Travels through Thailand

My oh my, it's been two whole weeks since I last blogged, and I'm racking my brain over what to write about...where do I begin...hmmm...I guess I'll just start from the beginning.

I had the chance to tag along Pastor JJ's and Missionary Alex's vacation/church retreat from April 8th - April 15th, and to say that it was fun is an understatement.  In the beginning of the trip, we headed for Bangkok where the head pastor of Chiang Mai Fellowship Church (also Junya's uncle) lives.  The car ride wasn't too terrible, I mean it was an 8 hr ride, but when I compare it to the 13 hr bus ride from Kampala, Uganda to Moroto, Uganda (Uganda team, you know what I'm talking about) this was a cake walk.  Anyways, the Hwangs and I stayed at Pastor Mike's for a couple days, but unfortunately we didn't do much in our stay there.  All I remember doing was going to the mall, and ice skating because the kids wanted to ice skate.  Since I was in Bangkok, I had been eagerly waiting to make my return visit to the Royal Palace, (the first time I visited Bangkok, I came as a 12 year old with my mom and sister, but due to some embarrassing circumstances, I missed touring the Palace, if you want to know why, just ask me) but I didn't get a chance to because the red shirts were protesting in the area.  Because of the political unrest during that weekend, we headed for Pattaya a little earlier than planned.

We arrived in Pattaya on Friday, and the one thing I noticed was that there were more foreigners than locals in the city, but luckily we stayed at Jomtien Beach, which is where the church retreat site is located, and where there were more natives.  That evening we ate at a local seafood restaurant that had been on TV before, and man, was the food delicious, as they say in Thai, arroy ching ching or arroy mak maa!  I had this thai curry with crab meat, and I still think about that taste, it was soo good.  The next day, the Hwangs and I went to an island off the coast of Pattaya called Koh Larn, which translates to Coral Island, and its one of the nicest places I've ever visited.  Seriously my jaw dropped at how white the sand was, how pristine and blue the waters were.  It made me think of how magestic and great our God is, that He would create such a beautiful place, and wonder how people can believe that this island and everything was created by chance, absurd!  We lounged and played on the island for most of the day and then went back to Pattaya in the late afternoon.  Let me just add that, the sun is no joke here!  I applied two coats of sun screen within an hour and my shoulders still got burned like mad, and I got so dark, Thai people think I'm Thai now.

All of this almost didn't happen because of the red shirts who had blocked certain roads and were protesting against the ASEAN Summit (Association of SouthEast Asian Nations), which were being held in Pattaya, but thanks to our local bus/taxi driver, he went through local streets to get to the port.  It was definitely a little unnerving to find out that the red shirt protesters succeeded in forcing their way into the hotel where the meetings took place.  What perplexes me is, there was a military presence in Pattaya, and it seems like they did nothing to stop the red shirts.

Then on Sunday we had Easter Service at Jomtien Baptist Church, this is the church that runs the retreat site at Pattaya, and I will say this has been the most interesting Easter Service that I've been to.  The small worship hall was packed that day, and what was so interesting was to see not only Thai people, but some Russians, an Australian, an Englishman, and ourselves at the service.  The cherry on top of it all was that the preacher for the service was an American pastor with a southern twang and his wife's was Cookie.  I definitely got a kick out of him speaking in Thai with his southern accent, but nonetheless it was great to worship with other believers from other parts of the world, praise God that Christ didn't die and rise again for only the Jews, but for Gentiles as well.

Beginning on Monday the 13th, which was the start of Songkran (you can look at the last post for more info on Songkran) Chiang Mai Fellowship Church (CMFC) held its retreat.  Out of the whole trip, I will say that the retreat was the most fun and blessing.  The really cool thing about this retreat was that it involved three other churches from Bangkok, which were all started by Pastor Mike.  I got to worship for three straight days with Thai Christians from Bangkok and Chiang Mai, and it gave me a chance to build relationships with these people too, so I am very grateful to God for that.  Another plus of it all was that the guest speaker, Pastor Keet, was from Singapore, and in Singapore they speak English, so all his messages were in English and then translated in Thai by Junya, Pastor JJ's wife.  It was good to hear a message in English and in person.  I also had a chance to connect with the Jasper Kids college students from both Chiang Mai and Bangkok, and it was a great encouragement to see their passion for the LORD, and it makes me excited to help Pastor JJ with the college ministry.  After the retreat was over, we headed back to Bangkok for one night, and the next morning we drove back to Chiang Mai.

