A Place to Stay - April Fools!

Way to go Gary! After all that walking you finally came up with a place!

It's a little rustic, but it has some nice features.

The decorations are quite artistic and the furniture has natural charm.

Here's a bench with a lovely towel rack behind it.

See the wonderful peacock feather design on the wall behind this beautiful table.

We're not too sure about this statue in the grotto.

It's kind of a hole in the ground, but it's dirt cheap. See the cute little gargoyle like statue over the "door"? There are ones like that on many of them.

The earthy walls with all the plants on top keep it cool. We think that might discourage mosquitos, but we think we can drape mosquito netting over the doors and windows in case it doesn't.

A stream decorated with mosaics encrusted rocks flows through the property.

Gary is happy with it.

:J

The Flip (the sequel to Hair Cut)

Yes, some of you ladies know about this. Some of you call it a “bad hair day”. I call it the “flip”. When it happens it means it’s time to get a hair cut. If I don’t recognize it in time I have a built in reminder, Gary. So my hair was flipping out, and Gary said it was “sticking out in back” so I knew the dreaded time had come. Dreaded because the last time I had it cut was in the U. S., and that time I had it cut short for the first time in 30 years. I wouldn’t know what say about cutting it even in English, except that I wanted it shorter. Finally, I decided I could pantomime “shorter” in any language, and that should be enough.

Gary seemed to enjoy walking great distances to get his hair cut, to give him plenty of time to agonize over the coming event. I felt no need to torture myself like that since there were plenty of hairdressers for women within two blocks of the apartment. Convenient, yes, but how good were they? I remembered one up the nearby road to the right that had several ladies in it one evening. Banking on the old theory that having customers might show expertise, I chose to go there. I forgot that our landlady said that she didn’t like that place and recommended the one across the street instead.

So, at the corner I turned right and was in front of the beauty shop sooner than I expected. Most shops here don’t have front doors or even front walls. When I stopped on the outer floor in front of the shop I caught the eye of the older lady standing in it and saw a man sitting in one of the chairs with a towel over his shoulders. I couldn’t tell if she was the hairdresser or not. Having thoroughly prepared a Thai phrase to say to the hairdresser, this confusion stopped me cold. She came up to me and said, “What are you doing?” Was it that obvious I didn’t know what I was doing? I tried to answer, but French came out. That’s what usually happens when I try to speak Thai fast without thinking out the words first. This only confirmed to the lady I did not know what I was doing.

The lady gave me a blank look and left. Well, Gary had warned me I might have to wait for my haircut since I didn’t go first thing in the morning. I think he meant waiting for my turn, not waiting for the hairdresser to show up. Anyway, I had some Thai materials with me to study just in case, so I decided to take a chair and wait to see what would happen next. A short time passed and the lady re-appeared with reinforcements, a Thai man who could speak English. I guess they are as afraid of trying to speak to us as we are of speaking to them. With the help of the man, I could tell the lady I wanted a hair cut only, without a hair washing. Then the lady told me to go sit in the chair next to the man with the towel on. My obedience tendency took over so I did what she said without stopping to ask about the price. That was a mistake. Once she started cutting my hair, my negotiating power for a good price would be gone. The man who spoke English started cutting the hair of the man next to me. I wondered if he was the regular men’s barber and if she was going to get him anyway when I walked up.

I pantomimed to the lady how much I wanted cut off. I was kind of glad she couldn't

understand English or my Thai. Then I didn’t have to try to explain what I wanted her to do. Part way through I said, in Thai, I wanted the top a little shorter. I don’t know if she understood my Thai or my pantomiming again, but she did cut some more off. She carefully made sure the sides were even and then, using a blow dryer and a round bristled brush, curled the whole hairdo under. I don’t know if she realized that my hair would flip out again as soon as it got wet or infused with the humidity.

When she was done I said it was good (that’s an easy word, “Dee”). The barber next to us agreed. I’m sure he would have said anything looked good. He wanted me to be happy to pay a good price. I turned toward him to find out what they were going to ask for. He said. “120 baht.”

I think they saw my jaw hit the floor in shock. Gary had just paid 60 baht for his cut. Only a few fancy shops downtown charge 120 Baht. Then the lady said something in Thai to the man. He said, “Oh, you only had a cut. That’s 80 baht.”

“Thank You Lord!” I thought to myself and gladly paid the 80 baht to the lady.

“Where you go?”

The man asked me. Later I found out that is a regular polite question of the Thais, right up there with “How old are you?”

“Klap baan,” (returning home) I said and pointed around the corner. He nodded and smiled. I hurried home to get a picture of my hair before it decided to flip out again.

