Stickywrites

We’re back in the Land of Smiles!  It’s been great to see old friends and feel so welcomed back to our team here in Bangkok.  The first day we walked into our office we saw our Thai teammates and were all so happy to see each other.  We’ve had a pretty busy 3 days despite getting adjusted to the 12 hr time difference.

On the ground here there is one short term team visiting from Illinois of all high school girls, and we have a short-term college and seminary group here for 2 months, led by Trey & Kiki Adams.  So suffice it to say it feels busy and bustling around here.  Our first day we got to go visit our Thai foundation’s purse & bag making craft ministry.  This ministry started a few yrs ago because it was obvious one of the things that was needed at the slum community we were involved with, Mahatthai, was employment. So our missionary team started a foundation that has been working with crafts and trying to sell their products in the U.S and Thailand.  The purses they make are beautiful…let me know if you want one to bring back to you!  They run about $15-20 USD.

Here we are at the purse store with one of the ladies, Phii Wi, who has been given employment through this ministry!

Our team has been hosting “coffeehouses” at our office for the campus ministry as well, and last night the Illinois group starred in kareoking, dancing, and entertaining of all kinds.

Andrew and I are teaching English classes this summer, some of our old groups that we taught before, and will behelping with the short term teams coming in town periodically. More to come!  Thanks for your prayers for a smooth flight and travel!

In 36 hrs, we’ll be boarding our plane to Chicago, to go to Narita-Tokyo, to go to Bangkok. About a 26 hour trip give or take.  I never can quite figure out the travel time door-to-door given the time change.  It sort of boggles my brain, especially when you first get off the plane and are tired, your teeth need brushing, and you’re all dingy-feeling.  We just got home from a wedding in South Dakota (yes, you heard me correctly).  Watertown to be exact.  So suffice it to say we have alot to do tomorrow, but somehow it all must get done.  I have the following shopping list: NyQuil, freezer ziploc bags, a block of cheddar cheese, chocolate chips, and baby cereal.  These are the things my fellow missionary teammates in Bangkok have requested.  I must say I am surprised no one asked for almonds, pecans, walnuts, craisins, and Cheerios.  These were the items most-requested by me when I lived there before…

It was great to see our good friend Mike get married this weekend.  I didn’t realize I lived in a state bordering Iowa, but apparently, I do. We drove through it to get to the beautiful state of SD.  I can’t believe how huge the cows are.  And I saw a prairie dog for the first time.  But we are so grateful we could be there before going to Thailand to attend this most important event of our friends.  Thanks Mike & Kristin for everything…

When we talk about Bangkok, people always ask us, “Where do you live?” with a sense of desperation in their voice.  I think this question and that desperation stems from the fact that it’s hard to imagine living conditions, neighborhoods and infrastructure in another city that’s so far removed from one’s realm of experience.  

A view of our room at Baan Fah Luang

The view from our apartment...the fantastic King Rama 9 Park. The only place and best place to exercise

This summer we will be renting a serviced (that means it provides furniture, sheets, towels, water, electric, etc) apartment that we previously lived in for a few months when we first arrived in Bangkok in 2006.  It is called Baan Fah Luang meaning House Royal Sky.  While it is a little farther from the office/ministry center than we’d like, it is only a 10-15 min songthaew

This is a songthaew...meaning "two benches/rows"...an adapted truck. It costs 8 baht for every time we go into/return from the office.

 ride in.  It’s also great because it provides a refrigerator and microwave so we can have leftovers and breakfast every morning.  We will likely eat most of our meals this summer out!  It is so cheap to eat in the outdoor market everyday – about $1-2 a plate per person.  Can’t wait to visit the new Carrefour mega-store next door…

I love the grocery mega-stores in Bangkok. Kind of like Wal-Marts...

Here's a recent picture. Bangkok here we come...

Wow! It’s been awhile since we blogged because I just never made the time to do it when we left the field last May.  It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since we returned to the States from Thailand to attend seminary in St. Louis.  Now, a week away from returning to the field for a couple of months this summer, we are excited and eager to see our Thai friends, our Thai and American teammates, our old neighbors, our Thai friends from St. Louis, and all of our furry rat and soi dog friends. Okay so maybe not that last one.  But we are fired up to eat our favorite Thai foods again, take motorcycle taxis, battle the rainy season, eat at the market, see all the new babies, speak, sing, and worship in Thai, and catch up with everyone on the Thai side of our lives.  

Please pray for our summer that we would have clear direction for the future ahead.  Pray for effective use of our time, for the Lord to cultivate patience & humility in us as we serve our team in whatever way they need and host short-term teams, and that we would spend our short 7 1/2 weeks there seeking to honor God in all that we do.  Stay tuned for pics and updates as things happen, and thanks in advance for your prayers.

