Thursday, July 29, 2010
The Greatest Massage Chair Ever and lots of Pondering
Here I sit, not yet home but not in Chiang Mai anymore. Currently I am sitting in the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and have been so far for almost four hours and have four hours left until takeoff. The first thing I did here was sit in the greatest massage chair ever created for close to an hour before I realized I was slowly drifting off to sleep which is not what I wanted to do because I want to be able to sleep as much as possible across the Pacific. As I sit here and pass time, I obviously cannot help but think about this past month. It is tough to even pick out a few of the greatest moments simply because every moment was the greatest! Of course some moments were easier than others, some were less sweaty than others, some involved great people, some were spent in solitude, some were in the middle of the city, some were on a mountain, some involved tigers and some involved a simple conversation. Besides trying to figure out the greatest moments, I have been pondering other thoughts as well which I will continue to ponder across the ocean and into the next few days. Thoughts like: what all did God teach me over the past month (I know of a lot already, but I also know there is more I will discover as I ponder), how can I use what God taught me in Thailand in America and much more.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
A Village and Some not so Scary Food
Alright so first of all I did not forget about my blog and did not get too lazy to write or run out of things, I was just up in a village, Wiang Kaen, for the past few days and didn’t have a way to write so don’t worry dear reader, I did not forget about you! The village was interesting. A lot happened so I’m going to take you some of the daily highlights during my time there. Also, sorry if this gets long, a lot happened. Here we go!
Wednesday: Dragged myself out of bed in order to catch the bus to Wiang Kaen (WK). My friend Win, who speaks pretty good English, wanted to come along because he had friends and family in the area. Looking back it was a great thing he decided to come because without him coming, I wouldn’t have even made it to the village let along understand what was going on while there. The first bus was a nicer air conditioned bus, but after 3 hours and then having to switch buses in Chiang Rai, ended up with a non-ac bus for another 3 hours but it turned out to be ok because the windows were wide open and it was slightly raining which helped on the temperature side of things. The bus ride was one of the scariest moments of my life, well maybe not, but driving through the mountains in bus, around super sharp turns at high speeds is not the most comfortable experience. Every time I saw a turn coming up I shot a little prayer up to God letting Him know I might be coming home soon. After finally getting to WK we were met by Tanat, a man who spoke a little English and who worked closely with my Dad back in the day and moved from Chiang Mai to WK to start a church. He was so happy to have us in his home for the next few days. In the village near the church, they set up some dorms for young people from the neighboring areas that come from poor families where they are giving beds, food, education and the gospel. The night we got there was the men’s small group night and we were joined by a few guys from the dorm and a few older men from the church. It was a great experience and while not knowing what was going on, their desire to know the Lord better was encouraging to see.
Thursday: We had plans to head up to the highest mountain in the area, but woke up to rain so that was called off, but we moved ahead to what was planned for Friday which was making coffee. Now when I say making coffee I don’t mean taking it out of the bag and into the coffee maker and into the cup, but this was MAKING coffee. Tanat grows coffee on one of the nearby mountains so we started with a huge bag of coffee beans which were unroasted and still in the shell. The first thing we had to do was get the shell off the bean. This was done using a large mortar and pestle (which was a hollowed out tree trunk and a log) multiple times, again and again. I think it’s the best workout I’ve gotten in a long time. During the process of doing that again and again, when one batch was de-shelled then one of us had to separate the shells from the beans which was done basically by throwing everything into the air and the shells, which were lighter than the beans, floated away and the beans came back down into the basket. After that was done we still had to pick through the beans to make sure there were no shells left on the beans because if we didn’t it would make for a bad cup. Then the roasting began! There really wasn’t a special science to it, it was just done in a frying pan and you just had to keep the beans moving so they all got roasted evenly. The tough part was that we only had two frying pans and tons of coffee so the roasting process was done again and again and again until all the beans were roasted and cooled. And yes dad I do have some to bring back for you. When we were all done with the coffee we headed out to lunch which. Now Thai food is great! Northern Thai food can be scary. Now this experience wasn’t too bad when we went for lunch on the banks of the Mae Kong River. Here they were all about fish. They didn’t have the time to do everything to get the meat out and I think they’re totally fine without doing it. So in my soup was just a chopped up fish with the head, tail and everything in between. I finished most of it, leaving the eyes, brains and a few other things. In the evening, just like every evening there, we played soccer (or football as they call it here and in the rest of the world). Tons of guys came both from the dorms and from the town. They were so interested that a white guy was playing with them and just like the world cup most years, USA got dominated. These guys were good! It was a blast though.
