Storm Purge

¹² Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.
¹³ But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

--1 Peter 4:12-13 (NIV)

A little while ago we were at the coast.  We noticed a lot of debris high up on the beach that we had not seen in earlier visits.  It was the result of a combination of strong east winds (to push the trash) and unusually high tides (to get it high enough to not be washed back).

Our lives can be a lot like the ocean.  We accumulate a lot of debris and trash that makes us not so pretty and pleasant to be around.  But when storms or trials come, then can help purge our lives of this trash.  The more junk we get rid of, the better people can see Jesus inside of us.
So while the storms may be difficult to endure, we can rejoice in what they produce in our lives.

Panic or Pray?

An update on our situation during Thailand’s worst flooding crisis in 50 years.
20 to 50 cm (8 to 20 inches)

That is the estimate of one “expert” on the depth of flood water we could expect in a worst case scenario in our part of Bangkok.  And given what we have seen so far, the “worst case” seems to be the most likely.

Despite all of the attempts to keep it out of central Bangkok, the water still wants to come.  One after another sandbag barrier or levee has failed. (The number of millions of sandbags that has been put up staggers the imagination.)   Even an evacuation shelter had to be evacuated.

The physical damage has been great.  About 300 lives lost. So far over 700,000 people suffering from water borne diseases.  For many farmers, the years crop is lost.  In Ayutthaya Province alone (about an hour north of Bangkok), over 900,000 jobs are temporarily or permanently lost with the failure of flood barriers in several industrial estates.  (Many employers are promising partial salaries at some level while the factories are shut down.)

The emotional damage has been even greater.  Many poor people have lost everything they have, leading to a number of “flood-related suicides”.

Squabbling and lack of cooperation among different government agencies has exacerbated the situation.    The inconsistent messages from different agencies increase the level of panic. Grocery stores, particularly those frequented by foreigners, are bereft of bottled water, bread, cereal and canned goods.

Ethical issues arise.  Some barriers put up to protect Bangkok have been torn down by residents of some areas because they cause the floods will be deeper and longer-lived in their areas.  Is this the rich profiting at the expense of the poor?  Or is it just trying to reduce the overall economic damage because flooding in central Bangkok would have a greater detrimental effect on the entire  economy of Thailand?  And what does it mean for me if I stay dry at the expense of someone else?  (If they had just let the water come would the damage the damage have been less severe and less prolonged though more widespread?  Some people think this way.  Click here.)

Any Good News?
Government schools were on mid-year break already and the government has extended that break until at least the end of the month for the city of Bangkok.  Many students have been volunteering at relief centers.  The city water supply was briefly compromised in the pre-treatment stage, but so far they are keeping the murky, polluted water out of that part of the system.

Fortunately there has not been a lot of rain.  Though the flood water are from up north, rain puts a stress on the city’s drainage system and also makes life more difficult for those who are currently homeless.

How about  us?
It is ironic that we were in Chonburi for the weekend, and we came back on Sunday even as many people were fleeing there from Bangkok to escape the floods.  They, too, are now experiencing a lack of some supplies and apparently the hotels are all at full capacity.

So far our part of Bangkok is dry.  For us, personally, we are on the 22nd floor of a building the BOTTOM of which is already probably well above highest expected flood levels.  (Though the pumps that pump the city water to the cisterns on the roof are at the lowest point in the building, even below the first floor.)

We have several days of drinking water stored up and some basic foods as well.  We might be inconvenienced if water or electricity are cut off—which could be a major issue if it is for an extended period.

Though the government has declared a holiday for all government offices through the 31st, our school will continue to meet unless the flood waters actually come.  If the waters do come, we have no idea how long things will be affected for.

Since many grocery stores are out of stuff, we have been forced to explore new places to buy things.  This has led to meeting new people and even finding less expensive sources for some things.  We even found a bakery where we can buy fresh bread.  And all of this within a mile of our place!

At one store, the owner wanted his two teenage daughters to deal with the foreigner since they knew some English.  Neither wanted to do so,  which led to a brief war of the wills as they decided amongst themselves who would do it.  There was a great sense of relief and some laughter when I  announced I could speak Thai.

There is a small convenience store on the first floor of our building.  The guy who runs it is amazing.  It is the best stocked store anywhere around!  Though it is only about the size of our bedroom, they have an amazing supply of things.  Even bottled water!  (There is one fellow in our class who says he cannot find drinking water anywhere near where he lives.)

I’m a little annoyed that our better computer is dead at a time when I really don’t want to leave it at a repair shop since I have no idea when it might get looked at or when I might get back to it.

The Waiting Game
One thing we have learned over the years is how to cope with waiting and uncertainty (though we still haven’t mastered either of these subjects—it would be easier, mentally, if the water just came and got its flooding over with).  We are in good spirits.  We are able to find humor in some of the stuff happening around us and we can marvel at how people can pull together at the time of crisis.
We try to stay content, whatever comes our way, and we are confident that God is with us.
 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."  (Hebrews 13:5, NIV)

And by the way, I have decided to NOT go after the $33 bounty that the government is giving for the capture of crocodiles that have escaped from flooded crocodile farms.  I figure my arms and legs are more useful than the money.

