The Rosendal Family Blog

This is Awesome!

2011-01-28T13:17:00.000+07:00

A Trip to Kinetchu

2010-09-13T09:13:00.003+07:00

Last week, Gary Woodring, pastor of our sending church, came to visit us in Thailand. We had some revival services at Antioch on the weekend and after that, we spent 2 nights in a hill tribe village. We had a good time, encouraged with the work the pastor of the church is doing. We were able to teach about salvation, baptism and the work of a church during our time there. After sharing with them what God expects all churches to do, some of the people in attendance told us that they couldn't do it because they were too poor. We then looked at a number of verses that showed that God expected this of churches no matter their race, size or financial status.
Afterwards we agreed to have some meeting every other month in which I will go to teach leaders in the area about different doctrines and things. I'm looking forward to that and hope that we have a number of pastors, missionaries and other leaders too.

A Good Rap About Being a Dad

2010-07-22T11:14:00.002+07:00

Thought this video was pretty funny. Can't relate to everything (especially the phone on a clip part) but Tawm likes the part where all the money goes to the wife and kids (wonder why that is?).

Dad Life from Church on the Move on Vimeo.

We're All Theologians

2010-02-18T08:55:00.002+07:00

I haven't had the chance to read this book yet, however it looks like it will be a good one. I just finished reading another book talking about a newer wave of Christianity called the emerging church and the ridiculous teachings of Rob Bell and Brian McClaren. This is video is true, whether or not we know it, we are all theologians. Are we going to believe the truth or are we are we going to go off the deep end like those people in the emerging church?

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

My Parents are Cool

2010-01-24T13:41:00.002+07:00

I have some awesome parents. I'm so thankful that God has blessed me with such supportive parents. I know that having their children and grandchild live half way across the world isn't always easy for them but I know that they will one day be rewarded for their sacrifice. They are a good example to me about what it means to be faithful and supportive and we are looking forward to their return visit here later this year.
Since I posted my last blog, my mom has been phoning different places that have Thai people working for them in my hometown. My hometown, the Hat, has a lot of Thai people working in greenhouses for several months and then they return to Thailand. She phones them to inform them about my online sermons and tells them to check out my blog. Who knows if anyone does, but maybe some of those people will get saved and come back to Thailand as Christians. That would be awesome! Anyways, I think my mom is pretty cool for doing that! Keep up the good work, we appreciate you guys.

Listen to my Sermons Online, Free and in Thai

2010-01-20T16:36:00.002+07:00

Hey, just wanted to let you know that I have started recording my sermons on Sundays and I am going to start posting them to my blog. They will be on the blogs right hand side. If you know any Thai people who may want to listen to some online sermons, pass them the link to our blog.

Good Ways to Encourage a Missionary

2010-01-08T14:27:00.003+07:00

I saw this on one of the blogs I frequent, and thought it was good, especially since I'm a missionary! :)

In an effort to learn how we can best encourage missionaries, I emailed some and asked how they would most like to be served and encouraged. This list is drawn from their responses, including many direct quotes.

1. Pray for them and let them know that you are doing so frequently.

“One of the most encouraging/inspiring things we receive from people is a quick note via email to say that they are ‘thinking’ of us.”

2. Send “real mail.”

“Send a small care package. Some little fun food items that we can’t get where we serve is a good idea.”

“One idea is to send a special package before an American holiday (like Thanksgiving) filled with things that we can use to decorate for that holiday.”

“Send us a birthday card. This doesn’t have to be some long handwritten note, just a little card – maybe even printed at home.”

“Real mail is always special. Really, the thing with real mail is more than just getting some nice stuff from home (which is nice), but it seems a more tangible reminder that the people I love and miss love and miss me too and are thinking of me.”

3. Pray for the people the missionaries serve and not only for the missionaries and their families.

4. Recruit others to pray for the missionary’s area of service (city, people group, etc.) or for the missionaries themselves.

“This can be an amazing thing to have a person or group of people actively supporting the work that we are doing overseas – becoming an advocate for our city/work. It really encourages us to know that there are people going to bat for us and raising more prayer support for the work.”

“Become an arm of our work in the United States. Some ideas include handling our newsletter distribution, website hosting (i.e., hosting a virtual website for the city), logistical arrangements, or short term team orientation.”

5. Go visit them with the purpose of serving and encouraging them in their work.

“Have a group of your people come to minister to us as we are seeking to pour out our lives to others. This could be hosting a small retreat in country for our team or something similar, or coming to prayer walk the city we live in.”

6. Send them updates and pictures of you and your family (by mail or email).

“It would especially be nice to receive end of the year updates or Christmas card pics. We want to stay connected to you! We love hearing from friends and family and enjoy keeping up to date on what’s happening in your life!”

“If you have a friend overseas, stay in touch with them. Don’t let cautions about being careful with spiritual language keep you from talking about the day to day “un-spiritual” things you would talk about if you met up for lunch one day. Sometimes the least spiritual emails are the most helpful, because somehow I feel less distant when friends talk to me like they always did before I left. Share updates on family, school, work, life, sports—whatever it is that you used to talk about with them.”

7. Ask questions about their work.

“Ask not only how we are doing, but ask about our work and try to learn all you can about the people or city where we are serving.”

“I know that this has been said, but truly CARING about the work is the best way to encourage us.”

8. Continue to be a Christian friend and continue to minister to them.

“Don’t stop being the church to us when we leave. Whenever security allows, spiritual conversations are good for our hearts. Missionaries struggle with the same sinful attitudes that plague Christians everywhere. Leaving home to live among unreached peoples, may be a step of faith in the process of sanctification, but it is not a step that roots out all sin. It is likely to lead to and expose all kinds of previously unnoticed and unexpected sin. Having friends that know me, are patient with me, and expect me to be the same struggling sinner I was when I left helps me stay humble when tempted toward arrogance, and hopeful when tempted toward despair.”

“Even for us with strong member care, it is helpful to receive pastoral care from the stateside church’s pastor who many times will know the missionary personally and have the history with them to be able to invest and mentor them and their family and marriage.”

“Ask us those hard questions. Do a little pastoral counseling with us.”

“Please don’t elevate us onto some false pedestal. We are normal people too who have been forgiven much and for some reason God called to live and minister overseas.”

9. Support them financially.

“Finding out if we have any specific needs and meeting those needs is great.”

10. Seek to encourage them when they are on stateside assignment.

“Let us talk to you and your congregations, and small groups. We want to share what God has been doing and would love the opportunity to talk about it, raise awareness and hopefully gain more prayer support.”

“Invite us out to lunch or dinner. Nothing fancy is needed. Remember we’ve just been in places where we may not have been able to even enjoy a little Mexican food.”

No missionary mentioned this to me in emails, but I know it is a blessing when someone shares their summer home or cabin for a missionary family to get away and relax for a few days.

“Let us know about any good books that are must reads. Tell us about any good resources that may benefit our personal growth or ministry work: things like conferences, training for ministry/leadership, and so forth.”

This post was written by Mark Rogers. Mark Rogers is a Ph.D. student in historical theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL.

The World Junior in Good Ole Saskatchewan

2010-01-03T17:49:00.001+07:00

I've never been a big fan of hockey, even though I'm Canadian. However, one thing I always enjoyed was the World Juniors. Would have been fun to celebrate New Year's this way don't you think!

A Decade's Worth of Highlights

2010-01-03T17:17:00.002+07:00

Enjoyed this, still think the best highlight was the dunk over top of that guy when playing for Team USA

Christmas Day Outreach

2009-12-29T18:56:00.002+07:00

In the evening on Christmas Day, we had held an outreach at our church building. It was a lot of fun. One of the highlights of the evening was the way everyone in our church participated. This Christmas was a lot less stressful than some of the previous outreaches because every really stepped up and Tawm and I didn't have to do much planning. The little kids sang a Christmas carol and a couple recited Scripture. The older kids/teenagers did a skit based on the Christmas Carol story and then the adults sang a couple specials. I had the opportunity to share afterwards. As always, one of the highlights of the evening was the huge buffet of amazing foods. We had about 50 people attend but we must have had enough food to feed another 50. Pray for those who came to the outreach that don't know Christ. We had a number of people.

As you can see from the pic, Owen really enjoyed the night too.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-25T08:37:00.003+07:00

We were excited about Christmas this year. It was the first year that Owen was really big enough to understand and have some fun on Christmas. It was also the first year that we had a Christmas tree in Thailand for Christmas. Owen really enjoyed his last gift (although he has one more from grandma and grandpa Rosendal that he will open later in the day). He immediately forgot about all the other gifts and wanted to ride his Hara Davision tricycle.

Below is a video of him test driving the bike. He's already head banging!

White Men Can't Jump?

2009-12-20T20:53:00.003+07:00

Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm a big basketball fan. Saw this video on someone else's blog and thought it was interesting, thought provoking and made me go hmmm? Why do you think there isn't many white guys in the L?

Fishing Funnies

2009-12-13T14:18:00.001+07:00

I can't say I ever watched this show. Not even a big fan of fishing but if the show was as always as funny as these clips, I might tune in!

Conversations with a Child

2009-10-08T20:15:00.003+07:00

Owen is almost 2 already, man times flies. He is turning into a little talker. Here's how our conversation went as I was changing his diaper tonight:

Daddy: Owen, lift your bum

Owen: Daddy, lift your bum

Daddy: No, daddy doesn't need to wear a diaper, I'm already potty trained.

Owen: Choo choo train please?

I guess, he's still a little too young to reason with...

A Good Thought to Ponder...

2009-10-03T15:26:00.001+07:00

The 9's

2009-09-09T12:35:00.002+07:00

I'm going to try to take some of this in, this coming September 9, 2009. That is 9/9/09 if you didn't know. Over 70 speakers from the states, streaming online for free. Will see if the internet will run fast enough to catch some of it. It starts at 9:09:09 on 9/9/09 if you are interested.

