Promises and Homework

"When is God coming?" Asked my new friend as we waited for our weekly worship time to begin.


I gave her a puzzled look, wondering if I had heard her right.


"When is God coming?"  She repeated herself, looking around and seeming to expect someone with the name tag "God" to be showing up soon. 

She knew we were here to worship God, but she obviously wasn't sure what that would look like.  Most Buddhists worship things they can see or at least use shrines or statues as reminders.  There was a stark lack of golden images in the room. 

Simple worship at BJD

"He's already here." I responded.

Now it was her turn to give me the puzzled look.

"God is already with us.  He can hear our worship now."  I reiterated.  From there I was able to explain more.

This reminded me of my Thai homework.  In Thai class this week, I will have to share about God's promises. 

The one that comes to mind first is God's promise to be with us always, in Thailand,  America, the air between the two countries, or anywhere else. 

"I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Heb. 13:5) 
"I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Mat. 28:20)

In an effort to be a good student, learn some new words, and see where God would lead conversations, I decided to ask some of my Thai friends what promises come to mind first.  (Homework is as good as any reason to talk about God, right?) 

One friend said knowing he will go to heaven when he dies.  Without a moments thought, another guy said salvation.  One girl in my small group thought about God's promise through the beauty of a rainbow.  God's unconditional love also came to mind. 

As we reminded each other of these promises, a smile formed on each face.  What an amazing God we have!  The only God who can promise these things and carry them out faithfully, whether he's wearing a name tag or not. 

From Sister to Sister

BJD students enjoying dinner together.

7 Months Ago...

"A new girl is joining us at BJD."  One staff member told me.

"Have you met our new BJD sister?"  A student asked.

"She came last night."  Another student added.

"She's kinda quiet."  A third pitched in.

After two days of hearing about our new mystery student, I finally met P. 

As warned, I only got a few words out of her.  And I felt like I was pushing just to get that many.  I took the hint, tried to give her a warm welcome and then gave her some space.  Understandably, a dorm of 15 girls who know each other well and like to laugh loud, could be a bit overwhelming.

As time went on all the girls and I invited P to lunch, invited her to dinner, invited her to the market, invited her to watch TV, invited her to sit and chat, but P declined each invitation.  She preferred to spend time alone or sleeping.  "She's a tough one." An outside friend warned. 

We weren't daunted.

By month two, we knew the answer would be "no" before an invitation was extended, but we kept inviting.  I don't know if it was more of a cultural thing, or if it was our only way to try to make P feel included, but we did.  Maybe what gave us hope was that every once in a while, in a long long while, she would agree to join.  Probably because she had run out of food in her room, but the reason didn't matter to us. 

On arrival at BJD, P wore a Buddhist bracelet around her thin wrist.  The bracelets are  given for long life and good luck.  I'm not really sure when, but it eventually disappeared.

And she, like all students at the dorm, attended Bible class twice a week.  While she showed up grudgingly at first, God, like he so often does, was at work. 

This past week he did something really special.

"It's hard to explain, but there were many things.  The main thing is that I know is that God loves me a lot, more than anyone else in the world."  P shared.

P has gone from dorm sister to eternal sister.  We are all praising God and celebrating with her!

This morning while eating breakfast together, our younger sister joked along with all the other girls.  Smiles extended around the table.  Christ's freedom and joy was abounding. 

Kids' stories aren't just for kids!

The silly girls I live with...wouldn't trade them for anything.  :)

"Julia!  Can I come visit you?"  Wi asked, opening my door before sound could leave my mouth. 

"Ooh, your room is hot too."  Wi said, as she came in.  "What are you doing?"

"Translating a Bible story to teach the children at church on Sunday."

"Can I read too?"

"Sure."  I responded, handing her the teacher's book of stories. 

We sat on my bed, fans blowing the hot air around the room and flapping the pages of our books.  Wi read story after story out loud but to herself, insisting I get my work done and only occasionally stopping to ask how to pronounce a word or its meaning.  I occasionally did the same, asking the difference between two verbs that seemed interchangeable or the correct phrasing for a sentence.

After a while, Wi turned to another story.  "This one is from Genesis 26."  She stated.  "What's a 'well' and why were Isaac's ne-i-ber-s...a-r-gu-ing?" She asked, but quickly followed with, "I'll read and find out." 

Soft murmuring came from the other side of my bed.  Her petite finger ran across the lines of the story, brow intermittently wrinkling under her short, black bangs as she stopped to examine a word. 

"Hmmm."

I looked up, noticing Wi was finished with the story.  "So, why were Isaac's neighbors arguing?" I inquired.

"They wanted Isaac's well. But Isaac didn't want to ar-gue, so he built another one and then another one. He wanted to be their friend."

We sat quietly for a moment.

"I'm going to go now."  Wi stated, rather abruptly.  She paused, seeming to think about the stories she had been reading.  "God encouraged me to not argue with my friends."

"Good." I said, marveling at the way God just used a kid's bible story and my prep time to remind us of a lesson we often forget, even as adults. 

The door closed, and I was left alone to translate the rest of the story for Sunday school.

"Ar-gue?"  Wi called back, checking to make sure she was remembering her new word.

"Argue." I confirmed, smile widening across my face. 

Welcome First Years!

"Are you a Christian?"  Mec asked me only minutes after the first-year student sat down to visit with us on his first day school. We had already asked the usual, name, subject studying, from where questions. 

