Happy Resurrection Day!

Our team is getting an extra-long Easter because we are crossing the international dateline.  We left early on Easter morning (just after midnight on Saturday) and are arriving at noon at SFO.  So… Happy Resurrection Day!  I (Steve) am posting this from Incheon Airport and you’ll probably read this on Easter sometime.  So here are some final reflections from our trip, at least final for this blog.

We spent Saturday morning at an elephant park.  

For the afternoon we finished packing.  We had take out for dinner at Joe and Yumi Chongsiriwatana's house.  Joe has been serving with ZOE International working with children rescued from human trafficking.  But he's leaving at the end of May to start a new ministry, Thai Word.  It's a bold move of faith, which I'll explain later.  

In a conversation with Bob on the way to Chiang Mai, he likened the Christianization of a country to time on a clock. The US is post-Christian, so it's midnight, pretty dark times. Korea is getting past its prime so it's 8pm. Thailand is just starting to open up, starting with the hill tribes. It's 10am. When I mentioned this metaphor to Joe, he thinks that it's even earlier, more like 6am.

The fact that Korea may be getting past its prime surprised me. South Korean Christans seem so passionate about missions. But it's true that popular culture doesn't contain many references to Christianity. Those who are evangelistically minded are very passionate, but they may be giving up on their own people. In the US evangelism is often driven more by the sense of common cultural identity among immigrants, rather than love for God and identifying with God's heart. That same fervor isn't present in South Korea itself. And that's much like the US.

Bob said that the exciting work in Thailand is among animistic hill tribes because they can be reached through community development. I see it as a two-step process: offer holistic help and a contextualized gospel and people are interested in the gospel. But that's not the case with the middle-class Buddhist majority Thai. Buddhism is culturally entrenched but without the sense of connection to everyday life that an animist has who is depending on the spirits to bring a good crop. Religion is distant, unnecessary and irrelevant to everyday life. That makes them resistant to the gospel.

So Joe is looking for entry points for the gospel among the majority middle class Buddhist Thai. He points to Luke 15: if the shepherd was concerned about 1 sheep while 99 were in the fold how would he feel about 99 lost sheep with 1 in the fold? Thailand is less than 1% Christian, so the metaphor is apt. Rather than focusing on the areas where the cost/benefit ratio is most favorable (i.e., where God is already moving) Joe has a sense of urgency about the people who are most resistant.

I'm glad I didn't go shopping at the night market last night (the girls shopped for 3 hours!). I had a chance to talk with Joe.  The conversation helped me to understand why Joe is leaving ZOE and working on a new missions strategy. He understands the majority middle class Buddhist Thai because that's where he came from. He realizes that it's easier to get support for either a hot-button issue like human trafficking or for a project where it's easy to demonstrate productiveness, i.e., where people are coming to Christ in tangible numbers like with the hill people or with the Isaan. But that's not where he senses God's call to him.

Developing partners in Thailand is a challenge already, but for Joe to develop partners in the US will be especially difficult. The aspect of his passion that touches me is that he doesn't want to give up on the majority of Thailand. I want to help in some way, but I need to pray about this. Is it enough that he is drawn to the 99? What about God's timing? What if this isn't the time that God has appointed for the 99 to come into the fold? Is it enough to have a noble sentiment or does John 5:19 mean that he should be more patient? Or is Joe a frontier scout, getting things ready for a move of the Spirit in the future, a future he may not live to see?

One argument in favor of moving forward with Thai Word is the same argument that motivates the work of ZOE. God has compassion on everyone. Even if the effort seems wasteful, helping even one child who has been victimized is worth it because God wants to alleviate all suffering. It's not his will that even one should perish.

The most concise way of explaining Joe's vision is that he wants to see God's Word in every Thai home. He thinks this can be done by offering a portion of the Bible as a gift at opportune times such as Christmas or Valentine's Day. Commercialism has given these days popular significance. But it has to be a gift. I wouldn't pay for a copy of Watchtower magazine!

Another thing that Joe mentioned is that resources are not a problem with God. Someone once told me that God gives us enough time in the day to do what he wants us to do, but we keep adding stuff to the list. The same could be said about other resources, such as money. God will give us enough to do what he wants us to do. The problem is that we want to do other things. But Joe is sure that if God wants Thai Word to succeed, God will give Joe the resources. So Joe’s task now is to “be about my Father’s business” (Luke 2:49 KJV).