Friday: Woke up again to rain, but we decided to head up the mountain anyway. It was worth it. The way up was extremely beautiful. We stopped at Win’s grandmother’s house on the way up and she was so happy to have us in her home she made us stay for lunch even though we had just had breakfast only an hour ago. After another not-scary mealtime, we kept heading up. The top was covered in fog and we couldn’t see clearly more than ten feet in front of us, but that didn’t keep me from basking in the awesomeness of God’s creation from there. Once again, like on the bus, the mountain roads can get a little freaky, but Tanat handled the roads like a pro.
Saturday: We headed to Chiang Rai, which took over 3 hours on the bus and took Tanat only about an hour and a half, to pick up Tanat’s son and my old friend Purin from school. After picking him up and saying our hello’s and how have you been the past fourteen years, we hung out in Chiang Rai for a bit before heading back to WK. A dental team from Korea who is doing work in the area over the next couple weeks got there in the evening and joined us for soccer and the Thai/USA team was victorious. I really don’t deserve any of the credit though. I kicked the ball a few times and let my teammates do the rest.
Sunday: Church in the morning which was great! Tanat asked if I would play a song as a special part of the service and I chose “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever.” The most beautiful thing was hearing it sung in English, Thai and Korean all at the same time; just another little reminder that we all come from different areas of the planet, but we still worship the same God. After church, we all had lunch together which was another non-scary meal (thankfully the only scary one was the soup with chicken heads and talons in it) and after that it was already time to say goodbye.
Looking back I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. It was hard at first not having someone who I could have a full on English conversation with and sometimes going hours without saying a word, but I think God was teaching me to use the silence and dive into Him and His word.
Wednesday: Dragged myself out of bed in order to catch the bus to Wiang Kaen (WK). My friend Win, who speaks pretty good English, wanted to come along because he had friends and family in the area. Looking back it was a great thing he decided to come because without him coming, I wouldn’t have even made it to the village let along understand what was going on while there. The first bus was a nicer air conditioned bus, but after 3 hours and then having to switch buses in Chiang Rai, ended up with a non-ac bus for another 3 hours but it turned out to be ok because the windows were wide open and it was slightly raining which helped on the temperature side of things. The bus ride was one of the scariest moments of my life, well maybe not, but driving through the mountains in bus, around super sharp turns at high speeds is not the most comfortable experience. Every time I saw a turn coming up I shot a little prayer up to God letting Him know I might be coming home soon. After finally getting to WK we were met by Tanat, a man who spoke a little English and who worked closely with my Dad back in the day and moved from Chiang Mai to WK to start a church. He was so happy to have us in his home for the next few days. In the village near the church, they set up some dorms for young people from the neighboring areas that come from poor families where they are giving beds, food, education and the gospel. The night we got there was the men’s small group night and we were joined by a few guys from the dorm and a few older men from the church. It was a great experience and while not knowing what was going on, their desire to know the Lord better was encouraging to see.
Thursday: We had plans to head up to the highest mountain in the area, but woke up to rain so that was called off, but we moved ahead to what was planned for Friday which was making coffee. Now when I say making coffee I don’t mean taking it out of the bag and into the coffee maker and into the cup, but this was MAKING coffee. Tanat grows coffee on one of the nearby mountains so we started with a huge bag of coffee beans which were unroasted and still in the shell. The first thing we had to do was get the shell off the bean. This was done using a large mortar and pestle (which was a hollowed out tree trunk and a log) multiple times, again and again. I think it’s the best workout I’ve gotten in a long time. During the process of doing that again and again, when one batch was de-shelled then one of us had to separate the shells from the beans which was done basically by throwing everything into the air and the shells, which were lighter than the beans, floated away and the beans came back down into the basket. After that was done we still had to pick through the beans to make sure there were no shells left on the beans because if we didn’t it would make for a bad cup. Then the roasting began! There really wasn’t a special science to it, it was just done in a frying pan and you just had to keep the beans moving so they all got roasted evenly. The tough part was that we only had two frying pans and tons of coffee so the roasting process was done again and again and again until all the beans were roasted and cooled. And yes dad I do have some to bring back for you. When we were all done with the coffee we headed out to lunch which. Now Thai food is great! Northern Thai food can be scary. Now this experience wasn’t too bad when we went for lunch on the banks of the Mae Kong River. Here they were all about fish. They didn’t have the time to do everything to get the meat out and I think they’re totally fine without doing it. So in my soup was just a chopped up fish with the head, tail and everything in between. I finished most of it, leaving the eyes, brains and a few other things. In the evening, just like every evening there, we played soccer (or football as they call it here and in the rest of the world). Tons of guys came both from the dorms and from the town. They were so interested that a white guy was playing with them and just like the world cup most years, USA got dominated. These guys were good! It was a blast though.
