market town known for all the fireflies, went to a wax museum where i tried to pretend to be a wax statue to catch other visitors out (pretty funny), went to a crocodile/elephant zoo, went to another riverside market, went to Nakon Pathom and visited the royal grounds there and ate at the markets, went to church and got to meet heaps of cool people there. Their church was held in an old cinema, so made for an interesting atmosphere :)

Anyway, here are a few quick snaps of the holiday.

at the wax museum with all the past kings of Thailand

the lights at Ampawaa looking like the Thai flag

Da and Kim walking the markets Ampawaa

an awesome seafood feast - a plate of scallops for $2 AUD

the boats at the markets at Ampawaa

on the single bridge for ALL the people

at some seaside town - no idea where

trying to do a Sound of Music type shot

getting eaten by a croc

At the croc and elephant zoo

the flower arrangement bird on kim's head

learnt how to make flowers out of money

What's in store next?

2009-08-10T19:44:00.002+10:00

For many of you who have been praying for my Cell Group, thanks! Your prayers have been invaluable! God is working to resolve the situation, however, as always it's also not in a way that i would've hoped. But i know that God is god, and i'm not, so He knows best.

I guess over the past 2 1/2 months of 'uncertainty', it's becoming clearer and clearer that there are two distinct but unfortunately opposing objectives for the group and people in the group seem to belong to one or the other. If you had to sum it up in the simplest of ways - group A - wants to learn the bible, group B - wants to have fun and time out. Unfortunately group B doesn't seem to understand that it's possible to actually have fun while learning the Bible and group A doesn't want to compromise in either using the Bible randomly or not at all. So whilst nothing is official, there are some big decisions that will need to be made this week as to what will happen to this group. There are many who are leaving or have left the group already as they are fed up with what's been going on. My personal opinion is that it is likely that this week could be the final week of this group, which is probably a good thing for the long run for a whole host of reasons. However, again, that's my wisdom talking, not God's. So for those who are praying, if you can please be praying for the group. For relationships within the group to be preserved despite differences of opinion, for God to be glorified and for his will to be done. I know it's been a big wake up call for many in the church that there has been a big issue like this that has come up. For me, it's also just demonstrated even more, the reality of spiritual warfare and how satan is doing all he can to bring down God's people.

Gospel 'Box' Skit

2009-07-31T01:17:00.004+10:00

A few weeks ago, our church had a medical mission trip up to Mae Dang. Whilst there, we ran a kids program and came up with the following skit that enabled all our Sunday School kids to help present the gospel too. We were really proud of our kids in doing so, that we got them to redo it again at church the following sunday. So here it is. Sorry that it's a bit wobbly and hard to watch at times, and hopefully the subtitles make sense and don't have too many typos :)

How misunderstanding just a few words in english can change a Bible Story

2009-07-29T03:09:00.003+10:00

I never really thought about how a story can be misunderstood (and become quite amusing) just by mishearing, or translating incorrectly, a few key words. The past few weeks we've been going through a story fro the Bible, Mark 10:46-52 to teach some simple english. After our first read through the passage and attempt to translate the passage, we ended up with a few funny results. The original story goes like this:

Jesus Heals a Blind Man

A large crowd followed Jesus as he left Jericho.
At the same time a man sat by the roadside begging.
When he heard that Jesus was passing by, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
Many people told him to be quiet but he shouted all the more, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me."
Jesus stopped and called the man to come.
He threw his cloak aside, jumped to his feet and went to Jesus.
"What do you want me to do for you?" asked Jesus.
"I want to see" the man replied.
"Go" said Jesus, "your faith has healed you."
Immediately he received his sight and joined the crowd following Jesus.

After hearing what our friends heard or understood various words to be, the 'understood' version of the story would've gone something like this:

Jesus heals a Blythe Doll (you can check out what a Blythe Doll is here)
A large crowd followed Jesus as he turned left (or is it right?) into Jericho
At the same time, on a Saturday, an man was at the roadside baking.
He was hurt that Jesus was passing by, and he began to shower. 'Jesus Son of David, have mercy on me'
May people told him to be quiet, but he showered all the more. 'Jesus Song of David, have mercy on me'
Jesus told the man to stop it and collected the man.
He threw his coke aside, jumped to his feet and went to Jesus.
'What do you want me to do for you?' asked Jesus
'i want to see' the man replied
'go' said Jesus, 'your face is healed'
Immediately he received his sight and joined the crowd following Jesus.

bai Pai (went to Pai)

2009-07-18T01:33:00.012+10:00

So if FINALLY got to go to Pai, a town about 2 -2 1/2 hrs out of Chiang Mai. It's a place where everyone always say they want to go, but most have never been. So last week, there was a 2 day public holiday on the Tuesday and Wednesday. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to go there since usually weekends are a no go with church, cell group and church music practice, then during the week, most of my friends have to work. So the midweek public holiday was awesome, since we could go somewhere overnight and take our time and feel like we actually got a break.

However, i didn't think that i'd have to battle the problem of 'rain' and the issues it brings up with many Thai's who just don't want to travel or go anywhere when it's raining, cos it's too dangerous! So even tho we had discussed and planned it for 2 weeks before, we didn't know if we didn't actually make the final decision until the tuesday morning whether or not we'd go. Unfortunately the indecision meant that 7 of the 10 people that were going to go pulled out, but that's cool, it meant that i was able to have a really good time with Jai and Ang, 2 of the teachers from school.

It was a great time away to rest, see more of the countryside and more importantly, i had some good opportunities to chat with Ang about the gospel as we drove to the 7hrs all up (we took a few detours on the way - not cos we were lost like in the past, but to see hot springs, lookouts that were so foggy we could only see about 10m in front of us).

Here are a few happy snaps from the trip:

3km to Pai

view from our room at Pai

me & nong Jai

Day view outside our room

Night view outside our room

is this sign banning 'odd' days

check the view at this lookout

this mountain reminded me of the mountain at the beginning of Indianna Jones

the chocolate waterfall from Willie Wonka's chocolate factory at the hot springs

the path to the hot springs

at the hot springs

At the chinese village in Pai

With Ang at the chinese village

the manual ferris wheel at the chinese village

132km back to Chiang Mai
the manual ferris wheel in action

Mission to Mae Daang - July 6

2009-07-06T20:07:00.005+10:00

Today, our church went on a one day medical mission trip to Mae Daang, a small village about an 1 1/2 north of Chiang Mai. Most people might know this village cos they end up going elephant riding, bamboo rafting, or white water rafting there. But unfortunately today, none of those things were on the agenda at all. Much like our trip to Mae Tia in December last year, we went there as a medical mission (it helps to be in a church with lots of drs and nurses). While people wait for their check up, there's a group of people who are using the time to meet the town people and share the gospel with them. For me, i've usually ended up on the 'kids team', helping run a kids program for all the kids that come along.

Since midday yesterday, the rain hasn't stopped in Chiang Mai, so there were doubts on whether anyone would even turn up, and for those of us running the kids program, where we'd do it, as we were counting on doing it outside in the garden, as the church building in Mae Daang has one room, which was being used for the medical checkups. Even when we got there, there were only a handful of people, and it felt like the team from church was going to significantly outnumber the town people that went along. But as time went on, praise God, that there were probably about 50 or so adults and kids that came along :)

In the kids program, we have just finished going through Acts with the kids and helping the kids understand and know how to share the gospel. So the timing was perfect in getting the kids to help be part of the gospel content of the kids program. It was REALLY exciting when were trying to practice and get them involved at church yesterday, to see them all volunteering to be a part of it, and be really excited to help. They all learnt their 'line' and did a fantastic job. We're hoping that the kids will be able to do the skit they did in front of church on sunday so all the adults can also get a chance to hear the gospel, and be encouraged by the kids and what they've been learning too.

We haven't had a full chance to debrief and hear about all the different opportunities that people had to share the gospel, but as i looked around the room during lunch, and looked through some of the church photos, it was really exciting to see church people engaging in conversations with the locals and taking the opportunities they could to be sharing the gospel.

There's so much more that i'd love to share about today, but will leave it there for now :)

Here are a few photos from today, if you want to see more of the 'official' photos, you can check out the church website Grace Church Mission Photos

the team with the locals

playing games with the kids

the gospel skit with the kids - 'God made the world'

gospel skit - the kids watching

gospel skit -' we need to decide if we'll follow jesus or not'

gospel skit -' we need to decide if we'll follow jesus or not'

the kids from the village

John & Ajarn Jazz sharing with the locals over lunch

Cell Group Planning

2009-06-30T03:34:00.003+10:00

I've been warned plenty of times before, that when we see people really growing in the understanding and knowledge of God, and see really exciting things happening for God's kingdom, Satan is not happy, and we will probably find that we will meet more opposition which will really challenge us in what we believe and stand firm in. In all honesty, it feels like our cell group is at that stage, where there are some people are just going great guns for God, but suddenly others seem to be doing all they can to put obstacles up in the way to stop the group from being able to focus on God's word. It's like Satan is trying to do all he can to cause disunity in order to put a stop to some of the exciting things that we're seeing happening there.

After this week's cell group, we would've spent 3 weeks just meeting to try and 'decide' on the future of our group, but in the 2 weeks that have passed by so far, i was really disappointed that the bible didn't even feature. There were some in the group who felt that it was more important to allow everyone to have a chance to voice their opinion rather then spend some time in the Bile, so that we could know the will of God. There are a few of us in the group who are trying to put the Bible back on the agenda of what we do in our cell group time, but there are others who don't see what all the fuss is about the Bible, especially when it comes to application to our lives. We're much better off sharing about our experiences so we can have a time that is more practical to our lives.

It's really been an issue that's weighed heavily on my mind of late. How to be able to respond to this situation in a godly and loving way. The easy and tempting thing to do is to respond with my emotion at the time. But i know that that's not the right or loving thing to do, and will most likely cause more tension and disunity. There are lots of factors that have led to the current situation, so have been praying for lots of wisdom in knowing how to best approach it. Last Sunday, i was able to have a good chat with one of the cell group leaders, and hopefully this week, we'll be using the Bible as the thing that guides our planning meeting.

For those praying, please pray for the group, that we won't let Satan get a foothold in causing disunity, that God will be the centre of our planning, and that what we do will be helping the group to be growing in their knowledge and understanding of God.

Leading Bible Studies...on my own

2009-06-18T01:11:00.002+10:00

Last week not only did i have my first experience of sharing from the Bible at the school cell group, but on the Sunday afternoon, i got to lead the sunday school teachers through a study on Acts 16-19, on my own...in Thai. Well, thankfully my sister had returned and so was there as my backup translator. But i was pretty amazed that i didn't really need to fully call on her help until pretty near the end of the study :) And at the end, Pi Soong told me that she was able to understand everything that i was trying to say - so i was pretty stoked about that. Praise God!!! It seems that Denise also didn't think that i did so badly either, that she's entrusted me to take the next two weeks of studies too - just to finish off the series. Am pretty daunted by the prospect of having to it. We're going to go through Acts 21-26. Today it took me about an hour to read through 1 chapter in Thai!! Thankfully i've got the study out now, so it's just a matter of trying to get the language down as well, but if the rest of the chapters are going to take an hour to read, prep time for this study is going to easily be around the 20hr mark if not more. But it's been an awesome time getting stuck into Acts - and also trying to get the language.

Another really exciting ministry opportunity that has just popped out of the blue is to be discipling a girl called Tangmore. She's a uni student at my church who actually came up to me and asked me if i could be her 'mentor', and someone who she could read the bible and pray with, as well as be accountable to. We met up for the first time last week where we chatted to get to know each other more, shared out testimonies, and also tried to work out what we could do in our time together. We've decided to go through the Back to Basic's studies (7 basic bible studies/Just for starters). At the time, i was thinking it would be fairly easy to prepare the studies and take her through them, as we could do them in part thai, part english (she's trying to get her english up to scratch too as she wants to do an english major at uni), however, yesterday as i started to look through the study, i realised all the really hard concepts that need explaining - like justification, God's wrath etc, are things she's not going to understand in english. So, what i thought was going to be fairly straight forward prep, has turned into another major language cram session which i need to get down pat before friday lunch. At the moment, the current plan is to meet up each friday after lunch.

Anyway, lots of time is now being spent in preparation, so less time for 'play' now. But it's been awesome! Please pray for these opportunities to be sharing from the Bible and for language so that i can be teaching the bible truthfully with no miscommunications.

Sharing at School

2009-06-12T18:49:00.003+10:00

Once a week, the school has a cell group for the teachers during a lunchtime. Since most of the teachers at the school aren't Christian, it's actually a really good opportunity to try and introduce them to God and help them to understand the gospel. For various reasons, it seems that of late, the time for cell group has not been used as effectively as it could be for helping those who don't yet know God, to understand God and what he's done for us more. Yesterday there was an opportunity for me to go share in the group, so despite having all of an hour and a half to prepare, i thought i'd take up the challenge. So BIG thanks to Ignite(the christian film festival that i used to be involved with) for helping get some christians to produce some awesome short films that i could use. i ended up using a film called Adam which was based on the parable of the Lost Son as the basis of the talk. We watched the film and i got them to think about the character of the father and the son and make a list of all their different characteristics on the white board. It was awesome to see them see how the dad was loving, forgiving, merciful etc, and how the son was someone who had rejected the dad, done things to displease him etc. yet, no matter what the son had done, how bad it was, the father still loved the son and was overjoyed when the son returned. Everyone was really into watching the video and discussing it. So it made it easy to tell them that the story was actually based on a story from the bible, which we went on to read ourselves and discuss further. I was then able to share that the father describe in this story is like God, all those characteristics are the characteristics of God. And the son is like us. But even us, who have also rejected God, can turn back to God and he will accept us, and is overjoyed when we do turn back to him. I was just glad to be able to the chance to share with them and help them understand the character of God more, and try and challenge them with whether or not they themselves want to turn back to God. i know there's still a long way to go with many of them, but it was a great opportunity all the same.

