How do we give-a lesson from Songkran

This weekend has been the celebration of Thai New Year, also known as Songkran.

The focus of much of the popular media has to do with the modern-day Songkran celebrations marked by the throwing and spraying of water.  I have written previously about that aspect of the holiday (see here).

This year is our first celebration of Songkran in our new home, Ban Phrueksa 36.  I couldn’t help but join in the water fun along with the children-many of whom attend our Kid’s Club gatherings.



One block our our subdivision put on a special party.  There was lots of food.  And beer.  (They served it with ice cubes—not sure I could handle that.)  And also they were putting together a “money tree” to be given to the nearby temple.  Everyone's contributions were put in bamboo clips which were stuck into a banana stalk to make the tree.



Later in the day, There was a parade to the temple.  There were two pickups, each carrying a money tree and passengers in the back—many with water blasters.  Another truck had the ice chests—they were still handing out beer—and they were also throwing ice water from the melting ice onto people alongside the road (felt good, actually).




Then there was the crowd drinking and dancing along the way.  All-in-all, they were having a good time as they brought their offering to the temple.



I thought it a bit ironic though that their offering at the Buddhist temple was accompanied by self-indulgence—something that Buddha taught against.

All of which gives me cause for some soul-searching—does my practice of Christianity include things Jesus taught against?

Also, the idea of giving accompanied by fanfare—so common in Thailand—made made me think of the words of Jesus:

¹ "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
² "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV)

In the west, where our financial matters tend to be quite private affairs, it is easy for us to not be so open about our giving—to a certain extent.  We don’t let others know what we put in the offering (either to keep from being proud or shamed, perhaps)—but we certainly want the church finance people to know so that we can get our tax deduction.

But it can be hard not to tell about our good works.  For those of us who are involved in ministry that is supported by the gifts of others, we have this need to be accountable.  Those who give want to know what we are doing with the money we receive.  How do we both report on our “good works” and let our “left hand not know what our right hand is doing” at the same time?

Then there is this whole other spin on the gift-bearing parade.  Why not celebrate your “faith” like that?
 
I think of David, when he brought the ark to Jerusalem.  This was accompanied buy much celebration, dancing, and public sacrifice. (2 Samuel 6:12-15)

So much to think about this Songkran weekend.

Jesus, give us your wisdom to practice our faith in a way that pleases you.

Welcome Home

There have likely been thousands if not millions of discussions over the years as to what constitutes “home”.  People talk about things like:

• How long do you have to live some place before if feels like home?
• What do you need to have (things/rountines/etc) at a given location before you feel it is home?
• is home based on proximity to family?

Since we have moved a lot of times among several countries over the years, this becomes pertinent to us.  We have seldom lived close to family members during out 30 years of marriage.  If you ask me where home is, I would likely say, “home is where my sweetheart is.”

Perhaps similar to this is the question of belonging in a certain area.  I usually feel if I meet people I recognize when I’m about town then it is a bit more like “my” town.  I remember randomly meeting an acquaintance in Bangkok and feeling amazed—we did not know a lot of Thai people in Bangkok outside of our neighbors—so when we met up with one in that city of over 12 million people it was quite a surprise.

Maybe another measure of “home” is whether any one misses you when you are gone.  I remember belonging to an organization once where we tried hard to build relationships and be connected, but we were not very successful.  After a while we gave up and quit.  About half a year later we met up with a member of that organization and from the discussion we realized that he did not even realize that we were no longer going to meetings!

About three months ago we moved to the subdivision we currently live in.  There is a little fellow of about three, Cartoon, who can frequently be seen riding his tiny pink bicycle up and down the road.  Once in a while, if we are out on the side walk, he will stop and visit.

Cartoon Comes to Welcome us Home

We recently got back from a two-week long trip.  We arrived at night and so it wasn’t until the next morning that I was up getting our truck loaded with stuff we would need for some activities that day.  I saw Cartoon down the road and when he noticed me, he rode his bike up to me, got off, and wrapped his arms around my leg in a big hug.

Welcome home.

Third Culture People

I was thinking about how little I know about my adopted country.  Sure, we have lived here for two years and have done lots of things and read lots of books about our new homeland.  But my knowledge is mostly facts

As we learn a new language, our goal would be to use the language as well as a native Thai speaker.  Some of those who teach the Thai language divide language learning into several stages—the last one usually occurring about 20 years into the process when you use the language almost as well as a native Thai speaker.  No matter how long you live here, you never get to use Thai just like a Thai.

Thai people embracing a
and culture I will never
fully understand

Why is this?  Why is our knowledge so limited?

