Engineering Soccer

So it's been 2 months since I last really tried to put words down on this (web)page. And to be fair, I did make a very photogenic newsletter to make up for it last month (next one coming out STAT) - but even so, I can't help but feel a bit behind the times with the blogging community for those of you who get info about me from here rather than my newsletter. (If that's YOU, feel free to send me your email address and I'll get you on there.)

For everyone's sake I'll start with the month of June, because again, I don't really wanna repeat all the stuff I put in my newsletter for May.

Ok, enough housekeeping.

After that whole light-speed baking ordeal, big transitions have happened. I'm now working extensively with a ministry called The Centre, which is basically a youth center geared towards the university students of Chiang Mai and Ratchamangala Techno Universities - allowing for VERY inexpensive English tutoring but with the intent of so much more.

God has blessed me with 21+ students that I see on a daily basis working with their English skills, homework, etc, but really allowing me a role in their lives that would've otherwise been difficult to attain.
In Thailand, a Khruu (teacher) is a highly respected position and therefore comes with a lot of professional distance. However, when I as a "teacher" engage with the students on a more personal level and seek to build relationships with my students outside of class, a very different type of situation becomes available.

I can see God's clear opportunity in one such class especially:
After starting teaching a class of all Electrical Engineers, we started asking about each other and once they realized I was seriously interested in getting to know all of them more, I was quickly invited to go get "tanked at a bar" with them. I declined the specific offer, but have since been playing soccer with them and 15+ other friends of theirs from their Uni on a weekly basis, grabbing dinner afterwards and meeting up for different events throughout the week. In all my time here, I have never been allowed into such a tight-knit group of unbelievers so quickly!

Please join me in praying for all my students, but these guys especially. Looking for opportunities to go deeper into what really matters in this life. With SUCH a lack of real male role models, I'm praying that I may be a witness of a man that isn't only concerned with drinking, chasing women, and the next soccer match and introduce them to other Thai believers that can have an even more profound influence on their lives than I ever could.

Still go out to BHJ every once in awhile, just saw them this past weekend and was glad to see all of my little sisters and family doing well!
Thank you for the continued support through prayer, finances and verbal encouragements. Continuing to pray for all back in the States as well.

Light-Speed Baking

BREATHE.

So things have finally stopped spinning from the past 6 weeks! It was a crazy, fast-paced month and a half! Since the girls took a break from school at the end of March it seemed like time had turned into a frantic scramble to insert the quarter into the retro Galaga (or insert favorite reminiscent 80's/90's video game here) console as the deep computer voice counted down 

"Continue? 10...9...8...7...6...."

Enough to get your blood pumping even as you read this, right?

Hot season seemed to have an intensifying effect on how things ballooned as well; with temperatures reaching 103° F ('F' obviously standing for 'FREAKISHLY OVERWHELMINGLY HOT')! 

So even though things have stopped ticking and the oven has begun to cool off, this is a quick update of what baking at light-speed feels like:

The girls aged 16 and older went to a discipleship school at our church in Chiang Mai every weekday, learning much and applying even more! At the end of it all 14 of them were baptized and recommitted their lives to God's calling and leading of their lives! Those younger and I had a blast with English and games, arts and crafts, Bible stories and even a few cooking classes thrown in there by our cook, Leah.

Compassion asked me to be more closely involved with some of their work and had me helping translate letters, cards, emails and a few documents for future meetings with international offices. The students I've been teaching have become good friends, and I'm looking forward to seeing where God directs their lives and how ours will intersect in the future.

TheLight saw a major makeover as we moved to a permanent location rather than bumming space off the nearby cafe. We moved things over to what is now known as บ้านtheLight (theLight House). Many hours were spent getting things ready by purging the spider-infested corners, and cleaning up the grounds. It now houses the pastor and his wife, P' Sinn and Ann, as well as a few volunteers working with them.

Songkran came with a tidal wave of activity, causing many to shut their doors, strap on water guns and hit the moat. Technically it was only during Friday/Saturday/Sunday, but I started getting hit by ice-cold, putrid moat water on Monday. Thankfully, God kept my health intact and protected me from any motorcycle accidents during the water and alcohol-drenched holiday. One report I saw after the week of water-throwing said that vehicle accidents elevated 800% during the long weekend!

Lastly, I was BLESSED beyond measure with the last-minute visit from my girlfriend, Casey. She was able to come out for 13 days, spend time with the girls at BHJ, visit with her old friends and co-workers while I was still busy with teaching at the orphanage and Compassion. And on in-between days we explored waterfalls, made a day-trip to Chiang Rai, had evening dates and then took an over-night train to Bangkok where we had a final day together before she boarded her plane early the next morning.

