Don’t Judge a Book…

Just down the street from where we live is a large shed.  Until a short while ago, we had not seen any activity going there.  There was a large conveyor across the back of the shed, so we assumed it was for some kind of agricultural packing operation.

Then, we noticed that there was a refrigerated semi-trailer running beside the shed.  What kind of packing would they do that needs refrigeration?  Most produce here is shipped in open trucks.

So on the way back from an evening walk we stopped by and found out that they pack pummelos.  That night they were packing a load for China.  They also ship to other nearby countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.

(If you’re in the import business and would like to import some pummelos from Thailand, I can get you the contact info.)

Who would have thought that our little town would have such an operation.  A little shed in Wiang Kaen, the least populous district in Chiang Rai, is impacting the diets of people throughout Asia. How cool is that?

There is an English saying, “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” that seems to fit this situation.

The Bible, too, is full of examples of misjudged expectations.   King David is one of the prime examples.  Here he was, the smallest guy from a large, insignificant, family chosen to be king and also the one to take down a giant.

"Do not consider his appearance or his height,” LORD said to Samuel, “for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."
1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)

Many of the surprising examples from scripture are women.  Rahab, a harlot, is instrumental in the fall of Jericho and becomes an ancestor of Jesus and David.  Just down the genealogical line, Ruth, an unknown woman from Moab, enters the same line.  And Jael, remember her?  Didn’t think so.  She took out Sisera, the commander of an army that was tormenting Israel.

In the New Testament, there is Mary, from an insignificant town in an unimportant place called Nazareth.  But now millions of people know about Nazareth because Jesus is from there—because Mary was from there.  Then there is that other Mary—the woman of the streets who anointed Jesus feet.  We don’t know the names of many of the important people of that time—but we know her name.

These people weren’t trying to make names for themselves—but we know their names anyway.  No one would have picked these people as “most likely to succeed,” yet their names have been recorded in history.  We know the names of these people, not because they were prominent people in their day or because they sought glory and fame, but because they chose to love and serve God rather than men.

Some people have a goal in life that they want to be famous.

A better goal is that we be found faithful.

Pummelos in plastic baskets waiting to be packed

Unloading pummelos from a pickup truck

Putting labels on pummelos prior to putting in boxes

A 2 kilogram pummelo

Beyond my Ability

Last week, during a break between rainstorms, we took Ingrid’s sister and niece on a drive into the mountains near here.  For the first 16 kilometers, the road generally follows the course of the Ngao River.  It has a fair number of very steep, but relatively short sections.  I’ve been bicycling that portion quite a bit lately for exercise.

But as we turned off the main road, I noticed that our path was becoming quite steep for sustained distances.  As we entered the first such section of road I said that, in regard to my bicycling, this was “beyond my ability”.

I’ve heard that there are those who ride their bicycles all the way to the top—to a small park called Pa Tang.  But I couldn’t see myself ever doing that.  Some parts even seemed a challenge for our truck.

But the other day I decided to try to attempt at least the first grade.  As I thought, it was quite hard.  I think I was pedaling about 5 km/h (3 mph).  The threatening clouds had me thinking maybe I should head back before I got to the top of that first grade.  But then a smidgen of sunlight would break through the clouds and I would keep going. And then, after what seemed like forever (but was probably only 10 minutes), the road leveled off at the base of this hill that protrudes awkwardly from the landscape.

The hill at the beginning of the road to Pa Tang with the first steep grade marked.

Suddenly what seemed so impossible now is doable.  (Who knows, maybe one day I’ll even get to the top—there are only about 12 more kilometers of the remaining 13 that are as steep or steeper than that.)

Our work in Thailand is often like this.  Sometime it seems impossible.  Truth be told, it even IS beyond our ability.  But it IS NOT beyond God’s ability.

I think of a recent occurrence here in Wiang Kaen.  Samyo is a young Khmu man who was born and raised in the US.  He was on an Action Team that spent about 2 weeks in our area.  The locals would tell you that his Khmu language skills are not that great.  But one Sunday morning he preached in Khmu in one of the churches.  God gave him Khmu words to speak that he didn’t think he knew.  People listened with rapt attention.  Some people decided that they want to believe in Jesus.  Praise God that Samyo did not let his lack of ability keep him from speaking that day!

One day, Jesus was chatting with a wealthy person who wanted to know how he could have eternal life.  After giving him some advice, which the rich person was loathe to follow, Jesus said to his disciples, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God." (Matthew 19:24)

Get through an eye of a needle!  I have trouble getting into the pants I bought last year!