Amazing Dunk.

2009-09-09T12:33:00.002+07:00

Only a little while to basketball season resumes. Can't wait. In the meantime, saw this dunk on yahoo. Thought it was really cool. I always just wanted to touch the rim. Could never imagine what it would feel like to do this!

Sister or brother?

2009-08-28T19:26:00.002+07:00

Over the past couple weeks, Owen has been in copycat mode. He mimics our words (English, Thai, Northern Thai and even Karen - a hilltribe language here) and our actions as well.

Tonight I thought I figured I would tell him to say, sister please. However as soon as I said, Owen say "sister please", he replied "no sister".

After that, I said, Owen say "brother please", and to that Owen replied, "brother please". So if and when the time comes for Owen to have a younger sibling, we already know what Owen wants.

Owen at 20 months

2009-08-17T20:07:00.002+07:00

Some of you haven't seen Owen in a while, so here is one pic to help you remember what he looks like.

TMBI Resumes with a Bang!

2009-08-17T19:56:00.002+07:00

Last week, Thailand Missionary Baptist Seminary started its 2nd year. We are continuing with the modular system but making a few adjustments. The modules still run for one week per month but we've asked all the first year students to remain in the city so that we can build better relationships with them. We have 6 returning students (although a couple only completed the whole first year). We also have 2 new students. We're excited about that and pray that as word spreads we will continue to grow. First semester classes include Scriptural Church Association, Christian Doctrine, Pastoral Epistles and Bible Study Methods. I'm excited about the two classes I'm teaching. They've been a lot of work for me to prepare but it has been well worth the effort and the students seem to really enjoy them so far.

One other adjustment that we've made is that we are going to do something special on the Friday evening when the students are here. This past Friday we encouraged people to bring there friends to our house for a free dinner, movie and discussion afterwards. We had a great time of fellowship. Watched the movie "Fireproof" and then talked about relationships for a little bit after. A few of the students brought people that we had never met before and everyone said that they can't wait for us to do it again! That's always a great thing to hear.

Cell Phones and Church

2009-08-11T20:25:00.011+07:00

One thing that bothers me a lot is when a cell phone goes off in the middle of church services, Sunday school or TMBI classes. Even more annoying is when people start to talk on their phone in the middle of services. It started to become a regular occurance and so we had to put a slide at the beginning of worship services asking people to shut off their phones. It helped somewhat, now people just put their phones on silent mode and when it rings, they walk out the door. Sometimes I think to myself, our church is full of very important people because they can't even turn their phones off for an hour or two.

Thankfully, things like twitter haven't hit mainstream here in Thailand yet and so we don't have to deal with it. I never even thought about it being a problem but I have seen a couple other bloggers in the States (John Piper, Josh Harris) have already been dealing with this issue.

I hope that twitter doesn't become a hit here too soon!

Sunday Tearfest

2009-08-10T20:33:00.002+07:00

This past Sunday we celebrated Mother's Day. Mother's day here in Thailand falls on the queen's birthday (August 12). In children's Sunday school, the kids prepared cards and practiced a song. When I finished preaching, the kids came downstairs. All the mothers present sat at the front of the church and watched their children sing. Afterwards, the children gave their mothers jasmine flowers. The kids then joined their mothers and the kids told their moms what they appreciated about them and after that the mothers gave words of encouragement to their children. When it was all said and done, there wasn't many dry eyes in the house. Every year we celebrate mother's at this time and think it is fast becoming one of people's favorite Sundays, especially the moms.

Shoe Letdown

2009-08-04T16:38:00.004+07:00

At the beginning of the new year, a new family started attending our church. They have a couple teenage boys who like to play basketball and so I started playing basketball again, even though it had been a few years since I played. Because I hadn't played in a few years, I didn't really have any basketball shoes to use and so one of my goals when I went back to North America was to find a cool pair of shoes to play basketball, a pair that no one else in Thailand had.

When we were in Indiana, Nike just released a new pair of Lebron's and so I purchased them. Last night I played basketball for the first time and was excited to show off my new shoes. The guys from the church thought that they were pretty cool. When I made it to the gym, the first Thai person I met had the exact same shoes as me, just in a different color. So much for my flashy shoes. I guess I have to rely on my skills to set me apart, not just my shoes! ;)

Belated Bday Surprise

2009-08-03T13:11:00.002+07:00

This past Saturday was my birthday. On Sunday at church when I got to the pulpit to preach, one of the worship team members started to speak. He announced that it had been my birthday and then the worship team sang a song of blessing for me. People in the congregation gathered around me and after the song was finished, three people prayed for me. When the prayer was finished, one of our youth brought out a birthday cake with 6 candles on it, not because I was six, but because I was 33 and 3+3=6. It was a great surprise and I really appreciated it. The only problem was that when it was over, it was hard to regather my thoughts to preach. Thanks to everyone who made my Sunday morning special!

No Title Needed

2009-08-01T10:47:00.002+07:00

As we left Canada, I promised myself that I'd keep people in North America more informed of what is going on with us here in Thailand and use our blog to post some pictures too (although facebook is much more convenient for that).
We've been back in Thailand for about a week now. Long enough to get over jetlag and get reroutined. Today's blogging goals:
1. Say Hey!
2. Get our background reworked since the old one seems to have disappeared.

Stranded Guest

2009-04-16T17:20:00.004+07:00

Last week we were happy to have Rodney Burdette come stay with us at our house. He is a missionary in Northeast Thailand and came to Chiang Mai to renew his visa. He travelled all day Thursday to get here. At 9:30 that evening, the government announced that they were closing all government offices on Friday in hopes to quell the protests here in Thailand. That meant that Rodney would have to stay here a few extra days. The only problem was that Monday-Wednesday was Thailand's biggest holiday and most places are closed, especially government offices. That meant that Rodney would have to stay with us until Thursday.

Rodney was able to join for Sunday services, he went with us to a local waterfall for a day of relaxation and throwing water. He was able to experience some Thai food that he has never had and on Wednesday, he came with Tawm, Owen and I as we went to Tawm's relatives in order to hand out gifts for Songkran, Thailand's New Year celebration (pictured).

Rodney was enjoying his trip until the Prime Minister announced that all government offices would be closed for another 2 days. That meant that Rodney would be stranded until this coming Monday. We felt bad for him and his family for extended and unexpected separation although we have enjoyed having him as our guest.

Praise God that the foundation's lawyer called and said that immigration was opening for those people that had appointments only. Rodney was able to go to immigration when hardly anyone was there, something that is very unusual. If everything goes according to plan, Rodney will return to Northeast Thailand tomorrow.

Reading Slump

2009-04-09T08:28:00.002+07:00

Over the past few weeks, I have kind of been in a reading slump and as a result, I haven't done much reading. The books that I have been trying to read are a little on the heavy side, so I figured I take a break from trying to finish those books by reading a little more light reading. So I picked up a book on the life of David by Charles Swindoll and have already read more in one day than I did in the last week combined. The book has been refreshing to me. I thought I'd share a short quote from the book.

"A servant has one great goal, and that is to make the person he serves look better, to make that person even more successful. A servant does not want the person he serves to fail. A servant doesn't care who gets the glory, just so the job gets done."

Some good advice to all of us who serve Christ.

Early Easter

2009-04-07T08:56:00.004+07:00

This past Sunday we celebrated Easter. April 13-15, is the water festival in Thailand. It is also the biggest holiday in Thailand and most people go home to spend time with relatives. Many of our members will be away on Easter Sunday and so we decided to have Easter services a week early so everyone could have a part.

Easter is one of our church's favorite Sundays as we always have special activities.
This year we went to a waterfall south of town. We had over 70 people in attendance, about 10 first time guests and a large number of second time guests too. I was very pleased. We packed into several vehicles in order to travel to the waterfall. We had worship services there. Afterwards we played games, had a huge picnic and of course played in the water. It was a great time and I'm already looking forward to Easter next year!

Worship services in the park

Water fight time!

Worn out after a long day.

Rat Infestation

2009-04-01T16:44:00.003+07:00

I'm not sure how many rats you need to have to classify it as an infestation, in my books, one is enough. Coming from Alberta which claims to be rat free, this was my first run in with these critters.

We first noticed the rats when the plants around our house started to die (as you can see in the picture). Next we noticed holes begin to appear around our house and the final straw was when they began running to and fro in our ceiling. We went to go buy some traps but the local store didn't have the good traps that clamp shut when the food is disturbed. All they had was glue. We bought a couple of glue traps, set them near the holes only to discover the that food was taken but no rats were stuck in the glue. A little while later we were able to buy the good traps and we even got some rat poison. Poison was placed in the various holes and that night we heard the trap clamp shut and victory, we had our first victim, a tiny little baby rat. We weren't sure how many rats we had but were pretty sure that these minature rat wasn't the source of all of our problems and not long after we heard some loud scampering in the ceiling and more holes were appearing. The traps were reset and more poison was set out and not long after, snap, another victim, this time a huge rat, maybe the baby rat's momma (pictured). We still don't know how many more rats are left although there is a foul odor coming from the porch outside our house. I have a feeling that poison worked its magic and a rat or rats crawled up and died in the hole. Who knows how long the smell will last, at least they haven't crawled up in our ceiling to die there!

