A Bunch of Burts

Kudos to those of you who also memorized “The Jabberwocky” by Lewis Carroll in 7th grade. For some reason, I can remember that poem in its entirety, even though it has served no useful purpose in my life other than completing the poem memorizing assignment in 7th grade English class, and giving me a source of fun and odd words for various occasions.

So I have to ask myself, why I am able to remember this nonsense poem with apparent ease when I struggle with memorizing God’s Word? What better to memorize than the Living Word of God, His Scripture, our Sword of the Spirit? Even verses I know I knew, seem hazy and distant. I find it must be a constant effort and application on my part to fill my mind with those Words of Life.

Not so with more inane info and tidbits. Again from 7th grade, I can recite, in alphabetical order no less, all the prepositions. As well as all 18 forms of the verb ‘to be’. Now, in defense of my 7th grade teacher, those did actually come in handy for me while I was in language school and had to diagram sentences in other languages (with a loose translation to help me).

While we still lived in the States, our kids greatly enjoyed being part of an AWANA program. Although they truly did learn those verses then, I think they would be hard pressed to pull them out for you on demand now. We are working with the kids, and ourselves as well on memorizing Scripture together. To train our minds to absorb God’s Word.

Surely the ablility to retain obscure movie quotes, commercial jingles and useless facts such a what the first product marketed by Sony was, while at the same time struggling to have Bible verses at my recall is absolute proof that my mind is fallen and my heart is desparately wicked!

Now that we are studying Thai, I wish I could push out some of that old stuff to make room for the new. Some words I just have a mental block with. You think that after a year and a half I would have a handle on the difference between salt (gleua) and afraid (glua).

No thank you, I do not want to eat that, it is salty
Not the same as:
No thank you, I do not want to eat that, it is scary
Ok, either one of those could work when presented with this as a snack.

Look! There is a bag of little fried larvae ready for you to buy and snack on too.

Perhaps it is because, at heart I am lazy. I use a computer program to act as my concordance and help me find verses, I just cannot remember where they are. Perhaps, if I am honest, it is not important enough to me. Maybe I have lived such an easy life, that I take for granted having ‘helps’ available to me, having Scripture available to me.

Eeek, more evidence of my sinful nature.

But God is good and faithful, even when I am not.
2 Timothy 2:13 “If we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny himself.”

And I can take comfort in His words to Moses.

Exodus 4: 11-12 “So the LORD said to him, ‘Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes the mute, the deaf, the seeing, or the blind? Have not I, the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say.’ ”

Thank you Lord for using me, a sinful woman who too often seeks her own way, but a redeemed saint whom the LORD can use for His purposes, in His way and allows, encouraged and indeed, enables me to renew my mind each day through Christ.

So many asked similar questions on my giveaway post, I thought it would be more expeditious to answer them all here in a brand new post instead of you trying to wade through all the comments for my answers.

We have been living in Thailand for nearly a year and a half now. We have spent the majority of that time in full-time language study. Learning Thai has proven to be one of the hardest things we have ever done.

Our first night in Chiang Mai. Do we look as tired as we felt?

We live in Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. Bangkok is of course the largest, and to be honest it is too large to considered merely a city. It is a mega-city. There are more people living in Bangkok than in our home state of Washington. Yikes. But the most we have seen of Bangkok is the airport. We arrived there, slept there, and heading straight up to Chaing Mai. I did take my mom back to Bangkok when she came to visit last year and we took a taxi to the guest house from the airport and back the next morning, so there you go, I have seen some of the streets in Bangkok. Enough to know I am not interested in trying to drive around the city myself.

We have yet to go to any of the beaches here. They are all in the southern region, and so far our trips have taken us to the NE. Here is a look across the Mekong River at Laos from Nakhom Phanom.

We love the food. More specifically, I love the food. Well, most of it anyways. I have yet to find a curry I do not like, but particularly like the green kind. Coming from the western sterotype of Thai food, I found out only one of my assumptions/learned expections was correct. Thai food is spicy. If it is not served spicy, most will season thier plate with dried chilis. However, peanut sauce is not the quintessential flavor here, in fact, I have only found two things that really have the flavor of peanut sauce that I was expecting. Go figure.

