Our friends at Vineyard New Life in Bangkok. They are a great encouragement to us in Thailand! They have already visited us in Chiang Rai while passing through to Burma. Sukit, in the middle, is the pastor of the church and a dear friend who shares his wisdom about Thailand. Pray that God would give joy and blessing to Sukit and Vineyard New Life in Bangkok.
22.11.06
The Wow
I have been reading a book by this guy named Don Miller. The book is called Searching for God Knows What. Don lives in Portland (or he did when he wrote this book), and he has quite a unique style where he says what he believes without a lot of fluff. Often his feelings are not smoothly coated like the Pepto Bismo tablets we take here when the food from the market was not so fresh. However, that is not what I like most about his writings. He writes best when he speaks a word of truth fashioned in a style that forces me to come at truth in a new way. For instance, he was comparing our tendency to desire approval by others to a circus where all of the performers are trying to outdo each other with their extremities and where normality has become a reason for feeling dejected. Miller says, “I think Jesus is saying, Look, you guys are running around like monkeys trying to get people to clap, but people are fallen, they are separated from God, so they have no idea what is good or bad, worthy to be judged or set free, beautiful or ugly to begin with. Why not get your glory from God? Why not accept your feelings of redemption because of His pleasure in you, not the fickle and empty favor of man? And only then will you know who you are, and only then will you have true, uninhibited relationships with others.”
When I relate stories of what is going on in Thailand, I do not purposefully try to focus on the occurrences that would “wow” our friends and supporters and prayer support stateside. Yet, there is in me this desire for you to approve of what we are doing and agree that it is of critical importance. So it is convenient when one of those “wow” stories come along. Yet in the above quote I read that people are fallen and are not trustworthy to judge or determine beauty. In truth we are living for an audience of One. One who has great pleasure in me regardless of the “wow” or lack of “wow” in my day.
Even as I write this, a conviction comes upon me that my definition of “wow” is really messed up. Let me explain by sharing some details from this past week. Last week…
I rode my bike past fields of rice ready for harvest and watched farmers with sickles cut bundles of rice and wrap them in preparation to whack the bundles against the ground to detach the grains. Wow!
My kids studied with their mom and other missionary parents and/or volunteers at a small school called the Family Learning Center dedicated to giving kids a great education and sharing Christ. The kids studied with many children from Thailand and other various countries. They also studied Thai language and learned both Thai sword fighting and T-ball in P.E. Wow!
Our family ate all of our meals outside at our table on the covered front porch area. In Chiang Rai we spend much time outside because we can. The cold season will hardly get cold enough to force us indoors. Bugs? Who’s worried about bugs? All the little gecko lizards running around us eat the bugs. This past week, our table offered a partial view of the mountains when the humidity and the clouds went away. Wow!
Julie and I studied Thai for many hours and processed more about how the written Thai uses various consonant and vowel combinations (including vowels above, below, before and after consonants) in order to create words that are pronounced in one of five tones (middle, low, falling, high, and rising). With these skills we spoke and discerned tones and words with greater accuracy in our neighborhood, at the university, at the market, at the kids’ school, at the church we visited. Wow!
Jak, our newest addition, continued to run around…everywhere. And with him we continued to meet people everywhere we go. A western family with a dark skinned son always stirs up interest. Most Thais have an immediate affinity with him as one of their own. Thais are also much more likely to give him direction and tell him what to do than they ever do with Ben and Kate. Their idea seems to be that he is Thai and needs to learn how to act Thai. Wow!
Our family connected with a small church of college students. Students who love Jesus and want to see the Lord come to campus. They know their friends live trying to keep up with the next curve of fashion or trend in order to be accepted (sounds like a circus to me). Sadly, a majority of the students live each day scraping by and medicating their life with internet café video games/chat, alcohol, and TV game shows or soap operas. We also connected with a prayer movement dedicated to unifying the Christians reaching out to 15,000 plus students on the two university campuses in Chiang Rai (Mae Fah Luang University and Rajaphat University which is the campus we are spending time at and praying for). We prayed for transformation of this university community and of Chiang Rai. Wow!
Ben and Dad played soccer at the local elementary school with kids from our neighborhood. These kids play most every day and we like to join them on the weekends. We now know most of their names (Okay, Ben knows their names and reminds me). Wow!
Our family ordered food from a restaurant two houses down the way (out of a neighbor’s home…no zoning here) and they bring the food over to our home. The couple’s names are Sawang and Chaat. Talk about service, and we get to tell them about Jesus’ life. Wow!
We figured out more about Chiang Rai. This is a city with a population of 200,000 and yet growing to be much larger. Most people from this northern Thai rural region come to this city as the hub of trade and work. This last week we watched construction companies add on to the “Super Highway” a road that runs through Chiang Rai and connects Thailand and Burma. The plan is for this road to eventually go to China. We also watched construction workers working on new buildings at both universities and in the city. The city is growing and is considered as an important link to China (I think you can imagine why that might be important). Chiang Rai has no Starbucks or McDonalds (like Bangkok does) so visitors with certain addictions beware, but progress is opening lots of doors to the west here in Chiang Rai (not that Starbucks is real progress, it is just a bunch of monkeys sitting around looking cool drinking coffee…myself included for a “tall drip” when the occasion presents itself). We also discovered that minimum wage in Chiang Rai is 142 Baht for a day of work; in Bangkok it is 184 Baht for a day of work. And in America minimum wage is 1,566 Baht for a day of work (considering a $5.15 U.S. minimum wage). Wow!
I figured out how to download pictures to my blog. Wow!
