December 31, 2006

Some Miscellaneous HouseKeeping and Bragging

I wanted to say sorry for not blogging in a few days, but I got some good excuses. One we have taken this week off and we don't have internet access at home. Two, even when I tried to get online, the earthquake that hit Taiwan earlier this week knocked out all internet access in Thailand for a few days. We have just got back online in the last couple days.

I also wanted to brag that I finished in first place in my Fantasy Football League. Last year in my first attempt at Fantasy Football I finish near the bottom. This year, I was sitting in fourth place before the playoffs began and ended up beating the #1 and #2 seeds. Thanks Peyton!.

Aside from that, we wanted to wish you a happy New year!

And aside from that, I have an alterior motive in my blogs. I hope to paint a picture of Thailand that creates interest in the land and the work here, so that some people, both for short and long term trips, will come help in the work here? Sorry for my hidden motives, but are you interested???

Christmas in the village

Although we didn't actually spend Christmas in the village, we were there until the 22nd. We had a great time teaching the villagers and praise God for one salvation and three other young men that came to our house to hear the gospel.

A beautiful View (Thanks God)

One of wonderful things about being in the mountains is that we have a spectacular view. Northern Thailand is filled with mountains. Although living conditions aren't always the most convenient, the view is awesome. However, the view at night is even more spectacular. Each night in the village as I walked back to our house, I had to stop and stare at the sky and the amazing stars. Living in a big city, you often forget that they are still up there. While we were there, God reminded me, how great He really is.

December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas!!!

Since this is the first time I have had email access in a little over a week, wanted to wish everyone a very blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Answer (Not the One that went to Denver!)

For all those wondering about our last post, thought I would give you a Christmas present from Thailand and give the answer. Right now in Chiang Mai, there is a special flower garden commemorating the 60th anniversary of Thailand's king's reign. During the king's reign, he has been very interested in agriculture and I guess that is why they have made this special garden. The outside perimeter of the garden is about 8 kilometers, so it is a huge garden. Countries from all over the world, not Canada or the US, have sent flowers from their country. People from all over Thailand are flocking to Chiang Mai to see the flowers, especially the tulips. Thai people have never seen tulips before because they can't grow here because it is too hot. The first batch of tulips lasted a little over a week. Holland then sent another batch for the king's birthday and they have lasted a little longer because of the cooler weather. That's when we went to the garden. To me it is hard to believe people want to see tulips so bad since I have seen tulips my whole life. I guess Thai people think the same thing about foreigners who write blogs about frogs in the house!!

December 15, 2006

Whatdaya think?

Well we will be heading to the hilltribe village this coming week where our electricity comes from a solar cell. As a result, we won't be picking up any wireless signals out there, so I won't be able to blog for a little bit. So I thought I would post a fun post where you can give me your educated guesses. People all over Thailand are talking about someone or something and are flocking to see them. What do you think all these people are gathered together for and who or what are they
fighting to see and get their picture taken with? When we get back, I will post the answer. Have fun.

December 14, 2006

Christmas Prayer Request

As Christmas approaches, we are getting really excited because we will be trying 2 new things in the next week and a half. Next week we are going out to a hilltribe village that we haven't been to before to help a former Bible School student reach out to people in his village. He says he has about 60 people that meet for Bible study once a week. We plan to go do evangelism, help him build relations in the community and do some teaching, especially on salvation while we are there. We pray that souls would be saved and that Lemuu's work in the village would be blessed by us being there.


On the 23rd, we are having our first Christmas program. We will be playing games, singing songs, the kids will be doing a drama, and I will be presenting the gospel. Rusty, Susan, Tim, Tawm and I met yesterday to hammer out details and we made a list of all the people who were coming. If everyone comes that says they will be coming, we will probably have between 10-20 guests who are not Christian in attendance. Also most of the children in the drama are not saved too. Please pray for their salvation as well.