Do we eat Thai-style? Sort of. The kids eat Thai at school every day, so I often prepare a western style meal for them at home. But even when I do prepare Thai at home, it is my western version, with probably twice as much meat as an average Thai family would use. And not as many unidentified greens. I am branching out in that area. I have even found that I like some of them, alot. Kiddos are a different story.

A popular way to BBQ here. Mmmm tasty meat and a yummy soup being made at the same time. A fun and social way to eat!

Wierdest thing I ever ate? Believe me, it was unintentional. We had not been here very, and visited the food vendor at the front of our muubaan (neighborhood), who sold a variety of curries. One had what appeared to be black tofu in it. I eat tofu and assumed that it had been soaked/marinated in some kind of sauce, perhaps even the sweet black soy sauce that I really like. I bought a bag for my oldest daughter and I to share. We tentatively tasted the ‘black tofu’, but were a bit put off by the flavor and texture. I was seriously beginning to doubt that it was tofu at all.

It was not.

I asked a friend about it, and after thinking for a while realized that it was indeed not tofu, but congealed blood. Blood dried in a pan and then cut into neat and tidy squares, fooling me into tasting them. Needless to say, I have not tried it again. No thank you.

(You don’t really want a picture of the blood do you? )

We do drive, although we did not have a car for about 6 months. I was quite nervous about it as it is on the opposite side of the road as the States. Traffic patterns certainly are different, but you get used to them.

Not too long ago, even just 5 or 10 years, there were hardly any supermarkets like most of us are used to. Nearly all the grocery and daily shopping happened at outdoor markets. Those markets are still there, but we also have stores that are comparable to WalMart and major grocery stores.

I love going to the markets however. They are much more fun, produce and meat are fresh fresh fresh and you can even pick up dinner. I have one market I like to shop at, and one vegetable stall in particular. It is great to be able to build a relationship with people and be a regular customer.

This is my local market. It is always busy and exciting. You will never know just what you will find there.

But of all the answers we have learned living here, we already came with the most important one.

We know the answer to eternal life, we know the answer to salvation, we know the answer to peace with God. And the answer we have is why we are here. As missionaries, we want to get to know the people as individuals, to understand their culture and worldview, to see the world through their eyes.

Our neighbor giving a food offering to the local monks in return for a blessing and merit.

Thailand is 99% Buddhist. Buddhism and its worldview is part of every part of daily Thai life. But it is not the answer.

This is Doi Sutep the largest temple in Chiang Mai and one of the most revered in all of Thailand

The reason is to connect them with to share the answer we have, Christ.
He is the only answer that matters, and He is why we are here.
Of course we have days when we want to go home, when we are tired of being the outsider, of struggling to communicate, of being misunderstood and question our being here. Can we really do it? Lord, is this really what you have for us? We feel so inadequate and helpless.
His answer is: Yes, I have brought you here.
Rest in Me, keep your eyes on Me, allow Me to live out My life through you.
Child you already know The Answer, share with the people of Thailand, people I made and created special, people I love just as I love you.

So here we are, ordinary people serving our Lord, in His strength each day, eager to share the answers found in Christ with a nation who is seeking truth.

Many of you have asked if you can pray for us. Yes, please pray for us.
Pray for our walk with the Lord and that our focus would remain on Him.
Pray for the people of Thailand, that the Holy Spirit would be at work in their hearts, preparing them to hear and recieve the salvation of Christ.

Last month, we took the oppourtunity to go to the annual family weekend camp with our church here in Chaing Mai. The church’s name, Saisanpan, means fellowship, and that was exactly one of our goals in going to this weekend. We desire to move past being the ‘farangs’, the westerners at church, and begin to be one of the membership there, to be thought of as belonging.

We knew this would not be an easy weekend going in, but felt confident God would bless this weekend for us, and help us to build on the buds of relationships that we have begun.

Before we left, we briefed the kids on what to expect. Firstly, no English! Yikes! This would be an immersion weekend, for all of us! Second, I had no idea about the menu being planned, but cetainly it would be relatively inexpensive (translate : veggies and tofu!) and very ‘authentic’. Third, we would not be hanging out with the kids weekend. Usually at church, I go with them and help to translate and encourage interaction with the other kids. We were leaving them to their own devices this weekend.