And that should be my priority too.  It’s a good lesson to learn from our time in Thailand.

Good Friday in Chiang Mai

It’s hard to believe that we’ve spent Good Friday in both Roi Et and Chiang Mai.  Our Maundy Thursday service last night included communion with sticky rice and the juice of a local flower.  Tonight, we celebrated communion with the familiar bread and grape juice.  (Good bread, too.)

We started out the day by getting the good news that our interpreter, Aung (or Ang), is a Christian.  She decided to follow Christ a couple of years ago, but has kept it quiet because of she wants to stay connected to her devoutly Buddhist family.  She'll be in our prayers as she grows in her faith.  She has been watching Christians as she’s helped Bob.  She told him, “There are many kinds of Christians, aren’t there?”  It was a good reminder that there are always people watching us to see how Christians live out our relationship with God.

We meditated on the death of Christ to start our Good Friday.  Then we headed to Khon Kaen, 90 minutes away from Roi Et, for our flight to Chiang Mai.  Joe, Yumi, Noah, Naomi and Emi all greeted us at the airport and then took us to dinner at what we call the “Rain Forest Cafe”.  That’s not its name, but it looks like the restaurant chain of that name in the US.  However, it's a lot less crowded and kitschy (true story - who needs a fake gorilla suddenly howling next to your table and scaring your kids during your meal?) and the food is WAY better.  Rain Forest Cafe should look into serving Thai food.  It’d be a definite improvement.

At the restaurant we met with Yummie, one of our interpreters from 2 years ago.  It was great to see her and remember the 2013 trip to Bo Klua.  She’s heading there soon to see the TLC kids.  

 

We ended our dinner with the celebration of the Lord’s Table, using elements that Joe had brought.  It’s probably the first time a group of 20 people has sung, “When I survey the wondrous cross” in that restaurant.  It was a special moment as members of Christ’s body from all different places in the world, came together to hear the familiar words of 1 Cor 11:23-26: “For whenever (and wherever) you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.”  It’s our prayer that we were able to be a statement of Jesus’ presence and purpose through our time together in fellowship around the table and in worship around the communion table.

 

Of course, we had to stop at 7-Eleven on our way back to the hotel.  But Steve got sidetracked by the roti stand in front of the 7-Eleven.  From khau man gai to roti, you can't beat the street food in Thailand.

 

 

final health fair

The temperature hit 100 today.  But the health fair attendance didn’t.  

Once again, an unforeseen circumstance affected our attendance.  There was a funeral in the town so many of the families attended.  Instead of 100 or more, we had 50.  But they were a lively group.

I (Steve) have been wearing jeans all week.  Hans had an extra pair of scrubs that he lent me.  Much cooler!  I mean, they looked cool and they kept me cool, too.

We met in a school so the kids were in uniforms.  This meant that the school kitchen was used to prepare lunch.  After lunch, Becca helped with the dishes.  At the end of the day there was a big water fight.  Songkran is coming soon, so it seemed that they were practicing for the festivities.  Or they just wanted to cool down on a really hot day.

This was the final health fair, so afterward we met with the church leaders at a home where they meet for worship.   We learned that whenever they gather for worship there is always singing and dancing.  And it’s traditional Isaan music and dance.  Everyone is expected to join in!

Malvin and Steve received gifts from the church leaders.  We then got to bless them and then pray with them over a piece of land that they hope to purchase and use as both a community center and a place of worship.

We had dinner in an open air market and then finished the day with communion and a string tying ceremony.  As the group has spent this time working together, we’ve all grown closer to each other.  There were lots of tears and hugs, both within our team and with our interpreters. 

Thanks to everyone who's been praying for us.  We've still got lots to process so that we can cooperate with what God is doing in us.  There will be many insights and changes in us that we can't appreciate now but that will become clear to us later.

And please continue to pray for our health.  Becca got 4 big bug bites on her thigh today.  Several of us ate some berries that were offered to us at the church leader's home and then KK had an allergic reaction that made her lower lip swell.  Both Becca and KK have gone to sleep with Benedryl.  And Steve's back is still not healthy, but has thankfully not been affecting his movement very much.

Have a blessed Maundy Thursday!

3rd health fair: not what we expected

Bob keeps telling us to be flexible.  We expected up to 100 kids today.  What we (and the church leaders) didn't know was that there was a major kids' sports event happening today that involved 8 villages.  So we ended up with about 20 kids.

