OceanicThai

Jae Gan, the word for flower pot. That's my new word today. The neighbor brought over a huge bunch of beautiful tropical flowers. She is decorating her shop for the Ngaan Khun Baan May, the party for the opening of her new shop. They are busy scrubbing and preparing shellfish, horsecrabs, big silver fish and all kinds of delicacies for the Buddhist monks that will come and chant to bless her new store. She is setting up chairs and tables for the dinner she will invite the whole shophouse block over for. My friend Eew warned me not to refuse if invited to come to dinner. It would be disrespectful, she is our neighbor and her husband has a high position in the government, too. I have a gift ready for tomorrow. Flower arrangements seem to be the norm, but since she is opening a flower shop I'm sure she would prefer something else. So I have a big basket with goodies, a favorite to give at the New Year. I'll have Eew inspect it first, though. Everything must be done carefully, ...

me  

The Thai pastor of our church here asked us to teach the Bible to the Thai lady that works for us, Eew. So today Kennedy started with the first lesson of New Tribes Mission's Chronological Bible lessons, a great way to teach anyone about the origin & message of the Bible. Earlier in the day one of the men that came from Northern Thailand to be a volunteer here after the tsunami came asking for advice. He gets a small salary from our church here, and would like to work with new believers, but the pastor wants him to help with the building of the orphanage instead. Situations like these are hard. There isn't much we can do for him except pray for him and encourage him to take his problem to the pastor himself. The problem is, that isn't how things are done here. You aren't supposed to confront, especially an older. For him, it is not just his older by 25+ years, but the guy that pays him, and his spiritual leader. We offered to talk to the pastor, which is the usual ...

That's what a Thai friend told me this morning. "I look at you and your life is perfect. The only thing you lack is a home." She sees we don't have to worry about getting enough food. We have enough money for all our needs and more. We can buy airplane tickets. It is true, I told her, my life is good. We live in a shophouse, my kids don't have any furniture and sleep on the floor. We have a simple lifestyle with mostly ugly and worn out furniture, but everything is relative. To the poor Thai we have nice furniture. To the poor Thai we are rich and privileged, they have never flown on an airplane and probably never will. If I compare my life to the life of my friends at home in America I can feel sorry for myself easily enough. But when I compare my life with most of the folks here in Thailand, and then in China, India, and most of the rest of the world, I can be thankful. I can rejoice. I try to keep it all in perspective. I am not from a poor family. I like nice...

I miss not having to wear mosquito repellent in my own house. I miss being able to put food down while I prepare dinner and not worry about it getting covered in tiny ants. I miss being normal. I miss having close friends. I miss the cool weather & seasons. I miss being able to have nice things without people criticizing me and asking how much it cost. I miss wearing whatever I want & not having to dress dowdy. I miss not having to worry about everyone getting offended at the drop of a hat.

This is a picture of the worker shacks at the back of our house. Jasper & Poppy will not grow up like their American counterparts. I worry sometimes they will resent the fact that they didn't grow up in the middle-class culture they are from. Instead, they have grown up being a foreigner, often among the poor and exposed to things most people only see on "National Geographic." Perhaps they will resent the fact they didn't enjoy the affluence we could have given them; the same-language/culture friends they could have been surrounded by, the comfortable, spotlessly clean and beautiful American home they could have grown up in. The piles of presents at big birthday parties, or the beauty and glitter of America at Christmas time. (The glitter of America at any time, really.) Instead their friends have been from poor Asian farming communities; so different it would take another article to describe them. Our home was a rough Thai country home, full of bugs and lizards, ...

Kennedy has been all over the tsunami-hit areas talking to the Thai pastors working there. He has been meeting with other Thai pastors in the area as well, in about a 100 km radius from where we are here in the city of Phang Nga. It has been very interesting to listen to him debrief each interview, and hear how they answered his questions. We have been learning so much and it will help us tremendously as we plan our own future here. Thais don't think the same as westerners, and throughout all the interviews of the past months, we have been struck again and again at just how difficult it is to be a pastor in Thailand, & hardest of all, to be a Thai pastor in Thailand. The expectations are overwhelming, and many pastors leave because of the intense criticism from their own flock. We are seeing the great need to encourage these pastors whose culture demands so much from them.