It's Raining, It's Pouring....

Soon we'll be heading into the rainiest part of the year. This year it hasn't rained as much as other years but we have been having a lot more thunderstorms which has made me happy. Over the past week, we've had a few, other years I remember only having 1 or 2 a year. Thunderstorms are a regular summer occurence in the Hat (my hometown in Canada) and other years I missed them, but not this year.

Since it could rain during anytime of the day here, you need to be prepared for the rain, especially if you ride a bike or motorbike. Other times you are not prepared and you need to improvise as Pawn, one of my Bible School students did the other day by using some a garbage bag as a jacket and a plastic bag for a cap. Everyone had a good laugh.

Thank God for มะเขือ

For those of you that can't read Thai มะเขือ means eggplant. I can honestly say that before I came to Thailand, I cannot ever remember eating eggplant (mom you can correct me if I'm wrong) and I can say with even more honesty, I never knew what I was missing. I just can't get enough of eggplant (not the purple kind that is in Canada and the US but the green kind pictured here). I can eat it for breakfast, lunch or dinner or all three if I can. You can eat it fried, stir fried, boiled, in curry or my personal favorite - ground into a paste that you eat with sticky rice. Everyone in Thailand laughs at me because I love this stuff so much but who needs chocolate when you got eggplant!!

Thank God for good food. I am so thankful that God called me to Thailand, a country that has amazingly good food. It is impossible to get sick of Thai food because there is so much variety.

If you come to Thailand, I recommend trying the eggplant, you probably won't regret it.

Some Strange Baptism Preparations

This past Sunday, 4 people decided to follow the Lord in baptism. After morning services, almost everyone in attendance went to a waterfall about 7-8 kilometers from church. When we got there, there was no one there and everyone sat down to eat lunch. Rusty and I went to go check out how deep the water was only to discover it was about knee deep. Rusty and I started gathering rocks and building a dam to stop the flow of water. Later on some guys came and started using branches and things to help us too. In the end, the water was about waist deep, perfect for a baptismal service. Lemuu, Johnson, Pawn and Tip (pictured above) were all baptized. After everyone was baptized, everyone gathered around to pray for them and bless them too. We had a great day.

Life is Like A Construction Site

Help! I can't escape the construction work that is going on in Thailand. It begins right outside our house. We haven't been able to park at our house for the past 2 weeks as they put a new drainage system in. So we park up the street at a relative's house. We drive to the church pretty much everyday and as we drive, we pass three places where the road is tore up and we have to take detours, one of which you almost need a 4x4 to take the detour. Finally, they tore the road up in front of the church to repave it (which is finished now). Once everything is done it will be nice but for the time being, it is kind of a nuisance.

A Day of Firsts

A couple Sundays ago, Tawm and I started a group for the "old teenagers", at least that's what I am calling it. It for anyone that is at least 13 years old up to people that are married but don't have children. Thais are different in that they don't groups like junior high, senior high and college and career. Thais are happy to hang out even though there is a big disparity in age. We meet every other Sunday afternoon for Bible study, prayer, worship and of course, games.
This past Sunday we decided to have fun by going bowling. We had 10 Thais go but Tawm couldn't bowl. Of the 9 Thais that were actually bowling, only one of them had ever been bowling before.
The bowling alleys are located on the fourth floor of one of Chiang Mai's shopping malls and in order to get there, one needs to take an elevator or escalator. As we were riding up in the elevator, one of the guys said to me that this was his first time he had ever been on an elevator. I am always reminding of how much we take some things for granted but the experiences of people here in Thailand.
When it came to the bowling part of the day. It was fun watching people trying to figure out how to get the pins down. One guy took about 5 or 6 frames before he got any pins down. By the third game, he was getting spares almost everytime. We were divided into three teams and when it was our turn to bowl, everyone counted to 3 and all three lanes had to throw the ball at the same time. It was so distracting but I am proud to say, my team finished in first place!! (A lot better than my diaper folding fiasco.)
Here's a pic of the winning team.