But we're experts at our making our presentations now.  And we're starting to be able to evaluate what we can do to make this a better experience in the future.  Below you can see KK helping with the photo booth. 

The church building is a beautiful new facility for which they had a grand opening just a couple of weeks ago.  It's a sign that God is at work in Roi Et province (of which Roi Et city is the capital). 

On the health front, KK and Maddie still are bothered by their mosquito bites and KK got another.  So keep praying for them.  And a couple of other people are experiencing physical ailments.  Malvin missed the day because of a fever.  He joined us tonight for devotions and debriefing, so he'll likely be with us tomorrow.  Jessica had some stomach pains and got some medical help from Hans and his traveling medicine cabinet.  Pray that she'll be fully recovered tomorrow.  My back seems to be about the same.  The back brace is helpful although not fun in the heat.  And Tylenol helps.  The nurses are telling me that I need to stretch my back so that the pinched nerve will get unpinched.  I'll try that tomorrow.  Thankfully it's not interfering with sleep.

Part of the reason Jessica wasn't feeling well was that we went out for Thai food (duh!).  What made this a special treat was... air conditioning!  It hit 97F today and is supposed to be 99F tomorrow.  The food was good and there was more variety than last night's chicken, chicken and more chicken (although it was great chicken).  Jessica probably ate something that was a little more spicy than her stomach could handle at the time. 

At the restaurant we were divided into youth and geezers (and those willing to associate with geezers).  You can see Hans at one table with all the older folks (I, Steve, am taking the picture) while Joseph (left) and Mod (or is it Mot? not sure of the spelling) are sitting with KK, Kat, Maddie and Becca.  Guess who's partying?  Guess who's paying?

But the age diversity of our team is a real blessing.  It seems that everyone works well together when age helps to guide the perception of roles and hierarchy.  And we have credibility with all ages because of our age diversity.  It takes a village to reach a village.

Our day closed with hearing testimonies from 3 of our team, one from the USA, one of the missionaries and one of our translators.  It was a reminder that the call that God places on our lives, sometimes to serve in another country, is a joyful call and a source of great fulfillment.  And it was a reminder of the adversity that people in Thailand face for making a commitment to follow Christ. 

Although we had an easy day today (except for the heat), we're anticipating a real test tomorrow: 100-200 kids in 99F heat.  So please keep us in prayer.

Finally, here's a photo of a sunset in Roi Et, viewed from the central park that is a source of civic pride.   As the sun sets on these Buddhist temples, may God bring a new day of the knowledge of his love and his kingdom to the people of Roi Et.

getting ready for the 3rd health fair

Thanks if you're calculating, yes, I (Steve) am up early.  It's 5:30 as I'm writing this and I woke up at 3am, too.  Still jet-lagged.

Thanks for praying for KK.  Her mosquito bite didn't bother her yesterday.  Same for Maddie.  My back was also better.  But it's always a concern, so please continue to pray for our health.

The special prayer request for today is that we heard yesterday that there could be 100 kids at today's health fair.  We're getting better at presenting our material, which helps us give more individual attention to the kids.  But we're going to be stretched today if 100 kids show up.  Imagine applying fluoride to 100 kids as opposed to 35-40!  Pray that we'll be able to adjust and that each kid will feel cared for.

2nd health fair (Mar 31): people and places

The best way to describe this day is in terms of people and their stories.

Mod is one of our translators.  He is the only Christian in his family, but he has a passion to see his family come to know God through Christ.  How blessed we both are to have both grown up in Christian homes!  Would we have the same passion and compassion?  How much does it mean to us that God has reached out to us and saved us and given us new life and a new relationship with Him?  

Mod is also young enough to have the energy to play with the kids in today's brutal heat and humidity.  We had a group of about 35 kids today.  Mod got the day started with group singing (he's a good guitarist) and then had the kids chasing him and playing games.  Our team has some people young enough to keep up with him, but some of us have left those days behind.  And that age diversity is a good thing.

Below is a picture of KK applying fluoride to one fo the kids in her station.  KK also shared her testimony with the group this morning.  Becca shared last night.  

The fact that we had a smaller group led to our health screening station being able to work with parents as well as kids.  Hans could see them looking interested as he worked with their kids and so he spoke to them and was able to assess and give health advice to several.  Some of us on our team are young enough to speak the children's language of play.  Others are old enough to earn a hearing with the parents.  It's good that this team isn't made up of just a single age group (high schoolers or young adults or older adults) but we can reach out effectively to an entire village through our various members.