The disciples must have been on the same wavelength as me, for they said to Jesus, “Who then can be saved?” to which Jesus responded, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)

Some things are, in fact, beyond my ability, but they aren’t beyond God’s ability.  The challenge for me is to walk the same path Jesus is walking so that I can see the impossible take place.

A New Word

God.

How can we describe God?

How can we talk about God to a people who don’t even have a word for God?

I mean the kind of God who isn’t just a minor being like us, but that we can’t see.

Not the kind of god that can be confined to a building.

Not the kind of god created by a craftsman.

But the God who created the craftsman everything else in this world and who is over everything in the universe.

THAT kind of God.

We had the opportunity to introduce God to some school children last week during an English camp at Wannasorn Wittaya school in Wiang Kaen.  Many of these children have no sense of God in the way that we would.  An Action Team of six people helped us with this (Kelly, Samyo, Samson, Josh, Kim and Lorren).  Ingrid’s sister and niece (Ruth and Kaira) also helped out.

One of the ways we teach English is by telling stories.   Listening to and retelling stories gives people a chance to see how words connect together to convey ideas.   This is especially important in a country where children are taught lots of words but cannot think for themselves to create a new sentence.

The story we taught this last week was the creation story.  It’s a good teaching story because it has a nice pattern (Day 1, Day 2, etc) that help the children be able to put it back together.  AND it also tells them about a different kind of God than ones they have heard about.

Christina taught the creation story.  She was helped by Samyo and Lauren from the team.

Samyo, Christina and Lorren telling The Story

We also taught using music, since music helps people retain words.  Samson and Kim did a great job getting the kids singing and dancing to English words.

Kim and Samson following the lyrics

Ingrid and Ruth helped the children do crafts.  The children learned new words and got to practice using them in sentences (e.g. “May I have some scissors, please?”).  Pat, our office administrator in Wiang Kaen, also helped out.

Ruth, Pat and Ingrid helping with crafts

Children also were able to practice English in the context of playing games.  Josh and Kaira took the lead here with some help from Boonsert, a intern from Laos who knows a little bit of English (along with Lao, Khmu, Korean and some Thai).

Kaira and Josh supervising games

At the end of camp, we had a closing ceremony.  Even the teachers couldn’t help but join in as they danced to the lyrics of the Chaa Chaa song.



In the end, about 180 school children, along with their teachers, got to have fun while learning English.

And they learned a new word.

God.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1

Who is my neighbor?

That was the question put to Jesus by a man who was trying to justify himself with his own self-righteousness.

The man had knew in his head that which is most important in life, for previously had answered Jesus: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself." (Luke10:27)

But the man did not understand the application of the two greatest commandments. So Jesus answered the man’s question by telling the story of the good Samaritan.

We shared this story in our kids club last week.  This week we added to it by sharing another story Jesus told, the story of the foolish rich man.

This rich man was considered foolish because he was “one who stores up riches for himself, but is not rich toward God” by pursuing God’s kingdom (Luke 12:21, 31)

After telling this story, we gave the children opportunity to be good neighbors to each other.  We had them draw names and then create a card for the person whose name they drew.

It was fun to see their creative juices flow.  We put out lots of materials but didn’t direct them as to how to create their cards.

Some of our neighbors showing off the cards they received

Explore

Last week, while we were driving home from Chiang Rai, we decided to take a different route than usual.  The route took us through an area that has a fair number of these bizarre hills that stick almost straight up out of an otherwise very flat landscape.

A limestone hill in Wiang Chai district of Chiang Rai province.

I noticed that there seemed to be some kind of statue on the side of one of these, so we turned off down a dirt road that headed in that general direction.  The road quickly narrowed until it was just wide enough for a vehicle to pass between the rice paddies on either side.  It also turned away from the hill we wanted to get to.

A quick question to a farmer assured us that the road would take us to the hill, we only needed to turn left up ahead.  And, sure enough, we eventually made it.

Buddhist shrine in Wiang Chai

While we were climbing around the shrine, Ingrid noticed a small “tunnel” formed by some pieces of limestone that had fallen off the mountain.  She suggested that we go through the tunnel (letting me go first to scare any snakes out of the way).  We were rewarded by coming to a small cave formed by a large slab of rock sloughing off the mountain.  But what this cave lacked in size, it made up for in the sheer number of bats that were hanging around inside.

Bats hanging from the wall of the cave,
even after scaring off many of them.

Both Ingrid and I have this curious bent that makes us want to explore new places.  To us, the phrase, “we haven’t been that way before,” is an invitation to a new adventure.  Sometimes we even get rewarded by the sight of something new or especially interesting or beautiful.

Last week I was wandering down a farm road on my bicycle when I happened upon an almost random Curcuma flower growing at the edge of a rice paddy.  Well worth the flat tire incurred along the way.

