AfterThoughts

You know how when you're listening to a debate, and you can't figure out how to say what you want to say, and then you leave, and it all comes to you? Yeah. That's what this is. 

Setting: Bamboo Coffee Shop, last night, 5 participants. We somehow got on the subject of Missions, and if it is relevant, necessary, or something that people do to make themselves feel good. One participant was arguing that mission, missions, missionaries, are all things that people, humans, come up with, and make a big deal about; but in the end, it's not important, if not pointless. 

There were 3 missions majors sitting at this table, as well as a Career missionary with a Master's degree sitting at the table, so it was an interesting conversation that I continued to think about the rest of the night. So because I thought of a great response now, I'm gonna tell you: Feel free to tell me your thoughts below. 

First off, we need to establish a difference between social worker- someone who does things to help people out around the world such as dig wells, start orphanages, feed starving people, and a missionary. I don't think a person in the world could argue that this was a bad thing. The first role that I have presented is a very important one; but it does not include the whole picture. A missionary should be doing all of the things that a social worker does; but for a different reason, and with the intent that the people they are ministering to will see the love of Christ through them. Social work performed by the missionary should be driven by the reason we even exist, and do what we should be or are doing. 

So I came up with an analogy in the shower. Shower thoughts are the best aren't they?

Lets pretend that the world is ending, 2012 style, but the cause of it all is a disease; every single person on this earth is struck by an illness. Some people are hit harder by others, with different levels of severity, but eventually, this illness is going to cause every single person on earth to die. 

People are dealing with this eventual outcome differently. Teams of scientists are desperately trying to come up with a cure; some people decide that they are going to die anyway, and get stupid. Other people deny the fact that they have the disease, and try to ignore the signs of the disease ravaging their bodies.

But you discover a cure; a simple regime of pills or shots, that remove the disease from your body, and give you the chance to live a long, happy life. 

What would you do with that?

I think the obvious thing would be is to go share it with people, tell them about how the pills cure them, and that this will change their life. You genuinely believe that this pill or shot will save their life. Whether you are right or not, you believe that; out of love for humanity and life, wouldn't you go try to give the pill to everyone?

There may be mixed reactions to the cure; the people who ignore the disease decide they don't need it; other scientists are coming up with pills and shots that are taking away the side effects, but not curing the disease. You have the only solution to a problem about to decimate mankind. 

Isn't it your responsibility to get it out there?

Now lets make this real. Christians believe that Jesus Christ is the only way to have eternal life with our Maker. At our core, that is what we believe; everything else will lead away from God, and His presence. 

If we believe that we have the solution to the problem's on earth (sin), is it not our responsibility to share it with every person we encounter? And there are people out there in the world that we will never encounter, so should we not send anyone to get them word that there is hope and grace for them as well?

We believe in a God who loves us; so much that even though we screwed up to massive proportions, and still do every day, He still sent Jesus to pay for our sins, and our mistakes. He loved us so much that even though we still mess up, he gave us His son so that we can still be with Him eternally. 

If this, above, is what we believe, then we believe in the Bible. Because that's how we know any of that. And Jesus, right before He died for us, told us to love one another, like He loved us (John 13:34). 

We have a truth, that we believe to our core is the saving grace for this world. Part of the mandate from the Savior that we believe in is to love other people like He loved us. The guy who said this, died out of His love for us. 

All this to say; whether or not we are right, we believe we are. If we follow the commandment given to us, we will have so much love for the world around us that we have to share the truth with them. 

That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. 

Thailand on Tuesday

Good evening.
Look, two days in a row! Okay, sorry over it.

Tuesday's here at APSAI mean early mornings, and lectures. We have a Prayer/ Worship Chapel at 8 am; then Alan asked us to sit in with the APSAI students for his lecture with him at 9. That went until 10:30; it was kind of a brief recap for the three of us, which was nice, since we're wrapping up this section of lecture. School here isn't anything like school in the States. Here's a brief rundown. The three of us Northwest girls are taking 17 credits, all through Alan, which will then be recorded by NU. We are taking three credits of each: Missiology, SE Asian History and Context, Buddhism, and Practicum credits. Our Thai class counts for 5 credits. So we are taking Thai for the length of the semester; ending about the middle of November. We have done about 7 weeks of Missiology tutorials, where we meet once a week for four hours. For each subject, we have to read 800 pages of relevant texts; books and journal articles on the subject. We also write about a paper a week, while editing the paper from the week before. On October 6th, we are going to Cambodia to renew our Visa's and while we're there, we are going to have our first SE Asian History lesson. Our Practicum credit comes from a journal that we're supposed to be keeping, as well as keeping track of our finances, and ministry that we do. It's not so much assignment driven as action driven. The Buddhism class will be a 3 day Seminar with everybody, which should be interesting. Long days, but it will be nice to learn more about it.