For those praying:
- please pray for all the teachers and staff that aren't yet christian to be understanding God more and more, and so be turning their lives back to Him
- please pray for those in charge of orgnising the cell group time, to recognise the importance of teaching about God and the gospel
- thank God for the opportunity to go and share with the group, and that i was able to do it too (ie they could understand me)

the cell group during 'singing time'

writing up the characteristics of God and the Son

me trying to share

the next couple weeks

2009-06-04T03:00:00.003+10:00

So just a couple weeks ago at our team meeting, Ken, Kristy and I were just talking about how quickly the past 13 weeks have gone by, and that the Dickson's would be back soon, it'd give the Davies a chance to have a well deserved break, then we can adjust back into team life with everyone around. But in just the past couple weeks, Kristy's grandma's health has taken a bad turn, and their planned holiday around Chiang Mai has turned into a trip back to Oz. In God's goodness, in just a day, Kristy and the kids have been able to get on a flight back to Sydney, with Ken following next week. Even though the circumstances of why they've had to head back is not the ideal, it's been amazing to see the way that God has been working and has 'organised' so much so that the timing of them heading back, works perfectly with the dickson's return and taking over the ministries they've been doing while the dickson's have been away. Even with the sunday school, we've prepared a week in advance, so the one week that Kristy and Denise aren't here, is the week we weren't going to prepare as the church is having it's 11th Anniversary. So how good is God?!?! However, we don't want to be completely slack to Denise to make her have to lead the prep study on the first sunday she gets back to church, so i've volunteered to do that, but at least Denise will be around to help translate when i find myself into a bit of a language black hole.

Anyway, with the davies going and the dickson's coming, then the davies coming back in a months time, things are going to be pretty crazy in the next month or so. But at the same time there's heaps to be praying for. So for those praying, please pray for:
- Kristy's grandmother, to understand the gospel and want to be in a relationship with God
- For time that kristy and the kids can have with here grandmother, and hopefully ken too
- for safe travels for the davies and the dicksons in going and coming
- for adjustments that everyone needs to make in going and coming
- for me as i prepare the next lot of SS studies and attempt to lead them in Thai

Doi Internon

2009-06-01T18:51:00.006+10:00

For the past 3 months, i though i'd take advantage of the fact that i had the use of 2 cars and so go for a few day trips to lots of places i haven't yet been. So course John and Denise get back in just 10 days and i still haven't really been anywhere! :) haha So last saturday, thought i'd take the opportunity to head to Doi Internon (the tallest mountain in thailand) with a couple of the teachers from school. Funnily enough, neither of them had been there either, despite the fact that it's only about 80kms out of CM. For some bizarre reason, i didn't really bother checking out the exact directions to get there. i figured it'd be well signed, so after a stop off at 7 eleven for some 'breaky' we were on our way. We drove down the road out of CM, started climbing up the mountain, while wondering which mountain exactly was Doi Internon, talking all the way. The only signs that Khruu Jai kept reading were ones that basically said 'dangerous' (cos by then we were going up the windy mountain roads). Thinking that it was strange that we hadn't seen any signs pointing where to turn to go to Doi Internon, we finally reached a town with signs, to Mae Hong Son and Doi Tom. But where was Doi Internon. Confused, we stopped to ask for direction, wondering with of those 2 places were needed to head to, only to find out that we had to go back the way we just came....for 38kms!!! Whilst it was highly amusing for all of us having gone so wrong with our directions, it was also a bit of a problem for my 2 passengers who also get car sick quite easily. So having to travel an unnecessary 76kms through windy roads, only to have to go up another 40kms up the REAL mountain. :) haha But despite the small detour, we had a great day out, plenty of laughs, opportunities to chat about lots of different things, and for the first time, i really missed the snow back in Oz. When we reached the top, as it was freezing, full of fog and strong winds. Unfortunately we couldn't see the view at the top of the mountain, but it was a bit of a fun for the teachers feeling like they were in Switzerland :) haha

teachers feeling like they were in Europe

Cos of our small detour, we didn't have enough time to go on some of the bushwalks that i would've liked to have gone on, so i guess i'll just have to go back some other day to do those. but we did get to see some awesome waterfalls and check out a few of the other lookouts. Got to play around and try a few arty shots too. still need lots of practice, but it was fun all the same. Here are a few shots from the day.

at the highest point of Thailand

with khruu ang and khruu jai

a cool tree which i thought looked a bit like a monster

with Khruu Jai

we were 2565.3341 meters above sea level

when we finally did get to see some views, it was awesome

cool waterfall

Khruu Ang at the waterfall

love this shot with the light coming through the trees

Khruu Ang checking out some of the views on top of the mountain

attempts of arty shot

attempt of another arty shot

with khruu ang

Baan Tawai Business

2009-05-28T20:01:00.004+10:00

It's been really sad to see how the whole economic crisis is also effecting our Thai friends over here, especially down at Baan Tawai at the moment. What was once a thriving handicrafts village, is dead as. If a tourist bus comes during the day, it's a good day. But even then, the busses aren't even full. It's really hard to watch as many of our friends are struggling to find enough work and have had to make decisions to lay off staff. But not only that, some of them are also going through lots of personal struggles with one lady who has now separated from her husband, just as their child who has been living with his grandparents for the past 9 years, has finally come to live with them. And now the husband is wanting to move to another district to live and work there. That would make it hard for your average person, but when you are disabled and in a wheelchair, even traveling out of the area is hard as you have to ask friends who have a car/vehicle that can take a wheelchair to take you. It's heart breaking to hear the situation that the husband wants to move away, she'd have to stay with the child, but how to help the child be able to go visit his dad is another story. Unfortunately there's not a huge amount that can be done for them practically at the moment, except to try and be there as a listening ear and to pray for them. At the end of the day, the most important thing for them is to know Jesus. Then worries of this world will hopefully be put into perspective. And hopefully it might be the thing that will change their lives to help their marriage get back on the right track again too.

But on the business side of things, it's been exciting in the past week to have some guys from America who run business as mission come and want to order products from the disabled workshop. Just last weekend, Ken and i got to play guide and translator for theses guys, as we discussed the products, designs an quality that these guys are wanting. In the big scheme of things, it's not a huge order as such, but it's exciting to see how businesses overseas are wanting to support local business here, and ministries that missionaries are working with. Please pray that this business opportunity will be able to go ahead.

Baan Tawai update

2009-05-19T20:15:00.003+10:00

Last night was a really exciting night at Baan Tawai. We had a couple of friends from church come along to help, Kim and Ajarn Jazz. It's been really awesome every time that Ajarn Jazz has come along. She's an older lady from church who became a christian about 3-4 years ago when she started reading the Bible for herself and lots of the history around the Bible. As the head history professor at Chiang Mai Uni, it's not hugely surprising that she was really interested in church history and the historical evidence around the man Jesus. As she read all these things, she became convinced that Christianity was true, and since then, there's been no turning back. She's been on fire for God and it is just so obvious in her life as she takes every opportunity that she can to tell the gospel and invite anyone she meets (which is LOTS especially as a uni lecturer) to church. So last night was particularly exciting when she had a great opportunity to be sharing the with the Baan Tawai group about how Jesus died in our place.

It all started with us reading a story from the bible - Mark 10:17-31 about the story of the rich young ruler. It wasn't the first time that we've read that passage with the group. But i think it was the first time that some of Jesus' claims, about being God, and that with man it is impossible to inherit eternal life by his own merits but that nothing is impossible for God, started to actually sink in and start challenging one of the guys who's been coming along to the group called Taay. Usually he's quite happy to sit there and attempt to translate, but last night, it was interesting to see the penny's start to drop as he began to understand not just the sentences that he was translating, but the implications of the meaning of the sentences he was reading. He had questions of how it's possible that Jesus could claim to be God. If Jesus died for us, then that means that God died, so how is it possible for God to die? It was just amazing to see Ajarn Jazz drop her head for a second of prayer, before voicing up to start answering his questions.

Please pray for Taay as he starts to understand some huge truths about God. Praise God for the opportunity to partner with Thai christians here who are so on fire for the gospel. Please pray for the rest of the group who come to learn english who might not yet understand all that we have been teaching, for God to open their hearts and eyes to the truth of the gospel

Weddings, birthday, catering etc etc etc

2009-05-14T02:46:00.006+10:00

The past couple weeks have honestly been a total blur. It's been a full on time preparing for Moor Peung and Pi Tor's wedding, helping make lots of kanom (snacks) for a big catering job that the orphanage had, celebrating my birthday over 5 days, preparing bible studies for cell group and SS, music time for church and who knows what else. What i thought would be a fairly simple, straightforward job in helping with the music at the wedding turned into an 'interesting' experience. I suddenly discovered just how hard it would be right now if i were to want to do event management stuff here. What was meant to be playing 4 songs on a keyboard, turned into an hours worth of background music, while trying to organise, set up and run the sound desk, organising sound and songs throughout the wedding reception and who knows what else. The thing that was hardest was that all of the things that ended up being last minute stresses were things that i tried to get everyone to do prior to the wedding, but finding the right people, or getting those who were responsible to listen and do it was something else. definitely an interesting experience. But overall, it was a nice wedding. Massive and seemed like there was no expense spared. Ice sculptures, a 6 tier cake, flower arrangements that were just insane and i reckon about 500 people were there all up. So it was no small wedding.

With Moor Peung & Pi Tor

With Kim & Daa

silliness with kim & daa

the massive wedding - and this doesn't take into account the spill over of people outside the room

check out this wedding cake!

with some of the group from church

It has been really nice though to have been able to celebrate my birthday over here with lots of different friends. I had a few disasters cooking for my birthday - the cake i don't know what went wrong, it started burning on top, so i opened the oven and the cake sank. i thought i could rescue it by turning it upside down, but when i went to take it out of the cake tin, it just stuck and well, even the neighbourhood kids wouldn't eat it :) haha so i though i'd make some brownies instead. they would've been fine except that i was chatting on skype with friends and forgot about them, so they totally overcooked. Anyway, i thought i'd make some food myself, so when i went to make the fried chicken, my thai friends were horrified to see the way i did it, so basically, i got kicked out of the kitchen so they could do everything for me. Was really sweet, but i really didn't think i was that bad a cook :) hehe Anyway, it's nice to have a party which i thought i was going to be the one making all the food (or buying some), only to have friends, and parents of friends make it all for me. Too easy really. And other friends came and cleaned up!! so it really was an easy party to host! Thanks to everyone who send birthday wishes, cards and pressies. Fully mad my birthday this year.

birthday party at my place

my cool ice cream cake from my cell group

Whilst trying to sort out the sound system for the wedding, i also got to take a couple friends to the zoo and the new aquarium there (my friend the zoo keeper was the one getting married, so we were borrowing sound equipment from the zoo). So even though they had to sit through some meeting stuff, they got to go see the panda's and the aquarium for free, so no one was complaining too much

tiaw to the aquarium with khruu jai and khruu ang

Still lots more happening over here, but will leave that for another post. For the meantime, praise God that i've i'm still operating - vaguely, after not much sleep over the past couple weeks with all the stuff going on. Please pray for some time for some much needed rest and recuperation in the next few days

Mae Jong

2009-05-06T01:32:00.003+10:00

For those who do read this, sorry for the slowness in updates of late. I don't know where time is going, but i do know that there doesn't seem to be enough of it to get through all the things i want to get through in a week. But that aside, a couple sundays ago, i had a chance to head down to Mae Jong, a small country village that's about 2 hours out of Chiang Mai. My teacher's been wanting me to go down for the past i don't know how many months, but since i've usually got Sunday School commitments, i haven't been able to go. So while we had a months break for Sunday School during the summer holidays, i thought i'd take my chance and go visit - and help make pizza's for the kids, something they've never ever had before.

So the history of the Mae Jong church goes like this. One of the older ladies there who was a christian moved to that neighbourhood years ago. She had no other christian's she could worship with, but over 10 years, she faithfully prayed for those in her village to come to know christ. And God answered her prayer. She shared the good news about Jesus with another lady in the village and from there, there's a group of about 20 or so people who meet at her house each week now. However, there is no pastor, and none of them have had any training in the Bible. all they know is that God loves them, they love God and want to meet together to worship him and read the bible. So when my teachers church heard about this group of Christians, they wanted to help. So every couple weeks, they'd send down a few people to give a short talk and run some activities for the kids. However it is a bit of a hike to get there - 2hrs driving each way. So just recently they've started supporting 2 students to work down there as missionaries. Between the 2 of them, they are given 400bht ($15) a week to survive. This money is what they have for food, petrol, housing etc etc etc. They had a house warming party time for their new 'house' while we were there. Unfortunately i didn't a photo of it at the time as i forgot to take my camera to the house, but believe me, it was pretty basic! But what i found really exciting was that there were thai's here who were giving up so much in order to bring the gospel to this small village. I can't say i know too much about their theology, as they were speaking another hill tribe dialect, so i wasn't able to understand a whole lot, but sitting in the beginning part of the service, was really encouraging to see people singing to God with all their heart. Then when we took the kids out for Sunday School, the kids were keen to share things they had learnt the past few weeks about the Bible.

the kids singing a special song item in church

My role for the day was to run the activity of making pizza's with them. When asked if there was anything special they wanted to do for christmas last year, the kids answered that they wanted to eat pizza since they'd never ever eaten it before. So my teacher agreed to this request, only problem is, they're in such an isolated area, it's not like there's any pizza delivery there. and they have no microwave or oven to bring pizza down to heat up. So we thought we'd take down a couple toaster ovens, and teach them how to make pizza and make it into an activity where they could make pizza for the whole church. So Mac ran a session on washing your hands

then we got into the pizza making.

the kids had fun and were pretty proud of their creations.

I can't honestly say they were the tastiest pizza's i've ever eaten, but it was great to see a smile on the kids faces and relief on my teachers face to know that she's finally come good on her promise to the kids.

For those praying,
- please pray for the people in this church to really grow in their understanding of the bible and the gospel.
- praise God for the way that he has worked in this village so far
- pray for the 2 students who are working there as missionaries, to be able to keep on persevering in ministering there and that they themselves will keep growing in their knowledge and understanding of God

fun times

2009-04-25T02:47:00.009+10:00

Since getting back from singapore, even though it's still the big 'new year holiday' and lost of people have been away, for some reason all the days still manage to fill up, although, i have managed to find some time to chill out. So what have i been up to? well, i've taken Kim to her graduation, and taken lots of photos for it (graduations over here are just really big. people even have pictures of themselves from the graduation in their wallet to show others), have been on a day trip with some of the teachers and students from school, had dinner with the teachers and students and played Wii. One of the teachers Khruu Nan, was a classic playing Wii boxing. i thought it was pretty amusing that often she had to be physically separated from her opponent. we almost had several 'wiihaveaproblem' moments. Overall, it's been a great time of getting to know people better, having some time out before the year really kicks in again next month. Sunday School has taken a break over the past few weeks, and will be starting up again next month, so i'm taking the opportunity to head to another church in the countryside with my teacher this week to see what church out there is like. Will report back a bit more soon. But in the meantime, here are a few happy snaps of the past week...