Thank you all SO much for the continued encouragement through prayer, finances and the occasional funny YouTube video!

Surprises and Songkran!

April has arrived!

Which basically means that hot season is in full effect = smoke and pollution killing your lungs while the heat sucks every ounce of fluid from your pores. The last several weeks have been spent with itchy eyes and several daily wardrobe changes, but finally have had some days of rain to clear the skies! 

Life here has gotten busier since the beginning of March with work at the orphanage ramping up in hours spent and projects to do since the girls are on their school break. Those over 16 have been going to a discipleship school at a church in Chiang Mai and seeing very good results midway though the 6 weeks! Many of them have become disillusioned with friends, boys, money, etc. and are now coming back from their days at the church visibly taking ownership of their faith. The ones under 16 are here daily with the staff and I where we've been putting together different classes and games and things for them to do. It's been a lot of fun being able to spend full days with them and teaching English, playing games, and being an "older brother" again with such ample time. Whereas before, during school, there was barely time enough to help 3 different girls with homework between the time they got home, showered, had dinner and the sky turned dark and I returned home.

Teaching and helping at Compassion has been going well! Its been exciting to be involved with such a large foundation and opening doors to further opportunities than the simple "help improve English grammar" that God got my attention with back in January.

Starting this week is the annual water fight that turns all of Chiang Mai into a splash zone for the all-out water warfare festival known as Songkran! Nothing says "Happy Traditional Thai New Year" like a bucket of cold putrid water thrown with force at you while driving down the highway. This time of year the board shorts and dry-bags come out in full force while packs of roaming children and adults alike seek and destroy anyone not already soaked...and even those who are for good measure.

Praises!

God blessed me with several over-the-top gifts earlier; first of which being the unforeseen visit of a friend from Colorado, Laken Chapman, who is living and working with YWAM in Norway. For the entire two days we were able to spend we couldn't shake the smiles and surreal feelings of how in the world God could have placed us here for this time. (Still smiling at the AWESOMENESS of God)

Second, although not as welcome as a surprise visit from a friend; a trip to the hospital on Saturday due to a shoulder injury playing ultimate frisbee proved no broken bones but severely strained muscles. I'm extremely grateful for the speedy aid of friends and the quick/cheap diagnosis of what we had feared to be a long drawn-out recovery and inability to drive. I'm still feeling the effects of it but have been massaging the muscles and taking relaxants and anti-inflammatories to allow for faster results and ability to get back to driving myself around.

Lastly - God has blessed me EVEN MORE with the surprise return of my girlfriend, Casey to Chiang Mai for 2 weeks, arriving the last week of April!! Since last saying goodbye in mid December we weren't sure of the next time we'd be together. But with jobs and timing and affordable plane tickets we'll get to spend the better part of her time here exploring more of Chiang Mai and Bangkok, allowing her to visit with old friends and more time with the girls at BHJ whom she's already acquainted with.

Prayer

Please pray for the following things:

• A quick recovery for my shoulder and continued health and safety (especially during the "Dangerous Driving days of Songkran" (April 9 - 16)
• Time spent with the girls at BHJ to be well-used and encouragement of their faith before going back into the routines of school.
• Continued intimacy with our Father and protection from the Enemy.
• A blessed time with Casey as neither of us know the exact time we'll get to see each other again after her departure early May.

Thank you all for the many many blessings and constant prayer that keeps me doing the things God has set before me!

Two for One

Considering that these last two months have nearly passed by without much communication on this blog I'm offering a special: two for one blog posts! I know, I thought it was brilliant, too! If only all things belated in life came with double portions; 

vacations... 

birthday presents... 

desserts....

We'll leave overdue bills and taxes out of this analogy, but I digress....

January
After a few days of readjustment to the slower-yet-somehow-busier way of life here, I settled back into working at BHJ, teaching the staff and girls during the week. And after praying about an opportunity yet unseen took a part-time position teaching English at Compassion International in Chiang Mai, while still giving me time to work with Matt Parker in coordinating things for summer teams with Destined Traveler (destinedtraveler.com).

It was good to be back in the swing of things with the different facets of ministry God has allotted me, and was very refreshing to get back into the community with theLight and all the people I had missed and was looking forward to getting back to. 

The girls at BHJ had a million questions about the previous month in America, asking about family, food, snow and of course of the previously kept secret about my girlfriend, whom they had met without prior knowledge of relationship status (on purpose to hinder such cooing and clucking at the time, now received in full force).