So in trying to find text for my 800 pages, I ended up reading a book called Unveiling Islam by Ergun Mehmet, and Emir Fethi Caner, two brothers who were raised in a Sunni Muslim home. It was written right after September 11th, 2001, so it is very focused on explaining jihad and the main beliefs surrounding that. But it was a really good, informative book, which I would gladly suggest to anybody. I also plan on bringing a copy home, if anyone wants to borrow it. Anyway, this stirred up tons of questions in my brain, so I've been trying to find stuff on it. No, I'm not converting to Islam. But one of the main points that the author makes is that you can't reach out and effectively minister to people who you don't have some understanding. Islam teaches its followers that Christians are evil, wrong, and must be killed. There is no grace. So as a Christian, how should we interact with Muslim's? How can we build strong relationships with people who are disobeying Allah by interacting on a friendly level with us? I'm not saying that we should be scared of Muslims. But we need to learn their traditions, and how to respect them, so that we can minister effectively, and not be totally rude.

Anyway. This is what has been rolling through my head for the past couple of days, among other things. I've been trying to find an English Qu'ran, and Hadith but haven't had much luck in Thailand, go figure :)

Oh yeah, I was telling you what we did today. After lunch, we sat in Alan's office for a few hours, and went over finances that finally came in, thank you Jesus! It was getting tight there! So we figured that out, and got a little bit of money so we can eat this week, and then headed to the Bamboo Coffee shop to study for a while. I think we are going to watch the 3rd Lord of the Rings tonight (we're all a bunch of geeks :) ), think this will be okay, got lots of reading in today.

Anywho. Good night!

This Week...

So in case you haven't noticed, consistency isn't my strong point. Or maybe it's commitment. Or something. Regardless, I haven't written since... last Monday? Sorry Dad :)

Okay. So let's take it from Tuesday. If I remember:
Tuesday was our day to lead worship for the prayer service. Tuesday's are rough... starts at 8 am. Anyway, we had our tutorial with Alan, and discussed... a lot. We started talking about how Social Action and Evangelism need to work together, rather than be two ends of  a very debated spectrum. Our paper this week is on how to integrate it, and why it is even an issue.

Wednesday began the Thai Missionary Prayer Fellowship, after our chapel in the morning. An amusing phenomenon has been occurring since we got here. We keep meeting really awesome, fun, friendly, laid back people, and we hang out with them, and joke, and talk. Then we find out that they are really high on this whole AG Missions hierarchy thing. I had no idea what we were getting into working with Alan Johnson. That guy is brilliant, and down to earth, and one of the world's leading Missiologists. Then a few weeks ago we met a guy named Mark, who was really nice to us, and very friendly. This week we found out that he is the country moderator for missionaries. But that's one of the lessons we're learning here; every one of these people are normal, average people, who are listening to God when He asks them to do something. Sure, they get to be involved in something huge, and awesome, and blessed; but they still have human struggles, they still get sick, they still make jokes, they still love their families. So anyway, we had our morning APSAI Chapel, in which Mark spoke, and then a bunch of Missionaries started rolling into town. That evening, we had a prayer/worship service, and then hung out  a little bit.

Thursday was day two of Prayer Fellowship, so we led worship in the morning, then got comfortable for the days meetings. We had our computers, books, crocheting stuff... anything to keep us occupied. It actually ended up being pretty fun though; the point of the week was for everyone to get together, and share prayer needs, and testimonies, and hang out and get away from daily life. So we spent the day on 5th Floor APSAI, and worked on homework and hung out with everybody. That night, Tammy made Spaghetti, which was absolutely delicious, and we played big group games; then Kelsey and I went and got massages. I think I got a new girl... it hurt more than usual. But it still felt pretty good. We got Roti, then headed back to work on the next day's worship set.

