Trip to Thailand

Last month I went to Bangkok to visit some dear friends who were former students of ours.  I only stayed for two days, but as always, it was refreshing and encouraging. We had many things to talk about, and we could have just sat in their home and talked.  I would have been satisfied with that.  But they brought me to the King's Park, where I got to soak up some of the beauty and uniqueness of Thailand.

The people of Thailand dearly love their king.  And they love the beauty of nature.  The king is an avid photographer.  So in this park, you can see all these loves combined -- the people enjoying the beauty of nature in their king's park, and also enjoying the king's hobby. 

There is a museum in the middle of the park that is a tribute to the king, but unfortunately my battery died shortly after we arrived there. I learned a lot and even had the novelty of being interviewed by a group of Thai school children in the museum.

I think everyone in Thailand is a photographer!  So I had a lot of fun taking pictures of people taking pictures. But I also got a few shots of the beautiful flowers too.

My short time in Thailand was fun, educational, and inspiring. Proverbs 25:25 says "Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land."  Amen to that!  Especially when you have the fun of going to the distant land yourself to get the cold water!

After a Long Silence

One of my highlights as a teacher, always, is watching my students do what I taught them to do. This is one of the reasons I love to visit our alumni on the field. But occasionaly I get to see it while they are still in IGSL. In September-October I taught a 5-week class in our Partners in Ministry Program called "Choosing Life -- Trainers' Training". I had nine students from seven countries: Philippines, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Thailand. I created a 45-minute presentation called "Life Before Birth" that explains how a baby develops from conception to birth, and why abortion is wrong.
.
I wanted to equip them to do the presentation in their own language, and to have enough background knowledge and confidence to be able to teach others. In order to get credit for the class, they had to do the presentation in their own language, for their own people, with me watching.
.
It was really exciting to study about how life begins and how God develops a baby up till the moment of birth. We looked at the Biblical view of life from many different angles. All of us felt a sense of awe at how God created us and how precious we are to him.
. We looked at the statistics and laws about abortion around Asia. We also discovered that abortion is often done for the purpose of gender selection, resulting in millions of missing girls in India, China and other parts of Asia.
. And my students became passionate!! That was the amazing part. There is nothing more thrilling than seeing your students "get it," and I saw it happen. As they prepared their presentations in their own languages, they went far beyond what I expected. They all did an outstanding job.
. They weren't my students any more, they were teachers with a passion to equip others. It has been so awesome to see THEIR students become passionate about getting this message out.
.

Skills I Have Acquired

One thing about living in a cross-cultural environment like ours is that you pick up a variety of skills as you go through life. I have noticed that most Americans, Canadians and Filipinos (the three kinds of people I know best) drink from a bottle by putting the bottle to their lips. This means no one else can use your bottle. South Asians don't drink that way. They tilt their head back and pour the water (or whatever) into their mouth, and the bottle never touches their mouth. A very handy skill to have when there are more people than bottles. I have been practicing, usually ending up with water dribbling down my chin, and soaking the front of my shirt. But I am happy to report that I have finally perfected this skill, and I decided to teach it to Michelle on our way to Bangladesh last August. Here we are in a restaurant in the airport in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during one of our training sessions. Real life discipleship!

.