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With the threat of heavy storms and possible flooding, one province in Thailand is attempting to thwart the potential danger by praying to any and all gods that they think could perhaps rescue them. The above picture is from a ceremony this week. Each of these four religious groups had 15 minutes for prayer or chanting (Christians/Catholics, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists). The prayers were then concluded by several hundred Buddhist monks chanting in unison.

As part of the ceremony people brought alms to give to the monks that were present. By doing so they hope to gain spiritual merit, which would presumably factor into whether or not their city will remain safe from harm.

First, what do you think about Christians participating in an event like this? Any strong opinions either way?
Secondly, it reminded me of something I read this year about Thailand (referred to as Siam at the time of the writing) being so open to missionary activity and yet so unmoved by it, so unresponsive to the work of the missionaries. The author quoted an older writer as saying there was no place in the world that more fully embodied those two characteristics. In my mind, a ceremony like this one illustrates that statement perfectly.

Jamie and Preston made it home on Tuesday. We’ll post pictures as soon as we can. This is just to let everyone know they’re back. Both of them are trying to get their bodies to readjust to this time zone and to rest after a short but very busy trip to the States.

As if the recent post about Chinese and Thai and English all being spoken at once was confusing enough, we thought we’d throw Spanish into the mix. Jamie and Preston were in state number 4 on their tour: the site for her brother’s wedding, and their last stop before returning to Thailand. While Preston was in the room sleeping Jamie was in the hallway using her dad’s computer to talk with me on skype. The housekeeping staff were making their rounds so Jamie told the woman she didn’t need to clean room 410. She didn’t understand her so Jamie asked me how to say it in Spanish. Jamie relayed the message to her and she replied (in Spanish), “Room 410?” Jamie’s response was yes, but she said it in Thai. At that point I don’t know which of them felt more confused. So she just told me to talk to the woman through skype. She pointed and the computer and asked the lady to talk with me. I explained in Spanish that our son was sleeping in that room so she didn’t want it cleaned. She understood the message and seemed to be thoroughly amused at her experience of talking to a guy in Thailand through the computer of a woman sitting on the floor of the hotel hallway. I know we were amused by it.

Also, Update on Jamie: It’s now Sunday morning Stateside and Jamie and Preston have started their long journey back to Thailand. They’ll be in Chiang Mai on Tuesday morning and I’ll be waiting for them! It feels like they’ve been gone for so long.

Yesterday five of us got together for some time during the afternoon. Everyone could speak at least two languages, but we didn’t all speak the same language, so things were constantly being translated into one language or another. Two of us were Americans; two were Chinese and one was Thai. The Thai could speak Thai and Chinese, but no English. The other American can speak Chinese but not Thai. The Chinese spoke Chinese and English, but no Thai. And I can’t speak Chinese. If we all spoke in English, I would translate into Thai. If they were all speaking Chinese, the American would translate into English or the Thai would translate into Thai. It was a lot of fun. I especially got a kick out of watching/listening to the conversations that were a complete back-and-forth mixture of English and Chinese, yet were still intelligible (well, not to me, but to them at least).

Lots of Chinese students are spending a semester or a year here in Thailand, so we’re meeting with some of them and hoping to see some start to believe while they’re here. One girl came to faith recently and some friends are discipling her and helping her understand what it means to follow Jesus. It’s fascinating to hear of her experience of learning the story of the Bible for the first time. I can barely remember what that like for me 10-11 years ago. And even then I was coming from a background that was familiar with the stories that I had known since childhood. It’s completely different for someone out here to come from a background of Buddhism/animism/atheism/Communism/etc. It can be very confusing for them at times, but also very powerful, hope-giving and liberating. May we see more and more people learning what it means to follow Jesus and then taking that back into China or wherever their home may be.

I need some help with a bit of cultural interpretation. I thought I knew what to expect when a pitcher hits the batter and he charges the mound. I was mistaken. The Koreans apparently have a different method for dealing with things like this. Can anyone tell me what these guys are doing?

Love mom is the English that you see translated on lots of things at this time of year (it stands for something more like we love mom. Tuesday of this week (August 12th) was Mother’s Day, celebrated on Queen Sirikit’s birthday. We didn’t get to celebrate together as Jamie and Preston are back in the States, but I thought I’d use it as an opportunity to let you all know that Jamie is a fantastic mother. She loves being a mom and takes it so seriously (but as a calling, not the same way as someone takes their job seriously) and brings so much joy to it. Preston doesn’t quite realize it yet but someday he’ll see what a great mom he has. He’ll tell me that I made a great choice…and I’ll tell him I agree.