Friday morning, we had worship in the morning, and then had a little bit of prayer, and they wrapped up the business side of it all. Then all the missionaries jumped in cars, and we headed over to the biggest AG church in Thailand, Romyan Church. They had  gathered some of the bigwigs in the system to talk about some of the split stuff that one of the organizations is experiencing. They served Massuman Curry for lunch; amazingly delicious. That was the last thing on the agenda, so Kelsey and I headed over to the mall to study. I read a book called Unveiling Islam, that was assigned to the APSAI students. I needed pages to read for our tutorial, so I kind of picked it up on a whim; but it ended up being really good. It was a lot of very basic information, but it made my brain start to explode with questions. After Kelsey and I talked about it for a while, we called Barb and John, and asked if we could go talk to them about it over dinner. We went to a North-Eastern Thai restaurant, which was also pretty good. We talked for about an hour, then headed home, and headed to bed. This week was really good, but also really long, with early mornings, late nights, and lots of activity in between.

Saturday morning we had our first Thai lesson in about two weeks, which was really fun. Then we headed over to Alan and Lynette's before we went to teach into Ekkamai Sahm Sip. It went really really well; with about 15 kids. Then we headed back to APSAI for family dinner, and Jenna's birthday party. Sunday, we went to church, and then to Bandon, where we taught in three different places. Again, we headed home, where I finally got the remnants of green/blue out of my hair from Camp this summer. The box said that it was dark brown; it is dark dark dark brown. I like it though, just takes some getting used to.

Monday... I love Mondays. It's always good to unwind, and sleep in, and recap the week. I slept in a little bit, then skyped the family. Did you know you can play BattleShip while Skyping with people?!?!?! So awesome!   We went to Patim's for lunch, and then I tried to study for a little bit; finished the Islam book, read a few articles, etc. Then we headed downtown Bangkok for some delicious food, shopping, and fun. We had Mexican food!!!!!! It wasn't totally fantastic, but was decent enough. Then we wandered the streets of Ramkamphaeng before we got stuck in the rain. We jumped in a taxi, and now here I am.

I have no idea what this week is going to look like; but I anticipate awesomeness. A couple prayer requests before I go;
- I need to start thinking about next term, and what living, financial, and transportation situations are going to look like. God knows what's best, and I'm praying for guidance as it all comes together.
- Off of that, money is going to be rather tight, since I obviously haven't been working; about 5 months by the time I get back to school.
- Please pray for open doors into people's hearts, as we try to build relationships and connections with people here. Pray for God's grace to be poured out as we walk through the slums, both Muslim and Buddhist, and people's hearts to be receptive.

Thanks!!!!
P.S. I am going to be better this week about writing... I promise!

The Big News!

Oh my goodness! I totally forgot to share the big news! Over the course of many discussions, it has been decided, that.....

We get to stay here until the middle of December, rather than leave in the middle of November!

There are lots of pro's and con's, but in the end... it's going to be awesome.

That's all. Have a good day!

Hi! Wow! I have not posted anything in an obnoxiously long time. It's been a little chaotic since we got back from Chaeng Mai; and I guess I've been a little bit lazy :)

Anyway. I'm going to skip pictures this time, because my computer doesn't feel like loading anything. Annoying. This should be long enough anyway though. I had to go read my own blog to find out the last time I had written. Sorry! 

So we got on a train at 4:15 P.M. on Wednesday afternoon of last week. We arrived back to APSAI shortly after 10 A.M. Thursday morning. Is that ridiculous or what? Because of the rain, there was sever flooding which meant the train had to go super slow. We actually caught the last train out of Chaeng Mai for a few days, so it was good timing; just a little slow. We had the rest of the day on Thursday off, which was good because we were super exhausted. I don't exactly remember what I did, it's all a little foggy. But I was in bed by 6:30. Not asleep, but in bed. Life was good that night. 

Friday we stayed on this side of town, and walked over to Assumption University, an English speaking university about a mile from our location. We wandered around the campus for a while, and tried to meet some people, then headed over to our favorite coffee shop for some good 'ol study time. Of course, with 3 other awesome people there, you don't get much studying done, but the waffles are awesome. When we gave up on being productive, we headed over to Soi 40 for some awesome food, and played Settlers of Catan until we couldn't stand being around each other any longer. We did something else after that, but I can't remember what. 

