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. :)