Pictures from our neighborhood: sandbags and floodwalls

The Beachhead

It starts out small.

A single sedge “nut” or seed somehow finds a favorable enough environment to take root in the not so plant-friendly beach sand.  Soon it sends up more shoots, and eventually more sand is blown into the clump and is trapped there.  A small dune begins to form around the sedge.  It now has its own little micro-environment that is a little less harsh and barren than what is around it.  The soil scientist in me suspects that a soil will begin to form within the miniature dune.  Eventually a seed or piece of this sedge dropped by a bird may end up nearby, and if conditions are right, this process will start all over again.

Like a military unit, the sedge has set up a beachhead.  It will be able to expand out from here, causing the dunelet to grow and eventually be colonized by other plants.

Missionary work is like that.  We start out with a small group of believers and as people find a favorable environment within this mini-church, it begins to grow.  Eventually, people go out from these churches to begin new ones.

That is the situation in Thailand now.  There are not many churches in the country, though some areas or people groups might have many.  But people are beginning to go out from these churches to begin new ones.  Pray that the lives of these young plants won’t be snuffed out by the sand and surf around them, but rather, that they would find small areas of good soil on the beach from which to begin transforming the landscape. 

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Matthew 13:8 (ESV)

Hopeless

And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. Romans 5:2b-5 (NIV) 

I saw an interesting statistic in the Bangkok Post this past week.  In a story about casualties from the flooding in northern Thailand, there was a count of suicides attributable to the flooding and people on suicide watch because of the flooding.
What would cause so many people to want to cause suicide at a time like that.  Was it because they had lost their rice crop and now owed money they could not pay?  Was it because they lost their home and had no money to rebuild or place to build for that matter?  Was it because they lost some loved ones?
Many people suffer these kinds of things and do not want to commit suicide.  So what is the difference?
Certainly if our hope is bound up in possessions and we lose them we can become desperately hopeless—perhaps hopeless to the point of suicide.  And in a culture where public shame is very bad thing, perhaps the shame of not being able to care for your family could cause suicidal despondency.  It doesn’t help either that there is not a lot of mental health assistance available in Thailand nor do many see the value in it.
But I find the verses from Paul quite interesting.  When times of suffering come, we can become hopeless.  But Paul says that suffering can actually produce hope!  This seems rather radical to me.  Yet it is only possible because of the last thing Paul mentions in this passage—the Holy Spirit within us.
With the Holy Spirit we should be able to get to the place where we could lose everything but not lose hope because we still have Jesus.  I’m not sure I’m at that place.
And so I am reminded of a song sung by Fernando Ortega:

 In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise
In the morning, when I rise, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus

When I am alone
When I am alone
When I am alone, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus

When I come to die
When I come to die
When I come to die, give me Jesus

Give me Jesus,
Give me Jesus,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
You can have all this world,
But give me Jesus

Built upon the Swamp

In February of last year, before we ever imagined that we would be living in Bangkok, we were here visiting some family members who were living here at the time.  One day we went for a walk to the nearby Cultural Center and noticed that it was adjacent to a swamp.  It was at that point I remembered that much of central Thailand, including what is now Bangkok, is on bottomland—land with high water tables and likely propensity for flooding.

It is no wonder that in the original city much of the transportation was by water.  It was much easier to dig a ditch and have an instant canal than to try to build a road.

Houses along a major canal in old Bangkok

As these thoughts came to mind, I looked up at the tall buildings around me and wondered about their stability.  How big a footing is big enough to adequately support buildings that are more than 20 stories tall like the one Ingrid’s sister’s family was living in (or the one we are living in right now.)

In my past life, I worked with USDA as a Soil Scientist—making maps of where different kinds of soil are located and showing, among other things, there suitability and limitations for different uses.  The soils of Bangkok would likely have been rated “Severely Limited” for most urban uses—a term that means, more-or-less: “not impossible but has properties that would be expensive to overcome and/or prone to failure” (my own definition).

I was reminded again of this last week when we were exploring one of the nearby communities.  To get there, we had to cross under an elevated freeway.  As is quite common under many of these elevated freeways, the pillars appear to be built on mounds.

Pillars appear to rise out of the ground sinking around them

Under some highways, these mounds are quite high and extend well into the motorway underneath.  At first I thought it was a weird way to construct a highway—but then I realized that the more likely cause was that the supports for the upper highway had good footings and were stable, but the lower highway was on uncompacted ground subject to subsidence—the ground beneath the highway was sinking!