Returning to an Old Role

2009-03-14T21:39:00.002+07:00

Four or five years ago, Tawm and I led the worship when we first started Antioch Baptist Church. Tawm sang, I played guitar. But not long after, Tim, (now our church secretary) played. Tim is now expecting her first child and is struggling with some pretty bad morning sickness. As a result, I've had to play guitar for worship a couple times so far and will continue to play for the next little while.
The first time I played, I didn't know until the day before Sunday. Normally, this isn't a big deal but I hadn't played the guitar in a looooooonnnngg time and so by the end of worship, my fingers were killing me and my strumming finger was bleeding. [Just taking one for the team :)]
I enjoy helping with worship, but I like being in the audience better because when I'm playing, I have to think about what I'm playing that I can't sing in Thai and as a result, I don't feel like I really get an opportunity to worship God. It also makes for a long Sunday morning as I teach Sunday School, help with worship and then preach. But I'm glad that I can serve God in this way.
I'm excited that our church is going to have a couple kids younger than Owen in the near future, but am looking forward to when someone can take the role of guitar player away from me.

Madness around the Corner

2009-03-13T17:49:00.002+07:00

Sycracuse over Conneticut in 6 overtimes!!! The tournament isn't even here yet but the madness has started! Wish I could be there to partake.

A Post of Excuses

2009-03-12T17:03:00.000+07:00

It has been a long time since my past post, probably one of the longest since I started "seriously" blogging. I could come up with a whole bunch of excuses but the main reason for the lack of blogging in the new year has been a lack of desire to blog because I just don't feel like I have anything to say. Facebook has become my new place to post pics and videos and so Owen updates have become less necessary here too.
This post is a post of hope, hoping that these few words will get me back into the blogging spirit or not. Time will tell. Until then... :)

In with the New Year

2009-01-05T18:51:00.002+07:00

This past Sunday we had a pretty good sized crowd at church but were missing some of our regulars. Since it was 5 day long weekend, many people took the opportunity to travel or visit relatives. I preached on our heavenly citizenship and challenged the people to focus on heaven and the Creator of heaven rather than the things of this earth.

Although I've been preaching in Thai for a couple years now, I still make some pretty silly mistakes. This past Sunday I was really nervous as I began my sermon. I tried a new way of preparing my sermon and I think that created the nerves. Anyways I began with an illustration about a man riding a horse all day long. In Thai, horse is maa with a high tone. However I said maa with a rising tone and instead of saying he rode a horse all day long, I said he rode a dog all day long. As soon as the word came out of my mouth I knew I had said it wrong and corrected myself. Everyone had a good chuckle.

At the end of the month we will be having a conference here in Chiang Mai. Many different missionaries and pastors from our work will be here. The weekend before the conference, Lynn Rayburn will be teaching our church about Faith Promise. The weekend after the seminar, Larry Fincher will be giving a parenting workshop. Excited about both seminars and that these men have agreed to do them. It is not too often that I get to sit and listen to someone else preach.

More Christmas Festivities

2008-12-30T11:22:00.004+07:00

(kids in their costumes)

Since Christmas isn't a holiday here in Thailand, it is difficult to do things on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day because everyone works. So we celebrated Christmas at our church on the 28th instead. We gathered for worship in the morning and after church we loaded up and headed out to Jom Tong to have a special Christmas outreach. For me, the greatest part of the day was that 42 people from Antioch travelled in 5 trucks in order to participate in the outreach. Like always we played games, the children from Antioch had a special Christmas performance and afterwards I was able to talk for a few minutes about Christmas. The past 2 Sundays, we have had about 80 kids come to our English club. Last Sunday there were a number of adults too.

I am so thankful for Tawm who worked especially hard before the outreach preparing costumes. Tawm and 3 women from church spent a number of long days sewing the costumes (Tawm didn't even know how to sew but learned in order to make the costumes). The costumes looked great, the kids did a great job of acting too. Everyone from Antioch and the people that came really enjoyed their time. We also handed out a lot of tracts and pray that our Christmas outreach will begin to bear fruit that way too.

(our church gang and others)

Christmas Serenading

2008-12-29T14:21:00.004+07:00

This year Tawm got some of the kids from Antioch Baptist Church together in order to do some Christmas Caroling or as they call it here in Thailand, Christmas Serenading. Tawm, a few adults and about 15 kids loaded into 2 vehicles and drove to different church member's houses to do some caroling. At each house, the hosts had different foods prepared for the kids, including a main meal at one house, to snacks and fruit at other houses. I stayed home to look after Owen. Caroling started about 7 o'clock but Tawm didn't get home until after midnight! I think everyone really enjoyed it.

A Great Christmas Sports Story

2008-12-25T12:40:00.004+07:00

Thanks to Wayne Drehs and ESPN.com for writing this story about Kurt Warner (just click on the red print to access). This is a story that we don't see or hear about often in today's media, but one that needs to be told.

Merry Christmas Blog Readers!

2008-12-25T11:37:00.002+07:00

We wanted to start off by wishing all our blog readers a Merry Christmas and thanking all those who take the time to keep up on what is happening in our lives here in Thailand.
Last night we were able to spend Christmas Eve with another missionary couple who has been a huge help to us since I arrived here in Thailand. Although we didn't have any turkey or ham, we had a great fondu dinner. They had their house nicely decorated too. Since we don't even own a Christmas tree, we figured it would be a good time to take some Christmasy pictures. Hope you enjoy!

New Work in Jom Tong

2008-12-16T15:18:00.001+07:00

Over the past several weeks, we've been doing evangelism in Jom Tong or having special prayer meetings on Sunday afternoons for the city of Jom Tong. This past Sunday, we started a children's club at one of the schools there. The school has given us permission to use their facility free of charge and the school's English teacher has been promoting the club to other schools in the area. This Thursday, I will go out to Jom Tong to teach English in the school and promote the children's club.

We've been eagerly anticipating the new work in Jom Tong but had no idea what to expect. We were excited to see over 40 kids from grade 3-9 show up. The teacher told us that she was unable to promote it at all the schools that she wanted to and this week she will promote it some more. We had kids from about 5 different schools in Jom Tong.

On December 28th, many of the people of Antioch Baptist Church will be journeying out there to do a special Christmas program. We will encourage the kids to bring their parents and we will present the gospel that day. I've included some pics of the day of Jom Tong and a pic of Owen too.

Materialistic Christianity and Me

2008-12-11T14:20:00.004+07:00

This coming February, I have to teach a class about Christian Financial Principles at the seminary. As a result, I am currently reading some books on financial principles. When I first started thinking about the class, I figured I'd talk about budgeting, saving and tithing (which I will do to some degree) but I have started reading a book by Randy Alcorn called "Money, Possessions and Eternity". From the get go, this book has been hard hitting and has made me really think about my ideas of money and prosperity. I've never highlighted a book up as much as this one. Although I'm only a few chapters in, I highly recommend this book.

I just finished a chapter talking about the lies of the health and wealth teaching which teaches that God wants to bless us financially and make us rich. Although, the teaching is clearly contrary to Scripture, it's still amazing how much my materialistic, western world view shapes my Christianity. At the end of the chapter, the author shares 2 stories, one of an American and another of a Chinese man living in mainland China. The stories really struck me and helped me to see how much of my worldview is shaped by materialism rather than Christ. I hope they stir your heart like they did mine.

Here's the 2 stories and the author's commentary:

In America, a sharp-looking businessman stands up at a luncheon to give his testimony: "Before I knew Christ, I had nothing. My business was in bankruptcy, my health was ruined, I'd lost the respect of the community, and I'd almost lost my family. Then I accepted Christ. He took me out of bankruptcy and now my business has tripled its profits. My blood pressure has dropped to normal and I feel better than I've felt in years. Best of all, my wife and children have come back, and we're a family again. God is good - praise the Lord!"

In China, a disheveled former university professor gives his testimony: "Before i met Christ, I had everything. I made a large salary, lived in a nice house, enjoyed good health, was highly respected for my credentials and profession, and had a good marriage and a beautiful son. Then I accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord. As a result, I lost my post at the university, lost my beautiful house and car, and spent five years in prison. Now I work for a subsistence wage at a factory. I live with pain in my neck, which was broken in prison. My wife rejected me because of my conversion. She took my son away and I haven't seen him for 10 years. But God is good, and I praise him for his faithfulness."

Material blessings and restored families are definitely worth being thankful for. The brother in China would be grateful to have them again; indeed he gives heartfelt thanks each day for the little he does have. And while the American brother is certainly right to give thanks, he and the rest of us must be careful to sort out how much of what he has experienced is part of the gospel and how much is not. For any gospel that is more true in America than in China is not the true gospel.

Thailand and Her King

2008-11-30T16:32:00.002+07:00

I can't take credit for this post, it was written by Jonathon Head of the BBC news. The author does a good job of describing the relationship between the people of Thailand and the king of Thailand. If you are interested in the mindset of Thai people, this arcticle does a good job of describing one aspect of a Thai person's mindset. The article says:

Not much can bring the life of the noisy, traffic-clogged heart of Bangkok to a halt.

But on Wednesday the streets were hushed, the cars and buses banished.

All you could hear were speakers playing the royal anthem, and thousands of flags fluttering in the breeze, held by people of all ages.

Most were dressed in yellow and had waited for hours for a glimpse of a stiff and stern-faced old man passing in a motorcade, on his way to the gilded halls and temples of Bangkok's Grand Palace.

And as it passed they shouted "Song Phra Charoen", "Long Live Your Majesty". Some had tears in their eyes.

What explains this extraordinary bond between people and monarch?

King Bhumibol Adulyadej is accorded an almost divine reverence, with titles like Phra Chao Yu Hua (Lord Upon our Heads) or Chao Chiwit (Lord of Life).

People prostrate themselves on the ground in his presence. Yet there is genuine affection too, and it goes both ways.

Thais talk of their love for him as though he were a cherished member of the family.

In his speeches to the nation he likes to joke and tease them.

Public relations

Pink clothing sales rocketed when the king left hospital in a pink suit

Earlier in his reign when he was younger and travelled a lot, he clearly enjoyed meeting and mixing with people from the poorest rural communities.