February
Being the shortest month seemed to make it go by even faster than necessary, add in several trips to the villages and a team from America and it made for speedy several weeks hardly worthy being called a 'month.'

Thanks to God I was able to get all the paperwork together to get the stamp on my passport allowing me another month while they process the additional 11 they're allegedly going to grant me in March. I'm unworried, but when dealing with red tape, any victory is a great one and hiccups tend to be monumental.

I took a little time away from Compassion to go with the team to the villages around Chiang Dao to help facilitate, translate and be with those in the villages I've already been in contact with. Although this trip was more construction based than previous trips, I was still able to spend time with some of the people, especially the many kids in one village who Kamsen and I had spent a good deal of time with several months earlier. Aside from erecting swing sets to be used near the church and a school, we spent a lot of time in prayer over the villages and the surrounding area, asking for God's cultivation of the hearts of those nearby to His word. 
In one village especially, there has been much evidence of Spiritual warfare occurring to those in Christ and seeking to further the Gospel. It strengthened my heart to hear some of the kids that Kamsen and I had earlier helped learn to pray, asking for courage and protection against the things in their village that until recently had been causes of great fear.

Wrapping up this month I'll be going up to another region of the mountains with Matt and another missionary, Lord willing,  to set up some areas of contact for us to go into later with some anti-trafficking and AIDS education, of which they've been asking for.

As always,I am EXTREMELY grateful for those praying and supporting the things God has allowed me to be a part of. Please be praying for God's word to be spread throughout, and for the enemy's hold to be destroyed.
As well, please pray for health as I've been sick several times this month, from the common cold to food poisoning.

Culture Shock and the Reverse

 Culture shock is a big part of anybody's life who's ever been abroad and back.

One of the weirdest parts of it all is the REVERSE side of culture shock, when you come back to what is in fact your home country, culture and former reality. Obviously the depths of how it is felt depends on the length of time spent outside of it, and I can't really imagine what it would be like returning several years after being away; but I can tell you about what it was like after being gone for 15 months.

-I used to pride myself on my "thick skinned" abilities to stay warm in the midst of a cold Colorado winter, but 60 seconds into standing outside in Los Angeles, California, and I was ready for some tropical weather again. (And not to sound like a whiner, but I really don't enjoy the heat over here most days!)

-What happened to cash? I'm not really condemning credit and debit cards, but after living in an all-cash economy, and then trying to buy normal things with greenbacks only to have the cashier stare at me like I was from the dark ages wasn't really something I expected. Seriously, one clerk seemed to expect to encounter spiders when they opened the register till!

-Everything is so CLEAN! It didn't take my mom 30 seconds walking down the "sidewalks" of Thailand to realize she was going to need to be concious of her foot placement. But the States actually take care that there aren't dead/sick/lazy dogs laying across the concrete, and seemed to have realized that spools of wires hanging down from streetlights and power cables might not be such a great thing to put in a pedestrian's way.

-There's space to breath. Walking around everywhere you'd either have to be drunk or just horrible at walking to actually bump into sombody with all the space and lack of people in your immediate proximity. Coming from living in a city that has 1,000 people/square mile can feel a little tight, especially when they're all trying to avoid said dogs and power lines on a 3 foot wide walkway.


-And the biggest shock of all was the EASE of talking with ANYBODY. There was no need to look up specific words in advance or awkward mumbling searching for the right tone just so you could get a table by the window. It took living with basic conversation skills to truly appreciate the awesome capability to just chat with the barista, or stranger in line.



Now after being in the US for 6 weeks, its good and bad to be back in the hot, sticky, cash-wielding, Thai-speaking crowds of SE Asia. But oddly enough there were no shocks to come back to; it was all the same as I had left it, and I took that to mean that I must be home.

Return to ChiangDao

Muse:
This update was supposed to have posted when I first wrote it almost a month ago, but with a combination of it being deleted before I could save it (twice), my frustration that followed, the busyness of other things in life being added, the multitude of ducks I had to get in a row before this week...and a little procrastination on my part, it is finally now being posted...again.
So hit the rewind button on your memory and go back to the second week of October:

Set:
-back when time was a little slower, rains were still coming regularly, and the morning mists were only JUST enough to make you second guess your decision to attempt a day without taking a second shirt with you (at least in this part of the world).

-most of the girls from BHJ were back in the villages visiting remaining relatives during their school break.

-I was ending teaching English to the staff for a little while to prepare for time spent elsewhere.

-a team from America had just arrived....