Being Thai is totally ingrained in a person born in Thailand to a Thai family and then raised here.  For them, using the language is not just a matter of what they’ve studied or learned from experience, it is a part of who they are.

The subject came up the other day as we were discussing returning to our homeland for a brief period. We come to a country and try to master the language and culture but never completely fit in. Then we go back to our own culture but, since we have changed, we don’t quite fit in there either.  And so we end up being a third culture and we end up relating best to people who have had similar experiences.

You could say the same thing about your relationship to anyone because everyone is unique.  In a sense, we each have our own culture.  Try as I might, I will never completely understand my wife, nor she me, even though we love each other and spend so much time together.  Miscommunication still sometimes occurs.

Some people don’t even try.  Spats, feuds, and even wars can be brought about between people or groups because the don’t understand each other and don’t want to try.

And then there is my relationship to God.  How can I begin to understand God who is so “other” than me?
God is at the advantage here because He is our creator and so understands us even better than we understand ourselves.

¹ ​​​​​​​​O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
² ​​​​​​​​You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
³ ​​​​​​​​You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴ ​​​​​​​​Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O Lord, you know it altogether.
⁵ ​​​​​​​​You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
⁶ ​​​​​​​​Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.   (Psalm 139:1-6)

Fortunately God took the initiative to try to help us understand Him.  First, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to give us a better glimpse of what he is like.  Then, if we will believe the testimony of His Son, he will place His Spirit in our lives.

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
³ Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope.
⁵ And 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 5:1-5 (NIV)

One day I have the hope that I will understand God better, for I will see Him as He is. (1 Corinthians 13:12)
Meanwhile I live as a third culture person—a misfit, if you will—in more ways than one. 

Holiday-not, but a Holy Day

It was supposed to be our day off. It was a holiday to boot. Yet, here it was, Monday, and our house was a rather noisy place with children playing and having a good time and some youth practicing guitar.

It started on Sunday afternoon. I was chatting with some of the neighborhood kids outside our home. One of them, Jill (not her real name), mentioned that the next day was her 10^th birthday. So I said that since it was her birthday, she should have a birthday cake. And then I suggested that she could come and help make a cake.

So three kids showed up about 10:30 am and Ingrid began the cake-making instructions.

 
 
After the cake was in the oven, we had them read the creation story from a simplified Bible story book, designed for English learners. Then I taught them how to play Uno, which they caught onto quickly and had fun playing—especially after the second hand in which I had two 50 point and three 20 point cards left in my hand.



We took a break for lunch while the cake cooled, and then the three were back, plus one other, for the decorating. One of my guitar students was there (an hour early), but he seemed to enjoy the cake decorating as much, if not more so, than the others. He was pretty good at it, too.

 
 


And then the kids made themselves at home—playing with the guitars, tambourine and drum and singing some Christian songs that they had learned in kids club. (I did forbid use of the hula hoop inside.)



Eventually Ingrid carried some cake to Jill’s house while I continued with the guitar lessons. She discovered that as chaotic as our place had become that day, it was even worse at Jill’s place—maybe that’s why she likes it at our place.  And one of the participants in the day’s activities was sure to remind us that his birthday is in March.

After the guitar students left we were exhausted, but glad that we could provide some constructive activities for their day off from school.

This is what are life is often like here—things don’t always go as planned—sometimes they even go better.  And while we could have used a day off to rest, it’s always in season to show some love to our neighbors.  And the cake was good, too.

But Jesus said, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like these children.” –Matthew 19:14 (NLT)

Letter from home

Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.Proverbs 25:25 (NIV)
 
In Thailand it is not unusual for utilities to remain in the name of the landlord.  Whoever moves into a new place takes over paying the bills, even though nothing is in the name of the new tenant.  Since moving here we have received a few such things.  But yesterday when I looked in the mailbox there was a big surprise:
 

It was the first personal mail we’ve received since moving to Ban Phrueksa.
 
Perhaps it’s because we seldom use the post office to send mail these days that receiving a letter seems so special.  But another thing about getting the first mail is that it makes us feel a bit settled—like this is really our home now.
 
Moving around as much as we have the past few years, it is hard to feel like there is any place that we call home any more.  We live in one place long enough to begin to develop some relationships, but just when ministry type things seem to start happening, we’re moving on again.
 
But now, Ban Phrueksa is home.  Even the Thailand Post Office knows it.

As Judy Garland said, “there’s no place like home.”

So thanks, Shelly and Rob for the Christmas letter and especially the family photo.

Juan

Am I back in California?

