Impressions of Thailand
I like Thailand. It is a beautiful country...a bit too hot and humid for my liking, but a nice country. The number one thing that I have been surprised at...people don't gawk at me like I'm a green alien from another planet. Every other country I've ever visited where I do not look like the majority of the people living there, I am stared at, leered at and have even been poked and prodded. Here no one even gives this giant white skinned, light haired chick a second notice...kinda nice, but not what I expected. I wonder if Bangkok sees so many foreigners that the people are just immune to it or if they are just such a polite culture they don't do it. The city itself is fairly clean for a city this size. The people seem to take a pride in keeping the trash off the streets and graffiti off the walls. Of course, I am NOT in the slums, mind you.
An interesting note that would make the hairs on the neck of any FDA worker stand on end...there are street vendors by the dozens here, selling clothes, magazines, candies and food. The food stands are very similar to what I have witnessed around Latin America--the whole animal, strung up by hind feet, flapping in the winds to roast in this tropical humidity. Then, if you can brave eating at the stands, you might want to ask for yours on a disposable plate. I noticed the plates they serve the food on are scraped in the ally, dunked in a giant trash can with dirty cold water, then wiped with a rag and placed back on the stack for the next hungry customer....yummmm.
We are staying at a missionary guest house, so our meals have been quite good...some a bit too spicy for my taste, but I appreciate the fact that I have yet to sneak into my stash of granola bars or beef jerky.
Yesterday, I was able to sneak away from one of the sessions (you see I'm not here in the role of conference attendee, I'm here to document the stories...more on that below...). I walked down the street to a massage place, with references! The Thai people are known for their great massages. I had an hour-long massage. I wish I could report that it was wonderfully relaxing, but then you'd be mad that I was on a mission trip getting a massage. So, you can rest assured, knowing that it was quite painful. They are into the deep tissue massages here, the kind where you beg for mercy but the petite Thai girl just giggles and bows because she has no clue what you are saying. I tried to grunt and groan enough to get the message across, but with little effect. They pulled and pushed and twisted and stomped until I actually said, sorry gotta go, no time to finish. Today, my body feels bruised all over. I was drinking about a gallon of water a day to keep hydrated in the heat, but today I'm doubling it to keep my muscles from cramping.
But I digress from why I am really here...to date, we (Jessica, my ministry partner and I) have interviewed, photographed and videotaped 31 people, and we still have 11 to go. It has been exhausting, but what a privilege to hear their stories. We are capturing stories of God at work in AMAZING ways. Here's one summarized story from India. The OMS Every Community for Christ national team was out evangelizing. They came across a M faith cleric. This man held the position of memorizing the entire K book and reciting it. Long story short, he came to accept and believe in the living Christ Jesus. Now, he is a believer in the One true God and he has memorized the entire Bible! He is using these skills to share Christ with other M clerics...and it is being effective. Pray for him and our team in India.
I'm hearing those kinds of stories all day long and giving God all the glory, but I am also humbled by some of the stories. Some of these church planters are enduring much to share the Gospel. One man from M shared how they only have electricity one hour a day in his village. He must decide if he will get warm water, watch TV or do some of this statistical reporting on his computer to send to us. Another man shared how he is pastoring 4 churches and overseeing an evangelistic coffee house. Nearly all the people here are bivocational, meaning they must have regular secular jobs in addition to their ministries because there is not enough funds to pay them a salary. For some, they must travel far distances to do their ministry. Another church planter from M asked that I share that his pastors, church planters and evangelists need bicycles. And finally, most of them endure some form of persecution for their work of the Gospel. Please pray for them. Again, I am so humbled by them and their work...and so grateful to a God who is so active and present.
Finally, I ask that you pray for my next leg of this trip. In two days, I leave for a security risk country in South Asia. It will be even hotter that here, with NO AC, and the accommodations will be simple. We will be sleeping under mosquito netting, and I will probably not have Internet access. But I will be seeing these stories and miracles first hand as we visit training centers, womens' ministries, a baptism (I've been asked to help baptize the women), an orphanage, a micro-credit business/ministry and much more. I am very excited to witness what God is doing in South Asia...up close! Pray for us...and I hope to chat with you again soon.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Stories, Stories, Stories
As I am still at the beginning of this journey, I don't have lots of stories to tell as yet, but that is still my theme because that is what this trip is about...collecting stories about what God is doing around the Asian world. Although our first scheduled interview is not until later this afternoon, already I have collected at least three other stories that need to be told...but I'll get back to that.
First, I want to share in the fun of a 36-hour travel adventure. On Thursday morning, I had to be at the airport by 4:30 a.m., so I made the silly decision to NOT go to bed at all on Wed. night. I thought, it'll help me sleep better on the plane. Our first flight from Indy to Washington D.C. went without a hitch until landing...then, it seemed we had a bit of trouble stopping, but all was well. Once we deboarded, we found out our wheel had broken, so we'd need to be rerouted on another plane to NY. That didn't happen, so we ended up flying back to Detriot...yes, pretty much a little circle. We got to Detroit, no problem, then readied ourselves for the 13-hour (yes, you read that correctly,,,13 hours!) flight from Detroit to Tokyo, Japan. It felt like 13 hours. We were in a huge plane that sat 10 passengers across. My two traveling companions and I were unfortunately in 3 of the 4 middle seats in the center of the plane...right in front of the movie screen, which made for good viewing, but also did not make for great sleeping because the screen was so bright. The seats were so close together, I literally had to sit with my arms pulled in the whole time...can you say CRAMP!