People often refer to his long life of service to the nation, to his experiments with agriculture and irrigation, many of them carried out on the grounds of his palace in Bangkok.

The formidable public relations machine which manages the monarchy's image makes much of these experiments, as it does of the king's other talents as a jazz musician and sailor.

But the real measure of these achievements is impossible to know in a country where all criticism of the monarchy is curtailed by the draconian lese majeste law (offence against the dignity of the monarch), and only lavish praise for the royal family can be published.

The reverence for the king seems rooted in something less worldly.

Time after time when Thais are asked about the virtues of King Bhumibol they refer to his proper adherence to the principles of "Dhamma", Buddhist teachings and the Buddhist concept of righteousness.

Our political system has been unstable all the time. So whenever there is a political crisis people expect the King to solve the problem

Prof Suchit Bunbongkarn

It is not just his practical deeds they are looking at, but his manner, his modesty, his reserve, his gentleness, and his apparent detachment from the world - qualities he has worked hard to perfect and project.

He is as much a spiritual leader as a worldly one.

During his six decades on the throne Thailand has undergone changes as wrenching as in any other country.

Per capita income has gone up 40-fold. An almost entirely agrarian society has become a substantially urban one. The economy has been swept along by the forces of globalisation.

Political upheaval

There have been other changes as well.

The king's endorsement of the coup was essential to its success

This king has reigned through 17 military coups and 26 prime ministers. The gap between rich and poor has widened, with conspicuous consumption and conspicuous corruption accepted as part of everyday life.

There has been a corresponding decline in traditional community and family values.

Amid this whirlwind, the king has remained a reassuring anchor, a man who embodies Thailand's history but who has also come to embody integrity and detachment from the squalid realities of day-to-day politics and business.

He has lived the myth of the virtuous monarch so well that almost the entire population believes in it and takes comfort from it.

And it gives him a unique moral authority. When he speaks, people listen.

They may, and often do, fail to act on his advice. But he has been able to use that authority to settle a number of political crises.

I want to be making suits for him when he is 90 years old, when he is 100 - longer even."

Sompop Louilarpprasert
King Bhumibol's tailor

"If the country were in good shape politically, then the role of the constitutional monarch is not very difficult," explains Suchit Bunbongkarn, professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University.

"But in the case of Thailand it is not easy because our political system has been unstable all the time. So whenever there is a political crisis people expect the king to solve the problem."

Former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun describes King Bhumibol's authority as "reserve power" that, because it has been used judiciously and sparingly, has been decisive in maintaining the country's stability.

This power, he says, has been accumulated through a life of dedication to his job. It cannot, he points out, be inherited or passed on.

Fears and superstition

There is quiet concern about the abilities of the heir to the throne

That explains the acute anxiety now over the king's fragile health. Few imagine that any future monarch can match this one.

There are many reservations about the capabilities of his presumed heir, Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, although these cannot be expressed publicly because of the lese majeste laws.

The succession itself is not completely clear, with the constitution leaving considerable powers to designate an heir to the 19-member Privy Council of senior advisors to the king.

The opacity that has preserved the mystique of monarchy in Thailand makes it impossible to discuss, let alone plan for the succession.

So Thais prefer not to think about it.

When I saw his tailor, Sompop Louilarpprasert, and asked him about the king's recent spell in hospital, he brushed it aside.

"I want to be making suits for him when he is 90 years old, when he is 100 - longer even."

It was Sompop who made the dazzling pink blazer the king wore when he came out of hospital.

Within hours, pink shirts were being sold in their thousands across the country, and there are days when some streets are a sea of pink.

In this superstitious country they now associate pink with the king's recovery. It will bring him good fortune, they say.

By wearing it they are literally willing him to stay alive for them.

Owen's First Big Trip

2008-11-12T17:48:00.002+07:00

Last month, Tawm Owen and I, along with my parents and Tawm's parents were able to make a trip to Phuket, one of the most popular beaches in the world and also the place where the tsunami hit. We were able to travel to a few different places and got to spend time with some of Tawm's relatives that live there too. Here are a couple pictures of our time there along with a pic of Owen enjoying his grandma.

Grandpa and Grandma arrive from Canada!

2008-10-14T22:45:00.001+07:00

Last Wednesday my parents arrived from Canada after many months of anticipation. They were able to meet Owen for the first time and have been enjoying there time with him, us and the rest of the clan here in Thailand.

I am so thankful that they were able to come and also very thankful for all the sacrifices they have made in allowing me and my family to minister here in Thailand. I know it isn't always easy.

-> Exciting Times Ahead ->

2008-10-14T22:36:00.002+07:00

Things are going to get extremely busy around here, but we are really excited. For the past while, we've been praying about starting a new ministry in a new location (not that the one where we currently are isn't keeping us busy).

A few months ago when the basketball team was here, God opened doors for us to go to Jom Tong (a city about 1 hour from Chiang Mai) to teach English in 3 different schools. Since then we haven't done any ministry there, but our church and us have been praying for an opportunity to start a work there for the past few months.

This coming Sunday, God has opened a door for us to go there and share the gospel. The thing that has me really excited is that over half our church here in Chiang Mai (including a number of kids) will be heading to Jom Tong with us after services to do evangelism there and I pray that this will be the first big step in establishing a new ministry there.

My hope is that this isn't a stepping stone for a ministry in Jom Tong but that it will be a life changing experience for the members of Antioch as well.

You Know Who's Back

2008-10-02T11:03:00.001+07:00

It's been awhile since I've posted anything of any kind and even longer since the last Owen post. He's getting bigger all the time and getting a mind of his own more and more. Next week, my parents from Canada will be visiting and they'll get to see Owen for the first time. All of us are getting pretty excited about that.

Keeping a Journal (any advice?)

2008-09-09T14:40:00.004+07:00

I've tried before and I am going to try again. Every time I try to keep a journal, it goes good for a week or two and after that I lose my desire. I don't want my journal to just be a diary of what I did but more about what God is teaching me and speaking to me about.

I'm sure some of you that frequent my blog keep a spiritual journal. If so, how do you do it? What do you do to keep yourself interested in it? I really think that journaling will help me process my thoughts and will be very beneficial to me. If you have any ideas or suggestions of what to do or what not to do, I'd love to hear them.

Praying Dangerously

2008-09-08T20:05:00.003+07:00

Last week I started and finished the book, "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson. I couldn't put it down. The book had some awesome quotes and many of them pierced my heart and he really helped me to think about things in a new perspective. I definitely have to read this book again and would highly recommend it to anyone reading this blog but expect to be changed!

Over the past few months, God has been dealing with me in the area of prayer because it is one of weakest areas. I'd rather do than pray but I know that that is the wrong way of doing things. Although Batterson's book is more about taking risks, God kept using the book to deal with me in the area of my prayer life, especially about praying dangerously.

Yesterday I preached on praying dangerously (had intended to even before I started reading the book but the book helped confirm a lot of things). During the response song after I finished preaching, the thought hit me, if we pray for God to help our church grow and one person is saved, baptized and becomes a member, God has answered our prayer. God did exactly what we asked but in the end, we're disappointed (especially pastors and missionaries) because we want to grow our churches and we want God to do big things, but sometimes we forget to ask. As a result I have been challenged to begin praying bigger, more dangerous prayers. Asking for things that I can't do on my own strength. Asking God to do the things that I think can't be done knowing that nothing is impossible for God. God doesn't want us to limit him in our prayer lives and I have a problem of limiting God to what I think I can manage but why not pray ask God to do what only He can manage, not me?

So I've decided to pray more dangerously. I'm excited and a little scared because I don't know what to expect, I have a feeling I'm going to be pulled out of my comfort zone but if that is what God wants, that's is what needs to happen.

Dengue Fever

2008-09-02T22:08:00.003+07:00

Dengue Fever, an illness that comes from a mosquito bite has been really bad this year in Chiang Mai. The husband of one of our church's members already spent one week in the hospital and had to get a blood transfusion as a result. Now Tim, our church secretary and one of our most faithful church members and Dee, her husband both have Dengue Fever. Dengue Fever is similar to malaria (I guess) and is supposed to be excruciatingling painful, even fatal. Please pray for these two.

Protests are Escalating

2008-09-02T07:30:00.002+07:00

It's been about a week since the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) started protesting, hoping to oust the current government (which has only been in power for about 7 months). Until last night, things had remained peaceful, aside from the fact that the PAD protesters have broken many laws. Earlier in the week, the highest court in Thailand gave the police the authority to arrest the leaders of the PAD group but that still hasn't happened. Last night, pro-government supporters clashed with the PAD protesters and as a result, there was one fatality and many others were injured. As a result, the government declared a state of emergency in Bangkok and the military has stepped in in order to try and control the situation.

Although the group of protesters are called the People's Alliance for Democracy, they really don't want democracy. They have openly said that most of Thailand's population is too uneducated to support a democracy. It sounds to me that they think only the rich elite have the right to vote, but unfortunately much of Thailand's population is still fairly uneducated and poor. There are thousands of protesters protesting in Bangkok and getting paid to do it, often times getting paid more than what they could make at their normal jobs. If they weren't being paid to protest, these protests would have fizzled out already. I think it is funny, the uneducated shouldn't be able to vote, but it is fine to allow them to help with the protests.

In regards to us and what is happening here in Chiang Mai. Other than people being offered money to protest, I haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. The train station is closed down but I haven't seen any protests happening in or around Chiang Mai because the north where we live is pretty pro-government and a major part of the reason that this government is in power. With that said, please continue to pray for the country and the safety for everyone.

Another Big Step Taken!