Ok, we did make a concession for breakfast. I bought 6 bagels, for the kids, enough for them each to have one each morning for breakfast. Greg and I were committed to eating whatever was served, but I knew the kiddos were not jazzed about rice for breakfast.

Ema is much happier with her bagel than kaw dom, rice soup.

Leah actually decided to eat what they served for breakfast. We are so proud of her adventurous taste buds! She had rice soup and leftover curry for breakfast each day and also bravely ate whatever else was being served for meals. Way to go Leah!

Since we have a truck, Greg helped to transport all the needed supplies up to the camp facility earlier in the day.

What kind of camp would it be if there was no sports equipment? Too bad for us it rained the whole weekend

Perhaps I should clarify. When I say camp, I do not mean a conference or retreat center. The kids asked what resort we were going, clearly coming off our week at our own mission conference still! The location was perfectly adequate, but not what any of us had imagined. It was an agricultural research facility, that both teaches and studies various planting methods. It does therefore have a fairly large meeting room and two sleeping rooms, one for the boys and men and one for the girls and women.

Overall, our time was well spent! Praise the Lord for the chance for our kids to just hang out and play with the kids from church. In general, at church on Sundays, they segregate both out of fear of trying to communicate and the unknown. But this weekend, especially the girls, seemed to connect with each other. We hope it carries over to church this weekend.

Especially helpful for us was that everyone wore name tags! Ok, so they were in Thai, but if someone stood still long enough, we could figure out thier name. Most of the time.

This family we know. It is the pastor, Boontip, his wife Philene, and his two daughers. Philene is also our language teacher.

We were awfully tired by the end of the weekend, but were encouraged by the time we had there. Both Greg and I felt as though some friendships were begun and other improved, as we had more time to chat and get to know some of the other members of the church.

Me and my friends, Pin and YuPin. No comments about pink sweater over my black and red shirt. It is very tame compared to some of the outfits I have seen here! And besides, it was cold that weekend!

How is this for a cultural difference. Here is Greg to take you to the kitchen to wash your dishes after each meal.

There are four tubs, one super soapy, one somewhat soapy, one mostly plain, and one rinse.
Never mind the dogs at your heels looking for the scraps!

The other week at church, as I was sitting with a small group of ladies, they were having a conversation about serving God. One was concerned that she is just a maebaan, she just cooks and cleans. She said that she enjoys cooking, but was worried that she was not serving God.

The lady who was asking this question regularly makes lunch for the church, serving many with her talents.

How does one serve God?
“And what ever you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord, and not unto men” Col 3:23

Up to this point, I had merely been listening, fairly confident I was understanding what they were saying. But then they turned to me and asked me what I thought. I told them that Peter’s mother served our Lord by providing food and accomodations. I said that anyone who loves the Lord can serve by doing their work for Him. (At least I am pretty sure I said that!)
I think this is one of the great things about our God. He does not ask us to do anything else other than what He puts in front of us each day, and calls it service to Him. We have a dear friend who is a mailman. He sees his job as an avenue daily into the lives of others and uses each opportunity presented to Him to glorify the Lord and make Him known. His ministry is not one that would come to the minds of most people when they think about what ministry options are available, but it is a vibrant one none the less.

As we are here studying Thai, sometimes we get frustrated that we are not ‘ministering’ in the way we would like. We are not teaching Sunday School, leading Bible studies, discipling new believers. Our language is not up to that yet.
Our Gracious God, using what gifts He has given us, readily presents us with chances to serve Him and minister.
In a land where many people do not have ovens, my love of baking has given many chances to minister. Our neighbors have come for several baking lessons, giving us chances to talk and share why we are here. And this past Sunday I made a birthday cake for the family that ran the small house church we were attending.

My first attempt at lettering a cake in Thai!

Sometimes, when we struggle to find words to build a relationship or chit chat to make friendly conversation, a gift of cookies or brownies goes a long way!

At my friend Kathy’s blog, she talked of her husband’s blend ministry. He enoys making blends and giving them away, thereby spreading joy and brain freezes. He tongue in cheek calls it ministry, but I do in sincerity. When you are able to let the joy of Lord flow out of you, whether through a Smoothie 2000 machine or a chocolate cake, and it gives those around you a chance to see the love of the Lord, your service is sweet both to the Lord and others!