Thai-Style December

Shiny holiday baubles weigh down December for most in the Western world.  The holiday party at work, the neighborhood cookie exchange, the potlucks, the tree cutting and decorating, the white elephant gift exchange, putting up the lights, the school parties, buying the gifts, the mall runs, the gift wrapping...the list could go on and on.  The month that is supposed to be celebrating the Prince of Peace turns into a fleet of chaos, stress, and anxiety.

In Thailand, Christmas is different.  Christmas is only celebrated by Thai Christians.  Others have heard of the day, but have no idea of its meaning.  One of my Thai friends admitted, "Before I was a Christian, I thought Santa Claus was Jesus."  The positive side of this fact is that the celebrations that do take place are more centered on Christ. 

What if we took some pointers from the simplified, yet Christ-rooted Thai Christmas?  Here are three examples...




1.  Take a tradition like caroling. The students visited neighbors, shops, and other ministries, not only singing carols in Thai, English (and Feliz Navidad because it's catchy), but they also praying and encouraging the families they visited. 


2.  Parties.  Simple is okay.

 

 Just include the reason we're celebrating.

 

Worship and Christmas songs.

 Some prayer and thanksgiving for the past year.

 Plenty of silly games.

 And snacks...especially those that you have to eat blindfolded to win a game. 

3. Self-control...words only used with "no" or "none" in December for most of us born in America.  Can you believe, we actually had to work hard at giving away our Christmas cookies?  That was because everyone just at one! 

 Using knives as cookie cutters allowed us to be extra creative.   We had an elephant and a camel along with snowmen, trees, and the BJD house. :)

 The fun was in the making and fellowship.  

 Decorating.  Thanks to a team who left us with Christmas sprinkles!

 And admiring before giving them away. 

Woops...someone got anxious in tasting before the picture!  :)

Have a wonderful holiday!
And don't get too busy to remember...

The Prince of Peace whose birth we celebrate.

The Perfect King, the Perfect Father

 

The Thai King is loved and honored in Thailand.  And saying just that, is an understatement.   His birthday, also celebrated as Father's Day, is one of Thailand's biggest holidays. 

"Father" is a term that stirs mixed emotions in many Thais.  Many Thai children grow up with mom or extended family.  Stepbrothers, half-sisters, the mom of the older kids, the dad of the younger siblings, it's all family, and it's all the norm here.  One of the big consequences of sin is broken families. 

This fact has left a lot of people needing to hear that God is "Father to the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5), "compassionate and merciful" (James 5:11), and will never abandon for forsake us (Psalm 94:14).

A group of Buddhist Thais initiated a conversation at the park this Father's Day that led my friend to share how "God is the perfect King, and the perfect Father."  As good as any earthly, human father can be, God reaches infinitely beyond.  And he loves us as his children, wow!

 One of the beautiful things about this holiday is that it reminds families how life is "supposed to be."

The park was filled with the beautiful scene of fathers and children enjoying floating lanterns and watching fireworks light up the sky together. 

Thankful Day

Thanksgiving Day English Class

pumpkin pie, red juice, and thankful hearts

"On Thanksgiving in America, everyone shares one thing they are thankful for, so we're going to do that today in English class."  I explained and gave an example, "I am thankful for patient Thai friends to teach me Thai."

The students followed with,

I am thankful for....

                          "living here at BJD."

"learning English."

    "my close friend from America."

"my teacher."

"my father and mother and my friends."

"safe airplanes."

           "lunch."

"no floods in our area."

Following our thoughts of thankfulness, we were thankful for the delicious taste of pumpkin pie.  

 

What Sets Us Apart

Gif and me enjoying fresh coconuts

"Oh, my elbow hurts.  I think it's bruised."  Gif said as she rubbed the sore spot.

"What happened?" I asked.

"While I was on the bus the ticket lady accidently hit me with her metal ticket holder.  But, oh, that's okay.  I'll be okay.  She spoke very kindly and apologized.  I could see she felt bad.  Then I started eating a snack on the bus ride, you know, those twisted bread cookies.  Well, I offered one to the ticket lady.  She was so surprised because she had just bumped into me.  She thought I would be angry with her, but I gave her a snack instead."

Gif's bus story filled my heart with joy.  The beauty of loving with Christ's love is that it's not dependent on how others treat us.  It's a love that really stands out.

Okay

Not okay, but around the corner.

God willing, our new and more than okay space.

"We are looking for a permanent place, so we would only like to rent for 4-6 months."