I (Steve) had several chances to talk with Kristi and found that she was the cousin of a friend of his, Sean Curtis, pastor of Great Exchange Covenant in SF.  Kristi could see that our team was not only diverse in ages, but was also a partnership between local churches, Covenant missionaries, and the local Thai/Isaan churches. She speaks excellent Thai and is completely at home in Roi Et.

We had dinner at a street food stand.  The owner is Wichit, a leader in the church in Roi Et.  His food stand has the best chicken with rice in Roi Et, according to whatever is the local equivalent of Yelp, i.e., the word on the street.  He does great business and Malvin noted that his employees are all happy, indicating that they must be treated well.  Business is so good that Wichit is ready to move into the building being constructed behind his food stand.  Yet he doesn't open on Sundays.  He's taken a stand for Christ (or taken a food stand for Christ).  

BTW, his chicken is really good.  Steve thought it was hands down better than the famous Nong's Khao Man Gai in Portland. "The secret's in the sauce."

After dinner we went back to the night market.  The girls promised Tip Boonrang that they would eat silk worms.  Becca was overheard muttering, "How'd I get myself into this?"  But they all ate the silk worms.  Steve thought they were like soft grainy peanuts.  We'd had mango sticky rice the night before so we washed down the silk worms with strawberry smoothies.

geting ready for the 2nd health fair

It's a real joy to work with the Covenant churches in Roi Et.  There's an obvious expectation that God is at work and a passionate love for their neighbors and fellow Isaan.  I (Steve) didn't realize that the head of the Thailand Covenant was with us and that I met him back in 1999.  Fortunately, he doesn't remember me, either :)  But he did remember the church planting conference, which was the reason I was in Roi Et.


One thing I didn't mention last night was that the health fair was supposed to be limited to 60 kids.  We ended up with 82, even though we started with what looked like about 40.  The group just kept getting bigger!  And that reminded us of why we're here: we are helping the local church to enjoy greater favor with their neighbors.  Most of the kids were not Christians, but now they (and their parents) know of the presence of this local church and love of the people of the church for them. 

Please pray for us as we start our second day of health fairs.
- KK and Maddie both have multiple bug bites on their legs that required oral antihistamines.
- Steve's back is still ache-y and requiring wearing the back brace.
-  It's supposed to be 97F today!  We need to stay hydrated. 

Day 2

As expected, it was a full and tiring day.  We completed our first health fair and made some necessary adjustments.  For example, Steve and Eric started out working with Patrick Boonrang in the personal hygiene station.  But we discovered that Patrick was more than an interpreter, he was an excellent teacher.  We also found that Hans needed more helpers because doing a health screening for each child was too time intensive.  So Eric ended up the day working with Hans.

Bob warned us that we needed to be flexible.  He got to work on flexibility as soon as we got there.  Bob wanted us to start setting up as soon as we got to our location, which was a fish farm and camp and church.  But to our surprise there was a full-on welcome planned, including traditional Isaan music and dancing and speeches.  

God blessed us with a day of cloud cover and cooler temperatures than had been expected.  In fact, it rained!  But the rain waited until we had finished the health fair and were almost finished putting everything away.  

We went to a nearby seafood hotpot restaurant for dinner.  

After dinner we had singing and testimonies and debriefing.  Becca got to share her faith journey.  Then for those with the energy, we went to a night market for mango sticky rice!

In our debriefing, I (Steve) was surprised to learn that the neighborhood adults who came to the fair were surprised that we farang (foreigners) wanted to eat with the children.  They expected us to think that kids’ food was beneath us.  I was glad for an opportunity to help build relationship bridges between the neighbors and the local church as they saw us expressing God’s relational love.

Starting the day (Mon-Thurs)

It's 6:30am Monday in Roi Et.  Most of you will be reading this on Sunday afternoon or evening.  Our schedule is pretty packed in the morning.

We have breakfast at 7 in a restaurant next door.  Morning devotions are led by Steve, 7:30-8:30.  Then we leave for the site of the health fair (different each day).  We have an hour to set up with whatever the local church has to offer.  The fair goes from 10am-4pm, including lunch with the kids.  Then we break down and return.

Our hotel is pretty nice: built just a year ago and excellent wifi!  But the surrounding homes have lots of chickens and the roosters get to work early, like 2am, according to Hans, Steve's roommate and brother-in-law.  Becca is rooming with her cousin Kathryn and KK is rooming with Maddie Chin, fellow freshman at The King's Academy.  Maddie's brother Chris went to Thailand with Steve and Becca 2 years ago, but he's in Ecuador right now.  Both of Maddie's parents are in Thailand with us.