I figure I can put off my next cut until about June. I hope I will be better at Thai and at bargaining by then.

:J (with help from Gary)

Attention Seeking Disorder?

A genetic need for attention led to young actor Corey Haim's drug addiction and death claimed Dr. Drew Pinsky, an addiction-medicine specialist in a Today show interview. He said Corey used drugs to cope with the decline in attention for him after his early success. This caught my ear because God was working on that attention issue in me.

Last weekend, as I worked on another story for my Thai language class, God began pointing out the daydreams I had that the class would laugh at it or that the teacher would be impressed. I put those thoughts down by thinking the writing was only to try out the Thai phrase structures we’d learned. After all, the saying “raining cats and dogs” had come up in class. It was fun to use a story about them falling through thick grass roofs to explain it.

Also, the attention issue came up in relation to our web site writing. We need to glorify God in our writing (1 Cor. 10:31), but would that be by writing to gain attention to help our cause or to show His working through us? I asked some friends to pray with me on the attention issue. This was His answer.

Monday morning, waiting for a song taew, a lady waiting with us asked us in Thai where we were going. When I didn’t understand right away, she asked in English. That raised the language barrier between us that I was unable to overcome as we sat across from each other for the next 10 minutes. Then, in class, the Thai teacher corrected my story with no reaction. Later, my reading of the story to the class brought only silence and blank looks. No one understood it, except that it rained. That was probably the only thing I pronounced right. In my disappointment God showed me my heart. If I really only wanted to learn about sentence structure, then I would have been happy with the few corrections by the teacher and the class reaction would have been funny. After class, I talked to Him until I accepted His lesson.

Later, before aerobics, I felt the language barrier keeping me from the small conversations going on around me. I spent the walk home in prayer. One of my prayer supporters wrote saying God hears when we pour out our hearts to Him. Someone on Facebook put up Psalm 62:8, “Trust in, lean on, rely on, and have confidence in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts before Him. God is a refuge for us (a fortress and a high tower). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!” (Amplified Bible)

The next day God gave me the rest of His lesson. That afternoon a lady in my afternoon class asked to read the story. She enjoyed it. "What a graceful blessing," I thought, "He didn't have to do that!"

Later, leaving my house to get dinner, two smiling little boys met me saying, "Farang, farang," as I took the short cut by their house. They raised their arms so I gently grabbed one boy's and shook it saying, "Khone Thai, khone Thai (Thai person)". Then the smaller boy wanted me to do it to him too. Returning with my dinner, I saw them leaving with their father on a motor scooter, and the boys waved good-bye.

The housekeeper for our apartments (who speaks no English) was out chopping the greenery away from the small ditch between the road and the apartment’s boundary wall. I commented,

in Thai, that she was doing hard work. She pointed along the length of the ditch, seeming to show she understood me. Then she pointed at my little bag and I told her it was food for dinner. She laughed. That’s the most she’s understood from me yet.

Thinking through all of this I realized I was struggling through an attention deficit and not bringing that to God. People gave us lots of attention as we departed for our exotic mission. Now I am feeling the separation as contacts with close friends from home dwindle and they are not yet replaced here. Then, also, the language barrier inhibits daily interactions with people around us. He is showing me that if I admit that need to Him, He is able to meet it in much better ways than I can come up with. He showed me the Truth in Psalm 66:12. “You caused men to ride over our heads [when we were prostrate]; we went through fire and through water, but You brought us out into a broad, moist place [to abundance and refreshment and the open air].” (Amplified Bible)

This was the lesson I believed He wanted me to share in this writing, so that was the answer to that question, for now. Little by little He is teaching me how to trust Him more, with more of myself.

:J

Bang!

Sounds like gunfire echo through the department store as Jean finishes paying for some groceries. People start screaming, getting down low, and behind things. I see everyone looking toward the store entry and my eyes follow. I see nothing.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Three more sounds like gunshots ring out. At first I thought someone dropped something or a construction worker was making the noise. After making my way over to a small sales booth not to far from the entry (in case I needed something to duck behind), I could make out where the sound was coming from. A small man in motorcycle clothing was squatting on top of the counter of a small jewelry store tucked into a corner near the door. He was smashing the glass displays with a hammer and grabbing the gold chains inside. Yes, a robbery!

“What a privilege,” I thought.. “An opportunity to witness a real robbery. How often does that happen?”

Bang! Bang! Two more times the guy smashes the glass displays and stuffs away more gold chains as we all watch.