Saturday we woke up crazy early and jumped in vans to head over towards Ekkamai. Alan and Deanna's ministry in the slum areas includes a once a month activity; this month they rented out an indoor soccer field, and brought in a pastor who is also an awesome soccer coach. We bussed in about 30 kids from Ekkamai Sip Sii, one of the areas we hang out in, and played soccer, colored, did crafts, and ate lunch with. Then we ran the kids home, and headed over to Ekkamai Sam Sip to teach English. This was our weekend to be at APSAI for the weekend, so we got to go to Family Night with everybody. We had fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, corn and broccoli casserole, biscuits, and banana foster; then watched Tangled. Such a good movie; we chose a fantastic night to be around!

Today, Sunday, was so much fun. It was our first Sunday in the new church building- absolutely amazing. The new campus is huge, with so much room to grow. Pii Wan asked the three of us NU girls to do a special song, so we did that during offering, which was super fun. Because it was the first Sunday, a lot of the missionaries were there for the service, so it kind of turned out to be "thai" side of church, and a "farang" side. It was funny. But it was really cool to see the absolute joy in everyone's hearts. Such an awesome thing to get to be involved in that church. 

After church, we hung out for about 2 hours, then headed over to Bandan with Dua to teach English. Alan wasn't going with us this time, so he asked to us to go say hi to a lady and her daughter, as well as teach at the two places we usually go to. So we stopped at the school we teach in first, and it was all locked up because the lady in charge is mai sabi- sick. That was a bummer, but no problem. We headed over to the lady's house: not home. So we headed over to David's house. He had a stroke somewhat recently, and doesn't have a lot of muscle control on his left side. Alan has known him for a while, and when we first got here, he brought us over to meet him. There ended up being some kids hanging around, so now each Sunday we go over there at about 5 om and teach English. There is one boy there, Don, who is super smart, he is the only consistent one, but man, that kid catches on fast. Davids house is in the not so nice part of the slum, but they are super nice, and very willing to let us come crash their house for an hour or so each week. When we got done there, we headed back over to Tai Ping, and had dinner, then headed home. 

So that's what's been going on. This week is going to be a crazy one; there is a quarterly meeting for all the missionaries in Thailand this week. So we are going to sit in on the meetings, and lead worship for the services and stuff, as well as our normal stuff. I swear that I will be more consistent about this... Sorry I let it go so long. 

I'll try to hop on and load up some Chaeng Mai Pictures up soon!

I'm Alive!

Sorry, I know its been a while. I have a lot to tell, and a lot to post, but right now, I need sleep. So there will be an extremely lengthy post coming either Saturday Night or Monday. Love ya all :) Thanks for understanding!

It's been a while....

Did ya miss me?

We don't have easily accessed WiFi in our new hotel, so we have to come use regular computers in the office.

So we have some catching up to do!
Sunday night we went the the Sunday Night Market, which is a whole kilometer of vendors. Guess what that means... bartering! I love it! Over the past two days, in two markets, I have got almost everyone at least one or two presents. Except Dad... if you're reading this, you need to understand how hard you are to shop for :) So we walked around the night market for about an hour, then took a Songtau (poor phonetic spelling, sorry) back to our hotel.
 On Monday mid-morning, we switched hotels to stay with Weldyn and Barb, our professors from Northwest. We are now at a super swanky hotel, which is only about $89 a night (SWEET!).The funny thing is though, is that we've had the hardest time staying here. First off, this place is super duper high end. Like.... bathrobes in the closet, minibars in each room, fresh roses on the pillows every night, heavy gold curtains on all windows, biggest towels you've seen in your life... yeah.... Anyway. We woke up this morning with bug bites all over our legs and arms. I have 19 on my legs alone. Ridiculous. After a little bit of exploring, we found ants in our beds. Yuck yuck yuck yuck yuck. We're not sure if they were in the roses, or just in the room, but yeah. It was gross. So they switched us to another room this morning. Not 5 minutes after getting there, the power in our room went out,and the maintenance guy had to come crawl around our ceiling and fix stuff.