2008-08-31T16:10:00.004+07:00

Earlier this year, Antioch sent Samson, a former student at our village Bible school to Sukothai, another province located about 5 hours away from Chiang Mai. Samson had a burden to go there and plant a church. He decided to go to a village that didn't have any Christians and begin laboring there. Unlike many hilltribe villages, this village is Buddhist but like most Thais, they mix some Animism with Buddhism.

When Samson went there, he told me that the people were nice but not real friendly, but Samson continued laboring there, helping them with their crops and planting Spiritual seeds too. This past week, one villager came to Samson and asked Samson to pray for him. Samson explained the gospel to him and the man accepted Christ. Samson said he didn't think this man would become a Christian, let alone be the first convert there because he had amulets around his neck and waist protecting him from evil spirits but after he turned to Christ, he removed all the amulets and burned them as a sign that he was turning his back to his old lifestyle.

This is so exciting because my primary goal here in Thailand is to see churches plant churches. Antioch Baptist Church sending out missionaries was step one in seeing this happen. Now we are seeing fruit from the missionary's labor. So Cool!

Unique Opportunity

2008-08-29T11:06:00.001+07:00

During my blogging hiatus, I had the opportunity to do something that I've never done in Thailand before. I had the opportunity to preach at a house warming party. Normally when Thai people buy a house, the have monks come and bless the house however relatives of one of our church members bought a house here in town and asked if I could come and preach. I'd been to a house warming party before but never a Christian one, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect. Tawm and a couple people from our worship team led the people in singing and then I had the opportunity to speak. It went well and I preached from the verse in Joshua that says "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord."

The next day was Sunday and a number of people from this family came to church. As a result, Antioch had its biggest attendance to date: 54 people

More Trouble a Brewing??

2008-08-26T14:17:00.004+07:00

This morning, protestors stormed one of Thailand's nation TV stations and forced it off the air. They have also closed some major roads leading into Bangkok in hopes that their actions will force the new Prime Minister and his cabinet to step down. Many people, especially in Bangkok are not happy with the new Prime Minister because of his ties to the former Prime Minister that was ousted in coup-d-etat a couple years ago. Plus they accuse this prime minister of buying votes in the poor but heavily populated Northeastern region of Thailand.
Despite all this, the military leader has already said that there will not be a coup this time.

Two Souls Saved!

2008-08-26T10:01:00.003+07:00

Last week Tawm had the opportunity to lead to people to the Lord at church. A couple family members of our one of our church members were staying at the church in order to bring their kid to the hospital the next morning. Tawm was at church that evening and started talking to the mother about salvation. The mother was very interested. She went to church her whole life, called herself a Christian but didn't know anything about being saved. As they talked, the lady's husband came and joined in. At first Tawm was worried that he'd stop the conversation but he proved to be just as interested as the mother. After a couple hours of talking, they both decided to trust Christ as Savior. Praise God!
The only sad part of the story is that they don't live in Chiang Mai and so it will be difficult to disciple them. Plus neither can read so they will have trouble reading their Bible. Please pray for them.

Two Thought Provoking Quotes

2008-08-26T09:37:00.004+07:00

With the long lapse between blogs, it has given me enough time to do my fair share of reading. I wanted to share with you two quotes that have hit me hard over that time. The first comes from a book that Tawm and I are reading together called "Faith Begins at Home" by Mark Holmen. Although Owen is only 9 months old, it is definitely something that struck my heart. Holmen said:

"While it is good that everyone desires that our teenagers have a stronger faith, the truth is that what we see in our teenagers' faith is a mirror image of our own faith. So the issue isn't their faith, but your faith."
Our children model what they see their parents doing. Are we as parents modelling what we want them to do? Or is it just all talk?

The second quote comes from a book called "True Spirituality" by Francis Shaeffer. God is really dealing with me in the area of my prayer life at this time and so Shaeffer's really hit home. He wrote:

"If I woke up tomorrow morning and found that all that the Bible teaches concerning prayer and the Holy Spirit were removed (not as a liberal would remove it, by misinterpretation but really removed) what difference would it make in practice from the way we are functioning today? The simple tragic fact is that [in most Christians lives] there would be no difference whatsoever. We function as though the supernatural were not there."
How much does our prayer life affect the way we live our day to day lives? Do we really bring everything to God in prayer? For most of us probably not.

Owen's Back too!

2008-08-25T13:23:00.001+07:00

With the long blogging hiatus, people that aren't on Facebook have been wanting to see some more pics of Owen. Owen is getting big. He says mummum which means eat, ba which means let's go and taa which means grandpa. He doesn't always use them at the right time, but he is forming the words.

Bloggin' Woes

2008-08-25T13:11:00.003+07:00

Been trying to update the blog for the past little while but been having a cookie problem. Finally, I had to restore my whole system and now I have access to my blog again. The only problem, I still can't upload pictures like I used to... Still have some kinks to work out. If I can't get them worked out, I may have to switch over to another blog... Stay tuned to find out.

Bangkok Bookstores

2008-07-28T08:26:00.003+07:00

Last week, Rusty and I made a trip to Bangkok in order to go to different Christian bookstores there. We were looking for books that we could use as textbooks for our seminary classes here in Chiang Mai. We'd been to the bookstores here in Chiang Mai but they didn't have much selection, so we figured we'd be able to find more in Bangkok, especially since there is a Baptist Seminary there and several other bookstores.

Neither of us have any experience travelling around Bangkok, a city of over 10 million people, so it was a bit of a daunting task having to try to find our way to these bookstores. We were blessed by the help of a Independent missionary who showed us the ropes and showed us around his printing ministry in Bangkok. After hitting a couple bookstores, we soon discovered, that 80-90% books they had, we had here in Chiang Mai. When we began our second day of travelling, I was excited because we were going to hit the Baptist Seminary, surely they'd have some good textbooks there. But to our dismay, they had the same books as everywhere else, including the book "The Hidden Power of Speaking in Tongues" (which made me wonder if it was really a Baptist Seminary).

We came back to Chiang Mai, disappointed in one aspect and seeing the need for some solid literature in Thai. We were thankful that we got to meet the Baptist missionary in Bangkok who is just beginning to translate some good material into Thai. This gives us a glimmer of hope for the future.

I'm Still Here

2008-07-28T08:03:00.002+07:00

I know its been awhile since I last posted. It's been busy around but part of the reason for not posting has been laziness.

Tawm and I are doing good. Owen is now 8 months old (I will post some pics soon). He is crawling, standing, going up stairs and has two teeth now. He is still a very good boy and the center of attention whereever he goes [reminds me a little of me :)]

The work is going good. We have had really good attendance the last month or so and have been really pushing for a stronger commitment from our members. We are busy praying that God would lead us to a new building. The rent of the one we are in will be going up next year and so we looking into different options. Bible School is going good too.

Well, I will post some more later, just wanting to let you know that we're still here.
Thanks to all those who check our blog.

Why are you guys different??

2008-06-30T16:44:00.008+07:00

At the beginning of the month, we had a team come from America. The first weekend they were here, we had an English Camp outside Chiang Mai and we invited every person who has ever applied to study English at our foundation. In total about 20 students came and it was the highlight of the trip for me. After the weekend, a couple students decided to help on the next portion of the trip, even though they were Buddhist. One of those people was Tong, a young man about 30 years old. After helping us at the basketball camp, he talked to Tawm and said that he was interested in knowing more about Christianity. As a Buddhist, he lacked purpose in life and he noticed something different in our lives.
Since the team left, he has been to church every Sunday, he attended seminary classes a couple times and he is even inviting his friends to come to church and he doesn't understand why they don't want to come. Tong hasn't made a commitment to Christ yet (that we know of) but please pray for him that he would come to a saving knowledge of Christ. Last week we had an opportunity to hang out together for 5-6 hours and plan to hang out again this week.

New Look Pacers got my approval!

2008-06-30T16:28:00.002+07:00

Although the trade isn't official until later this week, I am happy with the changes that the Pacers have made. Although I like Jermaine O'Neal a lot (happy he is going to the Raptors, another team I like), I am glad that he is moving on because I don't think he was a great fit to the new uptempo Pacers. Getting Ford in exchange along with a couple players and a draft pick was a great move by the Legend, Larry Bird. On top of that, they drafted 2 quality players. Since the brawl in Detroit, things haven't looked good for the Pacers but I think the past week was a good step in the right direction. Now if we can only get some team to take Jamaal Tinsley.

What is Canada/the World coming to?

2008-06-17T11:08:00.004+07:00

"Canadian government to pastor: Renounce your faith! The Canadian government has ordered a Christian pastor to renounce his faith and never again express moral opposition to homosexuality, according to a new report.In a decision handed down just days ago in the penalty phase of the quasi-judicial proceedings run by the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal, evangelical pastor Stephen Boisson was banned from expressing his biblical perspective of homosexuality and ordered to pay $5,000 for "damages for pain and suffering" as well as apologize to the activist who complained of being hurt."

Rusty sent me this email. Being Canadian, it is hard to believe that my nation is coming to this. Even more surprising was that this happened in Alberta, which tends to be the most conservative province in Canada. The whole thing just makes you wonder, what is our world coming to? Governments in the West promote freedom of speech and tolerance but they are very intolerant to Christianity. Most people will tolerate almost anything, including other religions, just not Christianity. The Bible talks a lot about suffering and I believe that we as westerners will begin to understand this more and more clearly in the coming years.

It's been a long time...

2008-06-17T10:53:00.003+07:00

Whooh, it has been a busy few weeks here. The team has come and gone. Our pastor from the states has also been here and now that the dust has settled, I thought it would be good to post some pics of Owen.