Dinner at Jasmine's with the teachers from School

With Khruu Tor and Khruu Jai

Kim pretty stoked to have finally graduated

graduation outfits here...

oops, sorry, more like this

with kim and wood

thought this was a cool artistic shot

trip to a waterfall with the teachers

Thought this was a cool arty shot of Khruu Nan
Wii Boxing. Check out Khruu Nan on the left

Time in Singapore

2009-04-19T01:07:00.007+10:00

Despite a bit of an uncertain start to the trip to singapore, praise God that i got there safely, had a great time with everyone over there. Thankfully i've been to singapore a few times before, so i wasn't too fussed whether or not we did all the touristy things or whether we just stayed at home and chilled out. We ended up chilling out at home quite a lot, spending time at the pool, eating lots of crab (gotta love singapore chilli crab!!) and playing Wii Fit (to burn off all the crab we ate.....not). We also made it to the zoo one morning as well, where we discovered another major benefit of me having an asian face. As my friends were members of the zoo, they were able to get 2 adults and the kids in for free, but it meant that i would have to buy an extra adult ticket. Kris had a brilliant idea, thinking that if i played a nanny/maid for the day, i would also be able to get in for free (seeing as nanny/maids are really common over there - especially for westerners). So off we went to the zoo, i made sure that i was pushing the pram and had all the bags, and without a question asked, i got my zoo stamp and was in the gate. Matty and Tans were working hard to make sure i earned my keep that day, and apart from not having to change any nappies, i thought i'd make a great nanny/maid - although not sure i'd want to do it full time, but who knows the future :)

All up, it was a great time catching up with friends, being able to help celebrate Ellie's 3rd birthday, meeting Annika, swimming lots, getting some time out and some even some 'exercise' (thanks Wii). Thankfully all the protests in Thailand had calmed down by the time i got back, so i was able to get back to Chiang Mai with no drama's at all.

Here are a few photos of my time over there. Sorry there are no shots of 'singapore', didn't actually end up doing any touristy stuff at all apart from the zoo and about an 1hr on Orchard Rd to buy some souvenirs. But all up, a great few days away :)

Ellie's 3rd Birthday

with Tan and Annika

Ellie in the pool

'Hi mum'

with Tan & Ellie

Back safe & sound

2009-04-18T17:23:00.002+10:00

thanks to all of you who have been praying for thailand. Even though there's still a long way to go before there's some final solution to the political problem over here, there's plenty to give thanks for that for the time being, the recent protest has ended. Unfortunately not without bloodshed, but at least it has ended. I'm also thankful that i'm now back in Chiang Mai now safe and sound after my trip to Singapore. So praise God that i could return with no problems at all. The time in Singapore was awesome. i'll post up some photos soon of my time there and tell a few stories of the highlights of the trip.

for those praying, please keep on praying for Thailand and all the issues going on here, that it will be resolved soon, and that somehow through it, God will be given glory. It is nuts and many Thai's don't understand their own country and people. To have Thai's fighting against Thai's like this is something they can't understand and would love to end, sooner rather then later.

Political Unrest, please pray

2009-04-14T01:30:00.002+10:00

I'm sure most of you would've heard something about all the political unrest and protests etc that's happening over in Thailand at the moment. It's just crazy in a not good way. In all honesty, the way that it's currently going, i don't know how Thailand will ever come to a resolution, because as soon as one party gets their way, the party that just lost protests and causes problems until that party gets kicked out, then the other party comes back to get their way again. it seems to be a never ending cycle. But we do know that God is able to do all things, so now would be a great time to be praying for Thailand and for those in power.

As a small aside, praise God that i was able to make it to Singapore safely today, despite some uncertainty last night when traveling through to Bangkok. But i'm meant to be returning on Thursday. Thankfully i don't need to travel through the city at all and only need to change planes at the airport, so please pray that there won't be any problems with that, and that i'll be able to get back into Thailand safely on thursday.

In the meantime though, it's been great to be able to see my friends tan, matt, kris, nick and all the kids again here in singapore. please pray for a good time of rest, relaxation and time with them.

PI MSEA

2009-04-12T18:26:00.002+10:00

Sorry about the week of silence. I was at the PI MSEA retreat (PI SEA = Pioneers Mainland South East Asia). It was an awesome week away of hearing from God's word, meeting other missionaries from around SE Asia, encouraging each other and just some time out as well. The highlight of the week for me was definitely the talks which was based around the theme of Freedom in Christ. We were reminded and challenged by the sovereignty of God, The Sufficiency of Christ, The power of the spirit and what it means to be a 'slave' to God. It was just awesome to be reminded and challenged by many of the truths that God has been recently teaching me about the forgiveness we have received and the freedom that we have a result to be serving God without the feeling of any guilt or debt to have to 'serve', but that it's a joy and we free to do so and should want to do so, cos when we understand that we are truly free, that's when we can be free to serve and be god's 'glory bearers'. For me, it was just really nice to sit in 'live' talks in ENGLISH for the first time in over a year. So that was just awesome.

it was also a good time to meet new Thai friends as well, who happened to be working on our retreat. In some ways it was kinda of weird where i actually found myself wanting to spend time with these thai's and in some ways even feeling more at home with them them other fellow native english speakers.

Tonight, i'm off to Bangkok, then to singapore for the rest of the week for a holiday with some of my friends from Oz. I'm really looking forward to catching up with Tan and her fam in Singa's, it's the first time i've seen her since coming over. actually it's the first time that i've left Thailand since coming over, so it's kinda feeling a bit weird. Even though it's only a a few days that i'll be over there, i'm already missing many of my friends over here, and am going to miss Songkran in CM yet AGAIN (the 3 day national waterfight). So i guess i'll just have to come back in the future so i do get to play Songkran :)

for those praying, praise God for the week away at the retreat and the many things i was challenged by. Pray that i'll continue to be challenged by them and that i'll be remember the freedom that i have in christ always.
Please pray for safety in travel to singapore and for a good time away

the past week

2009-04-02T03:41:00.004+11:00

It's been a pretty full on past week, which has kept me out of mischief. Last week, i had lunch with Daa and Ajarn Jazz from church. It was an awesome time to get to know Ajarn Jazz in particular, a lot better. She's an awesome lady who's the head of the History Department of Chiang Mai Uni. She became a christian about 3 years ago after reading through history books and realised that Jesus was someone that she had to make a decision in her life as to whether to follow him as her Lord or not. Since then, she's just been on fire for God and takes every opportunity to share the gospel. She's one of those older ladies that everyone just loves! She's so down to earth, so 'real' and so loving and caring. It's amazing to see the way that so many of the uni students look up to her and love her to death. During the Uni summer holidays (ie loooong holidays), she's coming down to Baan Tawai to help us with our english classes and outreach. It's been invaluable having her come down to Baan Tawai with us. In just a couple weeks of going, she's been able to help with so much, personal issues with people down there, being generous with giving flash drives to a student there, helped explain the Bible, prayed for those down there, she goes around and invites all these people around the shop to the english class too and uses that time to evangelise...it's just amazing to see her in action and such a big encouragement!

I also (reluctantly) went along to a 'book club' at church, which i thought was pretty amusing seeing how much i love reading english books, so what chance do i have of reading a thai book?!?! Felt kinda stupid going to this book club seeing as i didn't have a copy of the book let alone even open or read a single page of the book! But my friend kim was one of the people leading it, and she really wanted me to go to support her, so that's why i went.

Last saturday, we had a school 'field trip' where we went bamboo rafting. It was tops fun, even if it was crazily dangerous at times. for those who have been before, it actually had small rapids, which don't seem that bad until you're the person who's 'steering' the raft and you realise how hard it is to turn the raft so you don't crash into the rocks. Let's just say that after one massive pile up of rafts, and a few decent crashes into rocks, i'm really surprised our raft was still holding together by the end. Every time we hit another rock, i was sure that was going to be it for the raft. But thank God, it held together! Heaps of fun tho, and a great time to spend more time with teachers and other students from school. I also got to ride a chopper back from the rafting which was awesome fun. First time i've ridden a 'real' motorbike since being here. So despite breaking every rule that Ange and Rich ever taught me about riding - ie wear proper protective clothing, footwear etc. i ended up riding back through the mountains in shorts, t-shirt, thongs, no gloves and a helmet that didn't fit me!! Only in thailand. But it was heaps fun!! Here are a few pics from the day

the crash

chilling out at the end

typical 'deb' shot

me trying to take Aor out

Aor

On the way there - how many people can you fit into the back of a Ute?!?!?

At lunch

Khruu Nan & Khruu Ang

Then there were the usual church activities on Sunday, school and baan tawai on monday, team meeting and bible study prep with Kim on tuesday, then school and catching up with my friend Buu tonight. Starting this weekend and all next week is our 'Area Retreat' - basically all the Pioneers misso's who work in the mainland south east asia area will be coming together. Should be a good time to get to know lots of the other misso's heaps better, get fed with some bible teaching in ENGLISH, and have some much needed time out. for those that are praying, please pray that this time will be a good time away of encouragement, feeding and rest.

The week after that, i'll actually be heading over to Singapore for a few days to meet up with some friends from Oz. i'm really excited to be able to catch up with Tan, Matt, Kristen, Nick and all the kids over there. It'll be my first time out of thailand since arriving, so it actually feels kinda weird, but really looking forward to seeing some old friends. Gotta thank God that we could find days in common and that it's the week that school has a break too, as it's songkran week that week, and that there were really cheap airfares over there too. I got return tickets for all of $270AUD!! not bad eh?

so for those praying, please be praying for the conference, for Ajarn Jazz, for Baan Tawai, and for safe travels over the next couple weeks. I'll try to put up a few posts over the next couple weeks, but i'm really not sure how much net access i'll have, so we'll see how we go :)

Weekend Away to Pitsanulork

2009-03-25T02:08:00.006+11:00

A couple weekends ago, i was able to go on a weekend tiaw with my teacher and her family to Pitsanulork (honestly, i have no idea how they spell it in english :) haha). it was an awesome weekend away to spend time with my teacher, get to meet her relo's - although i didn't understand a whole lot of what was said as they all spoke issaan, get to see other parts of the Thai countryside that i've never seen, plus do crazy things like bushbashing for 4 hours wearing thongs, then climbing up bamboo ladders to get to the top of the rock on the top of the mountain (like Pigeon House mountain near Ulladulla for those who've been there). Was really cool fun. anyway, here are a few pics from the weekened away.

with Jai and Im

somewhere on the mountain

me and jai

on top of chang luang (the mountain)

picnic lunch on the mountain

one of the ladders to get up the top of one of the 3 rocks

on top of the rock

oops - gotta be careful

somewhere on the way up the mountain

attempting to take a photo of what we climbed

the non existent path we took

trying to get up the last rock

the ladder up to the last rock

trying to get up to the top of the last rock

on top of the last rock

the sore, tired feet after 4 hrs of bush bashing

massive fish that was caught - unfortunately not by me

It's the unexpected people that God uses...

2009-03-18T13:28:00.004+11:00

At the moment, Kim and I are taking our cell group through an overview of the Bible, to help others understand tbe 'big picture' of the Bible, so in the future, no matter what they read from wherever in the Bible, they'll hopefully be able to read it in some sort of context and therefore understand it more. Last night as Kim and i were preparing the next study on Judges, we got to the end, trying to think of application points and a good intro activity. Part of what we want people to learn and realise is that God so often uses the unexpected people/things to be the thing that rescues us. There are so many examples of that as we read through Judges, but the ultimate example is Jesus dying on a cross! so we started thinking of intro scenarios that might help introduce the whole 'unexpected king' idea. We thought about having a hypothetical where our cell group was taken hostage by terrorists. Who would we like to come be our rescuer? James Bond 007, Rambo, Bill Gates, Mickey Mouse, Deb Chen??? i'm sure most of us would choose the character/person who we thought had the skills, had the muscle power or had the money? but what about the ordinary people? So then kim started thinking towards our cell group and Kim brought up a really good point. If we were to think back about 5 months ago when our group was trying to work out what to study and who would be leading the group, who would we think would be leading the group at the moment? Our group is made up of a Bible College lecturer, doctor, head manager at the Chiang Mai Zoo, teachers, church secretary and an architect...to a waitress in a hotel who just finished uni last year and a foreigner who's only got limited thai..... apart from the last 2 people, It seems to be a pretty impressive group as such based on their qualifications, skills from a worldly point of view. So who would be the ones ready to lead the group? In a culture where age generally earns you respect, to be the youngest person in the group teaching older ones is a crazy role reversal. So who would've thought, that this year, it's the young waitress (youngest in the group) and the foreigner with limited Thai who would be the ones teaching the group the Bible? It was a really weird realisation that we had last night as we prepared our study of how God really does use the unexpected people!!

Jesus Riding a Pink Donkey???

2009-03-12T02:35:00.007+11:00

I'm sure many of you a probably starting to worry about some of the things that i've been teaching over here. Come on, God pulling his pants down and now pink donkeys..... but it is all legit or honest mistakes. We've just started doing a 6 week series on Easter with the kids at sunday school. For the craft, we've decided to make a display of easter for the whole church. So we've made big characters for the kids to colour in, and we're then making a big display at the front of the church, so each week, the adults can see the story take place and see what the kids have been up to when they head out to sunday school.

the display wall

So the first week, we taught the kids about the triumphal entry. So of course there's a big picture of Jesus riding on a donkey that needs to be coloured in. I have no idea how it happened, but my niece Mimi and 2 of the other girls ended up being responsible for making Jesus look 'pretty'. So if Jesus is going to be pretty, what better colour to make the donkey that he's riding.....PINK with long eyelashes!!! HELLO!! Pretty funny really. At least it makes it memorable for everyone at church and it stands out more then if it were a boring brown.

Last week we taught about the last supper, so have made a whole lot of plasticine figurines to show the scene of the last supper.

The Last Supper (before it made it on official display)

It'd be great if you could be praying for the teachers as we teach the kids about Easter. Please pray especially for Kristy as she takes over the training of the leaders while Denise is back in Oz.

With some of the teachers at the wedding

So other stuff that's been happening...i went along to the wedding of the daughter of one of the teachers at school. It meant that i also had to wear a skirt, which seem to amuse many of the teachers who have been begging me to dress more 'feminine'. So they were pretty stoked to finally have an opportunity to see me in a skirt!! :) haha

Who ever heard of graduation ceremonies for Kindy??? Well over here, it happens!! Last weekend, Mimi graduated from Kindy and from next school term will officially be in primary school. She was also one of 2 kids to be chosen to be the student representative to say a few words on behalf of the rest of the kids to the teachers as a thank you for teaching them. On top of that, she also got a special award for excellence in English. Hmmmm....bit of an unfair advantage there i reckon, but hey, may as well take what you can hey?? :)

cool shot of the kids

the Dicksons at Mimi's graduation

God's fulfilling his promise by pulling down his pants?????