Proof is in the Puddin' or Soup

If you haven't read the "Meditating Frogs" Post, you should do that before you read this post.
For anyone that read that post and thought I was a little bit crazy, here is some visual evidence and some verbal evidence attempting to justify my lack of judgment. A few days ago, our frog friend returned, this time rather than meditating in the bathroom, it was meditating in the kitchen. This time we weren't home alone though. Tawm's parents were home too. Tawm's mom was busy cooking in the kitchen when she saw the frog in the corner. When she looked at it, she thought it was a lump of dirt. These meditating frogs can even fool real Thai people, not just crazy white guys. When I knew our frog friend had returned, I quickly grabbed my camera to get some visual evidence too. Tawm's mom used a broom to chase the frog out of the house and we haven't seen it since.
Last night when I returned home from teaching English, Tawm's grandpa had made frog soup. I am not sure where he got the frog, didn't want to ask. It tasted good though!

December 13, 2006

Surviving an Earthquake

Last night I experienced my second earthquake since I have been in Thailand and just like the first time, I slept through it, so I don't know if that means I have experienced it or not?? The earthquake happened at 12:04 AM and Tawm felt it because she was awake. I found out about it in the morning. The earthquake registered at a 5.1 on the Richter scale. Thailand has the occassional earthquakes but most of them are pretty small. No one was injured but a couple of high rise building had some minor damages.

December 12, 2006

Trip to Burma

One of the hardest things about living in a country that isn't your own, is dealing with visas. I thank God that I am able to get a visa through the foundation that the Barnett's helped to establish while they were here in Thailand. I am able to get a 1 year visa but I have to travel to Burma everything 3 months to get my passport stamped. Tawm likes to go and shop in Burma because you can get knock-offs of everything, watches, purses, dvd's, cd's and other things. They have even started selling viagra. It takes about 3 1/2 hours to travel to the border, so it makes for a long day. Before we were married I had to travel by bus once a month, which took 5 hours one-way, so I am thankful I don't have to do that anymore.
Everytime we go I am thankful for the opportunity to live in Thailand. Although Thailand is a developing country, Burma is still a 3rd world country. As soon as you cross the border kids are there begging for money, you heart goes out to them. However, I have a problem with the way the beg, moms with small babies will hit their kid when you aren't looking to make them cry so that they can get more money. On one occassion I gave a boy about 7 or 8 years old some change and as soon as I gave it to him, he ran and gave it to the monk that was walking down the street, trying to gain some merit. Burma is another country that is mainly Buddhist and is in desperate need of the gospel.

December 06, 2006

Happy Father's Day

Although I am a day late, I wanted to say Happy Father's Day to my dad and thanks for everything that you do for us. We really appreciate you and miss you too!
Yesterday was Father's Day here. It was also the king's birthday and a national holiday, hence, we didn't have a chance to use the internet. I usually forget when Father's day is in America, but make it a point to say thanks when the Thai people celebrate Father's day. God bless you dad!
Love Brent and Tawm

December 01, 2006

Mass Mail Out (Thai Style)

Well, a number of weeks ago, we decided that we wanted to do a mass mail out in the housing communities around our church. I hadn't heard of anyone doing that here in Thailand, but figured we would give it a try. Tim, the church secretary, went to the government office and asked for the information we wanted. They said that it would be no problem. They told us the price and we were excited about trying to do a mass mail out. However, after I talked with Tawm, I discovered that they wouldn't be putting it on disc for us, rather the money we gave them was the price of paper. They were going to print out the information. I couldn't believe it because there is several thousand people that live in these housing communities. The day that we were able to pick up the paper, I was even more surprised as the print out was an old school printer with continuous paper with all the little holes in it!! We have 2 huge boxes full of names and addresses. As I write, my excitement has died a little knowing that our mailout probably will not happen until late next year as Tim has to enter each name in the computer so we can address letters to people. Fun!
Doing ministry in Thailand is totally different that ministry in North America. Anyone want to come help type??

November 28, 2006

Meditating Frogs??

Well, yesterday, I had another bathroom adventure, but this time it wasn't in the hill tribe village, it was in our bathroom at home.