Friday: Woke up again to rain, but we decided to head up the mountain anyway. It was worth it. The way up was extremely beautiful. We stopped at Win’s grandmother’s house on the way up and she was so happy to have us in her home she made us stay for lunch even though we had just had breakfast only an hour ago. After another not-scary mealtime, we kept heading up. The top was covered in fog and we couldn’t see clearly more than ten feet in front of us, but that didn’t keep me from basking in the awesomeness of God’s creation from there. Once again, like on the bus, the mountain roads can get a little freaky, but Tanat handled the roads like a pro.
Saturday: We headed to Chiang Rai, which took over 3 hours on the bus and took Tanat only about an hour and a half, to pick up Tanat’s son and my old friend Purin from school. After picking him up and saying our hello’s and how have you been the past fourteen years, we hung out in Chiang Rai for a bit before heading back to WK. A dental team from Korea who is doing work in the area over the next couple weeks got there in the evening and joined us for soccer and the Thai/USA team was victorious. I really don’t deserve any of the credit though. I kicked the ball a few times and let my teammates do the rest.
Sunday: Church in the morning which was great! Tanat asked if I would play a song as a special part of the service and I chose “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever.” The most beautiful thing was hearing it sung in English, Thai and Korean all at the same time; just another little reminder that we all come from different areas of the planet, but we still worship the same God. After church, we all had lunch together which was another non-scary meal (thankfully the only scary one was the soup with chicken heads and talons in it) and after that it was already time to say goodbye.
Looking back I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. It was hard at first not having someone who I could have a full on English conversation with and sometimes going hours without saying a word, but I think God was teaching me to use the silence and dive into Him and His word.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Beauty in Simplicity
Fun fact: if you hang chickens instead of cutting their heads off and letting them run around, then you will have more regular dead chickens than the Sleepy Hallow version. I only know because yesterday while visiting a small village about an hour out of Chiang Mai, I witnessed it. At first from a distance we thought that the chickens were fighting because of all the movement, but after walking by, and realizing that they were really struggling to stay alive, did we knew what was really going on. Maybe the headless chickens run away sometimes which makes for a less protein filled meal.
After have the encounter with the chickens and walking around for a bit, also confirming the fact that all Thai people are very smiley, the weekly church meeting was held. Now this was a very different service than back home. There were no special lights, no full band pumping a precise amount of decibels into the crowd, no funny video that tied into the message and not really much of a plan. Instead it was about ten faithful villagers sharing the room with tons of bugs, most I had never seen before, a very large fly that sounded more like a motorcycle than a fly, a very large gecko and us. Although I could not understand more than five words of the message, it was one of the best Church experiences I have ever had. Seeing what little possessions they had and what little they had to work with, and yet the joy of the Lord still exploded from them as they worshiped with just a single guitar strumming the melody and as they took to heart the words from the pastor. The old man next to me brought his reading glasses, which were just frames, lenses and a rubber band to keep them on his head to follow along in one of his few possessions, his Bible. Most of the people there we had seen either come in from the fields or come home from their jobs only a short while before. Throughout the service I could not stop thinking how beautiful the simplicity of it all was. There were no distractions. It wasn’t a show, it was just church. Only a pastor and a faithful group who all took the role of greeter so it wasn’t just one smiling face to greet you, but a whole congregation. How beautiful the body of Christ is.
