The Big Five-Oh

There are no words to tell you how it pains me, but as of today, I have been on this planet for half a century. Oh my. And except for first thing in the morning when I can barely move, I do not feel a bit over 28.

I had thought I would escape the usual razzing that comes with this birthday when I came here, but it turns out that 50 is a big birthday here, too. It is pretty much when you become officially old and 'uncle' to everyone. Great.

I was treated to lunch today by a big ol' crowd of DST associates, who took me to a great Chinese restaurant right in our building. I'd never been there and it was great. And very nice to be so honored by so many.





This is all us... the DST gang.




Momo and Joy 1. I have worked with them since I first came here in 2006. In the background are Vera, my boss, and her husband Ben.



The TRAC Dedicated team. I am their manager.

Aey, Lek, Pook, Eam, and Kae.

And to my sister, who asked the folks here to make a bid deal of my fiftieth, I will not post how far away your turn is, but someday, somewhere... your turn will come, too.

Partyin' at Ja Ruarat

After we missed last week in the slums because of the church gathering in Pattaya, Ah Jan Vee decided we would meet the kids at Ja Rurat with a party this weekend. About twenty five kids showed up and we started the day with me telling the beginning of the story of Joseph. The kids really enjoyed it (thanks, I am sure, to Nok's translation for me) and we left off with Joseph being sold into slavery. I am sure the kids will be eager to pick the story back up next week.

And then it was party time, with chips and sausages and soft drinks and cupcakes and fresh fruit. Good times for all!

Pai loves working with the kids in the slums. I love the fact that he gets to see that the Christian faith is action, not just sitting in church on Sundays.

I believe she's having a good time.

You'd think that dog might be a little better on a bun with some mustard, but he's liking it fine just the way it is. By the way, hot dogs may be All-American food, but Thailand didn't get the memo. They eat dogs (which they call sausages) by the ton.

Another quick road trip

Pastor Winit asked me yesterday if I would be able to join him and Vee on a road trip to a location near Pattaya. A church member had donated a parcel of land to the church and we were taking her to meet a local pastor who was interested in building a church on the property.

We ended up at the home of the church member's sister. She runs a jack fruit orchard or farm. Her husband operated it until his death a few years ago, and now she is left to run the farm herself. We visited with her for a while and prayed for her.




What in the world is a jack fruit you ask? Well, it looks pretty awful, like a huge, elongated hedge ball.



Jack fruit ready to be hauled to market.

Si Pai (the member's sister) cuts up a jack fruit for me to try after finding out I had never tasted it. The flesh is thick and meaty, but the flavor is quite sweet, and it tastes a lot like a good, sweet cantaloupe. Vee warned me that, although it tastes very good, eating a lot of it at once can make you sick, but I suppose that is true of a lot of things.

pastor Winit encouraged Si Pai to discover how much God does love her.

Family Time

Last Sunday, a group of about forty of us from Immanuel left right after church for the ninety minute drive to Pattaya, where there is a Baptist Church camp located about thirty feet from the sea shore. It was mostly just a time of building relationships and relaxation.

Bamboo Pai and Naf, an eighteen year old young man who just became a Christian a couple of months ago.





We played soccer on the beach for a while. A fun time.

Oh, the sacrifices I make in serving Jesus!

We gathered in a meeting room for a brief period of worship. In addition to folks from the church, three missionaries serving with Pioneers, Jenny and Phil from Australia and Greg from the US, joined us. The four of us farangs (foreigners) were asked to speak to the group, sharing our stories and encouraging folks in their spiritual growth.

We finished off the evening with a wonderful Thai all you can eat meal at a seaside restaurant. THIS was some good eating! Bot a bamboo worm or cricket in sight.

Thai-ing the Knot

Bin Chinnery, one of my American expat co-workers, married his lovely Thai ladyfriend Friday in a traditional Thai style wedding. The bride and groom, in ceremonial garb, kneel at a sort of golden altar. Guests line up and one by one come up to the happy couple, where they are given a sea shell filled with water. While the bride and groom each hod their hands in a sort of praying posture, the guests pour water over their hands as a sort of blessing.




Notice their is string-like thing wrapped around their heads, connecting them. I believe this is some kind of floral deal. Thai who read this can give you the real meaning of this. I assume it has something to do with the eternal bond that now exists between them... or is a Thai way of saying, "Dude, you are roped for life."



The wedding was held at the Jim Thompson house, one of the major tourist attractions of Thailand. Thompson was an American who came to Thailand and revitalized the silk industry. In 1967, while vacationing in Malaysia, he went for a walk and was never seen again. Jim Thompson silk stores are all over and most people visiting Thailand make it a point to visit his house.

Garden In The Sky

When the king's mother passed away a few years ago, it was decided to build a botanical garden in one of her favor ties areas near the royal villa in the mountains of Chiang Mai province. Roughly translated, it is called the Garden In the Sky, and we stopped by between visits to orphanages.

The Return of the Worm!

Everyone's favorite dining adventure from my last trip here was the bamboo worms. They are a specialty of northern Thailand. A friend jokingly calls them "Thai French fries." Crispy little beggars that are deep fried and available at any market in Chiang Rai.



Worms with naam prik, a sort of salsa like substance that comes in hot, nuclear and 'dude, where did your lips go?' This is the mild version. The Li Hpu people serve a dark red version that is insanely hot, and I loved it!



Ate a handful of the little beggars this time. Just like chewing on shoestring potatoes, with a bit less salt. And shoestring potatoes don't look at you as you eat them.