After I woke up, I went into our bathroom and I saw something that looked like a nest growing in the bathroom corner, above the bathroom door. I thought maybe it was a spider's nest or a termite nest because we've had problems with termites before. I got closer, but not too close, to get a better look, and I was positive it was a nest. I told Tawm to come and look at it, but it was our day off, so she wasn't in a hurry to look. I returned to the bathroom later in the morning and the nest was still there. I asked Tawm, "Have you looked at this nest?" And she said no. She went into the bathroom and said, that's not a nest, it’s a brown frog. In Thai it is called a meditating frog because it can sit in the same place for hours without moving. I didn't believe her, it looked so much like a nest but later on when I went to get rid of it, there it was sitting on the toilet seat. I armed myself with a bucket, a lid and a shower hose. After about 5 minutes of spraying, chasing, giving the occasional yell (I can’t scream) and more spraying and chasing, I got the frog into the bucket, put the lid on the bucket and quickly disposed of it outside making sure not to touch it (didn't want to get any warts). After everything was finished, I felt like a warrior, but Tawm didn’t think I had done anything special.

Although, I have never had a frog in the bathroom, it isn't the strangest thing I have had in a room here in Thailand. No, I am not talking about Tawm (or me if that is what you were thinking)! Shortly after we were married, I woke up and heard something making noise in our bedroom. I was scared that it was a rat and so I turned the light on to investigate and to my surprise and delight, it wasn't a rat, it was a crab and we weren't anywhere near any water! That night I simply opened the door and it walked out of the room and in the morning, we never saw it again.
Although catching amimals makes me feel kinda manly, I hope I don’t have to chase or catch any other strange animals in our house anytime soon. I don't know if my heart can take it.

November 24, 2006

City Folk versus Country Folk

Since I grew up in a small city, I have always classified myself as a city kid. If I had to live on a farm, I don't know how I would survive because I have trouble changing a light bulb sometimes. However, the disparity between city folk and country folk isn't just a phenomenon that happens in North America. Case in point, the last time we went out to the hilltribe village. Tawm and I bought some rice because the rice from the mountain tastes better than the stuff you buy in the store. However, it needs to be sifted before you can eat. The hilltribe girls were masters of sifting. As they swirled the rice around on the plate, the bad rice would rise to the top and they could sort it easily. It looked so easy, Tawm wanted to give it a go. During her first attempt, the rice was like it was glued to the plate, it barely moved at all. Hence, the hilltribe ladies gave another demonstration. During her second go, the rice moved, but some of it moved all the way to the ground. Tawm blames it on her sore thumb, I think it is because she lives in the city. I didn't even try, because I know that if I tried, the chickens would be eating more of the rice than we would.

The AfterMath

November 22, 2006

Roughin It

When we head out to the hilltribe village, it always feels a little bit like we are going camping. Although we don't sleep in tents and the students prepare our meals, it feels like we are roughin' it. We are privileged to have pretty good bathrooms in the village, although you may not think the same by looking at this picture of the bathroom. This bathroom has four walls,it is relatively enclosed, the holes in the wall are pretty small. The only people that would be able to see anything inside would be someone that wanted to peek and came right up to the wall to look. (Hasn't happened yet at least to my knowledge!!) Going to the bathroom can be a touch experience if you are paranoid that people are watching. A couple of the villages I have been to, the bathrooms aren't this good. When you go to the bathroom, pretty much the whole village could see into the bathroom, no matter where a person is standing in the village. The good thing about that is you are able to see the whole village as you go to the bathroom too! Whenever I go to the village, I thank God for the four walls around the bathroom. As you travel in the villages, you really begin to thank God for the little things in life. However, when we get back home, one of the first things I always want to do is close the door and have some privacy.

November 21, 2006

An inside view

Although the bathrooms in the village can be a little daunting at first, an experienced village person can grow quite accustomed to the facilities in the middle of nowhere. All you need is some strong legs and good balance, and you are set to go. The most complicated part is the flushing part because the toilets don't have a flusher. You and your trusty bucket are the flusher. It all works pretty easily, you just have to know which bin of water to take the water from. In most bathrooms, there is one bin of water for flushing, one for bathing. One must be sure to use the right bucket, because the hilltribe people don't really like it when you use the bathing bucket to flush and it is a little embarrassing when you find out you have been using the toilet bucket to bathe. But, like I said, an experienced person learns quickly!!