But still, its a freaking awesome hotel. Pool, awesome gym, sauna, super close to the night market, all that jazz. We have one more night here, then back to Bangkok. I'm kind of torn, cause I love it here, but I also miss being in Bangkok, at APSAI, and Thai lessons. I'm excited to get back to real life.

Isn't that funny that Bangkok is real life to me right now? So weird.

Sorry. Anyway. I have some potentially super duper duper exciting news.. .but I'm going to hold off on announcing it until its for sure. But please pray for guidance, and good decisions in this.

Also, while we're at it, please pray for our ministry back home; we have been working with a few Muslim communities for a while now, and we would love to have the chance to get deeper with some people. In Alan's words; we need seekers. People who know that this isn't all there is to life, and recognize it in us. We need them to be comfortable coming to talk to us, and have people who can't be content without Jesus in their lives.

Thanks!

ChaengMai

Hey there.
I think I mentioned that we were heading to ChaengMai for a few days; we made it! We've been here about two days, and have already had a million adventures. 

First of all: We took an overnight train from Bangkok to ChaengMai- about 13 hours. So we boarded the train at about 6, and headed out. We had 2nd class sleeper tickets, so the four of us (Alan, and the three of us girls) were in two sections, right across from each other. We did a tutorial on the bus, since we had some time to kill, then about 9:30 or 10 they came around and set up the beds for us. Let me just say, here and now: Trains do not provide the comfiest sleeping arrangements in the world. It wasn't awful, and I did sleep a little bit, but I kept waking up. I had a window though, so I had fun looking out the window when we went through villages and stuff. Anyway, we had been stopping and starting the whole night, and about 5:30 A.M. the train stopped again. I quickly fell asleep, and we all slept soundly until about 7:45- the time we were supposed to arrive in ChaengMai. We got dressed really quickly, and when we got back, Alan had gotten some information from the guy in charge of our car. It had been storming really bad throughout the night; thunder and lightning. Apparently the rain had gotten so hard that it got into the electrical components of the engine, and fried the engine. So an engine car came from the next town, and was about to pull us over the mountain. When we got to that town, we would be taken off the track, let all the trains behind us get through, get a new engine, then be on our way again. Alan, however, knew that this would be an extremely long process, so we hopped off the train at that town. We went over to the bus station, where we bought tickets that left for ChaengMai at 9:30, and grabbed some breakfast. The bus took about two hours to get here, and we went right to our hotel room and crashed. Actually, I lied. Alan had some meetings, so he dropped us off. We all took nice long hot showers, ordered pizza, ate, and then crashed. For about 4 or 5 hours. It felt so good. Then we went and met Alan at his meeting, and had dinner with them. We were pretty wired when we got back, so we went out to the main road, and walked around the street vendors for a few hours. 

Today was long, and tons of fun. We went to a pretty big church, where most of the other missionaries go, at least once a month. We had lunch with the church people, and then cake and ice cream for Missionary Mark's birthday, then headed back to change our clothes. We went out to a reservoir, and while Alan and Lauren (another missionary) went for a run, we walked around and took pictures. Then we flew back to our hotel room, showered, changed again, and took off for a really big temple on top of a mountain. It was about sunset, and we drove up this enormous, curvy road. At the peak of the mountain there is a really big Buddhist temple, with a view of the entire city. So we got lots of night shots, good conversations, and big bites. I have tons of pictures to put up, but I'll do it another time, cause I'm getting sleepy .Anyway, to get up to the temple,  there was 390 something stairs. It was super crazy high, but sooooo worth it. Again, pictures are coming. On our way back down, it was kinda creepy, cause all the monks were chanting, and just as we start to walk down, the power went out; it was pitch black. All 5 of us froze, and laughed, then the power switched back on. So we ran back down, and headed out to find some dinner. We ended up at a really tasty Italian place, not very Thai, but good all the same. Then we went to the Sunday Night Market, where I got some super awesome stuff that people are going to love; and spent about $15 . 

All in all; it was a pretty awesome day.
But now I need to sleep. 

Sawati kha!

Thoughts on a Train

I have come to the extraordinary realization over this past year and a half that God has a plan for me. I know. Duh, right?

I knew He had called me into some form of missions and as time progressed, He has revealed more and more tiny bits of His plan for my life. He chose Northwest; I went. He said Intercultural Studies; I studied. He laid Thailand on the table; I picked it up and flew. Literally.

