In The News

Tuesday night I got back to Bangkok, only to discover that the protesters had become more than just a nuisance. Instead they decided to get the world's attention by closing down one of the largest airports in Asia causing thousands of travellers to be stranded there. We weren't sure what exactly was going on when we got there, only that there was a mass of people trying to get out of the airport and taxi's refused to take people out for less than 800 baat. We turned them down at first because we though they were just scammers. Then I noticed that I got a message from Dang who was worried about us. She called me and told us to get out because the protesters were building blockades and eventually no one could get in there. We were blessed to get a taxi that only charged 700baat for the trip home. Nonetheless we made it and are safe. Mostly everyone here is frustrated because of what they are doing to the economy and for inciting alot of unnecessary fear. A lot of people here depend on tourism for their livelihood, and this is the high tourism season. Already several hotels have announced that they will have to lay people off next month because everyone has cancelled their reservations. We just pray that this will end soon and that no one else will be hurt. For now it's life as usually for most people here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So this was definitely the most unusual Thanksgiving I've ever celebrated. It started like every other day, meaning I went to school. The temperature outside was a cool 77ish degrees that morning. I had Thanksgiving lunch in a Thai garage kitchen which consisted of rice and spicy crispy pork with stir-fryed vegetables. Then things got a little more normal. We went to Pastor Bob and Diana's house for dinner. They invited everyone from church and the office, but only about 14 people were there at various times. Pastor Bob's brother wasn't feeling well so he and his wife had to miss out on Turkey ;( Here's Diana getting the Turkey ready to eat. We had lots of Thai fruit, and desserts as well as the American standard mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, yams and pumpkin pie! Mmmmm-mmm good! After dinner we all sat down for a Thanksgiving devotion led by Pastor Bob, and then we just visited with each other. It was a great evening. When I got home that night I called my family and got to be the computer in the room. It wasn't the same as sitting around the family table but at least I got to say hi to everyone and wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.

Hong Kong

I don't even know where to start! My visa expired on the 24th, so that meant it was time for my first visa run. According to the other missionaries in Hong Kong, it was the perfect month to do it, and I can't say I disagree! Hong Kong is such an entirely different city from Bangkok, so I spent most of the time there in a daze. For one thing Hong Kong is hilly and mountainous and everything is dense and compact. There are hundreds of skyscrapers there and incredible views of the city everywhere you go. Even from our guest house we had a pretty good night view. Transportation was really convienient and had us going all over the city in a relatively short period of time. The Thai Embassy didn't open until Monday morning so Sunday we did other things to keep us busy. First went to the LCMS-WM office and met up with everyone taking the shuttle van to church on Hong Kong island. That's where I met Carl Hanson and his family, as well as Hank Rowland, a good friend of my former Pastor. We concluded as good Lutherans always do, that the Lutheran world is ever small.

Church was so nice. The people there were very friendly. Carl led a great bible study and we got to sing hymns with an organ (for some that's not a big deal, but believe me it was great.) Afterwards we took pictures and chatted with people. We took the shuttle bus back to the office and went to lunch at the guest house restaurant. They gave us the wrong food, but at least it had rice, so we got something to eat. I also had almond milk, which was interesting and reminded me of Christmas cookies that are baked with almond extract.

That afternoon was spent exploring with Emily who lives in Hong Kong and is friends with Sarah. She took us to the Peak via the Peak tram. I would definitely recommend it for anyone visiting. Even though the weather was a little hazy we still had incredible views of the city from the Peak. We had American food at Bubba Gumps with a window view of the city. I hadn't eaten a burger since I left the States, so it tasted really good. I could only eat half of it though because the portions in Hong Kong are huge compared with Bangkok. By the time we made it back we were pretty tired.

On Monday we made our way to the Thai Embassy by 9:15. Once we got all the paper work in order, it only took 10 minutes. We left around 11am and met Josh from the LCMS-WM office. He was our tour guide for part of the afternoon and evening. He took us to this great noodle shop, where we got beef brisket noodles that tasted just like beef stew! I had no idea where we were going as we wound in and around these hilly streets. I know we walked past the world's longest escalator, and then found ourselves at a buddhist temple, surprisingly the first one I had seen in all of Hong Kong. It was interesting to notice the difference from Thai Wats and the Chinese temple. For one thing, I was able to take pictures to show them to people and give them more of an idea of what I'm talking about. Imagine trying to describe this room filled with burning incense spirals that are supposed to take these prayers written on the cards to spirits or whatever they believe it's good for?

