Everyday Life

Sometimes I feel like there needs to be some "big event" in order to create a new post...however I’m trying to break away from the 'everything must be an epic adventure' attitude because I live here now.  And as we all know, no matter what exotic place you're at,  living there is still very, very different than vacationing.  

But, I realized that even in my everyday life (that mostly entails service) there are still cool experiences to share, so here are some of the highlights of the last month in service:

The other morning in the bus station as I approached a women sitting down waiting she waved me to sit in the empty seat next to her. Because of my lack of ability to make small talk in Thai I quickly got to the point of why I was there. When I pulled out the latest awake she grabbed it and asked "Christian?", when I said "chi" (yes) she grabbed my hand and held it in her lap, then made the point that she was too. First I was confused, I couldn't tell if was she a witness already? But no, in the next few minutes I gathered that she wasn't, it was just the fact that Christianity is so rare in this country she was that excited to find "another". Between the two of us we somehow managed to hold probably a 10 minute

pretty meaningful conversation.  She use to be a Thai/English translator 20 years ago, she said she forgot all of her English, but she could say every few words in english, and I could say every few words in Thai. I found out she was a nurse at a hospital in a town a few hours from here, she is so sad to see all the suffering so  everyday her and 4 other Christians pray to God every morning before work that he end the suffering they see. I shared what hope we have to look forward to,and even though she was from a town 2 hours from here I invited her to the metting, showed her our website, and the bible teach book coupon. She was visibly excited and asked for my phone number. While I doubt I will ever see this lovely women again, it was so nice to see her desire for a better future and her yearning to learn more about god. 

During a different morning in early service Tyese and I  approached a man at the train station, he replied with "hola!"... haha Spanish, strange, we asked "como esta?" he seemed surprised we knew Spanish for some reason, probably because there aren't ANY Mexicans here (kinda the other side of the world), then he broke out in his English and told us he was a christian from Mexico city, he was extremely nice but not interested and didn't 

take any literature.

So we went on our way down the terminal of the train station talking to other Thai's...about 20 minutes later we turned around to leave and meet up with the field service group, as we passed the Mexican man from earlier, this shapely Hispanic women abruptly started shuffling towards us with her arms out and open yelling in a thick accent "wait, wait girls!". We stop. She grabs our hands and puts money in it as she was saying "I'm Christian too!!!". We tried to give it back, she said "no, no buy something to eat with it"...( I was thinking in my head: is that a complement? or do we look that poor? haha) We assured her that we would contribute it to the furtherance of printing more literature....then she asked who we were affiliated with (I imagined us saying Jehovahs Witnesses and then her taking money back out of our hands) but she didn't. She said she appreciated so much to see us trying to

show other people the importance of the Bible and God in a place where people devout their whole lives to pegan Gods and statues. Her donation for Jehovah's work was such a good reminder that there are indeed still kind, lovely people that live in this world that  need the truth.

Last week we were invited to go on a Thai bible study with a girl that was just 18 years old married to a THIRTY SEVEN year old, shesh. She had a 1 year old baby too (even crazier).  Anyways she was studying out of the bible teach about how to have a happy family life, I was attempting to keep the little boy entertained, but he got fussy so we put him on the floor. All of a sudden there was pee everywhere (people don't use dippers here because they are too  expensive) so I’m trying to get the moms attention, like "oh look, baby peed", the mom finally looked over, kinda giggled, but didn't rush to go clean it up or anything. The baby started crawling and when he put his hand in the puddle it slipped and he belly flopped into the pee puddle, so now his whole body was covered in it. the mom shook her head, changed his pants but left the pee soaked shirt on him, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 

I was imagining how different moms from the States would react to a situation like this and it made me giggle. However, the young mom realizes that she could improve on somethings to make her family life happier and is excited to learn from the best source possible. 

In evening witnessing we were working not at homes in a Moo Ban. Because of the amount of security guards we avoid working near the entrance gates to decrease the chance that we get asked to leave. But at that point the houses near the gate were all that was left, so we snuck down a road and called out to the first house on the corner. A confused women came out shaking her arms and pointing down the street, not knowing what she was saying I made up in my head that another pair must have worked that road.  But because of the lack of being able to walk around the neighborhood freely I plopped my self on the sidewalk near the front of that house and waited for the other brothers to meet us so I could ask them if the street had already been worked.  About 15 minutes went by before a Middle aged Thai man walked out and greeted us with a giant bottle of water. He said "I was on a bike ride with my family, and when I came back my housekeeper said you have good news for me", (ah, her pointing reaction made sense to me then she didn't actually live there!).  

When I showed him the truth tract he said, "oh yes I know. You are like my sisters, I am Christian too". 

Apparently he found a tract 2 months ago and randomly mailed in the coupon on the back, received the bible teach book and read it cover to cover. He was not being called on, but he also acquired a my book of bible stories for his little girl, he reads it as a bed time story every night.  He mentioned that he is a Doctor and after reading the bible teach book he gathered 2,000 bibles and distributed them himself to the patients at the hospital because he believes that this is the only real hope for man.  He said that the future of a paradise earth was realistic, and made much more sense that heaven and hell, he said, God would never torment his children like that. He also said that sometimes he gets discouraged because his wife is Buddhist and he wishes she were Christian. I brought up the scripture that by his conduct and actions it might make her want to look in to the bible someday, he really liked that point.  It was so nice to have such deep conversation with someone here, and when I brought studying up, he agreed that he would love it if we came by again to sit down and look at bible teach book more in-depth. 

An older Thai man that spoke very little english invited Tyese and I  in our first visit. He was a bible reader in the past and actually new Jehovahs name. After saying all we knew how to say in Thai we went on our way and said we would be back with a Thai speaker. Well, that didn't happen, we were both back in his neighborhood without our Thai friends but decided to visit him again anyways. 

He invited us in, got us water, closed the windows turned off the television and turned the A/C on, so sweet. We gave him the Awake! in Thai for the month of July about 'will the world ever change', using our english magazine we brought out point for him to read. I got my newly acquired Thai bible and showed him Matthew 6:6,7 focused on the kingdom and then showed him what that kindgom would accomplish in Rev. 21:3,4 and than to John 17:3 showing him that we need to do something now to see these wonderful results. 

On a side note, the New World Translation in Thai is only of Matthew to Revelation...Its so hard to remember scriptures to reason with that are only from the last half of the bible. In order to find my way around the the scriptures in Thai I highlighted and tabbed/wrote beside it in English some of my favorites to share, this makes things go so much smoother at the doors!  

Ok, back to the story, he was so excited to read these scriptures out of the bible and asked if he could keep it, after we made sure he was actually going to use it, Tyese gave him her copy since mine was already all marked up. At first he didn't understand, but we showed him all the features and how there were scriptures cited in the magazines and he could look them up in the bible.  He was extremely appreciative and asked when we could return for another "chat". 

So there you have it. These are just a few of the great things we have experienced in the short time we have been here. 

I hope everyone is doing well back home, and enjoying the Summer! Let me know how you are!

Tyese has been improving her photo taking skills, lately I have been her subject of intrest, as if there weren't more interesting pictures to take in Thailand :P