November 17, 2006

Teaching the Girls

This time when we went out to the village, Tawm and Susan taught the girls about how to prepare lesson plans and the qualifications of a teacher

Student at the Bible School

Thanks to Rusty and Susan for taking all these pictures wile we were in the village (I forgot my camera at home). I really like this picture, I think it captures the students hunger to study and know the truth.

Teaching the guys

While the ladies were teaching the ladies. Rusty and I had the guys. Rusty taught the guys in the mornings. He taught on sermon preperation and qualifications of a pastor. I taught in the afternoon on salvation.

Buu and his garden

Buu requested this picture too!

Tawm with Buu (Grandpa)

When we go out to the village every month, one of the people we look most forward to seeing is Buu which means Granpa in Thai. Buu has a great personality, loves to laugh and talk even if you have no idea what he is saying. Buu is the man that donated the land to build the school in the hill tribe village. Buu reads his Bible everyday and when we go out to the village to teach, he usually sits in on classes too. Buu really likes Tawm as Tawm can speak a Northern Thai dialect to talk with him. The month before when we went out to the village without Tawm, Buu kept asking where Tawm was. Unlike most older people, Buu really likes to have his picture taken and he asked if he could have his picture taken with Tawm.

November 16, 2006

Grandpa in the Village

More Great News!!

This past Monday through Wednesday, we travelled to the Hilltribe village to teach at the Bible School there. Tawm and Susand taught the women, Rusty and I taught the men. We had a very good time, even enjoyed the cool weather (Tawm and I had to wear long sleeved shirts!). Rusty taught on homiletics (sermon preparation) in the morning. In the afternoon I reviewed salvation and talked a little bit about baptism. As I taught, some students started asking questions about salvationn and baptism which made me begin to question their salvation. We quickly gathered all the guys and girls together and had them share their testimonies. As they shared, some said they had never made the decision to put their trust or faith in Christ. Others shared things that weren't scriptural. In total there were 4 students. As a result, the gospel was shared more clearly with these 4 students as dinner was prepared and all 4 made the decision to put their faith in Christ.
Statistics say that many hilltribe villages are evangelized. This may be true as most hilltribe people admit they are Christian but most of these villages have no idea what salvation is. They think since they live in a Christian family or are baptized they are saved. I am quickly realizing how much work needs to be done in these villages and how much they need correct Biblical teaching. Please pray for Dixon, Noot, Monday and Beauty, the four 1st year students that put their faith in Christ and that the true gospel will be preached in the hilltribe villages around Thailand.

November 10, 2006

It's Beginning to Feel a lot Like Christmas...

Since Thai people don't celebrate Christmas and Thailand has never had snow, you need to look for other things that make you think of Christmas. The holiday that feels like Christmas most here in Thailand is the Loy Gratong Festival, although there is no family get togethers, turkey, presents or celebration of Christ's birth. Loy Gratong is a 3 day festival during November's full moon. The most important night is the night that the moon is full. On that night, when it starts to get dark, people come out of their homes and light candles all around their property. When all the candles are lit, it looks like Christmas lights but the lights only last for one night. Although it kinda feels like Christmas, the reason for having this festival has nothing to do with Christ's birth. People light candles in order to bring blessings on the people living in the house and so that people will have a longer life. On this night, there are lots of fireworks and firecrackers (which are illegal all year except during Loy Gratong). People like to throw firecrackers at people's feet to scare them, especially foreigners. Thai people do this for fun, Chinese people do it to scare off any evil spirits. Unlike North America where they have noise laws, here the celebration and the noise goes on until all hours of the night. You just have to put up with it.
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Fire Balloons

One thing people do often in Thailand, especially at Loy Gratong, is send balloons into the sky. The balloons work like hot air balloons. People light some sort of wick and hold on to the balloon until the air inside heats up and then they release the balloons. The balloons go high up into the sky before running out of fuel and then they come tumbling back down out of the sky. On Loy Gratong Day, you will see hundreds of these balloons in the air. If you are ever coming to visit us here in Thailand, make sure you do not fly on this day as it is very dangerous with all these fire balloons flying through the air.