Did you watch the opening ceremony for the Olympics on Friday? What an experience that was! Some of my thoughts:

1. Never underestimate the show that can be put on by a country of one billion people when they know the whole world is watching and they have something to prove.
2. The amount of people moving on and off the floor was unbelievable. I’d love to know the total amount of people involved in the ceremony.
3. Have you ever seen that many drummers at once? It wasn’t just the drummers but all the segments where they literally had thousands of people involved (and completely synchronized) were incredible to see. It was just one ‘wow’ after another.
4. Great fireworks, and they weren’t limited to the stadium but looked like they were going off all over the city (I read something in the news last week about their plans to use a special type of fireworks that would cut down on the smoke for the “Green Olympics” so I’d hate to see what the sky would have looked like if that hadn’t been the case).
5. We watched with a Chinese friend who could help us understand different Chinese characters that were displayed, the significance of certain costumes or what the songs were about. That added a lot to the experience.
6. It was exciting to see them represent the ethnic minorities. Most of China’s minorities live in the Southwest (just north of us here) and many of our colleagues work with these groups.
7. Most of what we watched was on Thai TV, so we listened to the Thai commentary. A friend told us about a site with streaming video so we muted the television and opened it up online, to watch on our TV but listen on the computer speakers. It worked for a few minutes but then was too choppy so we went back to Thai.
8. I kept wondering if anything bad would happen — like protesters or some group boycotting or anything like that. I understand all the bad publicity the Chinese government has been receiving over issues in Burma, Darfur and their own human rights issues, but I am glad that nobody (successfully) sabotaged the ceremony.
9. You knew the torch was going to be good, but who expected that? When the older gold medalists were doing their lap around the track and passing the flame to one another I thought it was getting boring and was sure that this wasn’t it. Certainly they had something planned for the wow factor, something they thought could never be outdone. And then it happened. Well done, China.
10. The Parade of Nations is where they lose a lot of people during the opening ceremonies but I really like this part. There aren’t many settings in the world today where you can bring the entire world together like this. I don’t want to overspiritualize this, but there’s something so special about seeing this massive gathering with all these nations represented, especially when so many of the athletes come out wearing some sort of national dress or something to represent their home and their culture. I can’t help but watch it and think about the even bigger gathering which will take place at the end of history, when all the nations will be gathered together around the Lamb of God. It reminds me of the first time I remember a truly multicultural worship service, in Beijing actually, in 2001. There were worshipers from several different countries who gathered together each week (but Chinese weren’t allowed, we had to show our passports to get in). I felt like I had been given a taste of heaven, just a tiny little sample of something much greater that is yet to come.

Click HERE or HERE for some GREAT photos from the ceremony.

This week was one of too many good-byes. None of them were necessarily permanent, but that didn’t make it any easier. The first was on Wednesday, while dropping off our closest friends in Thailand at the airport. They have been like family for us here in Thailand but just moved to China and have begun a massive transition — moving their family to a new culture, setting up their home, learning a new language, meeting new people, helping their kids understand what’s going on, etc.

The other two goodbyes came yesterday. First, Jamie and Preston left to go to Bangkok for the night and then head to the States this morning. It’s so hard to not be traveling with them and to not be able to help Jamie. I hope that people in the US are as sweet and helpful as the Thais have been. I talked with Jamie this morning and she told me about everyone helping her with her bags so she could take care of Preston. We’re hoping he’ll sleep okay on the flights and that there will be an empty seat next to them for Jamie to put his car seat.

After dropping off Jamie and Preston I went to pick up other friends to take them to the airport. We’ve become close with the Eichers over the years and are so appreciative of their friendship and the way they’ve touched our lives. They were instrumental in some of the biggest milestones in our life — like the organization we’re now a part of and talking through things and giving advice to us when we were trying to start our family. We will miss them so much, but are excited to see them when we’re back in the States next year.

God has provided some wonderful friends for us out here, so even though it is difficult to see people go, I’m confident that He’ll continue to do the same thing. This is just one of the less pleasant parts of life overseas that we have to get used to (although I’m not sure that we ever will).

Many of you know that we started a house church fellowship a little over a month ago. Below is a picture of last Sunday. The couple below are friends of ours. They said they would bring tea for our gathering on Sunday; they went all out and we had some of the most amazing tea ever.