After a break at the guest house we went to a market, and then met Josh for dinner for the "best burger in town". Then, we went to a night market and bartered for some cool Christmas presents. By the time we got back to the guest house, I wanted to do nothing but sleep.

Tuesday came and we already had to pack to go home. We picked up our passports from the embassy and spent our free time taking a cable-car ride up a mountain and to see the "Big Buddha"- a glorified tourist destination and great calve workout. For me I was glad to make it all the way up without stopping. We took our pictures and then checked out the monastary nearby. That was pretty cool looking, and also nice that we were allowed to just take pictures anywhere.

After our picture taking was over we headed back to the office to pick up our stuff and catch a flight back to Thailand. That proved to be interesting itself. More about that later. For more pictures of the trip click here.

Friends in ALL places

So, I get a message from Bryn this week, "we have a PLI team from TX and WI visiting Bangkok this week and they would like to meet up with you and Sarah or anyone else there if you have time, let me know if it will work."

....I still don't know what a PLI team is, BUT we met some of them today and had a great time! Pastor Wayne Braun and his wife Linda from Texas along with Pastor John ? and his wife Stephanie from Milwaukee treated us to lunch at their hotel, and man was it a treat. They stayed at the Bangkok Marriot on the Chao Praya River. Sarah and I got off the train just in time to catch the river taxi over there. On the way there we got fresh, cold towelettes that smelled like lemons to refresh ourselves. The weather was absolutely beautiful today probably because it was cloudy making it not so hot.

Their hotel was really nice. We met them upstairs in the lobby and then ate at the buffet lunch. I can't remember the last time I ate that much food. I really enjoyed chatting with them and getting to know them. They were so friendly. After lunch they wanted to go to shopping at Siam, so we went with them. Once again I got to be Tour-Guide-Barbie-Betsy as Sarah Steiner calls me. I love knowing a place well enough that I can make visitors enjoy their time there. I think it just makes the experience all the more meaningfull and enjoyable. Plus it was the first time I felt like this was my city; neat! So the first place we went to at Siam was in the Paragon food hall. I bought them some fried bananas which they loved and then we watched the chef's make roti (and then we ate it of course). They were looking for more Thai souvenir stuff, so then we took them to MBK. Even if you don't buy anything there, it's still an experience in itself. It's like wall to wall stores ranging from Jewelry and shoes, to cell phones and pirated movies. It's not quite a flea market or market, but it's not like an established store in the states. I mean, no one walks into Old Navy and tries to barter the price of a shirt with the sales clerk. Even though the stores are semi-questionable occasionally MBK is a very modern building and thousands of people go through it every day. Quite the difference from our version of a shopping mall. Stephanie was looking for shoe's, but struck out. By the time we made it through the souvenir area, we were all pretty tired and it was already 5pm. They had dinner reservations and we had to head back. We parted ways at the Siam interchange station, glad to have made 4 new friends. Here's me with John, Stephanie, Linda and Wayne.

Respects to the Princess

This weekend the entire Kingdom of Thailand is in mourning at the funeral of the King's sister Galayani Wattana. She died earlier this year in January of cancer at the age of 84. She was very much loved by the people of this country. Much like the King and Queen she was known for her work in helping the people of Thailand.

It may seem unusual for many reading this to think that they waited 11 months before they had her funeral, but this is apparently not unusual for the arrangements of Thai royalty to take this long. It seems to be a combination of Buddhist traditions as well as planning the event that led to this day. It is my understanding from what I've been told that when any person dies here, they are usually embalmed and the person stays with the family for awhile. Depending on how wealthy the person is they will stay at the temple and priests will pray for them even as long as 100 days. After this, the person is then cremated in a public ceremony with friends and family members present. Till this week, the princess has been lying in state at the Grand Palace.