After have the encounter with the chickens and walking around for a bit, also confirming the fact that all Thai people are very smiley, the weekly church meeting was held. Now this was a very different service than back home. There were no special lights, no full band pumping a precise amount of decibels into the crowd, no funny video that tied into the message and not really much of a plan. Instead it was about ten faithful villagers sharing the room with tons of bugs, most I had never seen before, a very large fly that sounded more like a motorcycle than a fly, a very large gecko and us. Although I could not understand more than five words of the message, it was one of the best Church experiences I have ever had. Seeing what little possessions they had and what little they had to work with, and yet the joy of the Lord still exploded from them as they worshiped with just a single guitar strumming the melody and as they took to heart the words from the pastor. The old man next to me brought his reading glasses, which were just frames, lenses and a rubber band to keep them on his head to follow along in one of his few possessions, his Bible. Most of the people there we had seen either come in from the fields or come home from their jobs only a short while before. Throughout the service I could not stop thinking how beautiful the simplicity of it all was. There were no distractions. It wasn’t a show, it was just church. Only a pastor and a faithful group who all took the role of greeter so it wasn’t just one smiling face to greet you, but a whole congregation. How beautiful the body of Christ is.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
The Hottest Day of My Life and Pig's Blood (but not the hottest pig's blood)
So as I sit here this evening, with the rain falling outside, my fan turned on high pointed right at my face and it still feeling like the hottest day of my life, I am still enjoying this amazing place. Having my favorite food readily available to eat on just about every street corner, costing me a grand total of about 75 cents, is just one reason among many why I can’t wait to be alive tomorrow! So far I am pleased with the lack of large bugs to cross my path, especially ones on my body, and love the fact that at random times I may see a gecko run full speed across the wall. I also enjoy seeing chickens strolling down the street without a care in the world acting like they own the place while I flash them a grin and secretly think of how they will taste on my next amazing tasting Thai dish. Speaking of eating, today I sampled pig blood (yes it actually went in my mouth, down my throat and is now in my stomach) and surprisingly it wasn’t all that bad. I think it was about 80% mental and 20% texture of it that makes me not want to order that mysterious noodle soup again, but it was a great experience.
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays are ultimate Frisbee day and let me tell you that playing here is a different game than back home (for those of you who don’t know, ultimate Frisbee is kind of a cross between hockey, American football and rest of the world football but played with a Frisbee). You see playing on a field that is half large grass clumps to trip on and the rest dirt with most of the other players dying alongside of you because of the extreme heat makes it a bit more challenging, but I figure that since I’m enjoying the Thai food so much, I should try to make it as much as I can.
For the past few days, Sinn and I have been able to be a part of an IMB (International Mission Board) conference as members of the worship team. Attending the conference are around three-hundred missionaries from the Southeast Asia area. The whole experience has been amazing from testimonies and experiences told by different people to having conversations with them over lunch and hearing their longings for wanting everyone to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and also them encouraging me to be bold over the next few weeks here in Chiang Mai and beyond to when I head back home to never stop sharing the gospel every chance I get.
Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays are ultimate Frisbee day and let me tell you that playing here is a different game than back home (for those of you who don’t know, ultimate Frisbee is kind of a cross between hockey, American football and rest of the world football but played with a Frisbee). You see playing on a field that is half large grass clumps to trip on and the rest dirt with most of the other players dying alongside of you because of the extreme heat makes it a bit more challenging, but I figure that since I’m enjoying the Thai food so much, I should try to make it as much as I can.
For the past few days, Sinn and I have been able to be a part of an IMB (International Mission Board) conference as members of the worship team. Attending the conference are around three-hundred missionaries from the Southeast Asia area. The whole experience has been amazing from testimonies and experiences told by different people to having conversations with them over lunch and hearing their longings for wanting everyone to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and also them encouraging me to be bold over the next few weeks here in Chiang Mai and beyond to when I head back home to never stop sharing the gospel every chance I get.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
A Little Jet-Lag and a Lot of Sweat
Thailand is great. I love it. The past few days of getting used to life here have been great. I discovered the little jet-lag I had is slowly wearing off. I’ve been able to stay up an hour later every evening. Maybe tonight I’ll make it til eleven! The other night when a few students were over and I announced that I was headed to bed at nine, they all gave me a weird look as if to say, “Why? It’s only nine.” And I would probably ask myself the same thing if I was totally adjusted to the time.
My hosts, Sinn and Ann, are great. Sinn and I have played lots of guitar together and have gone back and forth dominating each other in Pro Evolution Soccer (the Thai version of FIFA). Ann and I have chatted about the old days since her and her sister Nan used to babysit the Nyquist children from time to time way back 14 years ago. They both have such big hearts for seeing Thai young adults come to know Jesus. Every night I have been here, there have been different people over either hanging out or doing Bible study. Their door is never shut to these people. They speak English very well, which helps a great deal in my situation. Sinn taught me the word “fa-rang” which means “foreigner” so whenever I hear people say that, I know their talking about me. The only thing now is I have no idea what they’re saying. Yesterday I was doing some work outside at Sinn and Ann’s new house they’re moving in to next month and my new friend, Phi Phin Johng, and I were doing various jobs, all outside mind you, to help get it ready. At first it was challenging because he spoke very little English and all I could really add to the conversation in Thai was, “It’s very hot out.” At lunch over one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time, he told me he wanted to learn English and called me Ah-jahn (teacher) Ryan the rest of the day. The pastor of the church joked that him calling me Ah-jahn was prophesy that I would come back one day as a pastor in Thailand, because pastors are also ah-jahn’s.