Now it was his turn.  "I've been a Christian for a couple of years, but I don't have any Christian friends."

"Well, you've come to the right place." We responded.

Obviously this was a God moment in bringing Mec to our table.  The university was crawling with new students and crowded with tables set up advertising many different clubs.  Over a game of Uno, we had the chance to talk about the importance of fellowship, when we have worship at BJD and how Mec heard about the BJD community.  I am hopeful that God will raise Mec up to be a strong leader and devoted disciple. 

 As you can see, a lot of students came for orientation.  

And this is just half of one of the 10 classroom buildings!  

 A lot of people, a lot of potential relationships, 

and a lot of lives for God to impact.

BJD Family Outreach Kanchanaburi

Jerng came skipping out of the shoreline jungle using a vine as a jump rope.  A couple students disappeared into the same opening, looking for eatable plants to cook up for dinner.  Three frogs and two fish had already been caught for the same purpose.  Our time on the house raft was spent building unity between our family of students and staff at BJD.  It looked like this...

 

 Watching in amazement as that little boat pulled our two house rafts, holding 40 people, up the river to the place where they tied us off.

 In groups, we took turns cooking on board.  Then washing the dishes in the river.

 Eating, playing games, and everything else by lantern, candle, or flashlight after dark.

 Enjoying God's creation in the beautiful, cool mornings.  

Face washing, teeth brushing, and bathing, all happened in the water around us. 

 Small group quiet times. 

 

Floating down the river together.  Even those who couldn't swim well enjoyed this adventure as we floated with the current, got rained on by a waterfall, and dodged boats passing by.

 

 Water games!

 We had two rules on the boat:

1. Listen to staff

2. No showing off

(I'm not sure if this counts as showing off or not)

 

 Time to talk, relax, connect with the girls I live with.

 Time to build relationships and go deeper than the quick "How are you?"

Praying together and listening to our speaker remind us of the meaning behind the name of our house, House of One Heart = unity.  Unity is what people on the outside should see when they look at us and our relationships. 

 

Part 2 of our outreach was to a couple of the student's families and a ministry in Kanchanaburi...

At Nid's house we visited with her parents, at tiny sour oranges, and met some of her neighbors. 

 

 At Faa's house, we sang karaoke with her dad and younger sister, prayed with her family, visited a neighbor, and talked with Mom.  

 Tom climbed up a coconut tree to get us a snack, and a herd of goats wandered by the house in the midday sun.

 

This is the church at the Kanchanaburi ministry we visited.  It is surrounded by tapioca fields, mountains, and beautiful scenery.  The staff here, a Thai couple, have been ministering to the community since 2003.  His parents have become believers through seeing their son's faith, and soon they would like to begin working in her family's village by the Myanmar border. 

 

 We are all flexible when it comes to getting around here...this truck usually holds vegetables but also transports water jug, animal, and a bunch of us!  

 

With weather up to 101*F, the ice cream man did good business when he drove his motorcycle ice cream cart into the driveway. 

More Pictures!

 Worship time in the morning and evening, led by different students each time.  It's awesome to see students discovering and growing the gifts God has given them. 

 Two things about Thai culture that go really well together:

1. Bring snacks everywhere you go

2. Always share

 English games.

Team building games... Each team had 6 pieces of string and had to make something that could hold this soccer ball.  Then they had to use their contraption to carry the ball around the boat, over the railings, and back to the starting point. Great teamwork!

Throughout the day, long wooden boats like this would come up to our raft to sell fruit, noodle soup, bags of chips, and anything else they could fit in their boat.

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.

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.  

 

Dirt Cake Mind Explosion

Celebrating Karl's Birthday

Most of the students I live with have a hard time thinking outside of the way things have always been done.  If I try to cut the watermelon the fat way instead of the long way first, my knife is taken away, and I'm shown how to do it "correctly."

I decided to challenge their ideas of brownies for my friend's birthday.  Brownies are the students' favorite dessert, so to mess with a favorite, could have been a bad idea. 

We began by baking two pans of brownies as usual, and then we made "chocolate yogurt" (a.k.a. pudding).  I don't know the real word for pudding and none of my Thai friends had any better word for it so we settled on "chocolate yogurt."  Sounds gross but tasted delicious.  Next we crushed the Thai version of Oreo cookies into dirt-sized pieces. When no one was looking, my American friend and I sneaked (I really want to write 'snuck' but I don't think it's correct) away with the brownies and pudding. 

In a room with the door closed and locked, we crumbled the brownies (how dare we do such a thing?!) and layered them with the pudding in a plastic flower pot.  The cookie dirt was sprinkled on top making it look surprisingly a lot like a pot of soil. 

Gummy worms couldn't be found, so we settled for gummy french fries.  (Who knew such a thing existed!?)  They looked enough like worms though.  To top it off, we picked a flower from a bush next to the dorm and stuck it in the middle.  

When the happy birthday song was being sung, I brought the cake out.  Laughing broke out, mouths dropped open, fingers pointed, and everyone began asking, "Is it real?" 

 

I think the cake went over alright because this is what was left after about 10 minutes, even though the brownies weren't in the pan as they should have been. 


My primary goal is to glorify God by making his name more known here in Thailand.  Sometimes that looks different than I would have guessed.  Sometimes it looks like challenging people to think outside of what they grew up thinking.  I tried this with brownies, but the same thing goes for traditional beliefs.  The step from thinking the God of the Bible is a western story to thinking He might really exist and change lives is enormous and something to celebrate.