During our one night stay in Bangkok, Pastor Mike took Pastor JJ's family and I to a restaurant, and the food was awesome.  I got to try this spicy frog dish, and it was the first time I ate frog, and the meat tasted sweet and it was similar to chicken.  The restaurant was particularly known for its duck beak, so I had to try that, and that was really really good.  The beak was deep fried and the meat on the beak was chewy like when you eat fat off of grilled pork belly (삼겹살)  and the beak itself was crisp and crunchy.  Did I mention how great Thai food is, because it is!

On our return to Chiang Mai, we stopped by Ayutthaya the former capitol city, that was once burned down by the Burmese army several hundred years ago.  This was another highlight of my trip.  I was pretty bummed about not being able to visit the Palace, but this more than made up for it.  We got to go see the ruins like the old temple with the lying Buddha (think of the background for the fight against Sagat in Street Fighter II), and the tall cedi (pictures below) and visit the king's summer palace, very picturesque.  I know it doesn't sound like much fun, but as a history buff this is the stuff that excites me.  So that sums up the whole trip, I had fun in both worshipping God and sightseeing through Thailand.

Since I've been back, I've been playing catch up with all my emails, updates, finances, school, etc, and as I sit here I'm wondering how the past five days have gone by so quickly.  The only thing of note that I did over the weekend was watch Monsters vs. Aliens with Ethan and the Soh kids (Brandon, Brianna, and Bridgette), and I can say that I enjoyed the movie, and I was surprised that Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, and Seth Rogan were cast in it.  It was nice to just take the kids out on an outing.

This week I'm back to my normal schedule.  I'm going to school everyday to make up for the days I missed and back to tutoring on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Yesterday while I was tutoring the volunteers, I had them discuss what makes a perfect husband, and one of their descriptions was that the husband couldn't be the first born son.  Puzzled, I asked them why, and their explanation was that as the wife of the first born son, the mother in law makes them work like crazy.  I busted out laughing, but I thought I might add it to my post just for kicks.  I guess I don't have to worry about that with my mom bossing around my future wife since she's a little bit more Americanized.

Another interesting thing is that, as I've been getting more comfortable speaking in Thai with my Thai language teacher, Khruu (teacher) Usa (oo-sa), I've been able to get to know her a little more every session.  Yesterday as we were talking, I found out that she was exposed to the Gospel as a little kid.  She went on to explain that in her community (Muu Bahn) there was a German missionary who started a church.  As a child, she was drawn to the church because of the program it had for children, and mostly because of the snacks and sweets the church provided.  Because of that exposure, and because the missionary deliberately focused on the children of the Muu Bahn, my teacher came to know Jesus!  As a result, the rest of her family, including her parents came to know Christ!  Even now, she is very active in her faith.  I was thinking how great is that, to know that even children can understand and accept the Gospel!  It got me to thinking about as important as it is to reach out to adults, children are just as important to present the Gospel to.

OK I think I'm finally up to date with everything.  I'll try to update on a more frequent basis, so I can keep the length of each post more manageable.  Oh also I've put up a link to the March Newsletter on the sidebar, so check it out.

Some prayer requests...

Please pray for poltical stability in Thailand, I know there have been some political unrest and violence that past week or so, but lately it's been quiet.

Continue to pray that I can show God's love to the Thai people, because I know my love for the people is limited.

Pray that I may have patience with Ethan and Abby (Pastor JJ and Junya's kids) as I feel like I'm losing my patience since this is the first time that I'm living with kids.

That is all for now, and I just want to say thank you for all the comments that have been posted.  I am really grateful for them as they encourage me to serve the LORD with more fervor.  Now for some pictures...

The temple at Ayutthaya, the cone shape is called jjedi

Streetfighter pose with sleeping child in hand.

The Summer Palace at Ayutthaya

The Summer Palace formerly used by the king

JasperKids Group Picture

Retreat Group Picture

JasperKids college students with Pastor JJ and Junya

Pastor Keet and wife with Pastor JJ and Junya and Pastor Mike's family.  Pastor Keet and wife are in the middle.

The MC for the retreat, very very funny guy even though I didn't unerstand what he said.  I know I'm closing my eyes, but this was the only non blurry photo I had.

One of the kids at the retreat, look at his cool Ultra Man shirt.  I shall get one and sport it.

Some of the guys I met at the retreat.

Free time at the beach.  From left to right: Bridgette, Abby, Beam (Ethan's Cousin), Ethan, Brianna, and Missionary Alex

Abby is too cute.

Beam, Abby, Brianna, and Ethan playing in the ocean.

Worship hall during the retreat.  People start to filter in.

The retreat center is just across the beach.  Literally it's a five second walk to the beach.

Jomtien beach at 1PM, for some reason the tide is lowest at this time.

Pastor Mike

Abby and Ethan at Koh Larn Island

Koh Larn Island

Yes, the yogurt wars invade Thailand (Bangkok)

Ethan learning to ice skate for the first time at the mall in Bangkok.