If I didn’t sweat enough working outside, I definitely did later the same day playing ultimate Frisbee on CMU (Chiang Mai University) campus. Thankfully about half of our two hour game the sun was behind clouds, but still it felt like a million degrees out. As I was peeling my shirt off my body, it felt like I just got out of a pool that I had jumped into with my clothes on.
There is a large young missionary presence here in Chiang Mai around the university. Just a few are Keith and Woody, who are on YWAM staff and work in a café set up by YWAM across the street from CMU. Since less than 1% of Thai people call themselves Christians, you don’t see many churches around, which is very different from home because driving down Summit Avenue in Saint Paul you see about ten in just a few mile stretch. But the Kingdom of God is here in this place and is growing, one Thai person at a time.
My hosts, Sinn and Ann, are great. Sinn and I have played lots of guitar together and have gone back and forth dominating each other in Pro Evolution Soccer (the Thai version of FIFA). Ann and I have chatted about the old days since her and her sister Nan used to babysit the Nyquist children from time to time way back 14 years ago. They both have such big hearts for seeing Thai young adults come to know Jesus. Every night I have been here, there have been different people over either hanging out or doing Bible study. Their door is never shut to these people. They speak English very well, which helps a great deal in my situation. Sinn taught me the word “fa-rang” which means “foreigner” so whenever I hear people say that, I know their talking about me. The only thing now is I have no idea what they’re saying. Yesterday I was doing some work outside at Sinn and Ann’s new house they’re moving in to next month and my new friend, Phi Phin Johng, and I were doing various jobs, all outside mind you, to help get it ready. At first it was challenging because he spoke very little English and all I could really add to the conversation in Thai was, “It’s very hot out.” At lunch over one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time, he told me he wanted to learn English and called me Ah-jahn (teacher) Ryan the rest of the day. The pastor of the church joked that him calling me Ah-jahn was prophesy that I would come back one day as a pastor in Thailand, because pastors are also ah-jahn’s.
If I didn’t sweat enough working outside, I definitely did later the same day playing ultimate Frisbee on CMU (Chiang Mai University) campus. Thankfully about half of our two hour game the sun was behind clouds, but still it felt like a million degrees out. As I was peeling my shirt off my body, it felt like I just got out of a pool that I had jumped into with my clothes on.
There is a large young missionary presence here in Chiang Mai around the university. Just a few are Keith and Woody, who are on YWAM staff and work in a café set up by YWAM across the street from CMU. Since less than 1% of Thai people call themselves Christians, you don’t see many churches around, which is very different from home because driving down Summit Avenue in Saint Paul you see about ten in just a few mile stretch. But the Kingdom of God is here in this place and is growing, one Thai person at a time.
Sunday, July 4, 2010
First Experiences
A hop, skip and a jump and I am finally here! First of all, welcome to my blog. This is the first of hopefully many entries to share my experiences with you all as I spend the next month in Thailand. Some entries may have deep thoughts and others may be just to share about the monkey I saw or something like that. If I can figure out how to get pictures and video up I’ll do that too.
So far I don’t seem to be under too much jet-lag which is great because I’d rather be experiencing the Thai culture than sleeping my day away. I suppose sleeping almost eleven hours straight on my plane across the pacific and going to the 4th of July celebration here in Chiang Mai gave me reasons to stay up most of the day yesterday. While riding on the back of a motorcycle with my new friend Win driving, I thought I was going to die multiple times. Ok maybe not die, but my heart was beating faster than normal at least. Not because he was a bad driver, but completely the opposite. He was great, but motorcycles don’t exactly follow the lanes. My knees were within inches of cars multiple times on the trip, but he knew exactly what he was doing. I most likely won’t be taking one out while I’m here.
I don’t know what culture shock feels like so I can’t tell you if I’m going through it, but I can say that it is very different from home. Besides driving on the opposite side of the roads and the drivers sitting on the opposite side of the car, the sounds, smells and the sights are all different. I can’t wait to get out and experience it some more!
“The Lord challenges us to suffer persecutions and to confess Him. He wants those who belong to Him to be brave and fearless. He Himself shows how weakness of the flesh is overcome by courage of the Spirit. This is the testimony of the apostles and in particular of the representative, administrating Spirit. A Christian is fearless.”-Tertullian
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)