So my plan consisted of NU, then missions. So then I started to worry. You can't go straight from school, where you stack loan on top of loan on top of loan, then leave the country. Co-signers wouldn't be so happy about that. So I started to plan, and worry, and come up with a million of backup plans.

And then God smacked me with some very wise words. "You think I don't have a plan for that? You think I only have two things ready for you; go take care of one thing, get your life together, find me when you're finished? Foolish foolish child! I love you, but geez, you aren't very bright sometimes.

I have plans for you; and I know what those plans cost. Not just money; I know of costs you don't even realize you are going to pay.

But I still have a plan. I'm still in control. Will you let me be in control? Will you get your hands off the steering wheel? Your feet off the accelerator?

I not only have big plans for you kiddo; I have small plans too. I have plans you aren't going to understand; plans you won't recognize; plans you won't acknowledge.

Are you going to accept the little plans? Or just the big ones? The everyday choices, or just the ones that leave you with $50,000 of student loans?

In the end; I've given you a choice. It's a big one. It's sometimes a hard one. But I love you enough to let you go if that's what you want. If you choose to follow me; to submit to my plans; to pay a few prices, I guarantee you results that I can't even tell you; you wouldn't believe me if I did."

I Like Toast.

Just in case anybody was curious. I eat it for Breakfast, and late night snack. It's best with a light layer of Nutella, but butter is just as swell.

Anybody still reading? Oh. Okay. Fine then.

Today was kind of a lazy day until about 2 pm. I was down to 300 Baht, with is about 10 bucks, so I had to go find a bank to a bank. I now have money again, so Dad... don't worry :)

Tonight we drove over to Ekkamai with Mark, and went over to the slum that we went to the very first time we went. It was fun; we got stuck in the downpour, and ended up staying at one of the houses for about half an hour. Eventually, we decided that we weren't going to get a break from the rain, and just decided to go, so we popped up our umbrellas and headed out. One of the quirks here: The sidewalks are made from cement blocks, and when they get wet... it's like walking on a sheet of ice. So slippery. Anyway, we walked down to to a little restaurant, and got the same dish we got last time we went to Soi Sip Hok (16). It's absolutely delicious- rice with pork that has been simmering in a delicious sauce for a very long time, with Chinese kale. It's hard to explain it, but it's delicious.

Tomorrow evening we leave for Chang Mai. I am so super excited. It's a 13 hour train ride, but we got sleeper cars, so we will do lecture, and then curl up in bed, and hopefully sleep the rest of the way there.

Okay. I'm going to try to knock out some of those darn papers. Talk at ya later!

Thai Lessons, Pictures, and Yummy Food. Plus Some Catching Up.

Hola. SawatiKha. Hello.

Today, I am proud  to say, we took a taxi to Ekkamai, and back, for the first time on our own. We successfully explained where we wanted to go, didn't get lost, and arrived on time for our Thai lessons. And it only took about 15 minutes each way. Be proud. We deserve it! :)

Anyway. We had our last Thai lesson until next week... cause on Friday we leave for Chang Mai! Yay!
In class, we attempted to learn how to say what time it is in Thai... don't even ask me... it is so darn complicated! But I got my color crayons out tonight, and made clocks to hang up, so maybe that will help. Coloring was fun anyway.

I had probably my most favorite meal so far here tonight. It was garlic chicken, with lots and lots of pepper... So delicious. The garlic is deep-fried, then stirfried in with the chicken, over white rice... Goodness gracious. That was delicious.

In other news; I have pictures! I haven't unloaded them from my camera in about 2 weeks, so some of the pics are kind of old, but here they are anyway :)

This was taken at an awesome little coffee shop that we love to study at. Even though it's on a really busy road, it's surrounded by bamboo tree things, and it has an awesome atmosphere. Plus, they have fantastic waffles.

 The view from our 5th Floor. I think it's about to rain.

 And thunder.

 The Library at the Thailand Assemblies of God Bible College. We studied in their for a couple of hours... lots of fun. Plus, quite a few of the books were in English!

 The mosque in Bandan, the Muslim community we are ministering in.

 This is in front of a ladies house in Bandan. We were going to start teaching English in her house, but it didn't work out. So we just go hang out sometimes.