I wasn't sure exactly when her funeral was supposed to be, but when Sarah and I were walking down the street today it was pretty evident what was going on, as 4 out of 5 people were dressed in black. Right after she died, everyone dressed in mourning clothes for 3 months. The funeral procession was quite elaborate and involved thousands of marching soldiers and a huge gilded crematorium of which, I've only seen pictures. I imagine that there would have been no way for us to go to the funeral as millions of other people were there, and we would have no clue what was going on. Still, I think it is interesting to note the extreme dedication, love and respect for the royal family that the Thai people have. Many are hoping that this time of unity will continue even after the mourning is over.

Loi Krathong

Well, that was interesting. Tonight in Thailand they are celebrating an event called Loi Krathong or the "festival of light". All night I've been listening to fireworks and the sounds of music from our apartment buildings celebration down by the pool. The celebrations here I guess are various and range from a week long celebration in Chiang Mai or big parades and fireworks, costume contests and float contests in Sukothai where it originated. I tried to look it up online to figure out just what it is, and of course I got 5 different stories. Anyway, Sarah's landlord really loves inviting Sarah to do various activities and tonight she invited us to come along to the celebrations they were having at our apartment building. We weren't so sure about what we were supposed to do when we got there and certainly didn't want them to expect us to pray to the Buddha or anything like that. Thankfully she knows we are Christian, so we were pretty confident we wouldn't have to do anything like that. Most people in Bangkok will go to a Wat or go to the Chao Praya river to celebrate with huge crowds of people, but large businesses and apartment buildings also have their own. Our apartment building made a makeshift pond outside our pool area for everyone to take part in the festival. Traditionally people buy or make these floats made of banana leaves and flowers, but they also have ones that are made out of bread. Sarah's landlord had bought floats for us and her friend that was with her. I got one that was made out of green bread. When we got there there were lots of people milling around. Some were taking pictures, some were cooking food like it was a barbeque, others had tables set up where people could make their own floats, and there were lots of little kids dressed up in cute costumes running around with sparklers.We pretty much followed the Thai's lead, once we got our floats together and lit, we cast them out onto the water. According to Sarah's landlord this is supposed to represent letting go of bad feelings and wrong doings. It made me think of how as a Christian we could use that type of imagery to present the Gospel to the Thai people. Light and water are definitely powerful images in Christian teachings, as well as Buddhist teachings. So, how can we change the meaning of these symbols to celebrate Christ being the light of the world? Or how can we use the concept of water and baptism to parallel the symbolism in Buddhism of casting their sins on the water to cleanse themselves from evil. Perhaps that is how. In this place that is so darkened by Satan and his false teachings the light of Christ still shines brightly and through baptism we are daily renewed and washed clean of our sins. Here's one last glance at my float, even though many of the other lights had gone out this one was still shining :D

Anchor's Aweigh

From a Navy Brat:

There are few things in this world that I am more proud of than US Veterans. In my family I have 3, my parents and my Grandpa Karkan.I feel like it's hard to give proper recognition these days, as is seems that often expressing pride of patriotism is almost like a trend or fad that comes and goes around holidays and in times of national emergency. Because of this everyone has an ode to patriotism making it often dismissed as something worth attention.

This is why I think it's hard to explain what it is. For me this pride can only be expressed by the effect it has on me. It's what causes me to choke up every time I sing our anthem or other patriotic song. The same whenever I see our military on TV coming home and running into the arms of their loved ones they haven't seen in months. I think how that used to by my family watching and waiting in anticipation. See my mom with the glasses holding me?It's the swelling in my heart when I see an elderly veteran and hear him tell stories of going ashore on D-day and the camaraderie he had with his fellow soldiers. It's how I loved watching my Dad take so much pride in putting his flag up in the front yard every day with such dedication and respect, and how my mom took such care of our neighbors gravesite knowing that he would be honoured by such respect.It's the sense of community I feel when our whole town comes together to celebrate the freedom they share. It's the stark reality I feel at a funeral when a mother, widow, or child is presented with their flag and thanked for their service to country. As the 21-gun salute further makes this reality sting, it's then that I remember the famous saying that, "freedom isn't free." Lots of people have made many sacrifices in their lives to provide that for us, and some are still providing that today.