November 07, 2006

Ministry Battle Wounds

   Last week, after living with pain for awhile, Tawm went to the doctor to get her thumb checked. As it turns out, her thumb has a hairline crack and as a result, Tawm has to wear a cast until Wednesday this week, that's if her thumb heals properly. How did this happen? I am sad to say, it happened all because of me and my competitive nature. Near the end of VBS we played a game of chair ball. A game similar to basketball, but instead of a stationary hoop, you have a team member standing on a chair with a basket, and that person moves the basket around so that people can get the ball in the basket. It helps inaccurate shooters a lot. I haven't played basketball in a long while, and living in Thailand, I am kind of like Yao Ming (a really tall guy from a foreign country). I was soaking in the glory of swatting everyone's shots away when Tawm came up to shoot. The thought "not in my house" came to mind as a jumped to swat away her shot. I was successful, except my follow through was a little too strong, and the ball along with my hand bent Tawm's thumb back and as a result broke her thumb. Tawm tried to endure the pain thinking nothing was wrong, but after a number of days she finally decided to get it checked. It is her right hand and as a result, she can't drive a car or a motorbike, can't really write and has trouble doing a lot of other things too. It has helped her realize how blessed she is to have 2 working hands and she can't wait to get her hand out of the cast. As the story spreads around friends and family here in Thailand, it will probably be something I will never live down.

November 03, 2006

Open House Ceremony

Today I thought I would put up some pictures about life here in Thailand. Soemtimes living here, feels kind of like home. The traffic, McDonald's Pizza Hut and the other modern immenities of life, but pretty often, different things happen that remind you, that you are long ways from Kansas, or in my case Canada. Yesterday, we attended an open house ceremony of one of Tawm's high school friends, it also happened to be her engagement and wedding day. (I will talk about that stuff in a later post). The idea sounds very western, opening up your house for people to come and take a look around the place. People always have this ceremony when they move into a new place. Typically, in Thailand, any ceremony includes monks. For this particular ceremony, 5 monks came and chanted for a long while and then they gave a blessing to house and the people living in that house. They also went around sprinkling water at different place on the property and on people as a form of blessing. They also put a Buddhist drawing above the door to ward off any evil spirits or ghosts. Life sure is different.

Another Open House Pic

 

Spirit House Dedication

Along with the other events of the day, there was also the spirit house dedication. We knew that it would be happening and we tried to come late so we didn't have to be there for the dedication, but in typical Thai fashion, the dedication started late and as a result, we were right on time. I took the opportunity to take some pictures to put here on our blog. The whole idea of the spirit house is kind of hard to understand because I have heard so many different versions of what the spirit house is for, but I will share the version I think is the real one and stick to it. (Mainly because this is what my family here has told me). The spirit house is an important part of a Thai household (if that household is Buddhist). The spirit house is put up with the idea of good spirits dwelling there in order to protect the property, even when the landowners aren't there. Along with that, the good spirits also protect the people living in the house. Strong Buddhists, will bring food, drinks or flowers to the spirit house daily trying to keep the good spirits happy. Although most houses have a spirit house, from my observation, they seem to be losing importance. Spirit houses are not only put up at houses but at places where lots of accidents happen or other important places. Even western stores put up spirit houses in maintaining with Thai culture. Atlhough they seem to be less important, it is still very bad to do anything to a spirit house. Thais have a specific manner of removing a spirit house, and is good follow the appropriate ways of having the house removed, even as a Christian so that othere Buddhists are not offended.

Another Dedication Pic

 
  

October 27, 2006

Great News!!