One of my very favorite dishes in Thailand is khao soy noodles. It is not easy to find in Bangkok because it is a northern Thai dish. I was told that if I went north, I HAD to eat khao soy in Chiang Mai or Chiang Rai, so we at them both places. It is noodles with a bit of vegetables, chunks of chicken (usually full chicken wings), bean sprouts, and a soup with a coconut milk base. It is fairly spicy, but then you dump in crushed red pepper and chunks of red onion and...oh my, this stuff is wonderful!

White House

I am sorry that these posts from this week's trip are not in chronological order. I just add things as they occur to me...

The moment we arrived in Chinag Mai on the first day, we walked straight in to the beginning of a church service. We were going there to visit White House, the drug rehab center sponsored by Immanuel Church, and had been invited to share at the church attended by the folks in treatment. Ah Jan Winit had told me to expect a very small crowd, "probably less than twenty, including everyone in the van." We got there and discovered the whole church had turned out and they had invited another church, so there were well over a hundred folks.

Ah Jan Winit invited me to come up and speak to the church for a while. At the end of the service, the senior pastor said something in Thai, pointing at me. I heard the word 'farang,' (foreigner), but didn't understand anything else. Afterward, the team said he told the church that 'Uncle farang,' had given one of the most touching messages he had heard in years. Wow. Way cool!

The church was packed.

How old would you guess this boy to be? You're probably wrong. He is thirteen years old. And I am visiting with him because he is IN drug rehab. His mother died as a result of her heroin addiction and she managed to get him hooked, too. He has been living at White House for several months now and will be there for another year or so before, most likely, moving to an orphanage.

Unlike most drug rehab sites in the US, here you stay at least six months, and they would like you to stay two years. Actually, the older 'patients' are even encouraged to enroll in Bible College after treatment, and they are assisted with tuition. This is exactly how my buddy Vee got started on the road to ministry.

The housing units at White House. Vee stayed in one of these for months during his treatment some ten or twelve years ago. The men of the team stayed here overnight, while the women stayed in the main house. Bare tile floor with mattresses thrown down, but I've slept in far worse here! Outdoor toilets and cold showers all week. Keeps you awake!

The director here actually owns the property and Immanuel is paying operating expenses. The director is getting older, though, and has mentioned thinking about shutting the place down and selling the property. Ah Jan Winit and the board are praying about possibly purchasing the property and, when the director retires, assuming the task of daily operations.

Part of the team during a quick devotional time before heading back onto the road and to our next adventure.

Meeting with Hill Tribe people

All day Wednesday was spent in Chiang Mai, participating in a pastor's conference for pastors and their wives from the Li Hpu hill tribe. (Pronounced "La Hoo".) The Li Hpu have their own dialect that is very different from traditional Thai and even Ah Jan Winit needed a translator. He spoke at four sessions, two each in the morning and afternoon, and each time for about an hour. The subject was worship.

Here, the group is worshipping at the start of a session. Ah Jan Winit is playing his beloved violin.




Each team member was to share a few thoughts on the subject of worship. Two or three of us spoke at the start of each session before Ah Jan Winit spoke. I spoke in the last session.

Thankfully, my translator understood Li Hpu, Thai, AND English!

The team's sharing and Ah Jan Winit's preaching went over very well. Afterward, the leader told Winit that they plan to have a major meeting in a few months, with up to five thousand in attendance and they want Immanuel to share and teach there, also!

Im Jai House

At the opposite end of the spectrum from Nana orphanage is Im Jai house, an orphanage in Chiang Mai. (Im jai, roughly translated, means "full heart.") This facility was founded by a member of Immanuel Church. She sent to Pastor Winit about twelve years ago and said she felt led to start an orphanage. Ah Jan Winit went to the church board and they prayed about it. Shortly later, he presented this lady with 50,000 bahts and said, "I don't know how we do this, but go ahead. This is a good thing."

After several years in a donated building, the orphanage was forced to look for a new location. A local missionary sent word back to the US to everyone she knew and shortly, they had nearly fifty million bahts (over a million dollars U.S.) Today, they operate in this wonderful new facility.

Im Jai house currently serves a little over forty children from five or six years old through high school. Most are the children of AIDS victims. All (or almost all) are Thai, unlike at Nana. Still, the fact remains that, although their housing is much nicer, they are orphans and have profound hurts and many issues to work through.

We met with the children Wednesday evening and Ah Jan Winit gave a brief talk about Jesus telling the disciples to throw their net on the other side of the boat, and the huge catch of fish. Each team member told some story about fishing. I told about a time when a friend and I went fishing on the Grand River and sank our boat in the middle of the night.

Im Jai house has gone through some difficulties over the past couple of years and has lost a lot of financial support. Although they have wonderful facilities, they are struggling to meet their ongoing expenses. Immanuel church has stepped up its support substantially to help stand in the gap for them.

Chiang Rai

Not much to say that would improve on the photos, but to give you a sense of where I spent the last week. It is just amazing to see the clouds so close. It is much cooler here than in Bangkok and it is incredibly beautiful.

Molo

This is Molo. He is a six year old from the Nana Orphanage. Molo died the day before we arrived.

Molo was an orphan to Burmese parents who died of AIDS. He had lived at Nana for the past year. From what I understand, several weeks ago, someone showed up at Nana and, saying he was a relative, took Molo and crossed over to Burma. Apparently, Molo ran away and made his way to Mae Sai. The orphanage supplements it's finances with a restaurant in town run by orphanage volunteers. They believe he was waiting for the restaurant to open so he could go to them and be taken 'home.' In the meantime, doing what he knew best, he was begging on the streets when he was struck and killed by a car.

After we left, Abraham, the mission director, was leaving to pick up his body at the hospital and bring him back to the orphanage for burial.