Security? Of course! The local door guard, who makes sure you don’t steal anything from the store when you leave, is nowhere to be found. Don’t blame the guy though. They are not allowed to carry weapons. The jewelry store employees are huddled like a mound on the floor at the other end of the glass display. The getaway vehicle? Motor scooter, of course. Those scooters can be fast. Especially, if you just robbed a place.

All this takes about one minute. I pull my cell phone out, push the camera button and proceed to take a picture of my forehead. Ok, so both my Thai and my picture taking need a little more practice.

(Later we find out this experience was not so unique after all. Some Thai friends told us this happens quite often. Bad economy you know. Starving people, etc. Guards can’t carry guns so I guess the police rely on the stupidity of the robbers. If you can believe the local store gossip, the police caught the guy an hour later. In case you asked yourself, “Why gold chains instead of diamonds?” We’re told they’re easier to pawn. Also, the gold chains here are 99% real gold; none of that silly silver stuff for hardener.)

Well, the robbery is over so I go back and pick Jean up off the floor. I take a look around to see everyone else’s reaction and can hardly hear myself think. This was better than the movies! Nobody was leaving. Why leave when you can stay and rehash the events with family, friends, neighbors and strangers? Since I still don’t speak Thai, I didn’t stay. But I did enjoy telling all my white friends about it!!

Gary

Blessings

I shared about how God blessed us with a church to go to. He has been blessing us in other ways too. These are some of them.

We were talking about how impossible it would be to get out to BSF without personal transportation with our schedule of going to class every day. The next day Bill Wood offered to take us out there, and did.

One day we were unsure about which yellow songtaews to take after two of them had gone other directions on previous days. That day a red one needed some extra riders and so took us in for the low yellow songtaew price.

The French grandparents and their grandson we met while trying to get on a white songtaew after the Flower Festival Parade. Most of the songtaews were crowded at that time. Finally the French couple flagged one down that had room for all of us. It ended up turning in the direction we needed to go, and we were able to get off it at the right point to walk in to BSF.

A sweet Dayspring Valentine card from Darrick.

A chance meeting for lunch with the whole BSF group at Lotus. Our friends at church were busy that Sunday, so we took the songtaew ride that leaves soon after church. It had just dropped us off and we were waiting at the driveway for the Lotus parking lot when the BSF vans and all drove in. They waved as they went by and then we met them inside.

Making it out to BSF by myself on our day off between classes, and for Bill Wood giving me a ride to town at the end of the day.

Enjoying and keeping up with the Thai classes at least until this weekend and for the opportunity to spend some good study time tomorrow. I am thankful for the Thai materials people gave us as we were preparing at home. The things I learned from them have helped me greatly here, especially in the reading and writing class.

Pat, a lady from India who sits next to me in the R & W class, sharing about how God directed her and her husband (a Thai minister) to Chiang Mai. Also, about how God provided for her daughters to go to the Woodstock school in India, where my uncle and aunt were missionaries 50 years ago or so.

Joining the little prayer meeting at church and then seeing that the person Gary wanted me to talk to was in the meeting with me.

Thai ladies greeting me and talking to me before and after aerobics. Being able to understand their Thai and them being able to understand mine.

Rick and Chiang Harris taking us to lunches and inviting us to their house for dinner. For their help and advice as we figure out how to get settled here.

A very good and inexpensive vegetarian restaurant along our walk to school. It has been an easy and delicious way for me to get a lunch to have in between my classes.

The internet, it's availability to us, and the encouragement, prayer support, and information people in other places have given us through it.

The story Sunday morning about the actions of the Chiang Mai International School (CMIS) in the tournament they finished Saturday night. Their rival, Grace International School, beat them in the title game. The coach of the Grace team (who was sharing this story) in his excitement, and his effort to give all his girls playing time, played all 11 of his girls. After the game the referees informed him of this and reminded him of the tournament rule that only 10 girls could play in a game. He admitted his mistake to his team and his athletic director. They all agreed they should forfeit the game. At the awards ceremony, the third place team received their medals followed by the Grace team receiving their second place ones. After the CMIS girls received their gold first place medals they went over to the girls on the Grace team and placed their gold medals around their necks, receiving the silver ones in return. Tears came to the eyes of the adults watching this display of grace to the Grace team, and especially to their coach.

It was a great illustration of what we were celebrating in communion and of the sermon on love from 1 John 4:7-21 we had heard earlier.

That no one was hurt in the robbery we witnessed of the jewelry shop near the door of the Lotus near us Saturday night.

More keep coming, but this needs to have an end.

Blessings to you!

:J