We have had a couple of really good days here. Our VBS has had 13 or 14 kids everyday plus a handful of adults attending daily. We also learned that Tawm's aunt Naang, has become a Christian. Actually, she made the decision several weeks ago. After Sunday services, she felt convicted and when home and read a tract and repented of her sins and made the decision to put her trust in faith in Jesus Christ. Today, Tawm had the opportunity to take another aunt, Air, out to eat and run errands. Air began asking questions and when the two of them returned to the church, Tawm shared the gospel with her and she made the decision to put her trust in Christ too!! Please pray for both of them, especially Air as she will be returning to Phuket Thailand in the next couple of weeks and so far we have been unable to locate any churches in her area of Phuket. Thanks to all those who have been praying for the ministry here too. We appreciate it.

October 25, 2006

Puppet Show

 Tawm, Samson and Kaimook (2 people that go to our church) have been helping with a puppet show. The kids love it!! 

VBS

 The kids are really enjoying the games a lot, but I think the parents are having even more fun!!

Some VBS Pictures

  We are two days into our first ever VBS. We handed out about 600 fliers in the housing projects around the church, the market up the street in at one international school. We had no idea what to expect. Our first day we had 13 kids, and the second we had 14. Most of the kids are people that attend church regularly although we have gotten some neighborhood kids. At the beginning we were a little sad that we didn't get more, but they we remembered that most of the kids that come to church are not yet saved. Many mothers of the children are also coming and they are not saved yet. Although we have 13 kids, we are have about 5 or 6 adults that come and here the Bible stories too that aren't saved. They are enjoying everything as much as the kids. We pray that this will unite people that come to church more and it will result in the salvation of souls too. Please continue to pray. 

October 24, 2006

VBS started

On Monday, we started our first ever "VBS". The VBS isn't like anything like in America. We use English as a drawing tool, but we play games and share Bible stories through puppets and flannelgraph and talk about the who Christ is and what He has done for us. We have handed out 600 fliers in the area, please pray for this event.

Our Sign is Up!!!

 Well, we finally got our sign up. It took a long while, but it looks really good and you can see it from a long ways away, especially at night when it is lit up. This past Sunday we had one visitor come who saw our sign. He asked us how long we had been in this location. When I said it has been about a year and a half, he said how come we never put up a sign. We hope that our sign will bring many more visitors and give us a lot more visibility in the community.
Thanks to all those who contributed to the purchase of the sign. 

October 18, 2006

Just another picture of that Day

  

That Bag of Rice I mentioned Before

 
For those of you who read my post called 'Amazing Thailand', this is a picture of that rice. How would you like to carry that on your head!! 

Helping Out

 
In our last newsletter I mentioned how people in our church collected money in order to buy food for a couple of families that were struggling financially. This is a picture of that day. 

October 14, 2006

Sign is going up!

 
Our church sign is going up today, or least I think. Been thinking that for the last couple of weeks. Some of the problems we have had to wrestle with have been rain, wind, more rain, power lines, lack of workers and not having a crane, and finally, Friday the 13th. The workers were scared to go up on the roof when it was Friday the 13th. I thought that was a north American superstition but I guess that kind of stuff travels fast. I always think it is so weird how the Buddhist religion doesn't teach much about the spirit world, but the Buddhist people here sure fear spirits and other things. Almost everyone here is afraid of ghosts. It just goes to show that people all people, everywhere are spiritual and are looking for the truth.
I will give a picture of the finished product sometime next week! (hopefully that is) 

October 12, 2006

Teaching in the Village

 
Here's a picture of me teaching in the village!! I had to teach the whole time in Thai

October 11, 2006

Mae Hoy Experiences

I have returned from the hill tribe village and I had a great time. I am continuing to teach the students about salvation, making sure that they have the proper understanding of what salvation is before we move any further. We also plan to travel to some other hill tribe villages to do evangelism and these students must know what salvation is before they can do evangelism. The weather was rainy and hot, rainy and hot. The students are very eager to learn. When we went to the school, I brought all the sermons I had preached over the past couple of months. The students were so eager to read them and learn more about their faith too. Rusty brought some Christian t-shirts that people from America had given and they really liked those. If you have any Christian t-shirts that you would like to give away, please contact me and I will let you know how to go about doing that. The students are now on semester break for the next 2 weeks and as a result they didn't have much food left to eat while we were in the village. Therefore we got to eat some very interesting food. If you don't want to know what we ate, then I suggest you stop reading, for those who are interested, someone in the village killed a dog and we ate dog and they also prepared a pig's head for us. The dog was really chewy and so was the pig head. All I can say is that I am glad to be back in the city to eat 'normal' food!!