2009-03-05T04:44:00.003+11:00

So i've discovered yet another way how my dodgy thai can end up teaching 'interesting' truths about God. Thankfully this was only done with my teacher as she was helping me prepare things i was going to be teaching at cell group this week.

Story goes like this: i was trying to explain that at the beginning of Exodus, we start to see how God is beginning to fulfil his promises to Abraham as the Israelites start to increase in number. So i went to my online thai-english dictionary and typed in the word for 'fulfil'. i was given a few options and chose the one i thought was best - which sounds like 'gae bon'. However, i soon discovered that was a wrong choice. As that meant that we fulfil promises we make to God, not that God fulfils a promise he made to us. When my teacher looked at it, she realised i had chosen the wrong word, so changed it to just 'gae' on it's own. Which i thought was a bit odd, so wanted to confirm that we use 'gae' on it's own to explain god fulfilling his promises. Only problem, i kinda didn't use enough words and said 'gae diaw'. Only thing is, she heard 'gae tdiaw' and subsequently burst out into fits of laughter. 'gae tdiaw' in northern thai means to pull down your pants!! hmmm, better watch what i say at cell group this friday. (actually, what i really want to say doesn't sound anything like that, so no chance of me saying the wrong thing there - but i might end up teaching some other 'interesting' thing from the Bible instead - only i'll never know).

Cell Group and new video

2009-02-25T02:48:00.005+11:00

thanks to those who prayed for my 'cell group' leading time last week. The short version, i think it went well and that i didn't completely confuse everyone. :) haha Having said that, i'm so thankful that it wasn't actually a 'proper' study, as leading the group through a broad read of many OT books stretched me a lot. However, i'm really glad that i had the chance to do it and i've learnt a lot through the experience. i'm really thankful for my teacher who was able to help me at midnight on skype the night before in doing the hand out for the group, which meant that even if i wasn't able to explain everything clearly, they could still read the main idea of what i wanted to say. I don't know if it was a good thing or a bad thing, i'm actually taking it as a good thing, that there was no comments made about the handout eg laughing about what i had written, words of encouragement to say 'good try' or corrections on wording and grammar etc. Basically, i reckon if there were comments to try and encourage me on them, it would mean that i had way too much wrong on there and they had no idea what i meant or wanted to say, but they all read it and used it as if it were 'normal', so i was actually really happy about that (hope that makes sense). i'm sure having a teacher fix lots of my bad grammar the night before was a massive help. :)

anyway, in the past couple weeks, i've been working on a deputation video for the Dickson's as they head back to Oz in less then 2 weeks time now. So for those of you who go to churches that support them, you can get a sneak peak at some of the stuff they'll be showing around Sydney when they go back. For others, you can check out some of the stuff they're doing, as some of the stuff they do is what i'm doing as well.

For those of you who are praying, please pray for the Dicksons as they head back to Oz, that it'll be a good time of rest, recuperation and time spent with family, friends and supporters.
Please pray for those of us who are left back here (Ken, Kristy and I) and the extra 'workload' we take up as the dicksons head back ie Baan Tawai, Sunday School training, cell groups, cell group leader training etc. It'll be a massive workload especially for Ken, so please keep him in your prayers.

Quick Prayer Request

2009-02-20T18:48:00.002+11:00

For those of you who might check this before tonight, i'd covet your prayers for me as i 'lead' the cell group tonight as Kim isn't around. Thankfully the way things worked out, it's not actually taking them through a full study as such, but we're going to be reading lots of different stories from Exodus through to Deuteronomy. The aim is to try and familiarise them with some of the stories from those books so when we fly through it next week, they won't be completely lost. Even though it's not a full study as such, it's still pretty crazy in trying to think about how to explain stuff. The current plan is, if they have any questions, write them down and we'll sort it out when we actually study it next week. how's that for a good deflection plan? :)

thanks for your prayers :)

Taking the Joshua Cell Group through the 'Big Picture' of the Bible

2009-02-11T13:21:00.003+11:00

It's been a really exciting past few weeks as Kim and i have started taking our cell group through the big picture of the bible. To see people who are new christians who've hardly read any of the Bible reading stories in the Bible for the first time, to others who are familiar with many of the stories, but not sure as to why each story in the bible is important or how it fits into the big picture of God's plan of salvation. It's been a real privilege to be able to prepare all the studies with Kim, and then to see her lead them and watching as her enthusiasm and excitement for what she's learn is passed onto other members of the group. What's been really interesting and amusing is when we started, it was quite easy to do a study on creation, then the fall, then God's promise to Abraham. But as we're getting into learning about the Israelites and doing big sweeps of the bible, like covering Exodus to Deuteronomy in one hit, it's been really challenging to work out what to include, what to leave out, how much of a general sweep do we do, how do you cover that much when there are people in the group who have never even read any of the stuff we're covering, so how do we fill them in on lots of 'assumed knowledge'. it's been tough, but really good working it all out.

In amongst all the prep and teaching, there has been lots of uncertainty over the past few months on a week to week basis as to whether Kim will even be able to make it to cell group to teach because of her ever changing work schedule. VERY scary thought for me, as the current plan B's are basically for me to take it, try and train up one of the other girls in our group to help translate as i teach, or find some other activity to do instead of a bible study when kim isn't able to make it. We've been praying hard that my language will improve considerably to be able to take the study in Kim's absence, however especially as we're starting to do major sweeps of the Bible and there's lots of 'story telling' involved, it's REALLY hard for me to do, and i also feel really sorry for the group having to try and understand all that i want to say. But God in his sovereignty knows that i am probably not quite ready, and EVERY single time that it's looked like i've had to teach, God has stepped in at the last moment to change kim's work schedule, so she CAN make it to cell group to teach!! Isn't God just the BEST?!?!?!

Anyway, things to be praying for:
- kim and i as we continue to prepare studies to teach the group. pray for wisdom & understanding.
- pray for kim's continued work situation and uncertainty of work schedules, that God will continue to be sovereign over all
- pray for my language to improve so that i might be able to teach...one day :)

Time with old friends

2009-02-05T01:43:00.003+11:00

Despite being quite busy still with language, baan tawai, cell group study prep, sunday school stuff etc, the past few couple weeks has also been really nice to catch up with some old friends who were in town for a couple of conferences and to finally meet their son. I must say, one of the major benefits of being in Thailand is that many people think that it's a great place for conferences and holidays (apart from some of those big multinational companies who have now declared that Thailand the situation is now too 'fragile' to allow their staff to come here - sorry jo), so it's nice to be able to see some familiar faces and catch up with old friends from Oz, who i just don't get to see too often anymore as they're serving God in other countries.

So despite me accidentally dropping steph and jayden (with all the luggage) at the wrong hotel yesterday ("oops"!!), we had a great time going to the markets, hot springs, taking them around to Baan Tawai and showing them the disabled workshop, taking them along to church, a quick visit to my school and all sorts of other things. Meeting Jayden was cool too. I couldn't believe how big he is - for an 8 month old. He's only 1/2 kg lighter then sean who's a year older then him. Check out the difference in leg size between sean and jayden. Classic!!

Was pretty happy i still have the knack of taking self shots, even with a kid.

just thought this was a great shot of james and Jayden

Anyway, this weekend is going to be another busy one with Robbie (a guy from DPC) coming, a school outing to the flower show which i have to act as translator again (i'm surprised they've asked me back again to help :) haha), then another party down at baan tawai on saturday, then church all day sun. Trying to work on getting some extra sleep into the mix somewhere. it'll happen sooner or later :) will keep you posted on other things happening.

But one quick exciting thing to praise God for, Kim's work schedule has changed again which means that she is ABLE to make it to cell groups this month and lead it. HUGE relief for me that she can go and that i don't have to be the one leading the group on my own :) It's been great the past few weeks being able to spend time with Kim preparing the cell group studies though. lots to be giving thanks for. Will update on this more soon

Time in Chiang Rai

2009-01-26T02:27:00.007+11:00

Ok, so it wasn't exactly Chiang Rai or Chiang Saen that i went to, but a small muu baan in the countryside about 20mins out of Chiang Saen (for those who are good with geography, it's near the Golden Triangle). The orphanage that i stayed at was on the top of this hill, literally in the middle of nowhere. It was pretty amusing that there's no mobile reception there (unless you have this massive antenna), but there was satellite internet. Pretty cool really :)

Anyway, the time there was to spend some time with some orphanage kids, help teach english at the local school - and use the time to try and teach the kids some truths about God and Jesus. Despite a bit of uncertainty on arrival whether the school would even be open on the friday, the time there ended up being more fruitful then i thought it would be. Despite having to battle speaking over a massive sound system that was getting set up outside for 4hrs straight, we had a great time teaching kids simple english, numbers, colours, then taught them Colins 10,9,8 song to introduce them to how great God really is and why. We then handed out to each of the kids a kids story book with stories from the Bible (there are 15 different bible stories that they can read). It was really exciting to see the kids really excited to 1. receive the books, but 2. when they got them, they immediately started reading them and didn't listen to us anymore cos they were more interested in reading the books. (ok, not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but hey, didn't bother me) :)

Me and Buu teaching 10, 9, 8

One of the students reading one of the books we gave out

But on top of that, what was really exciting was a really great gospel conversation over lunch with one of the teachers and the principal of the school. There's one teacher at the school that Buu has been chatting to about Christianity. He's really interested and was really keen to talk about it all and want to understand the differences between christianity and other religions, what it is that we really believe, why he should read the bible etc. As we were talking with him, the principal came and sat with us and obviously overheard our conversation. So he ended up getting really interested in all we were talking about. Neither of them became christians during that conversation, but it was a really good opportunity to present the gospel to them and give them things to think about when it came to their lives and where God fit into the picture there. So as we were talking, we didn't realise how much time had gone by. We were meant to get back and teach at 1pm. By now it's like 1.30pm. Some of the kids came to kindly tell us that the students had decided to dismiss themselves from school already, so we didn't have to teach the afternoon. which - from my voice's point of view, i was really thankful for. i know that my voice didn't have another 3hrs of talking in it. (there was a bit more to the story the the kids just dismissing themselves, but that's the short of the story - not really a surprising thing over here). Thankfully i didn't feel so bad about that fact that we spend ages at lunch, since the principal was there with us talking - so he was as much to blame :)

The couple days up there was also a great time to spend with Buu as well and chat about lots of different ministry things and encourage each other in serving God.

Unfortunately, i wasn't able to stay up there for too long. Got up there on thursday night and had to leave saturday morning. But the time there, i felt was really good. I'm not sure if i'll be able to make it up again anytime soon. but it'd be great to pray for Buu as she spends time up there building relationships with the kids, teachers and school.

One of the toughest things for me when going up there was that there's movement in the house from 4.30 am to get the kids out the door to school by 6-6.30 am!! since it's such an early start, everyone's in bed by 9pm. So it was tough for me who is usually going to bed at 2am and waking up at 9am. Well, at least i got to see an amazing sunrise :)

Anyway, here are a few other shots from the couple days there.

trying to help some of the students

playing 'bzzz' with the orphanage kids

me with Onapar

Me and Buu

The orphanage kids

part of the 2km 'driveway' to the house. Can't tell you how thankful i was that denise lent me the 4wd to go up

Chiang Rai

2009-01-20T13:57:00.002+11:00

This Thursday - Saturday, i'm heading up to Chiang Rai (well a bit out of Chiang Rai) to help one of my friends Buu teach some english at a school she's been helping at over the past year. i was actually meant to go up last December for a 'christmas' special, but due to a whole host of reasons, unfortunately couldn't make it up. This month has been crazy as too but i'd promised to go up, so have managed to find a few days inbetween to go up.

The current plan (which for those of you who have ever come to teach in Thailand will know can change at anytime), is to teach 6 classes of 32 students in the day, with the help of my friend Buu. Should be interesting :) Apparently the kids english isn't really all that good at all, was am thinking to limit the lessons to numbers colours and body parts (hey, just want to be able to use the song Head's Shoulders knees and toes). Anyway, plan is to use all sorts of crazy games, songs etc to try and help them remember colours and numbers. And at the end i also want to teach them Colin's song 10,9,8. It's simple and hopefully will be a way for us to explain to them how great God really is!! and hoping even more they'll understand it and remember it!

for those praying, please pray for safe travels to and from there. i'm going to be driving up (about 3-4hr drive)
- pray for wisdom in lesson prep (still haven't sorted it all out yet - hopefully tonights job)
- pray for the kids that we'll be teaching, that they'll understand some awesome truths about God

A couple recent events

2009-01-16T02:32:00.005+11:00

Finally today for the first time, i've felt like i've made it back into the land of the living after a fairly full on past few weeks of parties, retreats, funeral, kids day, late nights, babysitting, folks in town, various meetings, birthday dinners, bible study prep for sunday school & cell group and i can't even think what else. I just know that it's been pretty much non-stop since the beginning of December and i was in need of a couple of early nights - which i actually got in the past couple nights. it's amazing really what a difference sleep can make. Why is it that i always seem to learn the hard way?

Last week i ended up at yet another funeral. The father of my teacher's sister-in-law passed away. It still astounds me as to the number of funerals i've been to in the past year. But it's also a good reality check on remembering that this life here is just temporary and we have something much greater waiting for us in heaven. However, it also brings home the reality that there are so many who are still passing away without knowing Christ, and that's a fact that really saddens me and highlights the urgency of having others hear the good news about Jesus.

Unlike all the other funerals i've been to where it's been a cremation, this one was a burial. It seems that as a general rule, Christians here tend to bury rather then cremate. However what i found interesting was that rather then bury the casket in the ground with dirt all around, it gets put into a concrete 'enclosure' and is sealed off with concrete slabs as well. it was fascinating watching the ceremony switch from the service/ceremony, to all the guys heading off to the side to mix the concrete and seal up the concrete 'enclosure'. It is really interesting how different cultures adapt 'rituals' to be appropriate (?) to their own cultures.

Here are a couple pics from the day.

at the burial

concreting up the grave

For those praying, it'd be great if you could be praying for my teacher, her family and extended family as there are now lots of changes and new responsibilities that many of them need to take on. Please pray for strength, comfort and wisdom to know how to move on for each of those involved.

Last weekend was also Children's Day here in Thailand. They figure that there's a fathers day, a mothers day, so why not have a kids day as well. I remember asking my parents as a kid why there isn't a kids day, and i was always told that every day is kids day! very true i suppose :) It's seriously amazing how ALL OUT they go here with preparing activities for kids and how big of a deal it is over here. That day, i ended up going over to one of the hospitals here that my friend Mac works at to 'help' run some games, songs, activities for the kids in hospital with Mac, my teacher and another guy from their church. Despite having no idea what was going on, it was pretty fun, and was cool to see lots of the kids smiling and enjoying themselves.