Bloom of Curcuma latifolia.

Since I’ve taken to bicycle riding as a form of exercise in lieu of going to the non-existent gym, I’ve been able to explore a lot of the roads in the area.  Often I’ll get a big smile from some farmer driving his truck down the road (after the initial look of surprise a seeing a foreigner on a bicycle in the middle of nowhere).  One time I even got cheers from a bunch of people planting corn, who were impressed that I actually rode a bicycle up the hill that far.

Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising, then, that it was at a workshop called Explore that we were launched on a new trajectory towards service with MB Mission.  With a compass on the logo like that, who WOULDN’T want to go?

Since coming to Thailand, we've had the opportunity to explore different parts of Thailand. 

On our explorations of Thailand, we’ve noticed a few things.  One is that there are large areas of Thailand with no churches.  Another is that some areas, like where we currently live, have lots of churches—but they are generally in villages of some of the hill-tribe peoples that don’t worship in the Thai language.

One of the challenges facing the church in Thailand is how to mobilize some of these people groups with a fair number of Christians to reach out cross-culturally within Thailand.  It is our privilege to work with a number of our Khmu brothers and sisters who have a desire to do exactly that.  So now we are exploring  together with them how it might happen.

Working with some of the Khmu church leaders.

There are a lot of challenges to make this happen.  Like some of our journeys, sometimes the road seems to go in the wrong direction.  And just like how driving down the back roads brings risks of getting stuck or a flat tire, we also will likely run into obstacles along the way.

But in the end we have the hope that we will encounter something beautiful along the way.

Then all of you came near me and said, 'Let us send men before us, that they may explore the land for us and bring us word again of the way by which we must go up and the cities into which we shall come.'

Deuteronomy 1:22 (ESV)

Honoring Teacher’s Day-วันไหว้ครู

Outdo one another in showing honor. Romans 12:10b (ESV)
 
Wan Wai Khru is a day in which Thai students thank their teachers.  Typically this is done by presenting a gift of flowers along with performing a wai (holding ones palms together in front of the face while bowing slightly).  This year, the local high school honored their teachers on June 12th.

While we are not school teachers, one young woman who we have been helping to learn English and also helping in her walk with Jesus chose to make a card for us for Wan Wai Khru.

And we, of course, were very honored to receive the card.

Some days we wonder whether one is making an impact in the lives of people around us.  So it was great to receive a special gift like this.

The card was quite pretty and well made.  Lie was very creative in her use of dried flowers and seeds and in her use of color.

วันพฤหัสก่อนนักเรียนที่โรงเรียนเวียงแก่นวิทยาคมถวายเกียรติให้ครูในวันไหว้ครู

มีนักเรียนคนหนึ่งที่เราช่วยโดยสอนภาษาอังกฤษ  ถึงแม้ว่าเราไม่ได้เป็นครูประจำของเธอ  เมื่อวานนี้เธอถวายเกียรติให้เราโดยทำการ์ดสวยงามให้

เราก็ดีใจมากที่เราได้รับของขวาญแบบนี้เพราะเป็นการกระทำที่ให้กำลังใจเรามาก

Remembering Phawkham

Somewhere we once read that two of the ways to get to know a culture are to go to a wedding and go to a funeral.  This past week we became very familiar with one of these.

Last Thursday, our next door neighbor, Phawkham, died after a bout with lung cancer.

Phawkham and his wife lived with their only son and two grandchildren.   He had been sick some time and had been using oxygen for several weeks.  I first knew something was wrong when I saw his granddaughter running home from school with tears in her eyes.  Many others started showing up at their house and at 9am we went to see what was happening.  He had just died.

It was then that the frenzy of activity began that was to occupy the next few days.  Because of the very close proximity of our houses and the fact that Phawkham is a relative of our landlord, it became very much a part of our lives as well.

The rental company was there by 11 am to set up canopies, tables and chairs.  The canopy stretched to beneath the eaves of our house.

The chairs set up between our houses

By afternoon, two construction projects were begun.  On the far side of their house a gazebo was constructed.  Then, between our houses, some trees were cut down or cut back in order to construct a small house.

Constructing the house for the deceased

Throughout the rest of the day and for all of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, many people came to eat (3 meals a day were served to any who came), to assist the various projects, to pay respects to the widow, and make merit offerings for the deceased.

Besides work on the gazebo and house, others were involved in making the various decorations that were to be used on them.

Making decorative garlands.  The "fish" are made from drinking strawas

Another one of the handmade decorations.  Ingrid worked on some of this.

Still others were at work in the makeshift kitchen behind the house—it seems like there was someone working there almost 24 hours a day.