Hoop Dreams

2008-05-29T19:25:00.001+07:00

The NBA playoffs are almost finished (thankfully because 3 of my 4 most hated teams still remain) but the real hoop dreams will be happening here in Thailand. Tomorrow a team of 6 from the States will be coming to do some basketball camps. Although Thailand is near to China, I am not expecting any Yao Ming's to emerge. We will be having a camp in Chiang Dao (Friday 30-Sunday 1) with many of the students we've been teaching English to. Then we will head to Jom Tong, where we will start doing ministry for the first time (Tuesday 3-Friday 6). On Saturday 7, we will have a banquet at the church and every one that attended the camp is invited. Sunday is church and Monday the team leaves. We are excited and nervous as we are doing something we've never tried before. Pray that contacts would be made, friendships strengthened and most importantly, people would come to know Christ as Savior.

A Trip to the Hospital

2008-05-26T08:38:00.004+07:00

Thai people make me laugh... In some areas, they are so cautious, as they don't want to offend anyone. You can't be direct, instead, you have to beat around the bush. But in other areas, areas we as North Americans are not so direct, Thais are very direct. Thais love to ask you about your weight, your salary and how much you paid for that latest thing you bought (even if they don't even know you). Thais will come up to us and pick up Owen too.

Owen, along with the rest of us, hasn't been feeling too good. Last week when we went to the doctor. After Owen was finished with his check-up, Tawm and I went to get one too. The nurses in the children's clinic took Owen and said, we will return him when you guys are done. It is just so typical of Thai culture.

Yesterday we went to the doctor again as the doctor made an appointment to check Owen again. When he was finished, Tawm and the doctor started talking. Here was the gist of the conversation.
Doctor (talking about Owen): Oh, you have such a sweet face. Who do you look like more?
Tawm: Everyone says that Owen looks like his father.
Doctor: No! His father doesn't have a sweet face.
Tawm: Well I think he has a mixture of both of us.
Doctor: No.
I just smiled as the whole conversation happened... It is so typical of the things we hear here all the time.

Another Weird Sunday

2008-05-22T15:53:00.002+07:00

I'm not sure what's been happening the last 2 Sundays (you can read about what happened last Sunday in the previous post). A few days before Sunday, Owen, Tawm and I were all feeling pretty crummy. On Friday evening, I started to lose my voice and on Saturday it was pretty much gone. I emailed Rusty (since I couldn't really talk) to preach for me and Tawm would translate. Even though it was really short notice, he agreed to do it. When Sunday morning arrived, my voice was coming back some but Tawm's was pretty much gone. Tawm tried to find a translator but its hard to find a translator for Sunday services when it is Sunday morning. In the end we got Kaimook, the daughter of one of our members who studies at an international school to translate. She has done it a few times for Rusty at cell group, but this was her first time in front of a bigger group of people. Although she struggled at times, she did a good job. We're just glad that we are feeling under the weather before the team comes, not when they arrive!

Some Daddy Firsts

2008-05-14T08:01:00.006+07:00

Over the past week, I've had some new experiences as a dad. Last week Owen got sick for the first time. He had an eye and ear infection but after we saw the doctor and got some medicine, Owen was better the next day. Owen sure didn't like the feeling of being sick, he was not the normal, happy Owen at all. After Owen got better, both mommy and daddy got sick. I've always heard of that happening, but this is my first experience.

The other first happened Sunday morning at church. During worship, I was holding Owen as Tawm was working the powerpoint. As I was holding him, there was a rumbling in Owen's diaper and I knew he had just done his deed. Mimi, one of the girls at church, just happened to be watching us at the time when her jaw dropped and she pointed at me. Owen's diaper didn't catch all the poop. It had started running down his leg, on to me and on to the floor. All this happened during the second to last song before I had to preach. Well, I got us both cleaned up just as they were praying before the sermon. Usually when that prayer is finished, I am standing at the front ready to preach. Last Sunday I wasn't and everyone started looking for me. That's when they discovered the poopy incident. Needless to say, we had a few minutes between prayer and preaching and when I started to preach, I was pretty flustered and as a result my introduction didn't go too smoothly. Oh well, it will be a Sunday that I never forget.

Some More Owen Pictures

2008-05-01T21:17:00.001+07:00

A lot has happened since the last Owen post. Owen has turned 5 months and along with that, he has started eating bananas (which he likes) and eggs and rice (which he doesn't care for). He has started to push his whole body off the floor and he can sit if you prop him in the right position (although he still likes to tip). No matter where he goes, he is still a hit. The question we always get asked is if we want to give him away. Thais would love to raise their own "farang (foreign)" [even though he is mixed] baby for themselves!

Changing Preaching Style.

2008-04-27T16:39:00.003+07:00

The last two Sundays I have changed the way I preach in church. For the past year and a half, I have typed out my sermon in English, translated as much as i could. Then Tawm editted it or helped me to finish translating the sermon. Then Saturdays were spent memorizing the sermon. With all the translating and memorizing, it really cut down on time I had in really preparing the sermon. On top of that, I could only memorize so much and as a result, my sermons were pretty short. On Sundays when I preached, I was pretty rigid and I couldn't really go off on tangents because I didn't want to lose my place in the sermon.

However, I came to the point now where I figure my Thai is good enough to begin preaching. My Thai still needs lots of improvement, but I could be here 20 years and say the same. As a result, I decided to try to preach for real. I now go into the pulpit with my introduction typed out in Thai, just so I get off on the right foot and after that, my skeleton outline is in English and i preach from that. The past 2 Sundays have gone well, there is still lots of room for improvement. My sermons have now doubled in time (don't know if that is good or bad). The biggest plus is that I am now excited about preaching again and I feel my sermons have more life and passion too. A couple people have told me that they like it when I preach this new way better which has been an encouragement to me.

Bible School Seminar

2008-04-14T17:17:00.003+07:00

At the current time, I am overseeing two different Bible schools, one located in a remote village, one located in the city of Chiang Mai. Because of these responsibilities I was really excited about Joe Morell and Ed Brown coming to Chiang Mai to give a Bible School Workshop. Joe Morrell (in the green shirt and glasses) is a missionary to Lithuania/Latvia/Finland and God has really used him there and the Bible School that he started in Lithuania has been instrumental in what God has done there. The thing that encouraged me the most was that the churches in that part of the world are self supporting and not relying on money from foreign countries (even though the average income is only a couple hundred dollars a month). Joe said that when he went there, the Lithuanians thought it would be impossible to be self-supporting but Joe always asked, "Are you going to trust God or trust America".
Since then, the work there has grown alot whereas many other ministries that are financed from the "West" are struggling.

I have always believed that indigineous, self supporting, self propogating, self governing churches was God's model and it is great to see that God's model has worked there and I believe it will work here too even though it is so contrary to the way most missions/missionaries do work here in Thailand. ain patient and know that this is the way that God really wants us to do missions. Even though it is slow going and we wonder if we should abandon God's model, I know that this is the most beneficial way for the Thai people for us to do mission work. Foreign funded programs may make our reports look good but they hinder what God wants to do through the Thai people. We hope and pray that we will see these things come into fruition in the coming months and years ahead.

Ed Brown (white shirt on the right) who is an itinerant preacher also encouraged us from God's Word. It was great to hear some good preaching because we don't have that many opportunities to hear it live and in person. Both men were a real blessing to us and the work God is doing here in Thailand.

It's Begun

2008-04-14T17:13:00.006+07:00

Songkran or Thai New Year officially started yesterday (although people began throwing water on Thursday) and will continue until tomorrow. Songkran is the closest thing that Thailand has to the Christmas season. Since it is a three day holiday, most people return home for the break. Unlike Christmas where the older generation tends to give gifts to the young ones, here the young ones buy gifts for older people. That means that the older you are the more gifts you get!!! In return for giving a gift, the older generation gives the gift givers a blessing.

It is also the time when people clean up their houses and go to the local temple to help wash the Buddhist idols. The thing most foreigners know about Songkran is the water fight. If you step outside, it means you are willing to get wet. In Chiang Mai, the best place to be during Songkran, there are literally thousands and thousands of people throwing water. However along with the water fun, there is a lot of drinking which can make things get kinda dangerous though. Being new parents, we are staying away from the water but as Owen gets bigger, I'm sure we will be in the middle of it once again.

Busyness

2008-04-08T20:03:00.005+07:00

We've been really busy over the past couple of weeks, hence no posts. I will be blogging about the things that have been happening over the past couple weeks over the next couple days but most importantly (and because my mother asked), here are some pics of Owen and us too!

Owen getting ready to try his first burger. (Not really, just a cute pic)

Us at a waterfall near Mae Sa

us at the Mae Sa Elephant camp - if you look closely, you can see Owen checking out the ivory

Owen's growing

Gettin' Excited

2008-03-26T21:27:00.006+07:00

Earlier this week, Robert Wallace returned to the States. Tomorrow, Joe Morrell and Ed Brown are coming to Thailand. The main reason that they will be here is to give us a seminar in how to start a Bible School. Since I am currently overseeing two of them, this will be very beneficial. The guys from Udon will also be joining us for the seminar.

On top of that, they will be the speakers at Antioch's revival services and Joe Morrell will be accompanying me to Kinetchu, a village about 5 hours away, to visit a church that Nicky Barnett helped start. Haven't been there in over a year so I am looking forward to their visit.

Tourney

2008-03-26T21:16:00.003+07:00

March-April is always a time I miss being in North America, who doesn't love watching March Madness. I filled out a bracket again this year. Since I haven't lived in North America for about 5 years, my college basketball information is 5 years old. So far I'm doing pretty good. I have two whole regionals correct. I have 12 of the final 16 teams correct. The only problem is, the team I picked to make it to the final got ousted... At least I didn't pick them to win it all.
Here's my final four.
UCLA
Memphis
Georgetown
North Carolina

Memphis over UCLA
Georgetown over Carolina

Memphis over Georgetown.