There's also heaps of exciting stuff happening with cell group and Sunday School, with lots to be praying for there too. but i'll save that for another post, so stay tuned. but some quick prayer points if you are praying:
- thanks for the opportunity that kim and i have to be leading out cell group through the big picture of the bible
- praise to God for answering prayer in enabling kim to make it to cell group so that i'm not left to lead it myself
- pray for my language that i'll be able to quickly learn lots of bible vocab etc so that i might actually be able to start helping kim lead more effectively (have just started learning this stuff at school which has been cool, but now i really have to start using my brain :) haha

'Education Sunday'

2009-01-13T03:10:00.005+11:00

Yesterday at church, John introduced an 'education sunday'. Basically what we wanted to try and do was share with the rest of church what the kids do in Sunday School each week. On a typical Sunday, the kids will stay in church during the singing time, and when that's over and the communion and sermon start in 'big church', the kids go out to sunday school. More often then not, most people have no idea what happens in sunday school, and often think of it as a baby sitting session. But it's really more then that. For us, it's a time when we get to help train and equip 2 girls in church (in the past year at least) - Kim and Gun, to be able to read and teach the bible themselves, with the hope that in the future, they will be able to train up others to do likewise. At the same time, we also get to give the kids some really good bible teaching and hopefully help lay a firm foundation for them for the future. It worked out really well in the end with Kim and Gun getting some time to share some of the things they learnt and what they've got out of teaching the kids in the past year. Then the kids also got to sing a song that we taught them called 'the Body Song'. For those of you who grew up in the whole sunday school thing, you might remember the Kid's Praise songs with Psalty (yes, this is showing my age BIG TIME!!) Anyway, there was a cool song that for some reason has stuck in my head all these years which is about the Body of Christ, and how the body of Christ is made up of many parts - all of which are important - whether you can see them or not. Since it was an english song, we thought we'd never get to sing it, but when we put our minds to it, we actually managed to translate the song into Thai, and it actually worked really well :) hehe So here's the video of the kids singing 'the Body Song'.

The original english words go like this (the thai is not an exact translation, but it captures the same idea)

I, I am the eye, i go blink blink
yes, i am the eye and i can wink
i am the eye, but i can't think
that belongs to my friend the brain

i fritter fratter frit, fritter fratter frit
i'm the brain with an electric current patter pit
i'm the brain and i fritter learning bit by bit
yes i fritter fratter fritter all the time

i go lub dub, lub dub i go
i am the heart, i pump like so
i'm bringing life to all the parts
i am consistent, i'm the heart

i'm swinging, i'm swinging
swinging on life's merry way
i'm the arm, i'm the arm
im bringing life to all

hearing, hearing
small ears, hearing
we don't miss much
hearing all the time

We are the body of Christ,
we are the body of Christ
together bringing His love to the world
We work together, we work together
we do it with cooperation
Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen

For those who are praying:
please keep all the sunday school kids in your prayers. that the things they learn as kids will become a firm foundation for them for life as they learn truths about God
please pray for those of us teaching the kids to, to be faithful in our teaching of the Bible to the kids, and for us to always continue growing in our love and knowledge of God

Bethany House Christmas Party

2009-01-05T01:43:00.004+11:00

So now that i've got a few minutes, i thought i'd post up a few quick pics and blog on how the Bethany House Christmas party went on the 26th. For those who don't know the background, for the past couple years, my church has sent over a short term mission team which spent some time at the Orphanage. Last year, unfortunately there was no team that came, but the church was really generous in wanting to support the orphanage still, so sent some money over for the kids. There are plenty of things that the kids need, but one idea we had for the kids was to use some of the funds to host a christmas party for them since the foundation that runs the orphanage has been short of funds in the past year, so has had to cancel all 'non essentials' which included a christmas party for the kids. So even though there was no 'big' team that came last christmas, i though i'd rally up whoever i could to be the pseudo team from Oz. So it ended up being me, denise and my friend Kim, who went up to run the night, along with my folks and my niece and nephews.

So on the night, we played a few games with them - poison ball and another game that we call 'Bzz' - i won't even begin to try and explain that one.

kids playing 'bzz'
Ratree was awesome in organising a special dinner for the kids.

Originally what was going to be pizza, ended up being a buffet of ham, duck, pork along with prawns, stir fried veggies and a couple other thai dishes. Then afterwards, i thought we could try and do something with a bit of an 'Aussie' flavour for the kids, but that also had some meaning to it. Over here, when they do carolling at christmas, they do it american style (well it's kinda what i've seen on the movies, so i assume it's more american) where you go from house to house, sing a few songs, pray for the people there and get fed before moving on to the next house to do it all again. This can go on til like 5am!! (thankfully our church's finished at 1am this year!). So i thought i'd introduce them to carolling Oz style where we all come together, hear the story of christmas and sing LOTS of carols together (rather then 2-3 at each house).

By doing it this way, i was hoping help the kids understand the meaning of lots of christmas carols more as they sing the context of the songs within the story of Christmas. So it was awesome to have Kim come along and tell the story of christmas, while i played the guitar for it, and denise ran the powepoint stuff. Originally, we were going to do it all outside, but it decided to rain (unseasonally) that day, so we ended up inside - which i think in hindsight was a blessing in disguise, because when they sang, it was really loud and sounded awesome and was really encouraging!!

I also was up the night before to make up a video for them of them singing at the hotel (check out the Le Meridien post if you want to see the video). So they were really excited to be able to see themselves on the big screen, then see some photos of them at the hotel.

At the end of the night, we handed out some gift bags for each of the kids which consisted of some snacks and some money which the kids could use to buy something they wanted.

Some of the kids have been shopping already and were really excited to be able to go buy some stuff they wanted. For each of the house parents i gave them a copy of the email from DPC and other friends who have visited the orphanage in the past (with translation of course), a print out of some christmas cards
that the kids from DPC did for them, and a dvd of the video i did up for them and photos from their carolling at Le Meridien.

Overall, i think it was a really great night, which was lots of fun, encouraging and helped everyone to remember what Christmas is really about. Here are a few extra pics of the night. Since we were down on numbers running the night, mum ended up being photographer :)

Goodbye 2008, bring on 2009

2008-12-31T20:30:00.003+11:00

So 2008 ended up being an awesome year new experiences, new friendships, new language, learning lots from God's Word and seeing the way that God is working in the lives of people over here, being pumped to be serving God more and being amazed at the privilege it is to be able to serve God in our lives. I'm just constantly amazed at the way that God works and the more i learn about him and see him in action, the more convinced i am of how awesome our God really is and how worthy he is to be receiving our praise, and how more people just need to come to know him grow in their knowledge of Him.

Believe it or not, i'm actually having a quiet NYE in with the family (apart from all the neighbours karaoke going on outside...interesting...). To be honest, i'm actually really glad about the quiet night in, as i'm just wasted from all the partying from Christmas, then a team retreat which we just got back from this afternoon. Not that the retreat was heavy going, but it was just still being on the go. So hopefully the next few days will be some nice chill days to catch up on about the last 3 months lot of sleep, and spend time with the family before the new year kicks in and things go nuts again.

So while i a had a few minutes, i thought i'd just wish you all a Happy New Year. Thanks for all your support, encouragement, prayers and partnership in the Gospel with me this year! it's been awesome to have all your support and do know that i wouldn't have been able to do it without all you guys! Look forward to keeping you posted on all that happens in 09!!

check out this lawn mower!! i guess they built them to last in the old days :)

the Team

family shot at the Dam

Bethany House Kids Caroling at Le Meridien

2008-12-27T04:13:00.003+11:00

Last Wednesday 24th, the kids from the Bethany and Cana House orphanages got to sing at the Le Meridien Hotel in Chiang Mai. For those of you who don't know, Le Meridien is one of the most expensive hotels going here. So i'm sure many of them were feeling a bit out of their comfort zone. But they were all really excited about it and had a blast of a time singing there. they want to go back and do it again.

I won't go into the whole story of how it all came about, but let's just say, God is good and the hotel are really keen to support the kids in whatever way they can, and are wanting to get them back in the future to sing and even possibly dance at some other thai festivals and special events during the year. So that's some exciting news.

Being asian, i've been trying to score a 'free' meal there since it opened (and even before) as one of friends Kim works there. So course i jumped at the chance to be part of the 'crew' for the kids in order to score a free meal. So believe it or not, i got to put some of my Shiseido training to good use and got assigned the role of 'makeup artist'!! :) haha So i was ready for my free meal at the plush Le Meridien. That night, they had special christmas eve meals and buffets going for like 1700bht!! that's like 56 meals that i could get at my neigbouring thai restaurant!! So, i was all geared up for some awesome food. Before i got there, we were joking around that we'd probably get fried rice, gang jeut (a plain soup), stir fried veg and anything else that you'd expect was pretty 'typical' simple thai food. So when we got there, i spotted the buffet table and made a bee line for it. And what was on the menu......fried rice, gang jeut, stir fried veg and a basil eggplant!! how lucky am i to score such a special meal there?!?!? Well, i suppose, beggers can't be choosers :)

Anyway, above is a short video of some of the stuff that went on that night and some of the kids and here are a few photos from the night

the kids in the lobby

i really did do makeup

some of the kids

the classy buffet we got :)

School Christmas Party

2008-12-19T21:05:00.005+11:00

So today we had our school christmas party which ended up being rather amusing, since i was asked to help MC the party and translate into english all the Khruu Tor said. So given that i was handed the mic on many occasions, i thought i'd take the opportunity to 'elaborate' at times on things that were happening or said to help make the day a bit more fun too. A very dangerous thing if you're people who i tend to enjoy glaanging (teasing) :) hehe

Anyway, here's a video of my teacher with a few of her students singing Last Christmas. My teacher is the one who's completely embarrassed in the video. not hard to miss. She'll kill me for putting this up, but hey, why not? :)

For those who are interested, Gai Yaang is a dance that kids get each other to do as a 'punishment' - or more a way of embarrassing those who might come in last or lose a game. So here's Khruu Jai with Eugene doing Gai Yaang since they came in last when playing the 'relay' game.

Since i ended up doing lots of the talking and forgot to hand my camera to someone to happy snap, i didn't manage to many photos of me in action at all. but here are few shots of the day anyway.

Christmas at CLS

Me with Khruu Jai

Some of the teachers at school

Group Photo

Christmas in Thailand

2008-12-15T03:06:00.002+11:00

It feels kind of odd that there is no public holiday for Christmas over here, which makes plenty of sense seeing as it's not a christian country, however it also means that all Christmas celebrations get spread out all over the month of December. Given that Christmas is not really celebrated here, i've been so encouraged by the ways that many of my Thai christian friends have been taking hold of Christmas as an opportunity to be sharing the gospel and trying to help others know what the true meaning of Christmas is - that it's not just about the new year. So here's just a summary of the christmas events that i've been up to/will be up to this month:
5/12 - Pioneers Christmas party
13/12 - Png's Christmas party (with over 100 people)
19/12 - School Christmas party
19/12 - Church carolling
20/12 - Ken & Kristy's Christmas party in the muu baan
21/12 - Christmas at church
22/12 - Christmas party at Baan Tawai
23/12 - Cell Group Christmas party
24/12 - Orphanage kids singing carols at Le Meridien hotel
25/12 - Christmas Day
26/12 - Christmas party for the Bethany House Orphanage kids

As you can see, it's a pretty nuts end of the month - where our team will also go away for a team retreat from the 27th - 31st. So it'd be awesome if you could be praying for all these outreach opportunities in the next couple weeks, for those who aren't christians, to be hearing the true meaning of Christmas and being challenged by that. i'd also appreciate prayer for the busyness in the next few weeks, that i won't get sick and that i can do it all.

Mae Tia

2008-12-14T02:30:00.005+11:00

Despite the early 6am start, the trip down to Mae Tia was awesome! I'm actually really glad that i woke up early to go to the meeting and prayer time at 6am that day. it was just a really nice way to start the day, reading parts of God's word, being reminded again of the gospel and why it's just so important for others to hear it and praying. As people slowly drifted into church, what was originally going to be about 25-30 people going, ended up being about 50 of us!

In the lead up to the day, i was again able to see God work in amazing ways in just the group that i was working with - with the kids. Originally, it was just going to be me and Gun looking after the kids (which could have numbered up to 90), which was a seriously daunting task, as i've got plenty of ideas in how to run the time, but not the language to control 90 kids, and Gun has the language, but probably isn't the best upfront person, and didn't know many of the games or skits we wanted to do. So, we obviously prayed a lot for a suitable solution. Thank God that he was able to give Kim the day off work, so she could come, along with Maggie and Ice too. Thankfully as well, we ended up with about 20 kids, instead of 90 (which would've just been crowd control). So what was potentially going to be a nightmare, ended up as a really good time, where we were able to share with the kids what Christmas is really about, a simple explanation of the gospel through 'gospel beads' and give them all some presents.

Apart from what we were doing with the kids, there was also heaps of medical stuff going on too - with general check ups, dental hygiene, physio advice, eye checks and even hair cuts. But while all that was going on, there was also a team of people who were just chatting to people there and sharing the gospel with them. We also had a brief time to go visit the houses too to chat to more people who might not have been able to make it out to the area we were holding the mission. It was really exciting to see how the different professions and abilities of people were able to join together as one body for the sake of the gospel.

It was actually pretty funny at times to realise that many of my thai friends were struggling to understand all that these people were saying too - as many of them spoke a weird northern dialect which they probably only really use in their muu baan. So it made me feel a lot better that i wasn't the only one who was struggling to understand what they were saying.

Our prayer is that our time there would have opened more doors for Png and others in the future who have the chance to go and be a witness to this village. At the moment, there aren't any christians there, but there are some who are interested and the fact that they let us come in and do a mission is huge as well. Please pray for this village, to come to know God, and especially for Png as she will probably continue to be the main christian contact that this village has in the near future, for her to be able to keep on proclaiming Christ to them. Pray for the villagers, that they will come to know Christ and accept Him as their saviour

Mission to Mae Tia - December 10

2008-12-08T01:35:00.003+11:00

Unfortunately, or should i say fortunately considering all the recent trouble that's been happening in down in Bangkok with the closure of the airport, we didn't have any teams from Oz come over this year but that hasn't stopped my church from doing it's own one day mission down to Mae Tia, a hill tribe about an hour out of Chiang Mai. This Wednesday (10th) is a public holiday here, so the church decided to use it for mission. It's actually really exciting for me on a few levels.