 This is another house in Bandan.Not really sure what else to say :)

 Night picture of the Ekkamai area. The old church building is in between the two white buildings right in front. It's in the far one, about 4 or 5 sections over.

The team! John and Barbara Wright are in the chairs on either side- they are our campus pastors, and live below us. Wayne and Tammy are in the back, they are responsible for the amazingness that is the place we live. Also in the back is Jeff, the guy who is charge of the missionaries in the PenAsia area, I think. And then there is us... the students :)

Good night!

Whats Going Through My Head Before I Head To Bed.

Hey there. I had/have some stuff rolling through my head right now that I'm going to try to get down on some paper; please be warned that it may or may not make sense; it may or may not be politically correct, and it probably will be sort of boring.

Okay, so today, the APSAI students had a history class with the awesome missionary Jim Hosack. After their class, we ran into him at the Rice Lady, when we were getting lunch. After chatting for a little bit about the class, he looked at us, and expressed how surprised he was when he realized that none of the students knew anything about the Khmer Rouge that took place in Cambodia. He told us that he had started talking about it, assuming we were fairly educated about the whole thing, and realized that not one of the students had any idea what he was talking about. So then he turned to us; did we know anything about the Khmer Rouge? I had heard the name, and knew that it was a genocide that had occurred in Cambodia. I knew that when we went to renew our visas in November, we were going to visit the "killing fields" and had been told that its an emotional time, so "be prepared". But that was about where my knowledge ended.

So when I got back to our dorms, I hopped on Google, and started to learn more about this stuff. I pretty much sat on my bed for an hour reading article after article, wondering why this was the first time I had ever learned any of this stuff.

Maybe I just missed all of this in my history books. Maybe I just ignored it. Maybe I'm just a dork.
But 13 Jr. and Sr.'s in Universities from around the U.S. knew little to nothing about this.

In a four year span, 1975-1979, it is estimated that more than 2 million Cambodian men, women, and children were killed. The bizarre thing is why they chose to murder who they did: A communistic worldview led Pol Pot and other members of the group, Angka, to murder anyone who had an education, anyone who rebelled, anyone who looked at them wrong... Pointless reasons.

The Angka group remained completely secretive; the mass majority of Cambodians had no idea who was in charge of their country, who was responsible for the deaths, who was making the decisions. All they knew was that they were being forcibly removed from their homes; forced to participate in back breaking labor, and forced to watch their parents, children, brothers, sisters, wives, husbands be worked to death.

Now. I get that this is way different from what I usually blog about. I mean, geez... Why do we really care Jess? We just want to know what crazy antics are occurring in Thailand.

But the thought came to me tonight as I was re-skimming information. I take wayyyy to much stuff for granted. Yeah, I know. I'm a "rich" American student, chilling in Thailand with a phone, and a Laptop, and a camera, and seemingly endless money. But I'm not talking about that kind of stuff.

I, at this very moment, am working my way toward a college degree. In November, I will have 2 more semesters before I graduate with my B.A. in Intercultural Studies. If our country was under the rule of Pol Pot, or anyone who thought like him... I would be 2 semesters away from a death sentence. My Dad, my Mom, the majority of my family, would probably already be killed, or be doing manual labor, because they simply "knew" too much. Not about politics, or the personal life of the authorities; simply because they took some classes. I live right in the beautiful Seattle area for most of the school year. But if we were under the Khmer Rouge gorvernment, we would probably all be forced out to... Yakima or something.

And we whine about Health Bills. And welfare. And taxes. And the next election.

So what's my point? I have 2. Haha.

1. As Christians... I don't think that its wrong to disagree with the President. Doesn't matter if they are Republican, or Democrat, or Gold, Guns, and Homeschoolers. We should be constantly raising up our leader in prayer, asking God to guide his thoughts, touch his heart, be present with his family. And we should be grateful that we live in a country that demands information. We get to know the name of our leader! We get to Google the papers that he writes, and the decisions that he makes, and educate ourselves about what's going on.

2. Take advantage of the opportunity to have your education be valued. I'll be the first to admit that homework sucks. But in our country, we have the opportunity for education, and it's valued. At least, that's what they tell us : )

Sorry to get all... I dunno. Save the planet? Count your blessings? Sermony? D. All of the above!
But that's whats going through my head as I head to bed.
Goodnight!