The widow would be sitting in the main room of the house almost all of the time.  The coffin was there, kept in a special refrigerated case that was bedecked with flowers.  There were pads for kneeling in front of it for those wishing to offer prayers of merit for the deceased.

The widow and son in front of the refrigerated chest containing the coffin

In the evening, somewhere between 8 and 9 pm, a group of monks would come and offer chants for a while.  After they left, the party began.  People would hang out and drink until all hours of the morning.  The loudest night was Saturday night, with partying going on outside our bedroom window until 4:30 in the morning.

Evening Chanting

By Saturday morning, the small house was completed.  It was filled as if someone were living there.  It contained a widescreen TV, refrigerator, mosquito net, fan, pillows and many other things.  A side room had a makesift (non functioning) squat toilet, washing machine and a dish cupboard.  Some of the kids would hang out here and watch TV.

A white string (สายสิญจน์) was attached to the front of the small house that had been built that ran into the main house where the coffin had been placed earlier.  This was to allow the dead person to move out of the main house and into the small one.

The house for the deceased.  The white "sacred string" (สายสิญจน์) connects to the main house.

On Sunday evening the gazebo was set on a trailer and brought to the front of the house.  The casket was brought out of the case from inside of the house and placed in the gazebo.

Placing the coffin on the gazebo

An altar for offering incense and merit offerings was set up in front of the gazebo.  It was also a place for the family to make more formal photos of those who came.

Standing by the altar in front of the gazebo

On Monday, even more canopies were set up across the street, blocking the entire side street.  A band was playing traditional music in front of their house.  Lunch was served early.

The canopy across the street.  By lunch time this was full

After lunch, the string from the small house to the main house was cut so that the dead person could not go back.  The trailer with the gazebo was attached to the truck.  Two long ropes were extended out from the front of the truck so that the mourners could symbolically tow the coffin to the crematorium.

Getting ready to tow the gazebo

The band moved to a waiting farm truck and started playing.  Some people got an early start and drove to the crematorium.

Final preparations before the procession

Once things were in order, the procession began.  Two girls led the procession carrying the floral display that held a photo of the deceased.  Then came the mourners “pulling” the rope.  Then was the pickup truck which had a sound system playing sacred music while it towed the gazebo.

Lastly, the truck with the band followed.




A man carried a long bamboo pole with a fork on it to push up any low hanging wires or branches that might snag the top of the gazebo.

Rounding the corner.  The bamboo pole is used to clear branches and wires out of the way

A humorous incident happened when the gazebo had trouble navigating between trees on the side of the road.

Trying to navigate through the trees on the side of the road

Eventually we all got to the crematorium grounds.  The gazebo would normally have been rolled under a roofed structure in front of the crematorium, but it was too wide to fit, so it was placed in front.

The gazebo arrives in front of the crematorium

A group of school kids distributed cold water and orange drink to the hundreds that were gathered.  It was definitely appreciated on the hot day!  They also distributed special paper flowers and pens.  The flowers had a small piece of candle attached in order to facilitate burning.  The pens had a “scroll” that pulled out containing some Pali words that could be chanted every day.

The pens and paper flowers that were distributed

The first order of business was to take official pictures of select groups of people.  Then, a group of people were called up, one at a time, to offer a ceremonial towel for the monks to use.  These were placed on a table in front of the gazebo.  When they were all piled up, a group of 7 monks came up to receive them. Next, a smaller group of people were called up one at a time to offer a special pedestal with a monks robe on it.  These were also placed on the table.  A smaller group of monks came up to receive this offering.

Monks receiving the ceremonial towels

Monks receiving robes and pedestals

Lastly, some words were spoken about the deceased.  Then the coffin was taken off the gazebo and placed into the crematorium.  The widow went up to place her paper flower on the coffin and then she was taken home in a car.  Next, all those assembled went to throw their flowers on the coffin.  Then then coffin was ignited.

The crowd goes forward to place their paper flowers on the casket

The gazebo would be donated to a park or a school according to the wishes of the family.
Back at the house, the small house was carefully disassembled and placed onto a pickup truck.  It would later be brought to a temple and reassembled where it would serve as lodging for a novice monk.

A smaller crowd of people stayed on at the house to help clean up and socialize throughout the night.  Cleanup was complete by Tuesday evening and the widow began to settle down to life with a new normal.

It was a privilege for us to be included in all of these festivities, even though we did not participate in the chanting or merit-making aspects.  It was a great way to meet new people and it gave us an opportunity to tell how different it was from our Western way of doing things.  To some we also got the opportunity to explain why funerals are different for a Christian. 

Remembering Phawkham-a good neighbor

More photos here.