Awesome Day

2008-03-18T20:19:00.003+07:00

Yesterday was a great day. All of us, including Owen and Robert Wallace headed out to Jom Tong, a city located about 50 kilometers away from Chiang Mai. It is a city of 60,000 people. All of us are praying about starting a new ministry there. However before you can start a new ministry, we have to have some contacts and before yesterday we didn't have any.

In May-June we will have a basketball team here and so we thought it would be a good way to meet some contacts. We've never done anything with an athletic team, so we didn't know what to expect. We went to the government office in Jom Tong and try to find someone to talk to. After talking with one person, he pointed us to a young man who just happened to be the person who oversees athletics for the city of Jom Tong. We talked with him for a while, getting his input. He encouraged us to try to go to some schools, especially one called Sop Tia School. So we went there, he went with us and we met with a couple teachers and then met the principal. The principal of the school just happened to be the superintendent of all 36 schools in the Jom Tong district. They gave us the go to come to his school and he would look for some other schools to do stuff. Tawm told him we were a Christian team and wanted to have an opportunity to talk about God and he said that that wouldn't be a problem. That night they had a meeting and began planning for our trip. They also begged us to come back and teach English. Afterwards we went to look for accomodation for the team and the first hotel we went to, Tawm met one of her friends from high school. He is engaged to the owner's daughter and as a result, they gave us a good discount too.

Thanks to all those who prayed. We asked God to open doors and He threw them wide open! We are really excited.

Team Preparations

2008-03-15T08:09:00.003+07:00

Robert Wallace (left), one of the teachers from Texas Baptist Institute where Tawm and I spent a year studying is arriving here in Thailand today. At the end of May he will be returning with a team of basketball players. He is arriving in Thailand today to begin preparations for the team. Pray for us as we try to set up this outreach. We have never done anything like this before. We don't want to do stuff for the sake of doing stuff but want it to be a benefit to the work we are doing here.

Awesome Family

2008-03-13T21:50:00.008+07:00

God has blessed us with two great families, one here in Thailand, the other in Canada. My family has been so supportive of me (and now us) since I came to Thailand. It wasn't easy for them at the beginning, but God has been great.

Over the past couple of months, they have been creative in showing their support for us. Last year when we were in Canada, I purchased a bunch of books that I couldn't buy in Thailand. Unfortunately, most airlines have lowered their baggage weight limits and as a result, I had to leave about half the books in Canada, waiting for someone to bring them or pick them up on my next trip back. However my uncle Rod (pictured) has a friend who knows a friend who is married to a Thai lady. Anyways, he was making a trip to Thailand to meet his wife and he wasn't bringing much luggage. My uncle asked if he'd be willing to bring the books over here and he agreed. Two weeks ago, I received the package in the mail and it only cost us a few dollars to get the books here. It was a huge blessing.

On top of that, my cousin Krista (also pictured) celebrated her 13th birthday last month. (Happy Belated Birthday!) For her birthday party, she told her friends not to get her anything but asked people to bring their loose change (in Canada we have 1 and 2 dollar coins) instead. She could have bought herself a nice gift with the money she got but instead of keeping the money for herself like any typical 13 year old, she decided to give the money to us and our ministry here. How cool is that! It was an awesome surprise for us too. Thanks to Krista for the gift and all those involved in getting the books over here.

Although we don't get to see our Canadian family very much, we want to let you know that we love you and appreciate everything you do for us.

More Owen

2008-03-10T15:11:00.002+07:00

Here's a couple more pics of Owen. Owen just started using his Jolly Jumper that we got as a gift today. He seems to enjoy it although he still hasn't got the hang of it.

Sad Stats

2008-03-04T21:30:00.003+07:00

I just started reading the book Planting Churches Cross-Culturally: A Guide to Home and Foreign Missions.
Although I am only a couple chapters in, I can tell that this book will be extremely helpful and is definitely a must read for anyone involved in missions.
One chapter teaches about the priority of teaching churches how to do real mission work. The author (and I agree because of what I have seen in Thailand) says that too many missionaries aren't doing real mission work. He says that only 28% of missionaries are involved in establishing churches, 25% are involved in church support and 47% are assigned to other ministries.
Although the book is over 20 years old, I'm sure the stats haven't changed much or from what I can tell, they have gotten worse. We definitely need more people doing real mission work: establishing churches!

Our Little Reader

2008-03-03T18:45:00.001+07:00

Over the past couple weeks, Owen's neck has progressively gotten stronger and stronger. At the beginning we had to coax him in order to get him to keep his head up. One day Tawm decided to put a book in front of him and see if it would help him keep his head up. As it turns out, it worked. Now he will keep his head up for long stretches of time looking at the colorful pictures.

Funny Marriage Post

2008-02-26T20:16:00.003+07:00

I just read this on my friend Bobby Peek's blog and thought I would share it with those who read this blog. It made me chuckle a few times and it made Tawm laugh even more.

SHOPPING MATH
A man will pay $20 for a $10 item he needs.
A woman will pay $10 for a $20 item that she doesn't need.

GENERAL EQUATIONS & STATISTICS
A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband.
A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife.
A successful man is one who makes more money than his wife can spend.
A successful woman is one who can find such a man.

HAPPINESS
To be happy with a man, you must understand him a lot and love him a little.
To be happy with a woman, you must love her a lot and not try to understand her at all.

LONGEVITY
Married men live longer than single men do, but married men are a lot more willing to die.

PROPENSITY TO CHANGE
A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn't.
A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, and she does.

DISCUSSION TECHNIQUE
A woman has the last word in any argument.
Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument.

HOW TO STOP PEOPLE FROM BUGGING YOU ABOUT GETTING MARRIED
Old aunts used to come up to me at weddings, poking me in the ribs and cackling, telling me, "You're next." They stopped after I started doing the same thing to them at funerals.

Approaching 13

2008-02-20T20:43:00.001+07:00

It has been a little while since the last post of Owen. He is growing really fast, and it is hard to believe that he is going to be 3 months old already this coming Friday.

The answers you've been waiting for

2008-02-19T20:56:00.003+07:00

For those of you who took the Walentine Quiz, here are the answers:

1. Jai Yen - cool heart - patient
2. Jai Ron - hot heart hot - tempered
3. Jai Gwaang - wide heart - generous
4. Jai Dum - black heart - mean/unkind
5. Cow Jai - enter heart - understand
6. Sia Jai - broken heart - sad
7. Paw Jai - enough heart - satisfied
8. Jai Kod - crooked heart - dishonest or crooked person
9. Bralaad Jai - odd/weird heart - surprised or amazed
10. Hi Gum Lung Jai - give energy to heart - encourage
11. Mun Jai - fixed/certain heart - confident
12. Dok Jai - fallen heart - scared

Let me know how you scored at home.

Walentine Quiz

2008-02-13T10:17:00.001+07:00

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day or as they call it here in Thailand: Walentine Day (because Thais can't make a "v" sound and always forget to add an "s" to words). Most Valentine posts express a person's loved one for another person but since my wife doesn't read my blog, I won't do that here as it would be a waste of time.
Instead of writing a love note, I thought I'd post a quiz. In Thailand they use the word heart to express many different kinds of feelings. So I figured I'd give you some Thai words, there literal translation and then you have to guess what you think these words actually mean. You can keep the answers to yourself or leave a comment with your guesses. (If you speak Thai, please don't spoil it for everyone and give the answers away).
The word heart in Thai is jai. Pronounced like "my" but just change the m to a j. Here's an example - Jai Dee - good heart - it is the Thai word for kind.

1. Jai Yen - cool heart
2. Jai Ron - hot heart
3. Jai Gwaang - wide heart
4. Jai Dum - black heart
5. Cow Jai - enter heart
6. Sia Jai - broken heart
7. Paw Jai - enough heart
8. Jai Kod - crooked heart
9. Bralaad Jai - odd/weird heart
10. Hi Gum Lung Jai - give energy to heart
11. Mun Jai - fixed/certain heart
12. Dok Jai - fallen heart

Have fun!!
I will post the answers in a couple days.

Crazy Foreigners!

2008-02-07T19:58:00.000+07:00

Owen turns 11 weeks old today. As he gets older, he is able to go more places. Thais don't think it is good for babies to go out much until they are 3 months old. As a result, the only place Owen really gets to go is the hospital, church and the occassional time he gets to go shopping. Traveling means sitting in a car seat and I never knew how much flak we would get for using a car seat. Thai people just don't think it is safe to use a car seat.
Hold the baby while sitting in the passenger seat (even if you don't wear a seatbelt) - SAFE
Hold the baby while riding behind someone on a motorbike (no one wearing helmets) - SAFE
Sit in the box of the truck holding a baby - SAFE
Put the baby in a car seat - WHAT ARE YOU CRAZY!!!
This is why I love living in a foreign country

Speechless

2008-02-06T19:41:00.001+07:00

When your favorite team kinda stinks (Indiana Pacers), you need to have a trusty back-up. You can't pick a better 2nd favorite team than the Suns. Free-flowin', fast paced and the superb Steve Nash (everything gets better when a Canadian is running the show no?)

The only way to destroy the Suns is to trade a key component (Marion) for a slow, unable to run, over the hill, injury prone player. No one fits the bill better than SHAQ.

Trading Shaq for Marion will immediately make the Suns go from title contenders to a team in the middle of the pack. If the Suns do make this trade, I'll have to find a new 2nd favorite team (yes I'm a die hard Pacers fan no matter how ugly it gets). I don't understand how the Suns could even think about trading Marion for Shaq.

If the trade rumors become a reality, I'm open to suggestions for a new 2nd favorite team.