BBC Article- Basic information, brief overview
TIME Article- A little more in depth, information about what happened to the leadership responsible for the killings.
Article about one of the torturers, before his trial.
Yale- The University gathered a lot of information, and compiled it on this page... if you want to dig deeper.

Weekend

So this past week marked our first month of being here. We are nearly a third of the way through our time here in Thailand; how is it possibly going this fast? 
Anyway,this was a really long weekend, but it was full of fun, learning, and, encouragement. Precaution: This may be a really long, confusing, entry.  But I’m going to try to be concise and get across my meanings with as few words as possible. First, what we did this weekend. Friday we got to go to a slum community and go to a cell group meeting that Pii Bei is trying to start. There were about 6 or 7 local people there, along with a baby and a little girl. They were either brand new Christians, or interested in Christianity, which was really cool to get to see. We had dinner with them, all sitting on the floor in a circle. It was just so “Thai”. I love how we get to see real life here; not many people are interested in putting on a show for us, they are just genuine. Anyway, during the devotional part, Pii Bei asked us to share with the group why we maintained a relationship with God when bad things happened. I was glad I had a second to think about it before I had to answer. It’s not that I doubt God, or my faith in Him. But I needed to come up with a short, concise, easily  translatable answer, within a few seconds. Jeremiah 29:11-13 popped in my head as I thought about this, and that’s pretty much what I based my answer around. I told them that I know that God has a plan for me, even if I don’t know exactly what that plan is. But He promised to be faithful, and I trust Him. I need to cling to the promise that God has a plan for my life, even when things aren’t going well, or if I’m not content with what’s going on. I have no idea if anyone even understood what I was saying, but I ended up really appreciating the question; it was a good reminder of why I still trust God. Why I still try to follow Him when bad stuff happens. I don’t want to have a relationship with Him in which I turn away every time something happens that seems bad. He is way too awesome, merciful, and loving for that. Anyway, we finished up the cell group, and took a couple of pictures with them, and then headed home. We ended up in a taxi with a guy who really wanted to talk, and Alan ended up getting the opportunity to witness to him the whole way home, which was really cool. On Saturday, we woke up super early, and went to help out at a school that was having an English camp. There were probably about 100 kids there, and they had 6 stations set up with different themes for learning English terms and sentences. I helped at the cooking station, where we made a lot of somtum (Papaya Salad). That was a lot of fun, and then we got to head over to Ekkamai 30, to do more English teaching where we have been going on Saturdays. There were 15 kids in this little tiny garage, so we split them up, and had a really good time teaching. We were in there for about 2 hours, and then headed over to Alan and Lynette’s for dinner and games and bedtime. Alan and Lynette gave the three of us the opportunity to ask anything we wanted about life as a missionary family, missionary wife, or female missionary. It was so cool to hear about how Lynette balanced ministry with family, and how she was able to be a fantastic mother to her kids, a loving wife, and also a helpmate to a missionary with a lot of energy. Such a cool lady. Then Sunday, yesterday, came along. We went to church, and had a lot of fun. I love how accepting the people are here; they are willing to have a good time with anyone who is willing to try to break the communication barrier. Then we went to the dedication of the new church building, where we toured the new building, and sang some songs, and then they did a really cool thing. They handed everybody a permanent marker, and asked the write a prayer, verse, prophesy, or blessing over the church on the sidewalk around the building. I wrote the blessing that God had Moses say over the Israelites in Numbers 4: 24-27 “The Lord bless and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace. So He will put His name upon His people and He will bless them.” After that, we all walked back together, and hung out at the Johnson’s house for about an hour before heading over to Bandan for more English teaching. We were in that community for about 3 hours, then headed home at about 8. Needless to say, its been a long weekend; but very productive and quite enjoyable.


P.S. I've heard rumors that it's not letting anyone post comments. Trying to figure that one out. Sorry!
 

Questions!

So... I was thinkin. Which, of course, is never good. But I'd like, if anyone is willing, to get some feedback on here. What do you want to know? Do you like hearing anything specific? Is any particular subject boring??? Do you have any questions that I may or not be able to answer? If any of the above applies to you; please comment.

Kahp Kun Kha!