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.