Scene 1

The team came mostly from the mountains of Colorado and my native city of Woodland Park with a ministry called E3/SportReach. After spending a few days in ChiangMai, getting acquainted with the city, the culture, and the heat; we headed out to BHJ and did a small work project, only to be interrupted by monsoonal torrent that turned most of our efforts into a soggy sandbox - much to the enjoyment of the girls who were only too eager to start burying each other and building sand castles like they were at the beach.
The following day we packed up from ChiangMai and headed North. Winding through the mountains on curves that still make me more than a little car sick thinking about it, past military checkpoints intent on halting the traffic of opium from the hidden plantations to the cities until we reached the small municipality of ChiangDao; a central location to the multitudes of smaller villages surrounding it, each with their own people group residing in it.

Scene 2

Sunday through Wednesday we split the team of 8 recently arrived Americans into 3 groups adding myself, the Jessen family and several locals, each going off to different villages that we were going to be working in. I led a team of 4 into a Lisu village called HuaNaLin, where I knew the pastor already and where four of the BHJ girls had come from. We spent the afternoon on Sunday prayer walking through the village and inviting anybody we met to come to the church that evening to a special program we were going to have where I gave a small teaching on the mission that God has called every Christ-follower to; not just pastors or "great white missionaries."

Our main goal was to be an encouragement to the already established church and help motivate them to reach the remaining families in the surrounding area and not remain stagnant and legalistic in their faith. We spent time with pastor John Bee and the elders of the church asking where their needs for prayer were and where we might be of service. The next few days we spent the mornings playing with the kids of the village who were too young to work in the fields, and then during lunch going out into the fields where the majority of the villagers were working the harvest.

We would meet with them in their homes or their fields sharing with them about the Good News and explaining the gospel to them, praying with them and discipling those who God had created cultivated hearts. Then in the afternoons having sports camps for the youth and then in the evenings holding small bible study groups at the church or returning to the houses of people we met that invited us to come back and meet with their entire families.

It's hard to explain the spectrum of people we would meet when going out with the pastor or other church members; but these three examples give an idea of what we encountered:

1. Cultivated heart - I went with one other American, a Thai translator and a local church member and met a young man of about 21 who when we asked if we could share with him about the Bible, he was immediately excited and asked us to come in! We sat down and shared with him the story of the Bible from Creation through to Jesus' death, highlighting the points of our original design to be with God, our fall and separation and the effects of that, and the master plan God had already put into effect with Jesus. After hearing, he was already eager to pray and commit his life to Jesus. We spent nearly an hour or so with him and left him a Bible and invited him to join us at church that evening, to which he came. Later that week I went back with the local church member and visited with him again to encourage him and his walk.

2. Open, but non convicted - We met with a family of 3, the father, mother and their daughter who all listened very intently to what we were sharing and then after asking very motivated questions the father ultimately said that they were still deciding what was the best way to act, but when we asked what we could pray for them for, he said, "please pray for us that we may be able to discern what is the true path and way to live life."

3. Closed - An elderly woman we met with was sitting on her porch outside of her home, working on weaving a basket when we asked if we could spend some time with her, she was very polite and listened to what we were saying. But after sharing with her, she told us that Buddha already took care of her sin and the pendant around her neck was what kept evil spirits away and brought her good fortune. Despite the fact that she said that the Bible was true and how it says that God's biggest commandment is worshipping him alone, meaning believing in Jesus, she said that it was more logical to believe in many things.

After spending most of the week with a similar routine, and having the opportunity spend some real one-on-one time with John Bee and one of the elders, Daniel - spending several hours just hanging out in his house and communicating between my Thai and his English we were able to have a very fruitful time surfacing things from both of our lives and what God was doing in both of them. Daniel, who was about 28, was chosen to be an elder 2 years previous on the premise that he was one of the few men in the village who "knew how to pray."

We regrouped with the rest of the team in the evenings to eat dinner around 8:30 or 9pm, debrief, pray and go to bed.

Scene 3

Once Thursday rolled around we all regrouped and went to a different village that our friend and pastor Kamsen had been involved with over the past several years - this village, consisting of Karen, Shan and Northern Thai peoples, had only 3 professing Christians and only 1 young couple actively attempting to spread the Good News to their neighbors. We spent the entire day with all of the team going out to the families and inviting them to a youth soccer game in the afternoon and then a church meeting in the evening.
The soccer game was a great hit (as always is when Soccer is involved), we played with a group of about 20 youth from the village and we were able to share with them and I spent some time with a few of the guys and hanging out with them. Then in the evening, the church was packed out with people from all over the area to hear the message that Kamsen taught and to see a video geared towards helping explain the Gospel to those of their background. It was awesome to see God bring a full crowd to a village that God had been working on in the previous years.