Freedom is bought with a price just like our salvation was bought with the price of Jesus' blood. Through His sacrifice we can live in freedom and enjoy His blessings that come with that. Even if you aren't an American and don't feel the same sense of American patriotism, I think it's wonderful to think that we can still share the same sense of pride having the same freedom we receive through Christ's sacrifice for all mankind.

God Bless America!

Mundane Mondays...

One thing I just realized is the same here in Thailand as it is in the US is that the sun goes down way early. It's 5:30ish and I had to turn a light on to work on my computer.

Anyway, I'm just now going into week 3 of module 3 and it's amazing how much I've learned. In the Thai language there are 44 consonants of which I've learned 35 plus all the long vowels, mixed vowels, and exceptions to the rule if a word has a consonant on the end of it. I've learned the 5 tones for 2 of the 3 consonant classes, and the corresponding tone marks for each class all in these 3 weeks! I still have to memorize a list of 20 words that only have this one vowel, but I'm working on it. So far, I can read pretty well, but I'm still practicing being able to write sentences that are dictated to me as I don't always hear the tones.

I am really enjoying our coffee breaks during this module. Several of the students have been studying there the whole time I've been there, so we all know each other pretty well. During breaks, we usually share information on the best dentist to go to, suggested remedies for eye infections, suggestions for why someone may not be sleeping well, advice on how difficult the next module is, etc. Awhile ago the discussion was the World Series. then US politics. Someone usually brings food to share with everyone, so the kitchen is often busy. One student manages to find the strangest things and we all eat it; sometimes it's really good-other times- not so much. (Don't try the nutmeg candy, it's gross). I just feel like a lot of information is shared during these short few minutes, including even possible contacts for mission projects here.

After school we usually eat lunch with the teachers(Khruu's). Today we just went to the school cafeteria and I made a unique observation in regards to the whole issue of a person's physical appearance. When I first noticed how it's normal for the Asian people at school to make light of people who are larger than the average Thai-stick-person I was really upset, but today it actually seemed ok. I know that's weird, but here's what happened. One of the teachers is overweight, yet she has absolutely no problems or insecurities about that, and neither does any of her friends. We were all sitting, eating having a good time talking about swimming and she laughed and said that she didn't need a float because she had enough fat around her waist to keep her afloat. Everyone laughed and it was as if she had made a plain joke. See for the people here, even though they talk or joke about another person's physical appearance, they never discriminate against that person, or it's not meant to be mean. That person still has friends of all shapes and sizes and isn't looked down upon or excluded because of their appearance. This is unlike in our society where only super-model stereotypes are considered beautiful, cool or popular, and everyone else has to face ridicule of some sort. I don't know, it just made me wonder, if our society did talk about appearances out in the open then would it be such a big deal? If no one cared what you look like, but rather what your personality was like then would we have so many people suffering from depression and insecurity? It seems like it's usually when people avoid talking about things that people start to look at it as something wrong, otherwise why don't they talk about it?

How's that for a mundane Monday?

Psalm 149:13 I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

Two-weeks in review :)

These past two weeks have been quite busy, and equally tiring. Many things have happened though, so I'll touch on as many as I can remember. Saturday the 25th, Sarah and I ventured out and visited the Dusit Palace nearby our apartment. We took a taxi there which kind of dropped us off on a sidewalk next to the Dusit Zoo. Since we didn't know what this place looked like, we assumed the role of lost tourists and ended up walking in a huge circle where we eventually found the right place. "Just follow that huge group of tourists that just got off that bus," Sarah says to me. If we would have started in the other direction we would have gotten there in 5 minutes not 35. The Dusit Palace is also called Vimanmek Mansion and made entirely out of golden teak wood. I felt like we were going to visit the White House by all the security we had to go through. We got our ticket stamped, herded to the lady who took our bags and cameras to store, herded to the lady who patted us down, walked through a metal detector and then pointed to a room where we had to take our shoes off, all before we were allowed in the mansion. The tour was really nice though and in English. We learned a lot about King Rama V and saw many gifts given to Thailand by other countries. Here's me afterwards :) Our ticket also included passes to other exhibits nearby. We went to the Queen's textile museum and learned about her project to promote and preserve traditional Thai textile making. After that we went to Ananda Samakhom throne hall. It was really impressive and reminded me of a European cathedral, only it was filled with Thai art, had Thai written on the ceilings instead of Latin, oh and there weren't any altars, choirs or iconography of Saints or Christ. Just as we were leaving it started raining. Perfect timing.

