OceanicThai

My body is still aching from yesterday's massive country-wide water fight. Hard to believe this started hundreds of years ago as a gentle ceremony to honor the elderly by pouring scented water over their hands and blessing them. Now it is a huge raging water-fight party where every city goes bezerk. If you don't want to play, you better stay home and lock the door. If you have to go to the store to buy milk, just expect you will be doused with water and smeared with color powder, over and over again. And you have to smile when it happens! :) What happened to the gentle elder-honoring ceremony? Culture changes through time, I suppose. Anyway, we did both yesterday with our Thai friends and Thai co-workers. We had a bucket of sweet-scented water with flower-petals in it and blessed the elderly and middle-aged of our village of Bang Sak. Then we filled plastic 50-gallon drums full of water and ice, bought bottles of powder, packed them and ourselves in the back of pick-up trucks a...

(Fishing Ship in Nearby Village) It has been a month since my last blog entry, and some wonderful things have happened since. For one, Gee's brother-in-law miraculously recovered and is now at home, on medication but very much alive. (The doctor had given him 6 weeks to live when we visited and prayed for him at the hospital.) Gee told me, "There really is a God! It was a miracle that he recovered." She's been coming to church with me, and she told me she is very interested in becoming a believer. Our Friday night cell groups have been great. We get together, everyone makes some food, and we eat together, each week at someone else's house. Then we have a time of worship and Kennedy leads a Bible study. After that we pray for one another. We are getting close as a group and we have a lot of fun together. The same folks that come to the cell group on Fridays are also there on Sunday, and more are coming as time goes on. Last Sunday we had a special Easter...

Our helper, Gee, has a 38 year-old brother-in-law who is dying of lung cancer in an open ward in the government hospital of Phuket. We paused homeschooling for a day last Wednesday to drive Gee the 2 hours to the hospital to relieve her older sister from her 24-hour watch of the patient (that's how they do it here.) We met her sister's 2 children, just Poppy & Jasper's age. Ken & I prayed for him at the foot of his bed, and when we were done both Gee and her sister were crying. She told me later after we prayed for him he started feeling better, ate a little and sat up, even tried to walk a bit. She asked me a bit later how to pray again. I gave her a tract to read that night as she slept by the bed of her brother-in-law. The ward was row after row of hospital beds with the ill, some dying. It was so depressing. Among all the Thais we saw an ex-pat western man, here without money, obviously, since he was with everyone else in the open hospital bed. It was s...

refrigerator coffin Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . Before the body is cremated, it is put in the house in a refrigerated coffin. (It is tropical and very hot here.) Lights are strung up, flower arrangements are placed around it, and in front there is a picture of the deceased. Near the coffin is a bowl for incense and candles. During the funeral, or wake you could say, the family makes meals and feeds the whole village for days until the cremation. It is not only emotionally devastating for the family of the deceased, but in addition they must feed and entertain the funeral guests. Guests give small money gifts to help cover the cost of everything. When you attend a funeral, you are supposed to wear black or white.

refrigerator coffin Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . Before the body is cremated, it is put in the house in a refrigerated coffin. (It is tropical and very hot here.) Lights are strung up, flower arrangements are placed around it, and in front there is a picture of the deceased. Near the coffin is a bowl for incense and candles. During the funeral, or wake you could say, the family makes meals and feeds the whole village for days until the cremation. It is not only emotionally devastating for the family of the deceased, but in addition they must feed and entertain the funeral guests. Guests give small money gifts to help cover the cost of everything. When you attend a funeral, you are supposed to wear black or white.

Temple Images Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . Buddha images from other countries are not allowed in Thailand, nor are Thai Buddha images allowed out of the country, except the very small amulet types worn around the neck. Thais offer fragrant incense and bow with the hands held together in front of the face in the "wai" position. Gold leaf is applied to the images, and often they have robes that are changed.

Ayuthaya temple ruins Originally uploaded by oceanicthai . More of the temple ruins