Jesus often used analogies about soil and farming to speak to his followers.  On one occasion he wrote:

“Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. Though the rain comes in torrents and the floodwaters rise and the winds beat against that house, it won’t collapse because it is built on bedrock.
   But anyone who hears my teaching and ignores it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash.”  (Matthew 7:24-27--NLT)

So now, when I see these sinking highways, I will be reminded to do a quick check of my own life—am I building my life on the teaching of Jesus or on the teachings of ordinary men?  I want to be able to say, as hymn writer Edward Mote put it: On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

Grammy’s Pan

Chink…chink…

We were celebrating the completion of a test in our language module by watching a couple shows from the Numb3rs TV series on our computer when we heard this unusual sound coming from the space in our apartment we call a kitchen.

Chink…chink…

It wasn’t much of a sound.  I just thought it was some dishes drying on the counter rearranging themselves.  Perhaps a gecko was entertaining himself on them disturbing their delicate balance.

Chink…chink…

We thought about ignoring the two sounds.  But Ingrid and I both share a sense of curiosity and wonder and desire to want to answer the question “Why?”.  (That’s one of the reasons why we like shows like Numb3rs and why we enjoy living in different cultures.)  So with a click of the pause button we’re off to the kitchen.

At first everything looked normal.  Then I noticed that the 9x9 inch glass baking pan that had been drying upside down on the counter was cracked into two pieces.  I don’t know why it decided to break at that moment—maybe it’s time had just come.

We have not used the pan much since we moved here as we do not have much of an oven, but Ingrid had made a recipe called “Yorky Beef Pie” that evening—a recipe we found in a free cookbook I had picked up in a Shaw’s grocery store in Portsmouth, New Hampshire about 30 years ago—probably close to the time I had acquired the pan.

The baking pan had belonged to my grandmother and I acquired it after she died in late fall, 1979.  I remember the day she died.  It was my last month at University and I was in my apartment when the phone rang.  For some reason I knew it was my dad calling (which would be unusual as typically my mom would initiate calls) and that he was calling to tell me my grandmother had died.  I don’t know why I knew this—she had not been particularly ill.  But so it was.

My grandfather had died several years earlier.  I did not know him all that well—I think perhaps that as a young child I was a bit too annoying to have around.  My Mom tells me that I am a lot like him in many ways, especially in my love of the outdoors and my curiosity about the natural world.
(Interestingly, I alone among my siblings carry the brown eyes from my mother’s side.)
 
My grandmother had a birthday a day apart from mine and we would sometimes celebrate together.  One of the few photos of my grandmother I have with me here in Thailand is one of the two of us with a birthday cake.  I usually tout this photo so as to show that I onece had hair.  Today I will show it to celebrate my grandmother and all the good things I have acquired through my parents and grandparents—whether through genes or through upbringing.



We will miss the pan—not so much for its intrinsic value but because it was a reminder of some precious people in my life as a child.

(And special thanks to my Mom who made the cake.)

(ACTION) Team

Confession time.

I watched more basketball last night than in the past 30 years.  In fact the last time I watched a basketball game was probably the one time I went while I was at University.  (This is nothing against basketball—the only athletic events I’ve watched in the past 30 years, save a few random minutes of football, consist of 1 high school football game and 1 minor league baseball game.)

SO why this change of heart?

Early yesterday morning an ACTION team arrived in Thailand.  This team is comprised of just over 20 young men and women basketball players from the US and Canada who are here to teach basketball skills and engage in some competition.  Along the way they will have the opportunity to tell people what Jesus has done in their lives.

Last night the group met at a park here in Bangkok for some pick-up games.  Even with my limited knowledge of the game (the object is to get the ball in the hoop on your opponents side of the court), I was able to notice something.  The first group of locals that our guys played against went very fast.  It seems like there were only seconds between one of the ACTION team members putting the ball in the basket.

The next game took a bit longer.  And our guys had to work a bit harder.  One reason for this appeared to be that their opponents seemed to function more as a team than a group of individuals.  No one person seemed to want to hog all the glory for himself, the object was to score for the team.  It took them longer to get the ball down to the net, but when they did they were more likely to score.

Robert Sandoval passes the ball to team member Ricky Sanchez

Looking for a team member to pass the ball to

The church is supposed to function as a team.  The apostle Paul writes:
⁴ There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. ⁵ There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. ⁶ There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
⁷ Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. (1 Corinthians 12:4-7 NIV)

 God gifts us with abilities in order that we might use them for the common good of the church.  The church functions best when this happens and it loses its reputation the quickest when this doesn’t.

Even our being here in Thailand is a result of teamwork.  There are people who support us financially and who pray for us and who encourage us.  There are staff in Canada and the US who take care of mundane and not-so-mundane tasks.  There are fellow missionaries we learn from and are encouraged by.  There is the local church here where we minister and can be ministered to.  Even the ACTION Team that has come to play basketball functions as part of our team, helping us tell the people of Thailand the good news of what Jesus has done.

Pray for the ACTION team as they serve here over the next two weeks.  Pray that they will be safe.  Pray for opportunities for them to share their faith.  Pray that they would grow closer to Jesus.  Pray that they would catch a vision for bringing the good news of Jesus to people who have not heard.