Thai Bibles

Over the past few years, some different translations of the Thai Bible have come out. For a long time, there was only one translation. Most churches still use the oldest version which uses difficult language that people use when they address the king. This makes the Bible difficult to understand, especially if Thai is not your first language. However, this is the only version that comes from Greek and Hebrew. All the newer versions that are coming out are translations of English versions and make it easier for new Christians to understand.
The thing I like most about the Thai Bible is the name of Revelation. It Thai it reads วิวรณ์ and is pronounced "We Won". What a declarative statement!!
Although most Thais don't understand what "We Won" means in English, it is always gets me excited to know that the end victory belongs to Christ. It is great news to know that We will win.

Yeah!!!

We broke our attendance record today (I think). We can't remember what our previous high was but I think it was 37. Today we had 41!! Praise God

We Survived!!!

Well, it is hard to believe that our parenting class came and went so fast. We had a lot of fun. We learned all about the birthing process, what kind of diapers and milk we should buy. We learned about some exercises for pregnant women but they never taught us how to breathe. I thought that was strange.
The nurses took us on a tour of the hospital. We visited the delivery room and the room that people stay in after giving birth. Thailand requires mothers who give birth naturally to stay in the hospital 2 nights, those that have c-sections 3. Not only are we now excited about having a child, it will also be like staying in a hotel because the rooms are so nice. Do I think I am a better father and know everything I need to know about being a dad? Probably not, although I can give a better massage and we did get some free stuff.

To end the day, there was a surprise diapering competition using cloth diapers. However, the mothers didn't compete as the nurses didn't want any mothers going into labor. Instead, the fathers were put on the hot seat. Before the competition, I practiced the diapering techniques and was doing great, even better than Tawm I might add. But when the competition began, old butterfingers returned. To make things worse, the electricity went out, so we had to try to do it in the dark (real life situations eh?). I don't know if it was a power outage or if the nurse turned the lights out to make it more difficult. Anyways, I was proud of the outcome. Out of the 8 fathers competing, I finished in .....
......................... 8th place!!

Way to go Brent!!!

Learning to Parent

Tomorrow Tawm and I will be attending an all day seminar at the hospital on how to be better parents. I am excited about going because I have absolutely no experience in being a dad, but my one concern is, will I be able to learn everything in a few hours???

I sure hope so. :)

Coping with the Classics

Having never raised a child or been around a pregnant woman in North America, I have no idea what the pregnant culture is like there. I am learning a lot about that culture here.

Thai people love to touch Tawm's tummy, even people we barely know or don't know have no quams about touching Tawm's bulging tummy. Tawm has been doing great during the pregnancy and has done well resisting various pregnant woman temptations. I must admit, that being a man, I haven't had to give up near as much as Tawm, but I am struggling with the daily influx of classical music into our lives. For those that know me, you know that my musical tastes are anything but classical. However, Thai people (maybe others too) believe that listening to classical music during pregnancy will make one's baby smarter. As a result, our truck has been bombarded with Mozart, Tawm has started putting earphones on her tummy for the little one to listen to Mozart too. It is hard to believe that this really works.

The one thing that I think is funny, is the advertising gimmick here in Thailand. Stores sell music specifically for pregnant women who want to have smarter children. But the cd's cover has a child that looks like it is half crazy and foaming at the mouth... Is that what a smart kid looks like? Questions, Questions, Questions....


My biggest question is, what if I want my kid to be a rocker?

Exciting Sunday

We had some great services this past Sunday. We had a couple visitors, a couple people ask about becoming members of the church and couple of people other people in services who hadn't been here in a long time. We had some great worship and Johnson, one of the students that studies in the city, taught Sunday School. This was the first time I have had the opportunity to see him teach and he did a very good job. He taught about giving offerings. The offering we received last Sunday equalled what we usually get in an entire month. I was blown away. After services, we ate and prayed together and then Tawm and I began a new ministry for college and career aged people. We had 6 people come, everyone enjoyed it and we hope that they will invite their friends to it too.