Pretty vs. Pretty

Ah! English!

What an interesting language I have grown up with.

In a tree in our yard, there are some pretty red flowers.

Pretty red flowers

The problem is that these red flowers are growing out of a mango tree.

But they are not mango flowers.  These are mango flowers:

Mango flowers

The red flowers are growing on a parasitic plant.  This plant makes seeds that germinate on the branches of the tree and then tap into the trees vascular system of the tree for nutrients.  Let the host tree do all the work of making roots and getting water and nutrients from the soil.

So, pretty flowers, yes.

But pretty nasty as well.

(Somehow our language got to the point where "pretty" can end up being an adjective meaning "beautiful" and also an adverb meaning "very".  So we can say that one thing is pretty while another is pretty ugly, and they are opposites.  And why do we then say "very pretty" vs. "pretty pretty".  This is all pretty confusing.)

You see, the more pretty red flowers that the tree has, the fewer mangos it will have.  And I like mangos.  Mangos are my favorite fruit.  They're the reason I moved to Thailand.  (Well, not exactly, but close.)

A lot of mango goodness here

So, I'm left with a choice.

Do I want some pretty red flowers?

Or do I want some pretty tasty fruit?

I could leave the parasites on the tree, and have both red and yellow (mango) flowers.  But the mango production would be reduced more and more with time.

Life is like that.  Often are choices aren't between good and bad or right and wrong.   The choices are often between one way and a better way.

The apostle Paul writes about about a "better way" in 1 Corinthians 12, and 13.  In 1 Corinthians 12, Paul is talking about the use of spiritual gifts in the church.  In the church, the body of Christ, we are each given different gifts in order to help build up the church.  1 Corinthians 12:31 we read:

But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.

And then Paul goes on to talk about love.

It's great to desire spiritual gifts, but if we don't use our gifts in love, we are just like resounding gongs or clanging cymbals.

Or pretty, parasitic flowers.

In Phon Phisai, we have this nice community of new believers.  Most of them knew nothing about Christ until just a few months ago.  One of the challenges we have now is helping them to discover and use their spiritual gifts to help build each other up in the body of Christ.  But it is so much more than that.  It is about loving each other and using our gifts, with that love, to help build each other up.   We want to have a church of people who give, not just take.  Pretty flowers that bear fruit, not just parasites.

Nong

This past month we moved to the province of Nong Khai.  Nong Khai is one of a whole lot of places in Thailand, especially Isaan (Northeast Thailand), the has the term "Nong" in it.

Nong has two meanings.  One meaning is pus.  The other meaning--the one for which many places derive their names--is a swamp or bog.

The Korat Plateau, which is the landscape on which Isaan is located, consists of mostly undulating, low-relief landscapes.  Because of this, there are many areas from which water drains slowly or not at all.  Consequently, there are lots of swamps and ponds (some ponds are made with a little help from humans).  The only two provinces in Thailand that are named after nongs are both in Isaan: Nong Khai and Nong Bua Lamphu.  Sometimes they will name the nong after the creek (Huai) that is dammed up to make it--though it looks a bit funny to me to see a pond called a creek.

One of the cuter names here in Isaan is Nong Song Hong (หนองสองห้อง), which translates: Two-roomed swamp.  It gets this name because there is a pond with two main chambers located in the town.

Many of these nongs in Thailand are adorned with water lilies or lotus plants.

Here are a few of the nongs in Isaan:

Huai Kan Luang Reservoir
A Nong in Phon Phisai created by putting a dam on a low, flat area.

Nong Mon in Sakhon Nakhon Province

Nong Krok in Sisaket

Nong Sa-ang in Sisaket

Even my back yard in Connecticut had a nong in it.

Nong Russell in Wolcott, CT

One has to be careful with how one says the word "Nong".  The pronunciation varies only very slightly (it has a similar, but different tone) from a very common term meaning "younger" that is used to refer to people younger than oneself or to servers in restaurants.  Even the firstborn of twins would refer to his younger twin as nong.

A "Nong" preparing my coffee
Probably doesn't want to be called "swamp" or "pus"

Since we are in our upper years now, a lot of people we meet are younger than us, so we use the term nong a lot.

I'm not sure that these younger people would appreciate being called "swamp" or "pus", but perhaps they would be forgiving of a foreigner.  I don't think I have made this mistake yet, but, being a foreigner, I probably have.  If so, forgive me.

I'd like to think we'd have mastered this tone thing by now, having spent 6 years in Thailand already, but that is not the case.  Learning the Thai language is a constant thing, and now we will attempt to learn some Isaan dialect as well.  It is not that we have a need to be experts, but we do want to be able   to explain the gospel clearly in a way that people can understand.

I can echo the words of Paul (except the part about the chains):

³ And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Colossians 4:3-4 (NIV)