Getting the Creative Juices flowing

One of the things I love about being here is the opportunity to try out lots of random things that I never thought i'd ever do, or even thought that I could do for that matter. It's amazing what you can actually do when you put your mind to it, have a bit of time, and are able to buy parts cheaply so mistakes aren't too costly. I was actually kinda impressed with our efforts last month in making our purple monster puppet, who has now been given the name Peepo, by watching a few 'how to' videos on youtube. At the time, we had also come up with a rough design for a puppet theatre too, but for a whole host of reasons we never got round to making it. But after Peepo made his debut in church a couple weeks back, we realised just how much more effective Peepo could be if he had a 'proper' puppet theatre so he could actually interact with the kids. So this past week, we finally set aside a few hours to try and make our concept a reality. After an amusing start where we realised that our 1.5m wide puppet theatre could in fact fit about 4 puppets, we made a few adjustments to the design and here's the end result. Peepo's theatre. Hopefully making it's appearance this Sunday.


The demountable frame made of water pipes and connectors


A bit of dodgy sewing, but it does the job


And voia, Peepo's new theatre

Hanging with Friends

It just occurred to me the other day that I haven't actually posted anything on this blog since the beginning of the month. As I stopped to think about why that is, I realised how non-stop this past month has been with various visitors and relationship building with Thai friends.


Dinner with the SMBC team at Goong-Ga-Ta

It was really exciting to be able to spend some time with the SMBC team while they were here on mission. I got to catch up with the team and share a bit about life here over a dinner and a lunch. On the teams last night I also ended up assisting some of the boys in living out their childhood fascination of lighting fireworks. It was exciting to be able to have the girls from the team come and spend a few days with me after their mission finished. Despite one of them somehow managing to get the childhood disease of hand, foot and mouth disease while she was here (so needing to rest up big time), i had heaps of fun hanging out with them, being able to give them a glimpse into my life here, introducing them to a few of my Thai friends, taking them along to my bible study group and even being able to join them in a Thai cooking class at my friend's cooking school, as well as a bit of time to chill out. Having the girls here brought back great memories of being back at college, great fellowship, silliness, food, encouragement, but sadly, no practical jokes :)


Thai cooking with the girls


the girls showing off their thai cooking skills


Suitably amused that the display at Chiang Mai airport was promoting koalas in Chiang Mai

Lots of my other time has also been spent building relationships and hanging out with lots of Thai friends. It's been great hanging out with lots of old friends, but i've also really been loving getting to know and some of the neighbours heaps more as well as well as spending time with some new Thai friends like P'Fon and her family. It's been a real blessing being able to spend time with them, be really encouraged by their wisdom and desire to serve God. It's also been heaps of fun just being able to hang out with them.


Hanging with P'Fon

For those who pray:
- Praise God for the opportunity to spend time with the SMBC this month
- Praise God for all new and old relationships with Thai friends
- Pray for wisdom in continued relationship building, that it will be godly and help others to know God more

What's an 'average week'?

It's really hard to describe an average week, or even an average day here for that matter. While there are a few constants, like 3 language lessons a week, cell group fri night, worship team on saturday night, and church all day sunday, every week seems to throw in some new random challenge - of late we've had 'the accident' with the motorbike, Jas breaking her leg, as well as other Thai friends who have needed some help with various stuff. Other weeks i need to visit the lawyer or immigration to sort out work permits and visas etc etc etc. On what feels like the odd occasion when there are no pressing 'emergencies', I tend to easily find things to keep me occupied. Usually this means hanging out with friends, doing some bible study prep, helping church with things like buying a new guitar for church, spending time with visitors, trying out new random recipes for 'lucky' friends, chatting with the neighbours, playing Words With Friends, and occasionally I also get to chill out with my guitar. It's amazing how quickly time just passes by. So in short, I don't think there really is an 'average week'. But that's also how I love it. It's nice having a bit of randomness thrown in each week to keep me on my toes and stop me from getting bored.

Here are a few random pics of the past couple weeks:


Enjoying the clearest views of Chiang Mai that i've ever seen from my friends place


Partying with the Church Worship Team


Language lessons with Khruu Jai


Enjoying the rare sight of a double rainbow


Attempting to make my first Thai dessert - Kanom Chun

Meet our new team member

A few weeks ago, Denise and I decided that we were in need of some new puppets to help do kids ministry. So after a bit of research on google, we decided that we'd attempt to make our own monster glove puppets. A trip to Kad Luang, we managed to source all the odds and ends we needed to make the puppet, it was just a matter of finding some time to create it. So this morning, we thought we'd give it a crack and here's the result. Must say, i'm pretty impressed with the final product. Just need to come up with a good name for him :)


From humble beginnings of being a piece of hairy purple material


to taking form - still trying to work out how to do hair and eyebrows


to trying on various clothes


Here's the team of creators


And finally, here's our newest team member!