On the 28th I called my sister on the wonderful occasion of her 30th birthday! She may kill me for announcing that, but oh well! :D It was great to talk to her and hear that everything is going well at home. Ariana is being ornery and is transverse, so they are hoping she'll turn in the next few weeks.

The following Saturday,November 1st, I went to Goi and Seth's wedding with Sarah, La and Waen. The wedding was really nice and held at Church of Christ Thailand; an Anglican church, which we found out has English services there on Sunday, so we might visit some other time. Goi looked so beautiful and had a huge smile on her face all day. Seth of course looked equally happy and handsome. There were lots of wedding guests and the service was done in Thai and English led by Pastor Bob and Pastor Taweep. Though most of the wedding was western style there were some unique Thai elements. All the guests wore brightly colored clothing or anything that wasn't black. I tried to buy a new shirt for the wedding but the shopping experience turned out to be unsuccessful. (I now have a bright blue shirt with puffy sleeves, because I wasn't allowed to try it on.) It was so neat to see the older Thai women dressed to the nines. I was so impressed and found myself wishing that I could look as classy as they did some day. You could just tell that they spent a lot of time preparing for this day. When Goi and Seth recessed down the aisle people threw flowers on her train, which La told us is for good luck. The reception was a buffet of different finger foods and deserts-my favorite were the mocha pudding glasses. During the speeches Seth and Goi were adorned with beautiful flower necklaces and presented by the "president" of the ceremony. I am not sure how that works, but he was like the Grand Marshall sort of. It was nice also getting to know Seth's family. They were all in church both Sunday's so we got a chance to talk with them and get to know them. For the wedding Goi and Seth designed a logo which had elements that represented themselves, God, family, and the numbers of their wedding date. It was really neat and also attached to the wedding gift of potpouri we each received. I'll have pictures later, but I have to get them from someone else because I ran out of my apartment and forgot my camera.

Sunday the 2nd some missionary friends from Cambodia, Shannon, and Seth came to church with and lunch with us. They were here on a visa renewal run, and it was nice to get a chance to visit with them again. We met them the first time in St. Paul, MN for missionary training. Hopefully we can go see them in Cambodia one of these days :D They hung out for the afternoon before they had to go purchase return bus tickets.

Yesterday, Sarah and I visited the "big" bookstore at Emporium, where I got lost for nearly an hour. I was trying to find childrens Christmas books or anthing that had to do with Jesus' birth , but mostly found Santa Claus stuff, which was ok I guess. I ended up having an impromtu British themed afternoon as I bought a book called "Queing For Beginners" which talks about how the mundane parts of a typical English person's day became that way, it can relate to American's in many ways too. Really-it's interesting :D After that, Sarah and I found a restaurant that serves afternoon tea complete with scones, clotted cream and salmon sandwiches. We chatted with a super nice couple from Australia who are visiting Thailand for their daughter's wedding. That coupled with reading my new "British Phrasebook", made the afternoon really pleasant.

Sarah and I were at lunch in this little hole-in-the-wall place we go to with our teachers when we found out who the President was today. We couldn't understand what was being said but by the looks of the celebrations going on in Grant Park we guessed what happened. Mostly it just made me miss Chicago. Yesterday it was funny that I saw more of Ohio because of the news, than I have in the past 2 months. So that was exciting to finally know who our new president is. This picture isn't great, but my camera battery died. We've been going here every day for lunch lately. The lady in the middle is Sarah's teacher and the lady on the left is a module 5 teacher. After school today, we went there for lunch and then to Siam Paragon. Following last weeks toothache, I now have an ear infection. I've been taking IB profen like candy the past two weeks it seems, and now I have some antibiotic ear drops. Here in Thailand you don't need a prescription for most medicines, so I just had to tell the pharmacist that I had swimmer's ear and needed an antibiotic ear drop. We'll see how it goes. I suppose that's enough for today. I need to put some eardrops in and call it a night. God Bless you.

P.S. Happy Guy Fawkes Day!!!!