"Okay."

 "So we couldn't sign a year lease."

"Okay."

"We would like to teach English classes and have meetings here."

"Okay."

"On Sundays we will meet to study the Bible and worship God."

"Okay. I went to a Christian school as a kid."

"Could we possibly meet as soon as next week?"

"Okay."

If this wasn't a God prepared conversation between us and the owner of the temporary ministry space, I don't know what one would have looked like.  The space is just down the street from the university, on a student's walk from the sky train to campus, and on street level, just what we were looking for.

Flood Relief

As much as I would like to say relief from the flood is in sight, some predict the water take 4-6 weeks to drain from people's homes in northern Bangkok.  As long as we can, we'll be helping in whatever way we can.  Today it looks like packing food to be taken to those in need.

The work began before the sun was up so that everything would be finished for a team to take it out by 10 a.m.

We bagged rice from about 7 pots this size.  It seemed to be never-ending for a while, but with many hands to help, the work was fun.  

 Each day has had a different menu. Today it was rice and fried pork.  Some of the bags got brownies too!

 A Koren news channel from Bangkok came to interview a few people and find out what we were doing.  If anyone is watching the news in Bangkok, look for my smiling face!  :)

 The pork was cooked outside.  (Usually there's no brick wall there, but it was built in front of the church in case the water comes this way too.  Climbing over it in a skirt to go to church yesterday was...interesting.)

After the pork was cooked, BJD students put it in bags to go with the rice. 

Tomorrow...

Prep for tomorrow's food has already begun.  We'll begin cooking and packing again at 6 a.m. tomorrow.

Outside, things look different...

 Our area is prepared, with many stores sandbagging their front windows and doors.  

Many places have gone to the extent of building new walls to guard the water.  For a few weeks, professional wall builders (a.k.a. anyone with bricks and mortar) was busy.

 

 Some people are sure it will come, others are beginning to doubt it will reach our area.  This 7-11 is prepared on the outside.  Inside, the isles are bare except for the odd things people don't want a lot of, and there's no guarantee bottled water will be available. 

In northern Bangkok, the reality of the flood is much more tangible. A few guys from my team went to help last week and will probably go again this week. 

Kanchanaburi

Here's a photo trip of our visit to Nid's home province...

We left early in the morning to catch a train to her aunt's house. 

 

On the 4 hour train ride, we slept, enjoyed the views, and sang/learned fun songs.  The kids on the train had free entertainment on this ride.  :)

 

 

The sights were beautiful and riding the train was a perfect way to see them.  Nid would ride this train everyday to go to school through middle and high school. 

 

Us and the family we stayed in front of their house.  

Don't they have a great view?!

 

We set up tents inside to sleep.  I would have chosen outside under the bright stars, but we were the guests and they wanted us inside.  

Out of this simple kitchen came a lot of great food.

 

Two of the boys went snail collecting for dinner one night.  

  

Here's what we gathered from the fields, papaya, bananas, lotus flowers, green eatable leafs, and the boys' contribution...snails.  The snails were cooked up in rice porridge and didn't taste fishy at all.  :)

 

The family wanted to make sure we ate well, so the boys were in charge of catching, killing, and defeathering 3 chickens.   They tasted good. 

  

 

The family we visited is still Buddhist, but the kids joined us for worship and Bible reading under a tree in the front yard. 

 We spent one afternoon at a lake near the family's house. 

  

Another day we went to "climb up the mountain."  

But...

We only got about an hour into it before people were joking that we were about to cross the Myanmar border and needed to head back.  :)

 At least we found a rock to climb,

 

jungle vines to swing, 

 and lots of great views.

 

Another day brought us to a Thai-style water park.

(a.k.a. waterfall)

 Gorgeous and giant!

 People were floating, splashing, jumping and exploring over the whole side of the waterfall. 

 

Near Nid's house is a clearing with a lot of wild monkeys.  I don't know why they gather there, but it was fun to see.  

 

One of Nid's neighbors was making these very intricate, traditional Thai hats. 

I'm glad I don't have to dance with this on my head...the Thai women who do are very talented!

We enjoyed fresh coconuts that were cut down by the aunt from a tree near her house.  They were filled with refreshing coconut water and soft flesh that could be scooped out with a spoon. 

 Even our Thai friends said they had never seen a bug so colorful.

 The fruit on some of the fruit trees is kept covered to keep bugs and birds out.

 Kids and puppies brought smiles to our faces the whole trip!