My first visitors

Last week I was pretty excited to have my first visitors come to stay with me. My Thai friends Tong and Air came to visit from Khorat en-route to visit some of the uni student who have moved up to study in Chiang Rai.

with Tong & Air

Not only did my guest room finally get initiated, I got to take them around Chiang Mai, help them do a bit of networking with some other christian workers up here before we all went up to Chiang Rai for the weekend to hang out and encourage the uni students. It was a great weekend of catching up, laughs, food, lots of markets and encouragement with lots of great conversations especially in the car on the way up and back from Chiang Rai.


With Air, Tong & Som


At the Chiang Rai Walking Street Markets with Som, James & Shem


Monkeying around

Apart from catching up and having fun, it was a great encouragement and reminder of the different ways that God is working in other areas in Thailand. I was also really challenged to be in thinking about how to be encouraging fellow Thai workers who live in a different city and start considering logistics and possibilities of training Thai Christians in other areas of Thailand. Still a long way to go with those thoughts, but good to be keeping it in mind.

This past weekend, i had my second visitor come stay with me. Was great to spend a couple days with Emily who is the daughter of a college friend. It was fun to give her a small taste of life in Thailand and share about some of the needs here.



I've now got a weekend of rest from visitors before the SMBC team come!

For those who pray:
- praise God for the opportunity to spend time with friends and be an encouragement to each other
- praise God for safe travels
- praise God for a place where i can have friends come and stay
- pray for wisdom in thinking about future ministry opportunities

The neighbours

One of the things I was really praying for was for some good neighbours who I could build relationships with and be a good witness to. Over the past week, I've been able to meet quite a few of the neighbours as I walked the 200m to the community washing machines. I'm really excited about the opportunities to be building relationships with them all. Already I've had a chance to share the gospel with a couple of them as we simply chatted about what I'm doing here, where I work and what I studied back in Australia. I am also really thankful for my P' Chern, my immediate neighbour who is really friendly, helpful and open to chatting about anything and everything. Not only has she given me a run down on all the various neighbours in the street, and introduced me to several of them. Over the past couple days, we've ended up chatting over the garage wall or in the street for a couple hours which has been really fun. Today as we were talking, she was asking me what I do in my language lessons. I told her that it depends on each week. Sometimes it's just reading grade 2 stories, but weeks that I have to teach the Bible to my cell group, I get my teacher to help me prepare the lessons in Thai. To that, she said if i ever need any help in reading the Bible in Thai, to go and ask her and she'd love to help. I was kinda shocked at the offer as she is a Buddhist and wasn't thinking she'd have any interest in helping me teach the Bible, but who knows what this could lead to. Please be praying for P' Chern and further opportunities to be sharing the good news about God with her.

I also met another neighbour yesterday too, P' Paa, who is a Christian. I'm not sure which church she goes to, but am excited about the opportunities we might have to encourage each other.

So, lots to give thanks for in terms of the neighbourhood so far! Still many neighbours I'm yet to meet, but so far, lots of opportunities.

What next?

I'm not even going to begin trying to get through all the details of the past week - and who knows what's to come? This past week has felt like one big roller coaster adventure ride with extreme ups and downs that seem to be never ending. I kind of feel like i'm only just hanging on right now, but at every step along the way, I have been amazed to see God's hand at work, and despite the fact that crazy situations keep rearing their head, I'm looking forward to seeing how God will use the latest.

So...in brief summary....the highs and the lows

Motorbike accident update - things are probably the best that they could possibly be given the situation. The lady is making a good recovery at the moment after being moved to a different hospital. We've been able to form a good relationship with the lady and her family, and they're happy for us to visit, in fact have asked to visit and not be strangers to them. My sister even had an opportunity to pray with the lady last Saturday, so that was a huge praise point. The 'saga' is still far from over as we still need to follow routine of meeting with this lady and the police one last time once she is out of hospital so the police can 'close the case' and we can finalise insurance, but we're hoping this will be fairly straightforward, and it's nice to know that the policeman has been really sympathetic to our side and will make sure there's a fair settlement at the end.

Amazing opportunities - Today at my nephews birthday party, my sister and i were talking to my sister's landlord and neighbour who are both good friends. After years of relationship building and prayer for them to come to know Jesus, today we saw a massive step forward in both of them keen to send their kids to church. The parents themselves aren't yet ready to go, but it is a huge step forward to hear them being open to their children going. Huge praise and prayer point!

Tonight, our team got hit with another bombshell - Jasmine, the youngest daughter of our team mates who is only 20 months old, had a fall in the kitchen and managed to break her femur. Poor thing is now in a full hip spica for the next month. Who knows what God has planned for this latest accident but for me, i'm really appreciating the gift of singleness and freedom to be able to go and help people at a moments notice. Don't know what's going on right now, but i seem to have had quite a few emergency calls from friends in the past couple weeks to take kids to ballet, to babysit for the night, to baby sit while parents are at the ER etc etc etc. Think it's time to start a Dial-a-Dweb emergency service! But it is a real blessing to be able to serve others.

Also had a great opportunity to be sharing about Jesus with another neighbour today. Despite all the downs, i'm really excited about the opportunities that God might have in store over here. Keep praying that i'll take hold of these opportunities and that I'll keep trusting God, not matter what happens next.