Final Scene:

The next day we packed up and came back to ChiangMai where I spent most of the next day saying goodbye to my girlfriend as she was leaving for the States after her 2 year commitment in SE Asia, and then met back up with the team afterward for debriefing and helping them get onto their plane the next day to go back to the snow and cold of Colorado (and Washington).

Sequel:
One week later, after the team had gone, I went back with Pastor Kamsen to the same village for the dedication of their church building and saw many of the same people we had met the previous week, including several of the guys I had played soccer with. I'm already excited to see them again in the months to come!

Coming attractions:

-My mom visits me in Thailand for her maiden voyage across foreign soil. (Single day trips into Canada and Mexico don't count).

-I visit friends and family in the USA to cultivate relationships, spend the holidays and do some fund-raising.

Location:ChiangDao, nearby villages, Thailand

On God and Church Planting in villages to the North.

I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty awesome to be able to be a part of what God is doing in Thailand!

Sure, there are times when it's extremely difficult and the many clashes of culture and distance from things that are familiar weed their pricking thorns into what were my otherwise comfortable feelings of peace with where God has me...and believe me, they are not fun. But that happens to everybody regardless of their physical location, current vocation or heart status. I'm just glad for the incredible opportunities He's deemed me worthy enough to take part in; most recently a trip to Chiang Dao with Kelly Jessen and Pastor Kamsen.

We got a late start heading the 2 hours North from Chiang Mai to the small municipality surrounded by countless smaller villages, each distinguished by the minority people group that inhabits it. We made our way up the curving mountainsides, rain splashing the windshield, whipping around corners that still make me a more than a little carsick thinking about it, and passing police checkpoints intent on discovering smugglers from transporting their loads of opium. Eventually reaching our destination just next door to the Lisu Bible Institute, where Kelly would be teaching the next 3 days.

The mornings and afternoons consisted mostly of Kelly, teaching in English which was then translated into Lisu, with me following along in the Thai copy of the notes. (Got a headache yet?) The students, who are mostly aged 17-20 with a few village pastors mixed in there, sat on hard benches scribbling notes in their all-capital handwriting that when read out loud sounded like trying to talk with a kazoo in their mouth, making buzzing sounds as they formed words.

Kelly was busy teaching them all sorts of tools that most Americans would have understood since they were young growing up in the church; how to pray, how to share the gospel, how to make disciples versus converts, leading small groups and Bible studies, developing leaders and expanding their own personal ministries so not to just become stagnant and filled with the same people.
Because honestly, after the last hundred or so years of Christian influence and ministry in Thailand, the 1% Christ-following population isn't exactly something to brag about. We've gotten so focused on coming in with money and the importance to build a church BUILDING rather than expand the actual church of believers. Fund-raising and filling seats is far less important than really meeting with people and discipling them where they're at. Forget the pews, the stage, the podium and musical equipment; those are nice, and blessings, but they're so WESTERN and ultimately unnecessary. Many pastors and church leaders in Thailand have the mindset that if ONLY they could get those things, then they would have a successful church. (Wonder where they got that mindset from?)

It was awesome to see them break into small groups and tentatively begin reading through a passage of scripture with a set of questions to get them diving into the word of God. At first with many awkward glances and unsure comments to those around them, afraid of getting the answers wrong. Then an hour later seeing them come back into the big group and when asked if they liked the time, responded with a very loud "KAZOO!" ('Yes', for those of you who didn't pick up on the earlier comment).

During the evenings, after a quick shower and dinner, the three of us headed about 30 minutes into the jungle to a Lahu village, which several of the girls from BHJ are from. Met with the pastor and the congregation there along with swarms of children riding their bicycles barefooted and skidding to a halt and peeking around each other why large, shy eyes. (The second night...not so shy; instead we were tackled.) We had come to lead a shorter version of all that was being taught at the Lisu Bible Institute.





With Kamsen translating this time into Thai, I was able to be a lot more of use and helped teach some parts of it and participated in smaller groups as long as we kept speaking Thai instead of Lahu (another tonal buzzing dialect). We practiced with praying and discipling, and especially with explaining the Gospel, because this village is one of the several we'll be coming back to next month with a short-term team with the intent of creating more house churches and spreading the word to the Hmong, Karen, Yao and Northern Thai peoples - with the current church members as the ones doing most of the evangelism rather than our own translators.






So, now back in Chiang Mai, I'm already looking forward to seeing those at the Lisu Bible Institute and the Lahu village of Godbodbong in a few weeks and seeing what God will have done and what is going to be done in the future!

P.S. I was told that Lisu and Lahu could each be learned proficiently in 6 months...could be useful in Thailand, Laos, Burma, India and China!