We had just finished an outreach program at a Children’s Day celebration at a park in Ban Phrueksa.  Louise and the TREK team kept children occupied with games and crafts and singing along with a presentation of the gospel.

Afterwards, a young fellow came up whose name is Juan.  At least, that was my first thought.  Then reality hit that this was not California and the boy's name was more likely “Day” (Wan) than “John”  (Juan) (translating from Thai instead of Spanish), but I had not heard that name before, so it caught me by surprise.

Wan had bene watching our presentation and was interested in what he saw.  He expressed interest in learning to play an instrument, perhaps guitar.  We chatted a bit and then he helped load all of our stuff into my truck and later helped unload it at our house.  I thought perhaps I might next see him for guitar instruction on Saturday.

Once we got organized, the TREK team, Louise, Ingrid and myself got into my pickup and headed off to Bethel Church.  Several people had to sit in the back of the pickup (at least there is AC in the camper shell).  When we got to the church and everyone spilled out of the back I saw, to my surprise, that Wan had come along as well.

Wan (left) prays to receive Jesus into his life

We made our way to the church, arriving just as the sermon was about to begin.  Ajan Nat was preaching.  One of the verses she shared was 2 Corinthians 5:17--where Paul writes that if anyone is in Christ, that person is a new creation.

After preaching, Nat asked it there were any who would like to trust Jesus as their Savior, and so become a new creation.  Wan, along with another first time guest (read Danae’s blog for that amazing story) went forward.
 
And so se welcome Wan into the family of God and pray that he will persevere and become active in the house church that will be starting here next week.

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (2 Corinthians 5:17--NLT)

Dagwood

When I was a child, our family would sometimes eat at at a restaurant (I think it was Litchfield Farm Shop, later bought out by Friendly’s) where they served a sandwich called “The Dagwood”.  The sandwich took its name from Dagwood of the Blondie cartoon strip.  Dagwood makes these extremely tall sandwiches made up of all manner of whatever.  But they all have a commonality—a piece of bread on either end.

The bread is not the most consequential part of the sandwich, but the two slices to give you something to grab onto as you eat.

As I did last year, I am focusing on the first and last photos of the year I took—that may not be of the most consequential events of the year but they serve as kind of a way of to grab onto the year.




January 2 is Ozz’s birthday.  On his birthday, he and his wife, Sara, came to join us for dinner at our apartment in Bangkok.  Sara is a good friend of ours whom we have known since our early days in Fresno, California.  Ozz is studying at a seminary in Bangkok.

Jus a few days ago, Sara and Ozz again joined us for dinner—only this time it was Christmas dinner at our new place in Chachoengsao Province.  With them was their 8 month old son Elijah.  Elijah is their first child (and kind of like our first grandchild), so their lives have been filled with a lot of change.



Our lives, too, have been filled with a lot of change—first a move to Chonburi and then to Chachoengsao.  Our lives have been filled with some births as well—first the birth of a vision to work in Northeast Thailand and then (when some complications arose), birth of a vision to start a church in an isolated community in Chachoengsao Province.

But even as people are born into this world, others leave it.  And so we bid farewell to my mom in late July.



The above picture of my mom and me I took back in 2007.  It is at the location of another birth, of sorts.  The Haystack Monument in Williamstown, Massachusetts marks the location of the birth of the world missions movement in North America—something that is significant in our lives as we have become part of that.  So even though my mom is gone, there is new life rising up in her place.  Pray that God will use us to bring new life in Jesus Christ to the people of Thailand.

December 31, 2012.  It is a few minutes before midnight and the main street in Ban Phrueksa is relatively quiet—belying the fact that there are a bunch of noisy parties going on on a lot of the side streets.



We seldom stay up to bring in the New Year, but since this was our first in Ban Phrueksa, we thought we would stay up and see what happens.  So we watched the final two episodes of season I of The Mentalist and then broke open a new deck of Uno cards to keep us awake.


Just before midnight we wandered out onto the streets and son the sky came alive with fireworks.



The abruptness of that moment—from quiet to loud explosions—is kind of what our December was like.  At the beginning of the month we were not even imagining living in Chachoengsao.  And then the timing seemed right and so there was an explosion of activity with a lot of praying and then house-hunting and participating in a multitude of Christmas outreach events and then moving mixed in with all of this.

And here we are—starting a new year and kind of a new live in Ban Phrueksa, Chachoengsao, Thailand.  As I reflect back on the year and see death and new life, I am reminded of the transient nature of life on earth.  But God and His work are not transient—His work will last.

I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.  Ecclesiastes 3:14 (NIV)


I wonder what kind of sandwich we’ll have this year.