October 08, 2006

Church in Thailand

  
We had a great week here at Antioch. We had our largest crowd so far. We had 37 people attend with 3 visitors too. When people come to church, they take their shoes off outside the church before entering the building. Lots of shoes outside is a really encouraging thing!!

October 06, 2006

Heading to the Village

This coming Monday, Rusty and I will be heading to Mae Hoy, the village where Church Revival Bible School is located. We will be going to teach for a couple of days. Tawm and Susan will be staying in Chiang Mai to teach English classes. Please pray for safe travels as you never know what the roads will be like as you head out to the village. We will also be looking into opportunities to do evangelism with the students in nearby villages. Please pray for these opportunities as well.

October 05, 2006

Waiting In Line

 
This tank that we got our picture taken was located about 500 meters from our church. If we would have travelled the other way on the road in front of our church, there was another tank located about the same distance from our church. When we got our picture taken we had to wait in line for these Thai kids to get their picture taken, notice how they are all decked out in military gear

Tawm and I in front of a tank

 
Here is a picture of the two of us together. 

Thailand Tank Attraction

 
After the coup here in Thailand, there was a much more visible military presence around town. Military were guarding many important buildings, TV and radio stations and located near university campuses as well. A new prime minister was selected by the military on October 1st to take care of the country until a proper election can be held some time next year. Since October 1st, the military presence has pretty much disappeared. There are no longer tanks around town which had become a huge tourist attraction here in Thailand. People came and gave food to the military personal, got their photos taken, and people started selling food near the tanks as there were so many people coming to get their pictures taken. One radio station even got a group of girls together to dance for the military people. Most of this stuff happened in Bangkok but we did have tanks around town here too. Therefore we had to get our picture taken with the take as well. The military guys were really happy to get their picture taken, especially with a foreigner that speaks Thai. Although he didn't let me hold his gun (like some people were allowed to do), we had fun getting our picture taken. 

September 19, 2006

Another Picture from the Buddhist Statue Park

  Can you see us standing in front of the statue??

Buddhist Statues

 
Last month we travelled to the Northeast Region of Thailand and we went to a Buddhist park with hundreds of Buddhist statues, many of which are over a hundred feet tall. So much work has been done to create this park and even more to maintain the park. Although most Thais are nominal Buddhists, Buddhism is still very strong in this country. Please for us and the work here. 

September 15, 2006

Amazing Thailand

One of the greatest things about living in a foreign country sometimes is that you see some of the most amazing things. Today, both Tawm and I were amazed by one man we saw. We were both so amazed that both of us said that we wished we had a camera so that we could share our amazement with you. It all happened when we went to a store to buy some rice and not just any bag of rice but a huge bag of rice, so big I can't carry it by myself. As I sat waiting in the truck in front of the store, I thought to myself, I wonder if they will need one or two men to carry the bag of rice. To my amazement, only one man was carrying the rice and he wasn't even struggling. He wasn't even using his hands. He had the huge bag of rice centered on top of his head as he walked. I couldn't believe it. Then even more amazing, he opened the door of our truck's topper, leaned forward and the bag of rice fell off his head into the back of our truck. He didn't even use his hands to unload (except to open the topper). I am still amazed by that amazing feat. As I write, the bag of rice is still in the back of our truck, waiting for someone to help me carry it cause I can't do it by myself. I thought of trying what he did, but tawm laughed. I guess I need to continue working out.

September 07, 2006

Surprise!!

Just wanted to surprise anyone that checks our website by putting a small update up. This update is my way making it known to the public that I will do my best to do a better job of updating my website. Please stay tuned for more.

June 06, 2006

Back in Indiana

We have arrived back here in Indiana and will be here until the Monday after Father's Day. Then we will fly to Florida before returning to Thailand on June 29th.
Once we return to Thailand, our updates will be more regular.