1, this is a hill tribe that Png, our good friend has been visiting and working with for the past couple years. i've had the chance to go down a few times now, and it's really exciting to see the people there being really open to hearing the gospel. Although none yet are christians, there are some who are showing interest. So this can potentially be an awesome opportunity further outreach to this group of people
2. it's exciting to see our church coming to help out other fellow thai christians in their ministry and outreach. it's thai's working with Thai's which is just awesome
3. i'm really pumped to see my church and many in the church so keen to be actively involved in mission.
4. we're not only able to share the gospel with them, but our church is one that is made up of lots of dr's (gp's, gynecologists, dermatologists, psychologists, physio's, optometrists just to name a few), plus hair dressers, really good cooks etc, so we're able to go down and run a medical mission for this poor hill tribe that really has no access to many of these types of dr's or services that we can offer them.

I think they're really excited about us all coming down, but can't seem to get their head around the fact that it's all FREE!! That God has footed the bill for it all now, and they don't have to pay a cent. there was a meeting a couple weeks ago with them to try and sort out a few of the details, and no matter how many times Png said to them it was free, they kept on coming back and asking, 'so how much is this going to cost?'

For me, it's a huge reminder for us too to remember how much God has done for us in Jesus and how that is just FREE too. all we have to do is accept it.

So in Sunday School for the past couple weeks, we've been teaching the kids about Christmas. That while it is a time that we do receive gifts - the biggest and best one of course being jesus, it's also a time where we should also be giving gifts out too - because of what God has given to us. So we've spent the past couple weeks preparing a whole lot of presents for the all the kids at Mae Tia (89 of them) which we'll give out to the kids there. On top of that, the church will also give out special packs which include a toothbrush, soap, tract and books to everyone there, and i think each household will get a simple medicine/first aid type pack.

with the sunday school kids preparing the present bags to give away at Mae Tia

It's going to be a monster day with lots happening with medical stuff, a kids program, a group who will be going to chat with the people there, plus others cooking and doing behind the scenes stuff. i'm going to be helping out with the kids, so hopefully that'll be fun and not too tiring. Cos we've got an EARLY start. not sure how i'm going to GET to church for 6am!! :) haha here's the rough program
6am at church for worship time and prayer
7am Breakky at church
8am travel to Mae Tia
9am get there, set up
9.30am it all starts
lunch at some stage
arvo activities
get back to CM.

For those praying, please pray that the time will be really worthwhile and beneficial, for open hearts of those that we get to talk to. Pray for safe travel there and back, and for the last minute prep that is currently taking place (believe me, there is quite a bit of it!!) Please also pray for language and ability to communicate. Because it is a hill tribe, they have their own dialect which can be hard even for native northern thai speakers to understand as well. Pray that won't be a hinderance.

Fun Times at Baan Tawai

2008-12-02T02:24:00.004+11:00

Aside from all the amazing things that are happening at Baan Tawai and the opportunities that we're having to share the gospel and introduce people to Jesus, there are also lots of really funny things that happen down there which just crack me up. So i thought i'd share a few quick stories with you.

There's one guy called Chai who goes who is really wanting to speak english all the time, and so will take every opportunity to speak when he can. Only problem is that his vocab is somewhat limited at times, but it doesn't stop him from starting every sentence with 'I am.....' which usually gets finished with a thai phrase, or a literal translation from Thai if he knows the english words. So it's quite common to hear...
'i am very kor tort' = i am very sorry
'i am sawadii' = i am hello
but my favourite of all time is
'i am bathroom man'. My first thoughts were that he had just invented some kind of new superhero called Bathroom Man - i was just imagining him armed with a toilet duck and brush ready to give the bathroom a huge clean. But what he wanted to say was that he wanted to go to the mens bathroom

Tonight we had a few more classic moments. When asked what i learnt today, i answered 'i read a story about songkran' - which brought a lot of confusion to my friends face as he thought i said something about a red strawberry.

Later on, Ken ran a game where we gave them all an english word which the group had to answer with a word of the opposite meaning. I never thought it could get so amusing. So the game went something like this:
Ken: Right
Group: Left
Ken: Wrong
Group: Short (thai's sometimes get the 'R's' and 'L's' mixed up. So they eventually came up with right)
Ken: Loud
Group: Thai (they thought he said Laos)
Ken: Sharp
Group: had no idea, so we started spelling out the answer, and at the same time we got to hear them sounding the word out aloud which went something like this: B....BL.....BLU (bloo)...BLUN (bloon).....BLUNT (bloont)
Ken: Dark
Group: what's the opposite of a duck? chicken?

Aaaaahhhhh....happy days :)

Close Call

2008-12-01T03:22:00.003+11:00

Just had to share these pics with you of a car that came crashing through the church wall today during church. We were teaching sunday school at the time and as we heard the accident take place. It was unbelievably loud and seemingly never ending as there were like 3 crash noises. Then there was just silence as we all thought the worst. Praise God that no one was hurt at all and even the poor tree that was run over has managed to survive (how? i have no idea). I'm sure that there is some kind of way that we can use this story in a talk sometime in the future - a modern day parable of someone trying to reach jesus - but instead of through the roof, they thought they'd drive the car through the church wall? hmmm....still needs a lot more work :) haha

boring picture of the church building and sign? Look again

this is what you'd see if you were on the street

a closer look. Amazingly the tree under the car somehow managed to survive

Disabled Workshop Catalogue

2008-11-28T02:38:00.004+11:00

OumChu Painting is the disabled workshops that we've been helping out this year with a range of things. In addition to being an awesome outreach opportunity for us (its the workshop that we run all the Baan Tawai english program from), it's also an opportunity for us to do some holistic ministry too. In helping disabled people have a chance of making a life for themselves through having an opportunity to work and get training in a trade - like painting or woodwork (carpentry) and giving them hope in life. Unfortunately in Thailand, there isn't the same type of government support for disabled and disadvantaged people in society, and often many of them are looked down upon. So over the past year, we've been working with Boonchu and her husband Jutterong with their workshop, in helping with business advice, accounting and marketing tools and ideas. It's been exciting to see it grow from being a 2 man business to a place where they've been able to employ a number of disabled (and able bodied people) too. There's still lots more potential for the workshop, but it's definitely moving in the right direction so far. For us, the thing that has been much more exciting about the workshop is the outreach opportunities that it's providing us down at Baan Tawai, but that's a whole other story (check out some of the other blog posts for more about that).

Anyway, today turned into a bit of a milestone when we FINALLY managed to get the catalogue for the Disabled Workshop printed. We've been wanting do up a simple catalogue for the workshop for a while now to be used as a bit of a sales and marketing tool to help drum up some new customers and hopefully get some of the current customers expanding the range of products that they might order from them. As much as the delay in getting it printed lay with me because i couldn't manage to lock away a few solid hours to just finish it, so it's nice to finally get it done. So here's what it ended up looking like...

It'd be great if you could keep on praying for the workshop, and for all the outreach opportunities that it's provided for us too.

God's Big Picture

2008-11-22T02:57:00.002+11:00

It's been a mad past week with very little free time, so sorry for the lack of posts. But just had to share with you one really exciting thing. A few weeks ago at cell group, we were trying to work out what to 'study' next. My friend Kim, who is one of the people we're training up at Sunday School, spoke up and suggested to the group to look at the 'big picture of the Bible'. This was something that we spent about 12 weeks teaching the SS kids earlier this year. For Kim, learning about God's big picture has revolutionised her understanding of the Bible, so that it now makes sense, and has given her a hunger to understand the bible more and more. Not only this, she wants to be able to give everyone else an opportunity to learn all the things that have been changing her life this year. At the time, no one in the group really wanted to take on the responsibility of leading the group, so were happy to give Kim the opportunity to teach God's big picture, despite having no idea what it was.

So tonight was the first night we got to teach it. it was just an introduction to why it's important to learn and what we'll be doing, but i was just blown away by how interested and excited everyone else in the group was about learning it as we began to explain it all to them. There was a little scare the night before, when kim called me up to say that she was feeling really unwell and was even contemplating going to the hospital. If only it were all in english, i would've been more then happy to take the reigns and teach the group, but in Thai......that's another story. So late last night, i started preparing in case i had to teach. i even had my teacher all lined up to help me at school too if i had to. But thanks to God, she felt much better this morning and was able to take the group.

It was an awesome night for me to see some of our 'dreams' start coming true in seeing Thai's that we've been training, taking the initiative and going for broke in teaching the Bible themselves to others. At the end of the day, our hope is to see Thai's teaching Thai's the Bible, cos they're the ones who will be able to explain it best to their own people. through the night, Kim wanted me to take a few of the activities that we had planned (cos she didn't feel 100% confident). What i did was really just a drop compared to all the stuff she taught. I'm now starting to see a massive advantage in me not being able to speak fluently, as it's helping give Thai's the opportunity to give it a go themselves, but i can be there as moral support. I'm just feeling so in awe of the way that God is working over here in people's lives. HEAPS to be praising God for!! Unfortunately due to a whole host of reasons, we've decided to postpone teaching the rest of it til the new year (long story), but i think it's for the better that that's happened.

For those who are praying:
Please pray for Kim especially as she spends the next few weeks preparing the lessons and how to teach the cell group.
Pray for the group as they learn. thanks for their excitement in wanting to learn as well
Give heaps of praise for everything that's happened with this!! :)

Loy Krathong

2008-11-13T03:32:00.007+11:00

Narawat Bridge with heaps of the Khom Fai's floating in the sky

For those of you like me who are wondering what on earth Loy Krathong is, here's a quick excerpt from Wiki
In Chiang Mai Loi Kratong is also known as "Yi Peng". Every year thousands of people assemble to float the banana-leaf krathong onto the waterways of the city, honouring the Goddess of Water. A multitude of Lanna-style hot-air lanterns (khom fai) are also launched into the air where they resemble large flocks of giant fluorescent jellyfish gracefully floating by through the skies. These are believed to help rid the locals of troubles and are also taken to decorate houses and streets. (if you want to read more check it out here Loy Krathong

So the festival started off for me heading over to Denise & John's landlords place for a Loy Krathong party last night with the kids. Apart from eating waaay too much, we got to make some krathongs (the banana leaf 'decoration), then 'loy' them (set them off afloat), then play with firecrackers, in the way that we used to when were kids before the government decided they were too dangerous. Whether it was a good thing for us to 'loy' the krathongs, i'm not sure, as many of the christians here say it's not good to do as it's a buddhist thing. It's one of those things where we know that everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial. For the sake of me being here for my first loy krathong, i think i was forgiven, especially after i reminded them that it's by grace we're saved, not by works. So the kids had heaps of fun decorating krathongs, 'loying' them and playing with fireworks.

Mimi with Norng Kim and the krathongs they had decorated

The kids with their decorated kratongs ready for 'loying' (floating)

James trying to spell with a sparkler

Then today at school, we got to make our own krathongs as well and had a bit of competition to see who could make the prettiest one. Unfortunately i didn't take the honours (no surprise really), but it was heaps of fun making them and hanging out with the teachers and other students. So that was a nice introduction to the real festivities that happen down at the river here in Chiang Mai.

Me with my teacher Khruu Jai

Making Krathongs with the students and teachers

me with my non winning krathong

Everyone with our Krathongs

Despite being warned by various friends that it's dangerous to go, i decided to go into town anyway. Hey, i've never been here in Thailand during a Loy Krathong festival, and while i'm here, i may as well experience as much of Thailand as i can. It's like telling someone who's never been to Sydney, to not go to watch the fireworks on NYE. It's definitely an experience I've never really thought of Thailand as a place where public safety was it's highest priority, and heading into town tonight, i definitely felt that. It was MAAADDD. Walking along the street with firecrackers going off left right and centre. Seriously, you have to have your wits about you at times. Then as they many of the lanterns were let off into the air, despite being really pretty, there was also the occasional tree that was on fire when one of the lanterns got stuck in the branches. Seriously though, it was lots of fun, really pretty and just maaaddd. It's hard to put into words all the sounds, smells, sights of the night. It really is something to see a bridge just packed out, with people letting off firecrackers, launching lanterns into the air so that there is just and endless stream of lights going up into the air. Then looking down at the river and seeing all these krathongs floating down the river. In many ways, many people seem to celebrate Loy Krathong here in the same way that many celebrate Christmas back home. Even though it has some religious/significance to some, many just embrace it as a fun time and get involved in the festivities, so that the meaning of it has been lost. Still, it's definitely an experience which i'm glad to have had.

some of the festivities

Just some of the mass loying (launching) of the krathongs

me on the bridge

krathongs for sale en mass

masses of people with Khom fai's being loyed every 2 seconds

msn

2008-11-06T21:48:00.004+11:00

i've discovered how great an invention msn is. Not only in helping me keep in touch with many friends back home, but it's been a priceless piece of technology that's helped me get to know many of my thai friends much better, has helped me enormously with my thai reading and writing, learning plenty of stuff like 'slang' that you'll never find in any of my school books, and how to type in Thai. I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but there are like over 70 various letters/vowels. So if you ever thought touch typing in english was hard, give Thai a go!! It's insane!!

my well loved keyboard where half the letters (from stickers) have been worn off)

Thankfully now, it's not taking me 3minutes to find a letter. Apart from the odd rarely used letter, i generally know where most of the letters are, but i've still got a long way to go before i'll be typing at the same speed as i do in english.

One of the biggest drawbacks of msn however is that it also results in way too many late nights where i can be up chatting quite easily til 2-3am. hmmmm.....

Here are a couple random photos for you from the past couple weeks.
On Sunday, we went for dinner at Airport Plaza (like a big westfield) to celebrate Kristy's (our new team mate's) birthday. When i went out to the carpark to pick up my bike, there was all this noise like a massive concert. So when i looked up, lo and behold, a huge section of the carpark had been converted into an outdoor concert for a heap of the current Thai pop stars. I was wondering where concerts get held here, but the carpark of Aiport Plaza was not what i was expecting. Since didn't have a ticket, i stood at the gate (where you could still see pretty much everything anyway) and enjoyed the concert for a while.

Here's a pic of Kristy sporting an AWESOME bruise which she got after slipping over in her kitchen that had flooded from all the heavy rain. Only in Thailand!!

Baan Tawai

2008-11-04T04:09:00.002+11:00

Just wanted to quickly share about an awesome night that we just had at Baan Tawai tonight. Tonight was the first night back at Baan Tawai after a few weeks break as we went on holiday and during the school holidays over here when lots of people went back to the home towns etc. It was also the first time that we started a 'special' time at the end of our english lesson and english bible time to also have a short talk in Thai about Jesus given by a couple of our Thai christian friends from church since the best people to be reaching thai's are thai's themselves. So we started our time together as usual, at dinner together, then had some english time, then taught a story from the Bible in simple english, then handed the time over to Maggie and Ice. They started by singing a song, which everyone wanted to learn. Then Maggie did a short talk about how we need to be 'cleaned' on the inside and the only way is through Jesus. Afterwards we had a time for people to be able to ask questions, then an opportunity for them to share anything that they might want us to pray for them. We had NO IDEA how they'd respond to any of the stuff that we wanted to do tonight as none of these guys are christians at all. Would they feel obligated to stay and listen, would they just want to make the bolt the minute we finished? would they be scared to come back again next week?

