Christmas Outreach at the Office

Our biggest outreach event was an adult Christmas party at the church on the Saturday before Christmas. We invited our neighbors, English students, and random friends from all over to come eat, play games, exchange presents, and hear about the Truth of Christmas. Praise God for the turnout and the fun had together.
Thai staff, missionaries, various church members, and random other people still at the party during clean-up.
Dave shared about what Christmas is all about amidst the chaos of the evening. The downstairs of our office was full! We pray that many good friendships were deepened and the meaning of Christmas was understood.
Hong, another English student of mine, and her mom also showed up for the party. Her mom turned to me in the food line to talk about Christmas. She knew it was Jesus's birthday. but as I talked, I thought how we have lots of Thai holidays for people's birthdays. It probably doesn't sound very special to her. I wish and hope some of the message of the evening helped her understand.
I'm proud to acknowledge May, in the gray shirt, as one of my English students. He lost at a game, and was forced to dance in front of everyone. But it doesn't look like he's hating it. :)
We played a Thai-version of the traditional present exchange game. I would go forward, choose a number, and whoever's present had that number would have to come and give it to me. No stealing. I received this awesome Banana Brothers piggybank.

Mahathai Christmas

This year was our first year to hold Christmas at Mahathai's new community center. We had a Christmas play by the children, a dance performance, a sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and good fellowship of games and food. Praise God for the people who heard the Gospel as well as the new friendships made that evening.

So many people came out that we've never met. And as we went around to invite people, they all seemed willing to go. What an answer to prayer to see more unity in the community as well as interest in our activities there.

The losers of any game have to stand up front and look like folks while doing a dance like grilled chicken.

A lot of make-up and hair doing happens before any production here, no matter how small. Its all about the presentation!

Some of the characters for our nativity play during the party. The pictures didn't come out so well of the actual play. Don't you think even the sheep is smiling underneath that paper plate?

A bunch of the kids and teens surprised us with a whole dance performance during the evenings. They were so excited and smiling through the whole thing. I enjoyed seeing them take ownership of the evening.

Pawn and Kieow holding two of the cutest kids at Mahathai. The one on the right's name is Butter, and she just started letting me hold her. She lives next door to the community center where I go almost everyday.

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

Merry Christmas, everyone. Thanks for your thoughts of me over the holidays that bring you to check up on my blog. Thanks for your prayers for me over this season. This Christmas marks my second round through of celebrating here in Thailand. Today, the colder season showed signs of being gone, as I was sweating riding in the back of the truck to shop for Rachel's Christmas present. The poinsettias set out in front of the shopping center in the shape of a Christmas tree were slightly sad looking in a "We need water!" way. But their attempt for Christmas was admirable. And most of all, being able to spend Christmas Eve with one of my team member's families makes the season more complete. We still had some hot chocolate, hamburgers, and Polar Express watching. And of course we read from the Bible about the Christmas story--about Mary's response to the angel when he told her she was going to be the mother of Jesus. May my response to being here during this season be equal in the faithfulness of Mary. God is doing good things here, and I am honored to be his servant. (Pictures of all the amazing things God has done already this month are forthcoming...)

Great Thai Names

Thai people have really long real first names. Actually, just some are really long. Maybe I should suggest, Supercalifragulisticitspialidocious. But, anyway, so they all have nicknames too. Lots of different ones, as you've seen from my website.

Well, the newest neighbor to our community center at Mahathai is "Donut"! And his sister's name is "Butter". And they are just about cute enough to eat up! Pictures later....

Who is Jesus?

On Saturday, we had a Christmas party for our Childrens' English classes. We teach three classes, about 30 kids. This party was just the beginning of Christmas parties here, we have another tonight and one on Saturday for other ministries at the church. Though they involve a lot of work, the parties offer amazing opportunities to share Christmas with people.

As we sat around a felt board, Pawn shared the Christmas story. Five words were in English to teach them--sheep, baby...and Jesus. When Rachel introduced the word Jesus, my students turned to me and asked, "Who's Jesus?" They had never heard of that word in Thai or English. Then as the story continued, one of my students' mom begin thinking aloud with me trying to clarify, "So, Jesus is God?" Wow, what a great opportunity for them to know that Christmas is not just a Western holiday about Santa Claus. Please pray for God's name to be made known and for their hearts to be open to hear!

More Singing...

My English class and Rachel's had their test today to end their 20 hours of instruction until next cycle. We had some spicy papaya salad together and sang the 12 Days of Christmas. Big hit! (We didn't have time for the Thai version, but thanks for all your help on ideas.) At the end of the song, Pack said he would ditch that girlfriend because she's too expensive! All those presents! :)

Singing Salesman

A honey salesman just stopped by our office. When we bought honey from him, gave him some Christmas brownies, and departed with "God bless you"....he begun singing for us in gratitude. He's still singing....

Wild Cow Flowers?

Yesterday, one teenager from Mahathai gave me a big yellow flower. When Tang saw it, she said, "Watch out!" If I smelled the flower I was holding, I would go crazy because some kids in her village did once! The flower's name was the Wild Cow Flower!

Pray for my Neighbor

My neighbor, Oom, just split up with her husband. She owns a noodle stand across from my house. We have been friends since I first came here, deepening when she asked me about Christianity last year after Christmas. Since then, we've had opportunities to pray with her. She has a two year old son who lives with her parents in the NE area. Her husband was always against her coming to church with us. So now that he's "out of the picture," I pray that God would be working on her heart. Please do pray for her heart, her business she's managing alone, and for her to have enough money to provide for her son. Christmas time would be a great time for her to visit our church.

Merry or Happy?

My Thai housemate walked around saying "Merry Thanksgiving" on Thanksgiving day. When she realized it was "Happy" she asked me why. Why do we only wish "Merry" for Christmas and "Happy" for Thanksgiving and New Year?

Either way, the house is decorated for Christmas now, thanks to all the interns in the past that have left their decorations here. And two small trees and some Christmas music. Happy Christmas and Merry New Year's!

Since last time I blogged....

...the airports are open!

...Thailand no longer wears yellow or red unless you want to be identified with one of the previous protesting political parties.

...the King of Thailand turned 81 years old! But he's in the hospital and wasn't able to attend his party, so please pray for him.

...I ordered a pork salad which somehow included squid....I guess that's an assumption that everyone likes squid with their pork?

...I wore pants one day because it was almost chilly!

...I began creating a Thai re-vamp of the "12 Days of Christmas" for our Thai church's Christmas parties over the next two weeks! Any suggestions?

The Moon is Smiling

Tonight, while teaching English, Ming received a phone call from her brother-in-law. The class was interrupted for the news, "The moon is smiling!" What? We had to stop class and run outside to search for the moon between our tall buildings. Finally seeing it between some power lines at the end of our street, there it was. The moon was in the shape of a smiling mouth with two bright stars as the eyes.

Amidst the tough instabilities in Thailand, I felt like Noah and his family after the flood when they saw the rainbow. God promised them not to have another flood like that one on the earth. And God reminded me tonight of his promise that He is working in this earth through that smiling moon. Amen.

Thai Idioms

Last night, while sweeping the last of the stairs in our house to finish my cleaning sweep, one of my housemates came in and saw me. She exclaimed, "It's going to rain tomorrow!" Somehow or another, my cleaning caused her to predict the weather tomorrow? (And badly if she was because it's probably not going to rain today, its now "cold season.")

I replied, "An idiom?" She said, yes, it was an idiom...something about being blessed with my cleaning. I figure that idiom meant either she was blessed by my cleaning yesterday or she was surprised I was cleaning because it happens about as often as it rains during cold season. :)