I'm usually a person that never wants to wish my life away...even in the midst of tough times, I want to learn and grow in the midst of the experience, but it would have been fine with me if I could have blinked and the genie could have whisked me directly to Bangkok at that point.
Once we landed in Tokyo, there was NO time to kill...or stretch our legs before our next flight took off for Bangkok. This was another 6-hour flight! At least the plane was not so full, so we could stretch out a bit more. We finally landed in Bangkok, made it through customs, got our luggage and found a taxi to the missionary guest house where we're staying. Really things could not have got much more smoothly. I am grateful. Since then, my major issue has been with the heat--for me, that has been tougher to deal with than the jet lag, tiredness and the slight scare I had with eating some pizza on our first full night here that must have had some seafood on it because my throat got a bit tight, but not enough to use one of my precious 2 Epi pens. Still hoping I bought these for nothing, if you know what I mean!
It's been in the 90s with HIGH humidity. We don't get along well at all. I basically slept nothing last night because it's so hard to sleep when you are drenched in sweat. But today I began to hear the stories, and that makes me excited to be here. This one is from our field leader in Japan, Steve. He was in Tokyo when the earthquake and tsunami hit 3 weeks ago. This has rocked the world of him and his whole team, but he said that the team has never felt so close and worked so well together. Sometimes, I think, it takes challenges to face together to bring us truly together.
Steve went on to tell how he was going to fulfill his commitment to the senior class of CAJ, our MK school in Tokyo, by taking them on their senior class trip to Thailand. This is just 2 weeks from the devastating earthquake, but they felt it was important. Well, as many of you might have heard, there was another earthquake a few days ago on the borders of Myanmar and Thailand...just 6 miles from where Steve and the seniors were! Talk about traumatic experiences...to go through the huge one in Japan, with all its aftershocks as well, and then to experience it less than two weeks later again...in another country! But Steve said the students were calm and cool, and they were actually able to help others around them. I'll be writing this story out in full once we get home. Until then, I'm excited to hear dozens more about how God is working and using OMS people to change lives around the world every day. So honored to be able to tell the stories...
First, I want to share in the fun of a 36-hour travel adventure. On Thursday morning, I had to be at the airport by 4:30 a.m., so I made the silly decision to NOT go to bed at all on Wed. night. I thought, it'll help me sleep better on the plane. Our first flight from Indy to Washington D.C. went without a hitch until landing...then, it seemed we had a bit of trouble stopping, but all was well. Once we deboarded, we found out our wheel had broken, so we'd need to be rerouted on another plane to NY. That didn't happen, so we ended up flying back to Detriot...yes, pretty much a little circle. We got to Detroit, no problem, then readied ourselves for the 13-hour (yes, you read that correctly,,,13 hours!) flight from Detroit to Tokyo, Japan. It felt like 13 hours. We were in a huge plane that sat 10 passengers across. My two traveling companions and I were unfortunately in 3 of the 4 middle seats in the center of the plane...right in front of the movie screen, which made for good viewing, but also did not make for great sleeping because the screen was so bright. The seats were so close together, I literally had to sit with my arms pulled in the whole time...can you say CRAMP!
I'm usually a person that never wants to wish my life away...even in the midst of tough times, I want to learn and grow in the midst of the experience, but it would have been fine with me if I could have blinked and the genie could have whisked me directly to Bangkok at that point.
Once we landed in Tokyo, there was NO time to kill...or stretch our legs before our next flight took off for Bangkok. This was another 6-hour flight! At least the plane was not so full, so we could stretch out a bit more. We finally landed in Bangkok, made it through customs, got our luggage and found a taxi to the missionary guest house where we're staying. Really things could not have got much more smoothly. I am grateful. Since then, my major issue has been with the heat--for me, that has been tougher to deal with than the jet lag, tiredness and the slight scare I had with eating some pizza on our first full night here that must have had some seafood on it because my throat got a bit tight, but not enough to use one of my precious 2 Epi pens. Still hoping I bought these for nothing, if you know what I mean!
It's been in the 90s with HIGH humidity. We don't get along well at all. I basically slept nothing last night because it's so hard to sleep when you are drenched in sweat. But today I began to hear the stories, and that makes me excited to be here. This one is from our field leader in Japan, Steve. He was in Tokyo when the earthquake and tsunami hit 3 weeks ago. This has rocked the world of him and his whole team, but he said that the team has never felt so close and worked so well together. Sometimes, I think, it takes challenges to face together to bring us truly together.
Steve went on to tell how he was going to fulfill his commitment to the senior class of CAJ, our MK school in Tokyo, by taking them on their senior class trip to Thailand. This is just 2 weeks from the devastating earthquake, but they felt it was important. Well, as many of you might have heard, there was another earthquake a few days ago on the borders of Myanmar and Thailand...just 6 miles from where Steve and the seniors were! Talk about traumatic experiences...to go through the huge one in Japan, with all its aftershocks as well, and then to experience it less than two weeks later again...in another country! But Steve said the students were calm and cool, and they were actually able to help others around them. I'll be writing this story out in full once we get home. Until then, I'm excited to hear dozens more about how God is working and using OMS people to change lives around the world every day. So honored to be able to tell the stories...
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