It turned into an amazing night where everyone was having a ball from the time we started teaching english, til after we finished, and after that! We had an opportunity for people to ask questions and there was a really good question about can anyone pray to God or not? We then broke up into 2 groups, guys and girls for prayer time. It was the first time that we've every prayed with these guys, and we had no idea what was going to happen when we asked if anyone had anything that they wanted us to pray for. So when we posed the question, it took all of 1/2 sec for the first hand to go up and the prayer points to start flowing. after about 3 seconds of the first person sharing, everyone else decided they couldn't wait their turn, so it turned into EVERYONE (barr me) talking at once. I had no idea who to try and listen to and as a result any idea of what was being said. I'm so thankful that 3 of our Thai friends from church came too and could help me. So finally, i got Kim to pray for us all (since i wasn't sure how they'd feel praying if it was potentially the first time that some of them had ever prayed in a group, or even prayed. I think many of them really appreciated the prayer and after the prayer finished, no one wanted to go home. they all wanted to keep talking, and the guys group ended up singing and learning a heap of christian songs. Usually we finish at like 8-8.30. 10pm, we were still there!! Some of them were talking about friends that they want to bring along next week. It was just awesome!! HEAPS to give praise to God for for tonight.

For those who are praying, please keep on praying for everything that's happening down at Baan Tawai, that God will be opening hearts, they will be interested and want to find out more and come to know God. Please also pray for our thai christian brothers and sisters who are also coming to help us down there. That they too will really have a huge fire in their heart to want to help these people know God more and more. Please thank God for them - for Maggie, Ice, Kim and Gun.

In the next few weeks, i hope to introduce you to a few of the people who go to the Monday nights at Baan Tawai. There are some people there who really do need some huge prayer and are doing it really tough, but especially, don't yet know God. It'd be great if you could be praying for individuals in the future down there too :)

Up's mum

2008-11-03T03:53:00.003+11:00

Up is a guy from church who is currently studying at Bible College here with hopes of going into full time ministry in the future with his wife. Earlier this year he got married to Mam. His mother has been battling cancer and just last week, lost her battle and went to be with the Lord. It'd be great if you could be keeping Up, Mam and their family in your prayers. Whilst it is really sad news, there is also an upside in that his mum was a christian. Unfortunately i wasn't able to make it to all 3 days of the funeral, but what i did go to, and what i heard about the days i missed, the gospel was presented really clearly and even though she will be sorely missed by her family and friends, many were also rejoicing that she no longer has to suffer and is now with God. Today at church, it was really encouraging when Up got up to say a few words in church about the past week. To hear and see how he has been challenged in his faith in the past week and how he wanted to encourage others of the certainty that we can have in Christ and that while it is right to feel sad, it is also a time for us as christians to rejoice when others are able to go to be with God.

At Mam and Up's wedding earlier this year.

I'm still completely astounded by the number of funerals that i've been to this year and the number of deaths that i know of (especially as i feel like in many ways, i'm still new here and don't really know that many people). It's a constant reminder of how we really don't know what the future will hold for us and that we need to make the most of every opportunity that we have.

Expand Youth Camp

2008-10-27T23:11:00.003+11:00

Over the past couple years, my church in Oz (Drummoyne Pressie) has had the chance to work with the Subsiri Church in Korat. Unfortunately this year, they're not able to send a team over, but that hasn't stopped many past team members from having a heart for many in the church and those that the church is reaching out to, to get to know God more and more. A couple weeks ago, there was a Youth Camp 'Expand' that Subsiri Church were wanting to send their youth group to. However, the 450bht cost (approx $16 AUD at the time before our $ plummeted) for the 4 day camp was preventing some of the kids in going (if only camps were that cheap in oz!!). God in his goodness gave many back home an extremely generous heart and we were able to send over quite a lot of money to help pay the rego fees for some kids to go and also help with the transportation costs to get 28 people from Subsiri church over to the camp.

Here's a what Tong (the youth leader at the church had to say):
we had the great time in camp with 500 youth from around thailand. Worshiping God and Seeking Him is Highlight of the camp. Holy Spirit of God come among us and most of them have experience by that. We got great message from Youth Pastor in Singapore and India, Some of youth from my church received Jesus in camp. They are more hungry in God and he put fire in their heart to serve him. I feel very thank God for this camp. This is good time to meet pastor and old friends and new person and have time for 4 day to spend with God and retreat. I love to serve with the youth and love to see them worship and pray to God. I was cry many time in the camp because touching his love and see my youth seek God with all heart. That was great time :)

One of the kids there, Shem even posted up a video if you're keen to check out some of what happened at the camp Expand Youth Camp video Looks like heaps of fun! i'm hoping that maybe i'll get to join them sometime in the future if there's another camp

Payao

2008-10-23T03:01:00.005+11:00

Payao is a town about 2hrs drive from Chiang Mai. Our trip up there last week was awesome but it also felt like a whole other world of mission opportunity where i felt like i had lost about 8 months worth of language. Payao is where Png (a good thai friend and fellow worker in the gospel) is from - well, it's actually a muu baan (like a housing estate with a LOT of people is probably the easiest way to describe it) that's about 25mins from the main town of Payao. Png became a Christian a few years ago, and since has had a huge passion to see her family and friends from Payao also come to know God too. So over the past few years, whenever she's gone home to visit, she's never been shy to talk to them about God. Over the past few months, God has been doing some amazing things in the hearts of many of her family members up there, and recently several of them have decided to become christians! Huge Praise point!! However, unfortunately there isn't really a good church up there that Png feels confident to send them to. Being a 'smallish' town, many of the people there very rarely venture out of the Muu Baan, let alone allow others in. So it was actually really difficult for Png to work out what to do for them to help them to grow as Christians and give them an opportunity to meet and learn from the Bible. Png tries to get up there each week now, but feels unequipped to teach them the Bible. So that's why she was keen for us to go up and take a look and run a type of house group for them up there. It was really exciting to have an opportunity as outsiders of the Muu Baan to go in and have them allow us to teach them. It was a real privilege to be able to go there and be part of the first ever 'christian meeting' that any of these guys had ever gone to. There were 13 of us all up there that night, we sang some songs, John did a bible study with them, showed a short video, prayed a bit, and then dropped everyone back home (all of us in the one car of course). It proved a really interesting night though, as all of them up there speak northern Thai (which is actually quite different from central thai - which is what i'm learning). most of them can understand central, but can only speak northern, which proves interesting when you ask them a question but can't understand the answer, or the prayer requests they asking for. So obviously it was vital that Png was there too. All that aside, it was a great night, and even though it was hard to read the people there or gauge what they were thinking, Png told us that they are all wondering if we will be back this week, so i guess that's good :)

here are a few pics of the group as we met in someones one room wooden house :)

John & Png

Most of the group that i could fit into the shot

for those praying:
- pray for wisdom in how we can be involved with this ministry in the future - how often we will go up, what we will do with them etc
- pray for language so we can communicate with them better
- pray for all the new christians up there to build a solid foundation in the Gospel, and for all those who are interested in Christianity but not yet there, that God will open up their hearts to know Him

We ended up staying up there overnight, so spent the next day checking out a bit of Payao before heading back. It really is a pretty town with a huge lake and a few parks with various exercise equipment of which some i can't for the life of me work out what you're meant to do with it?!? :) haha

Payao Lake

had to include a self shot (haven't had one for a while)

rather weird 'rowing machine'??????

the heavier you are, the harder it is (not really)

ok, dodgy airwalker thing

a what the...?

quick update

2008-10-16T12:55:00.003+11:00

Just got back from a week and half holiday to Bangkok and Hua Hin with Denise, John & the kids. We had an awesome time chilling out, checking out some of the kiddie attractions in BKK (like the underwater world, kids museum - like the powerhouse museum etc) and then lots of beach and pool time. i'm sure that many of my thai friends will be rather appalled and by how 'dark' i've gotten (which isn't really that bad i don't think). Pretty amusing really.

with the kids

the view while eating breakky

However, even though away, i was able to keep in touch with a lot of happenings back here in CM too. Was chatting with my teacher one day and found out that one of the ex students Ju (real name Andrew) at the school passed away last week after being in a motor accident. He was an american missionary who was about 20yrs old. I didn't really know him that well, but we had gone for dinner a couple times with the teachers, we chatted at school and bumped into each other around the place. It was really sad news to hear, and for me a really big reality check as he had only been here for a few months more then me, had just finished his language learning and was really enjoying life here in CM and seeing what God had in store for him for the future. Needless to say, dying in a motor accident wasn't one of those things. Please pray for his family, friends who would have been really shocked and saddened by the news. Pray that even tho many of us don't understand why God would do this, that it is all part of God's plan and that somehow through this tragedy God will be glorified in it.

We just got back from our beach holiday last night, and this morning are off to Payao for a 'short term mission' for the next couple days. Since this is the first time that we're going, we'll just be doing a small bible study with them and using the time to observe and get to know them and see where they're at in their understanding of the Bible. Most of them are REALLY new christians, who've never really had the chance to learn the bible yet, but are really keen. The other thing that makes it difficult is that most of them are also illiterate. Please pray for John and Png as they take the 'session' tonight and for those of us who help, that we can be an encouragement to them. Our hope is that in the future, we'll be going to visit them regularly and doing regular bible studies with them. please pray for them as they grow in their understanding of the Bible, that they will be able to grow to a maturity in Christ

Sorry can only be quick right now. Off to Payao....

deb bai tiaw

2008-10-04T03:06:00.002+10:00

So bright and early tomorrow morning, i'll be taking off for a week and a half on an 'official' holiday with Denise, John & the kids. We're going to head to Bangkok for a few days before heading down to Hua Hin for a bit of sun and hopefully surf (not that i'm really in that much need of sun :) hehe). Then when we get back, we'll be heading up to Payao to do a 2-3 day mission, before getting back to the routine of things here in CM. On one hand, i'm really looking forward to getting away for a holiday and checking out parts of Thailand that i've never been to, but on the other hand, i'm already missing lots of my friends here that i won't get to see for 2 weeks. I know it's only 2 weeks that i'll be gone, but it's enough to make me wonder what i'll feel like when i actually leave here to head back to Oz (whenever that ends up being). I'm REALLY going to miss everyone here then!! There's just so much happening right now and some great relationships that i'm forming with some Thai friends. To have the Davies just come (our new team mates), to not see my teacher for 2 weeks is actually huge - since i worked out over the past couple months we end up hanging out, chatting on the phone or online about 15-20hrs a week, even though official 'school' time is 6hrs a weeks. That's like the equivalent of a weeks full time work!! i wonder what she's going to do with her time in the next couple weeks......:)

There's also heaps happening with my cell group in trying to appoint a new leader. i've never actually experienced appointing new leadership for a cell group in the way that it's currently happening. Where rather then actually having leaders available and then forming a group, the group split and has left one of the groups fairly 'leaderless'. It seems that we're going to 'vote' for our new leader, which i'm honestly finding a difficult task to do. If i were to base my choice of leadership on ways that we have chosen leaders in churches i've attended in Sydney, i'd say there isn't anyone there who is ready. There are several who have lots of potential, but really need to be trained up first. So, it should be interesting. For those who are praying, please pray for the cell group leadership. For wisdom for the group as they choose, and also for the future, for opportunities to be training upcoming leaders, and not just trying to 'plug holes' and putting people in charge who just aren't quite ready

Also please pray for us as we head on holidays - for safe travels, lots of R&R, and good family time.

hopefully will get to update a bit while on holidays :)

ANOTHER case of dengue fever

2008-10-02T01:52:00.002+10:00

Don't worry, it's not me that's come down with dengue fever, but poor Kim. It's actually the 3rd case of dengue fever in the past month with friends from church. Despite some really bad body aches and headaches in the first couple days, she's now feeling lots better apart from the constant ache in her left arm due to the drip and constant injections of medicine. Please pray for Kim as she recovers, that she will do so quickly and won't have to stay in hospital for too long.

However, the dengue fever has given her an 'extension' on doing her cell group sharing this friday. Personally, i reckon she should still do it, as we can all meet in her hospital room (she's in a massive room on her own) and in the next few days, she really has nothing better to do with her time :) haha the other option i'm encouraging is for the cell group to go visit her in hospital on friday night, then head over to the Holiday Inn hotel across the road for their friday night seafood buffet!! It's definitely THE BEST value seafood buffet that i've EVER been to! here's just a sample plate of what you can get :)

if you manage to come visit me over here and love seafood, i'll even let you take me out to dinner there :)

Sorry, got a little sidetracked there :) Back to Kim, please pray for her in her recovery from dengue fever, as well as for wisdom in her prep as she prepares to lead the cell group in the near future (yet to be determined).