Please pray for these four things:
1. For the Lord to give us discernment, wisdom and favor as we connect in the Rajaphat University community. Connections with people who will be leaders for a church movement on campus. Deepening friendships with Thais.
2. That the Lord would strengthen our language skills.
3. For the Lord to give us boldness in sharing our faith especially during this holiday season.
4. Health, perseverance, and encouragement.
We are thankful for you. Enjoy the holiday season. Here, we are about to celebrate His Majesty the King’s birthday and Constitution Day. Please drop us a holiday card; we love your pictures and notes. Our new address is:
The Pennington Family
P.O. Box 27 Bandu Post Office
Chiang Rai, Thailand 57100
Our love,
Brent, Julie, Ben, Kate, and Jak
When I relate stories of what is going on in Thailand, I do not purposefully try to focus on the occurrences that would “wow” our friends and supporters and prayer support stateside. Yet, there is in me this desire for you to approve of what we are doing and agree that it is of critical importance. So it is convenient when one of those “wow” stories come along. Yet in the above quote I read that people are fallen and are not trustworthy to judge or determine beauty. In truth we are living for an audience of One. One who has great pleasure in me regardless of the “wow” or lack of “wow” in my day.
Even as I write this, a conviction comes upon me that my definition of “wow” is really messed up. Let me explain by sharing some details from this past week. Last week…
I rode my bike past fields of rice ready for harvest and watched farmers with sickles cut bundles of rice and wrap them in preparation to whack the bundles against the ground to detach the grains. Wow!
My kids studied with their mom and other missionary parents and/or volunteers at a small school called the Family Learning Center dedicated to giving kids a great education and sharing Christ. The kids studied with many children from Thailand and other various countries. They also studied Thai language and learned both Thai sword fighting and T-ball in P.E. Wow!
Our family ate all of our meals outside at our table on the covered front porch area. In Chiang Rai we spend much time outside because we can. The cold season will hardly get cold enough to force us indoors. Bugs? Who’s worried about bugs? All the little gecko lizards running around us eat the bugs. This past week, our table offered a partial view of the mountains when the humidity and the clouds went away. Wow!
Julie and I studied Thai for many hours and processed more about how the written Thai uses various consonant and vowel combinations (including vowels above, below, before and after consonants) in order to create words that are pronounced in one of five tones (middle, low, falling, high, and rising). With these skills we spoke and discerned tones and words with greater accuracy in our neighborhood, at the university, at the market, at the kids’ school, at the church we visited. Wow!
Jak, our newest addition, continued to run around…everywhere. And with him we continued to meet people everywhere we go. A western family with a dark skinned son always stirs up interest. Most Thais have an immediate affinity with him as one of their own. Thais are also much more likely to give him direction and tell him what to do than they ever do with Ben and Kate. Their idea seems to be that he is Thai and needs to learn how to act Thai. Wow!
Our family connected with a small church of college students. Students who love Jesus and want to see the Lord come to campus. They know their friends live trying to keep up with the next curve of fashion or trend in order to be accepted (sounds like a circus to me). Sadly, a majority of the students live each day scraping by and medicating their life with internet café video games/chat, alcohol, and TV game shows or soap operas. We also connected with a prayer movement dedicated to unifying the Christians reaching out to 15,000 plus students on the two university campuses in Chiang Rai (Mae Fah Luang University and Rajaphat University which is the campus we are spending time at and praying for). We prayed for transformation of this university community and of Chiang Rai. Wow!
Ben and Dad played soccer at the local elementary school with kids from our neighborhood. These kids play most every day and we like to join them on the weekends. We now know most of their names (Okay, Ben knows their names and reminds me). Wow!
Our family ordered food from a restaurant two houses down the way (out of a neighbor’s home…no zoning here) and they bring the food over to our home. The couple’s names are Sawang and Chaat. Talk about service, and we get to tell them about Jesus’ life. Wow!
We figured out more about Chiang Rai. This is a city with a population of 200,000 and yet growing to be much larger. Most people from this northern Thai rural region come to this city as the hub of trade and work. This last week we watched construction companies add on to the “Super Highway” a road that runs through Chiang Rai and connects Thailand and Burma. The plan is for this road to eventually go to China. We also watched construction workers working on new buildings at both universities and in the city. The city is growing and is considered as an important link to China (I think you can imagine why that might be important). Chiang Rai has no Starbucks or McDonalds (like Bangkok does) so visitors with certain addictions beware, but progress is opening lots of doors to the west here in Chiang Rai (not that Starbucks is real progress, it is just a bunch of monkeys sitting around looking cool drinking coffee…myself included for a “tall drip” when the occasion presents itself). We also discovered that minimum wage in Chiang Rai is 142 Baht for a day of work; in Bangkok it is 184 Baht for a day of work. And in America minimum wage is 1,566 Baht for a day of work (considering a $5.15 U.S. minimum wage). Wow!
I figured out how to download pictures to my blog. Wow!
Please pray for these four things:
1. For the Lord to give us discernment, wisdom and favor as we connect in the Rajaphat University community. Connections with people who will be leaders for a church movement on campus. Deepening friendships with Thais.
2. That the Lord would strengthen our language skills.
3. For the Lord to give us boldness in sharing our faith especially during this holiday season.
4. Health, perseverance, and encouragement.
We are thankful for you. Enjoy the holiday season. Here, we are about to celebrate His Majesty the King’s birthday and Constitution Day. Please drop us a holiday card; we love your pictures and notes. Our new address is:
The Pennington Family
P.O. Box 27 Bandu Post Office
Chiang Rai, Thailand 57100
Our love,
Brent, Julie, Ben, Kate, and Jak
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