Questions about the Bible

2008-02-06T19:00:00.000+07:00

At the beginning of February the students from the hilltribe Bible school came into town to start studying with me until the end of March. It is a good opportunity to get to know them better and teach them essential doctrines. I love teaching the Bible, especially to people of different nationalities because they ask questions that I have never thought of because they come from a different mindset. I always get asked about speaking in tongues, but I am sure that is a common question no matter where you are. Other popular questions are is it okay to eat blood (since a few Thai dishes have blood in them), is it okay to eat food sacrificed to idols (since Buddhism is the predominant religion here), and my personal favorite, is it a sin to get a vasectimy (don't know why they ask this question but the way some verse is translated must lead to this question).
Today in class I spent an hour teaching on Matthew 23:24 where Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and Scribes about their tendency to strain out the gnat and swallow the camel. As a foreigner, the verse seems pretty straight forward but the students had no clue what the verse meant. I had to come in from all different angles in order to get them to understand. After the light went on, they all really liked this verse.

Facebook

2008-02-04T12:40:00.000+07:00

I just signed on to facebook. If you want to be my friend just look for me. My name is Brent Rosendal!

Yeah! I am Happy

2008-02-04T12:32:00.000+07:00

For the most part, I can't stand dynasties (unless the current Boston Red Sox become one). Don't like the Spurs. Couldn't stand the Bulls, the Showtime Lakers or what I could remember of Bird and his Celtics. Don't like the Yankees. Don't like the Cowboys and I am especially glad that the Patriots didn't go perfect this season. Why is it that all the teams I like are just average? Why can't I cheer for a dynasty? I guess that is just the rebel in me.

Thailand Soap Opera Controversy

2008-01-31T18:57:00.000+07:00

Primetime TV in Thailand is filled with soap operas. Needless to say, I don't watch much Thai TV. Anyways, one Thai soap opera made it all the way to Fox news in America. I haven't seen the soap opera but the video just makes you want to shake your head.

You can see the video here:
War of Angels

Sorry, I tried to get the video on my blog but for some reason I couldn't find the html on Fox News.

Oil Shortages

2008-01-31T18:10:00.001+07:00

There has been a lot of reports about the increasing price of oil and the possibility of oil shortages in the future on a lot of North American news stations. However, this problem has already hit Thailand. However the problem is happening with motor oil, it is happening with cooking oil. A couple weeks ago, word got out that the price of oil was going to increase 10-20 cents per litre. This is big news since oil is a staple cooking ingredient here, Thais don't use margarine or butter to cook. After news got out, everyone ran to their local store to stock up on oil. To make matters worse, retailers stopped stocking their shelves with oil because they would be able to make more money once the price officially increased. All of this put together has led to bare shelves at your local grocery store. It is hard to find cooking oil. I never thought that this would happen in my lifetime! I hope the price increases soon because I need to eat!

I like this

2008-01-31T17:56:00.000+07:00

Been reading the book, Lead like Jesus. The book is pretty good, however I really liked this quote, figured I share it with you.

If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans.

Being humans we always think we have our lives and our futures under control but really don't. Any plans that we have that we've thought up ourselves are of no value. Ask God to lead you in every aspect of your life!!

Happy 60th!!

2008-01-27T16:23:00.000+07:00

We wanted to wish my dad a happy 60th birthday. It is hard to believe that you are 60 already. Time flies when you are having fun. Thanks for everything you do for us and the great support you are to us and our ministry. We look forward to seeing you when you come visit this year!

Need to Reload??

2008-01-27T15:12:00.000+07:00

Although the Pacers are doing better than what most experts predicited, they still aren't wowing anyone, most notably me. They are now about 7 games under .500 and unbelievably are still holding onto 8th place in the Eastern Conference (shows how bad the East is). They lost to Miami today, who hadn't won a game this year. I don't think Indiana is going to scare anyone even if they make the playoffs. Maybe it might be time to start thinking of positioning themselves for the draft instead of being mediocre at best for the next few years.

Geographically Inept

2008-01-25T20:08:00.000+07:00

I have always considered myself a little bit of a geography buff. Call me crazy but I always enjoyed studying geography in school, memorizing all those provinces, states and countries. Name a country and can pretty much tell you where it is located.

During my visits and stays in America, I always thought it was fun to ask the American people what the captial city of their neighbor to the north was. I got all kinds of answers and on a rare occasion, someone got it right. I figured since Canada and the US are neigbors, people should know our capital city especially since Canadians have to memorize all the American state capitals (why are Tallahasee, Sacramento and Albany capitals anyways?). It baffled me how people didn't know. However, today in my Bible class, something happened that made me flabbergasted (don't know how to spell that). I asked my 3 students to name the 4 countries that border Thailand. All of them have lived here their whole lives. With all of them working together they got 3 of the 4. The couldn't remember that Cambodia along with Burma, Laos and Malaysia, border Thailand. I couldn't believer they didn't know that.

As a result, we are going to start studying geography. If God called us to play a part in seeing the gospel reach all nations, how can we do that if we don't even know that countries like Luxemburg or Rwanda exist? We can't pray or go to a country that we don't know exists. I'm excited, it should be fun!

Hopefully I can ace my own test!

Tale of the Tape

2008-01-24T20:08:00.000+07:00

Today we took Owen to the doctor for his two month check-up. The doctor told us that we have a very healthy boy. Here is how Owen is measuring up after 2 months of life.

Weight - 6.5 kilos (14.3 pounds) - that makes him heavier than 94% of all other babies.

Height - 63.5 centimetres (25.4 inches) - that makes him taller than 95% of all other babies.

No one believes that Owen is only 2 months. He is already into clothes for kids aged 3-6 months.

2.0689 Months or 9 Weeks Old

2008-01-24T09:16:00.000+07:00

Owen turned 2 months on Tuesday and today he turns 9 weeks, making him 2.0689 months old today too. Now I see why people count weeks more than months, much easier to count. The first pic is a pic of Owen and Mawn (great grandpa in Northern Thai). Another is him showing his neck strength. The last one is just plain cute.

WOW! I can't believe it.

2008-01-22T21:17:00.000+07:00

I had a funny thing happen in one of my English classes today (at least I thought so). This class just started last week and they are pretty basic. They are 4th year marketing students at a local university and will be graduating soon. They want to study basic conversational English and help them with interviews (many companies interview in English although you don't really need it for the job).

Over the past 3 classes we have been studying Present Simple Tense. An example of a Present Simple Sentence is - I work - in case you didn't know. Today,I figured I'd ask some questions that one might expect in an interview. So I asked the first student a Present Simple Question: What skills do you have? She was taken by surprise by the question, thought for a moment and came up with this brilliant answer: I speak Thai. I couldn't believe that a Thai person knew how to speak Thai. The whole class thought it was pretty funny and didn't stop harassing her for the rest of class.

Guy Smiley

2008-01-18T18:37:00.000+07:00

Over the past few weeks, Owen has been perfecting the art of smiling. At the beginning, he smiled pretty much for no reason. As time progressed he began smiling after a good burp or fart (who wouldn't) and now he starting to smile more at Mommy and Daddy, especially Mom.

finished FINALLY!!!!

2008-01-15T19:52:00.000+07:00

About 4 years ago, the highway circling the city of Chiang Mai was torn up in order to change all the intersections into underpasses. That way, traffic would flow much better. At first I thought this is gonna be great!! As soon as the intersections were torn up, the workers proceeded to work really hard for about a month. Cranes, bulldozers, tractors, you name it. But after the hole in the ground was big enough ensuring that no one could cross at any intersection, the workers took a break. Not for Christmas or any other holiday, the workers took a break that lasted for 2 whole years.

I still scratch my head and think why? Rumor has it that the companies were given 4 years to complete the construction. Since the underpasses would only take 2 years to complete, they could take a 2 year vacation. It makes no sense to me. Why tear up the road and force everyone to make u-turns to get where they want to go if you aren't going to complete the intersections as quickly as possible? But that is a questions you just don't ask. When you live in a foreign country, you learn not to ask why sometimes because the answers usually never satisfies.

Now that the underpasses are finished, I'm satisfied. Now we can actually get somewhere in a half decent amount of time. Just wish it would have happened 2 years earlier.

Next problem.... what to do with all the motorbikes/scooters???

A Great Trip to the Village

2008-01-10T21:26:00.000+07:00

This past Monday-Wednesday I made my first trip to the village in a couple months. I was able to visit Mae Hoi, the village where our Bible School is located and after that I went to another village in Mae LaNoi where Lemuu, one of the missionaries sponsored by Antioch Baptist Church here in Chiang Mai, is serving.

I had the opportunity to teach there for 3 hours Tuesday morning, 2 hours Tuesday afternoon and another 2 hours in the evening, all of which had to be translated from Thai to Karen, the local dialect in the village.

Lemuu asked me to teach on the local church. However it became clear that after we looked at the purpose of a church in Matthew 28:18-20, they didn't have a concept of making disciples. I spent the morning teaching about salvation. I emphasized over and over that in order to be saved one must repent and put their trust in Christ. After 3 hours I asked if they understood and the answer was no. I came back in the afternoon and taught for 2 more hours and asked if they understood and again the answer was not really. Over supper I prayed that God would help me make it clear to them. In the evening, I again taught on salvation and as we grew to a close, I asked the all important question, do you understand and some said yes. I then asked those who understood what they needed to do and one man quickly answered, we must do it. I asked do you think this is truth? He quickly answered yes. I asked do you think this truth comes from God or from me. He replied, "from God". I then asked if anyone was ready to repent and put their trust in Christ. Another man in the crowd quickly put up his hand. As we closed, I asked those who wanted to make this decision to stay and the rest were free to leave. Praise God, 3 men stayed and put their trust in Christ.

Please pray for PawnChai (far left), DoeWaa and PawnChai (right of me) who made this important decision. Also pray for Lemuu as he disciples them and continues to teach the others about salvation.

Some Village Pics

2008-01-10T21:20:00.000+07:00