In other news in the past week, have been doing a bit of stuff for Wycliffe Thailand of late, in helping with a bit of graphic design (yes, even that amuses me too cos i really have no idea what i'm doing), and being part of a team that's looking at doing some radio evangelism, through using people's testimonies as to how they came to Christ and how the Bible has impacted their lives. it's still early days yet, but it's also exciting to see Thai Christians taking the initiative to reach others with the gospel in ways that they've never tried. It's kinda interesting sitting in on meetings that i don't fully understand, but hopefully as time goes on, i'll start to understand more. It's been exciting for me though, to be able to show them some of the things that i've done in the past when i worked at TVS to get them even more excited about the possibilities of what can be done. Please pray for wisdom for Ajarn Chumsaeng, Pii Miu, Pii Tor as they think about the future of this project. Pray that i'll have wisdom in knowing how much to be involved and how i can be involved as well (they're keen for me to do as much as i can if i can).

anyway, thought i'd share some of the graphics that i've been doing for them tonight - they're needing a new foundation logo. What began as a logo looking like this

i've now done up a few options to look like this. Hope it's better :)

Cell Group Sharing

2008-09-25T02:24:00.004+10:00

Not being so keen to actually lead a study at my home group due to language limitations etc, my friend Kim was keen to lead a study on "Sharing your testimony and the gospel" which will be in a couple friday's time. While Kim was really keen to do it, she also was a bit lost as to where to start, what to say and how to make it 'enjoyable' for the group. So she's asked me to help her. So last Monday, we started preparing the study for the group. It was great to sit with her, think through issues of what is the gospel, what's the purpose of sharing a testimony or the gospel, what she wants the group to get out of the study and the things she wants to teach them. It's still early days in prep, but it's really exciting to see her so excited and enthusiastic about sharing with the group and trying to help them understand the gospel better and know how to share it with their friends and others they might meet.

for those who are praying, please pray for kim as she prepares the study for next week, for wisdom in teaching the group, for me as i help her with it, for the group as they learn, that it will be something that will be able to use frequently too :)

Sorry for the lack of pics etc recently. In all honestly, as time goes on, i'm finding myself being lazier and lazier with the camera. But here are a few snaps which i thought were pretty cool

Only available in Thailand (i guess)

the hair that i lost on my recent 'new look' haircut - photo of me coming soon

a rare sight in Chiang Mai. this rainbow was AWESOME

New Team Members

2008-09-18T16:22:00.002+10:00

Just a quick post to say that i'm very excited to have new team members come to join us today!! Woohoo!! :) One of the things that our team has been really excited but also overwhelmed about is the number of opportunities that keep being opened this year to be training others, to be starting bible studies, to be discipling people one on one. However, the biggest frustration is the lack of capable resources (ie manpower) to be able to do it. If only there were more hours in a day and days in a week - and if only i could speak fluently! So it's REALLY exciting for us to have the Davies come and join our team. The Davies (aka Ken & Kristy) have lived in Thailand for 4 years already, so hopefully their language is up to scratch (well, might need a little bit of brushing up as they get back into Thai culture after being back in oz for most of this year), but once they're all settled and set up, hopefully they'll be ready to join in on all the action and fun. It really is exciting to see the way that God keeps on providing for all our needs in various ways. God is GOOD!!

For those who are praying, please pray for the Davies as they arrive today, for a safe trip, for them to get settled easily, for them to find their feet here in Chiang Mai, and especially that through their lives and ministry, that God will be glorified. Pray for all of us as a team to 'gel' and for everyone to be able to work together as a team effectively.

Please pray for Noi and her family

2008-09-13T02:20:00.002+10:00

i'm still not sure what it is about Thailand so far, but the number of hospital visits and deaths is at times overwhelming. This week proved to be one of those weeks after Ai was hit by a motorbike earlier this week and just last night another friend, Noy, father was killed in a motor accident just last night. Noi and her surrogate mum Muay (who is also Noy's dad's older sister - if that makes sense) are Christians, however i don't think the rest of the family are. They're some our friends who came along to the church camp a couple months back. I don't really have a huge amount of detail at the moment about the accident or how the family are going, but obviously it'd be a shock to any family to unexpectedly lose a family member. Please pray for them all. For Noi & Muay to keep on trusting in God and his sovereignty through all this and that they'll be able to be a good christian witness for their non christian family members. Please pray for the rest of the family, that through this, it might be an opportunity for them to be thinking about God and become interested in wanting to know him.

Update on Ai - she's now out of ICU which is great. There doesn't appear to be any brain damage, but quite a few of her bones on her face (ie eye socket, cheek, nose) have been broken/shattered. Her leg is broken too, and obviously generally her body is pretty sore too. But thank God that there doesn't seem to be any 'major' long term damage, especially to her brain. Keep on praying for her recovery and for those who are looking after her. Also for her family that aren't christian as well.

Please Pray for Ai

2008-09-11T14:13:00.002+10:00

Ai is one of the girls at church who's currently in hospital after being hit by a motorbike while crossing the road after work on Wednesday. No one's sure of what exactly happened, but the short of it is, she got hit from behind by a bike which appears to have been going pretty fast due to all her injuries. She's was unconscious for a while, has got a broken eye socket, leg and swelling of the brain at the moment (not to mention things like all the bruising, lost skin etc that you'd expect as well). She's currently in ICU as the doctors monitor her head. Please pray for her, for no serious injury to her head, for a speedy recovery. Her family aren't christian, so please pray for them to be able to see the love and support that her church family are able to show at this time and pray that it will also open up opportunities for them to know you too.

Encouragements

2008-09-08T18:03:00.003+10:00

Each week, i meet up with Denise and John for a team meeting to share about how we're going, things that have happened in the past week (or longer) so we can pray about them, keep each other accountable, then we listen to talk (currently listening to a series from Ezekiel from the SMBC Principles Hour). As we met to chat last week, all of us were just really excited about so many of the things that are happening over here and the ways that we're seeing so many of our Thai friends so eager, keen and excited to be learning from the Bible and to be teaching it to others. It's been a long time in coming in many ways for Denise and John, and for me, i just think, i've come just at the right time to be able to witness all these exciting things happen, and for what i can do, be a part of it as well. I know for John & Denise, they're feeling really overwhelmed by so many opportunities that are popping up, and that they just don't have the resources (ie manpower) available to do everything that they would like to do.

This has also been a frustration for me as language is still my major limitation in being able to be a part of it all. But at the same time, i'm really amazed in the ways that God can still use you despite lack of language, and how many of the church people have been so encouraging and wanting me to be a part of so many things, despite the lack of language. A couple weeks ago, i was able to do another 'sharing' session with the music team at church. Last time (back in Jan) i had to have a translator, but this time, i thought i'd give it a shot without and limit myself to sharing what i could in Thai. VERY limiting, i know, but i was actually amazed as to how much i was actually able to communicate. I used a film from Ignite (A Great Light), then we looked up a few bible verses about what it means for us as Christians to be 'light' to this world, what it means to hold out the Word of Light and what our responsibilities as christians should be in holding out this light to the world. Then i sang them a song which they all wanted to learn at the end. they even had a go at trying to translate it too, so they could sing along.

Then just last week, there were a few other opportunities to catch up with some friends i hadn't seen for a while. In doing so, we ended up watching a selection of films from ignite, and it was really fun watching with them and then explaining to them afterwards what the film meant, various truths it might have been trying to bring out, or challenges for us as christians in the ways that we live our lives. i was seriously really surprised how much i was able to explain. then just other random opportunities to read the bible with friends to help them understand passages from Ephesians much better. It really was really exciting for me to realise that my language has actually come a lot further then i thought it had in the past few months (i hadn't felt like i've 'hit' that next level for a while).

Then a couple weeks ago, to my surprise, the music team kinda 'voted' me onto the 'team that helps organise the sharing sessions' for the weekly music team meetings. It really is an interesting way that they get people onto the various 'committee's around here but hey, that's just the way things are done around here, so i've gotta get used to it. But still, i have no idea why enough people voted for me to get me onto this group. Pretty amusing, but pretty scary at the same time. Anyway, we've already had a couple meetings which were 'interesting' but a good learning experience. Hopefully as i start to understand a LOT more of what's going on, i'll be a bit more helpful to them :) haha

anyway, seems like lots is still going on over here with lots of opportunities to be serve. Please keep on praying for all those we're ministering too, training up, working with over here. Also give thanks for another family - Ken & Kristy Davies who will be coming to join our team in a couple weeks!!! We're really excited to have more people come to be help us! :) Pray for them to be able to settle in well and that God will be blessing their ministries here too.

Radio Outreach in Thailand

2008-08-30T16:15:00.002+10:00

God continues to open up new opportunities over here. The latest is still in very infant stages at the moment, but one of the Christian organisations over here is keen to look at the possibilities of using Radio as a way of encouraging people to seriously consider the Bible.The plan is to try and reach 1. those who have never heard or read it in their lives, 2. those who might be christians, but have never read or see the importance of reading the bible because they don't know any better and have never been taught. As for how it'll work just at the moment is still to be determined, but the idea is to look at getting some testimonies from people who have really been impacted by God's word and to hear how their lives were changed when they did hear God's word/read the Bible.

There was one story i was told about a thai soldier who was ready to commit suicide by drowning in a river. However before he went through with it, he thought that he'd have one last meal. So he went and bought some fried banana's. While he was eating his 'last' meal, he noticed that the banana's he'd bought were wrapped in in paper that had some writing on it. Those 'pages' of writing were in fact pages from a Bible. As this guy read the writing on the pages, he realised that life was worth living, that there was a point to life. Since then, he became a pastor of a church and has has been on fire for God since. I believe now he's in his 80's and still serving God. I don't know what the passage of scripture was that he read that day, but i thought it was a great way of being reminded that it is God's word that changes people's lives. It's not necessarily about what we do or how well we do it. We just always need to be pointing people back to God's Word!

Anyway, it's been interesting to be once again thinking about possibilities of various types of 'media evangelism'. It really is still early days and i have no idea what role i can/will play with this, especially given my recent thoughts about how hard it would be to do any kind of multimedia recording/editing with my current language level. But it's exciting to be seeing Thai's passionate for the gospel and getting God's Word out there. If i can help with that, that'd be awesome. Please pray for those who are involved with the project, for wisdom, discernment and a continued love for God's Word

Why would anyone want to use my voice?

2008-08-25T02:21:00.002+10:00

So i discovered what real desperation is today when i got a call from a Thai friend who was trying to help out another friend find a 'native english speaker' to do some voice over work that needed to be done today for some online english teaching program that their company is developing. Having worked in media, i have a fairly good idea of what's needed for a job like that, and i know for a fact that i don't have it. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and i can now add 'voice talent' to my resume :) haha Pretty funny really if you ask me. I'm just waiting to meet some Thai kid in the street who speaks like me cos they've done this english course. Hmmmm.....actually, that's a very scary thought, but very funny at the same time. Whist at first, i thought of it as a whole new level of 'quality' that's acceptable over here, i then started to really think about the fact that if it was me trying to record stuff in Thai, i'm not so sure that i'd know the difference between a 'good' and a 'bad' take either. Really made me think, if i want to be doing anything in the lines of multimedia in the future over here, there's a LOT that i need to learn - and it's not just language!

frustrations.....

2008-08-23T03:01:00.003+10:00

Ok, so i still think it is God's clever way of forcing silence on you through lack of language. It really has been a really great way of sitting back, observing, absorbing and really getting a much better understanding of not only the language and culture, but also where the church is at and where Christians are at in their understanding of the Bible. The lack of language didn't really seem to bother me all that much in my first 6 months, maybe cos i really didn't understand all that much and i was just hanging onto any familiar words, phrases, concepts etc. But now, it's starting to feel like an annoying roadblock.

I know that i've still got a LONG way to go with language learning and understanding of the culture over here, but as i'm understanding more and 'almost' having the ability to say what i want to say (or find a way around saying the concept i want to say), i must say, my patience is also starting to get tested. There are just so many times i want to speak up, share my thoughts from the Bible, encourage friends to think more deeply about other aspects of the topic they're trying to learn about but may have missed the point on. But when i do speak up, i just feel like i keep hitting a massive brick wall in language - or lack thereof. No doubt it's turned into a huge motivator for my language learning, but there's also only so much a brain can take in at a time as well.

the other exciting (but frustrating for me) things that are happening over here are just the amount of awesome ministry opportunities that keep on arising over here - eg to start bible study groups, study the bible with people one-on-one, training up of Thai christians and partnering with them etc. To be honest, I just want to get in there and be a part of it all. But i can't. Best i can do right now is just go along, sit back, observe, try and pick up more vocab and build relationships. But i want to be able to do more!! i feel like everyone is getting on the train and taking off, but i'm still packing my bags and am not quite ready yet. i know that for some of the misso's here, it's taken almost 6 yrs for all these opportunities to come, so they've really had to be patient and wait. I'm just lucky enough to be able to ride off so much of the groundwork they've laid down over the years. But seeing them all go for it now, and me just not being ready is really quite....well....frustrating.

For those praying, please pray for patience, for continued language learning, but also give thanks for the many opportunities that are popping up all over the place. Pray that God will become known and glorified through it all

Couple of things to pray for

2008-08-18T00:46:00.004+10:00

The past few weeks/months in themselves seem essentially quite 'uneventful' - it's not like i've got to pat more panda's or met more royalty etc. I guess in some ways it's probably more a 'normal' life where your typical everyday things happen. But even though it doesn't feel that eventful at the time, it all eventually comes together at some stage where heaps of 'small' things, suddenly become 'bigger'. So there are a few things that would be fantastic to get your prayer on if you can:

1. School - Over the past few months, there have been a few problematic issues at the school. I don't want to go into much detail, but the essence of it is poor management skills which have led to many of the experienced teachers leaving and taking students with them, with not many new students coming. The short end of the story is that the future of the school is somewhat uncertain at the moment which for people like myself who have a student visa through the school, could potentially cause a few visa issues in the future should something happen to the school. Please pray for wisdom for me to know what is the best thing to do, to check out other school options (if i can change schools), or check out alternate visa options, or just pray and hope that nothing happens to the school. I'm not really sure what is best at the moment, but i'd really appreciate your prayers in this.

I've also had the opportunity to change school campus' in the past week. It wasn't my ideal at the time, but i was keen to keep on learning with my teacher rather then get a new one. It's only been a week so far, but so far it seems moving out to the new campus has given me some huge opportunities to get to know my teacher and a couple of the secretaries of the school heaps better as i eat lunch with them and pretty much hang out for a couple hours after the lesson. My teacher, Khruu Jai, is really cool too and we get on really well both in and out of the classroom. I'm hoping that there may be opportunities to study the bible with these guys during the week since the new campus doesn't really have an a formal weekly 'bible' time together. Please pray for opportunities to get to know Khruu Jai, Oar and Wao much better and for a chance to be a good witness to them too.

2. Cell Group - It's exciting to see and hear how the cell group that i've been going to has grown over the past 4 years. From a group of about 4-5 people 4 years ago, to a group of about 16-20 who meet each week now. It's an awesome group of people who get on really well together and are like family, but the size of the group has now become slightly problematic in places to meet as well as being able to invite new comers along and helping them fit in etc. So the plan is in place to split the group in the next few weeks. As much as everyone loves the group and doesn't want to split, it is encouraging to see that most of the group agree that it is a good thing to do and is best for the future. However, whilst everyone agrees it's a good way forward, no one is sure how to split the group or what. To be perfectly honest, It's frustrating at times to sit back and watch as they make try to make decisions and get everyone involved, but i'm also sure it's the way that things are done over here. i'm still really wary to put my hand up and offer advice, cos i just don't know if it's helpful or appropriate. Please pray for those making the decisions for the group, that they'll have wisdom to know what is best and be 'leaders' who lead. Please pray for Mac, Daa, Tor, Gunn & May as they make the decisions for the group and for the group too, that no one will feel bad with the way the groups splits etc, but that it will all be for the good of the group in helping them to grow as Christians and for everyone to be able to encourage each other more

Thanks for all those who pray and for your partnership through prayer. It's much appreciated and is also so powerful. will keep you posted on how all this stuff pans out