My (Steve's) back is doing OK, but isn't 100% so I'm going to wear the brace today and see how that goes.

Breakfast is in 15 minutes.  Gotta go.

Getting there and Day 1

Have you had a McDonald's Samurai Pork Burger yet?  Probably not, unless you've eaten at a McDonald's in Thailand.  Why is this significant?  Our travels to Roi Et started out pretty smoothly, from a logistics point of view.  We all met at SFO at 10 am on Friday, March 27.  We had a short layover in Seoul and ended up in Bangkok late Saturday night/Sunday morning (i.e., after midnight).  We got up early (no one got more than 4 hours sleep) and a couple of shuttle rides later ended up at the old DMK airport in Bangkok for what we thought would be an 11 am flight that would arrive in Roi Et at 12:15.  But our flight was delayed until 1:40!

Meanwhile we were waiting in an increasingly congested terminal with 7 gates that had at least 2 flights waiting at each gate.  The terminal had seating for only 3-4 flights, so 14+ flights made it ridiculously crowded.  And there was insufficient air conditioning to accommodate the huge crowd.  The airline apologized repeatedly and to show their contrition gave us all a free McDonald's lunch: a sandwich (Samurai Pork or McChicken) and a bottle of water with a McD's logo on it.

The Covenant churches in Roi Et were so excited that we were coming that they sent 20 people to the Roi Et airport to greet us.  But because of the flight delay they had to leave.  Bob Shim, Patrick & Tip Boonrang and Kristi Byford, a Covenant missionary in Roi Et, did return to greet us (below you can see Bob and the team greeting us).  They got us to our hotel in Roi Et and we had 30 minutes to settle down before our orientation began.

We walked from our hotel to a nearby building for orientation.  Our interpreters joined us and we heard stories of how God has been working in Roi Et through the Covenant since 1971 and how there is a renewed work of God going on right now.  We had dinner together (including leftovers from what was to have been our lunch!) and then assembled gift bags for the kids who would be coming to the health fairs (below is a picture of us assembling the gift bags).  Bob told us that there would be 60-80 kids the first three days and that there could be as many as 200 on the fourth and final day.  The reason for the increase?  The people of that church have a good reputation in their neighborhood.  Our prayer is that through these health fairs we will help all the churches to gain favor in the hearts of their neighbors.

After the assembly line we took some time to sing and hear Patrick's story of how he converted to following Christ from being the president of his university Buddhist society.  We closed with prayer together.  To be honest, by this time we were all pretty tired (after 4 or less hours of sleep the night before and over 20 hours on airplanes).  To be even more honest, some of started sleeping before Patrick had finished his story.  By now (11 pm) most of us are asleep. 

At SFO

We made it!  Here's a photo of our entire group inside the international terminal before going through security.  Sadly, Mark Chan wasn't able to travel with us because of his father's illness.  Please keep him in your prayers.  You can see me (Steve) standing up straight in the back of the group.  Many thanks to Dr. Alice Chow for the great back brace.  And thanks to prayer warriors Susan, Robin, Linda and Chun who anointed and prayed for me yesterday afternoon.  I slept really well last night and my back is only complaining occasionally.  In fact, the brace is working so well I didn't bring the back support pillow (Susan, thanks anyway).  We're waiting in the terminal now and board in about 30 minutes. The girls have gone to get food (even though we're getting lunch on the flight: teenagers are always hungry!).

Our prayer requests

KK is praying that we not get bitten by any bugs.

Becca is praying that we'll be an authentic expression of Jesus' love.

Steve is praying that his pinched nerve heals quickly!  I (Steve) went to the chiropractor today.  Thank God for Dr. Alice Chow at Grace Community.  Long story short, she told me that I have a pinched nerve and my latest fashion accessory is a back brace.  If I don't heal quickly it's going to be a loooong plane ride!  We leave on Friday at 12:25 pm and arrive in Bangkok on Saturday at 10:55pm (with a layover in Seoul). 

Team prayer requests

Our prayer requests:

·       That each member of our team would find her/his role quickly and smoothly.

·       That little differences would not divide but become ways to love each other more.

·       That we’ll be culturally sensitive.

·       That God would open doors for communicating his love.

·       That God would keep us safe and healthy in our travels.