Last week New Community offered the first ever Summer Kids Camp from Mon – Fri from 9 to 3. Since most kids are out for summer, and parents have to work and dont have alot of money to provide them with other opportunities, kids sit at home by themselves alot, taking care of their other siblings, or playing in the neighborhood by themselves with pretty much no supervision. So we’re hoping the camp gave parents a chance to send their kids somewhere for an inexpensive week – much like a VBS. We sang songs, which included a song about Adam & Eve, where at the end each pair does a farcle for who gets to be the leader of the next round of the song. Farcling here is called “Bao. Ying. CHUP!” Instead of Paper, Rock Scissors. My other favorite song was about all the different modes of transportation we take to church and the sounds they make…motorcyle “BAEN BAEN”, bicycle “GRAENG GRAENG”, bus “BAEN BAEN”, and tuk-tuk “GRATUK GRATUK”. I love it because it is perfect for Thais! I can’t really imagine taking my motorcycle to church on Sunday back home in the US, or my tuk-tuk for that matter, if I happened to own one AND know how to drive it. Kind of cracks me up to think about doing that. One last song was about “Ants eating ants” but i have no clue what it was about, I just loved the hand-motions and seeing one particular kindergartner doing them with gusto. We did memory verses, and broke up into small groups by grade level. Here is one of our verses: Mark 12:31. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” It was a wonderful thing to see these kids, all from Buddhist families, learning about the Bible, reciting verses, answering questions, and praying along with their Junior Staff. Possibly the neatest thing about this camp was enabling some of the teenagers from Mahatthai – a community we have many relationships in – be Junior Staff Leaders. So while we had all hands on deck from the missionaries/staff at New Community, we were able to “hire” them and give them responsibilities in leadership, planning, execution, and discipline. This kind of experience hopefully can help them have a sense of accomplishment and increased confidence too. A few of them have made a profession of faith, over a year ago, but the others have yet to, and the Christians still face huge cultural obstacles to understanding the Christian beliefs and how it plays out in their lives.

In the afternoons we went on several different outings. One included going to a neighborhood pool, another day a planetarium, or doing special crafts led by our team’s Art Man, Tim Mills. The pool was particularly unnerving, since probably 75% of the kids there did NOT know how to swim, but they had no qualms about jumping in and gripping the side for dear life for 2 straight hours. (Or Andrew instead). Possibly my favorite picture I have of Phii Kieow, my teammate and co-worker…this is classic Kieow!

She has so much genuine concern for these children and is very involved in their lives. She is yelling at someone telling them not to run. (always the hardest rule to follow when you’re a kid at a pool) Thais dont like to get dark skin from sun so they often cover themselves, even over their heads and faces.

The camp was a huge success! Since it was the first year, we didn’t really know what it’d look like or how it would be, who would come, etc, but we had 70+ kids in all! Andrew was in charge of the entire camp, so you can imagine after that week we were both pretty exhausted…On Friday we had a Field Day for everyone, which Melanie and I put together, and in this hot summertime weather, we nearly melted, but I think the kids had a great final hurrah on their last day and hopefully will come back next year too.

I had the chance to jet off to Hanoi recently – an all girls trip! Catherine Rogers, a teacher at the International School nearby, and Melanie, fellow team member, were my companions. I have so been wanting to go to Hanoi ever since I came here, and we are on our last few weeks here so time was of the essence! Vietnam was a sight to see – very similiar to China in some ways but SOOOOO different from Thailand – the people, the scenery, the food, the attitudes. What can I say? It’s a communist country. The propaganda in the museums was *interesting* if not deflating at the same time. We visited the Hanoi Hilton, a prison built by the French colonialists in the 40s and then reclaimed by the Vietnamese to use as a prison for “insurgents” and shot-down American POW pilots. It was extremely depressing. We also visited Ho Chi Minh- literally. They have preserved his body in a temperature-(a freezing cold one I might add)-controlled chamber inside of this mausoleum behind me. Of course photos are forbidden for such a sacred figure. It was strange to wait in a line with thousands of people to stroll past him for just a few seconds.

BUT! We did get to eat brie and baguettes in a beautiful park

, eat at many cafes, and have many hilarious cultural incidents and mishaps that were entertaining way after they should have been. We went on a 2 day boat trip to Cat Ba island, which takes a route through Halong Bay – incredible scenery and amazing company on our boat! There was a Thai family travelling with us on our boat and it was awesome the way God orchestrated that happening! It turned out that 2 of them actually live in our area. Not only our area but in Catherine’s apartment building! Pretty unreal for a city of 12 million people and given the fact we were in another time and place entirely.

The weather was amazing and in the 70s/80s, which for us was much-needed relief from this blistering oven of a hot season in Bangkok.

Other adventures of the three amigas….going to the Temple of Literature and rubbing turtles heads for good luck…?

and standing on big trees …going to a water puppet show. Amazing!

It’s been awhile since I have written anything new because I have been a lazy picture taker lately and I think blogs w/o pictures can be boring.

Andrew recently turned the big three-oh and it was quite anti-climactic as it seems all birthdays are now that we are – OLD. Here we are with his former co-worker friends (Phii Lii, Phii Jid, and Phii Nawy) and all this food. They were like mothers who watched over him when he worked here 5 years ago. Of course they ordered his favorites while I dodged interrogation questions (the ones I hear at least twice a day) that I am always asked: “When are you going to have a baby?” “Why don’t you LIKE babies?!” And as usual I just tried to smile and nod graciously, and politely ignored their comments. And we always have the obligatory Starbucks afterwards in their office building.

On the babies note, we have our newest team member! Pawn, one of our Thai staff, just had her baby girl! We recently had a shower for her which featured Crystal’s brilliant idea of having a pregnant beauty pageant but the only thing each team was allowed was a roll of toilet paper (of course). Thais LOVE games and competitions, so it was quite the show. Look at Jan’s cake. Amazing!

Here our some of my English students on Saturday – I love to make baked goods, so whenever there is an excuse to do that, say a birthday or event or class or party (which we have alot of here, being in the ministry, naturally) I am glad to provide the sweet things. Thais do not like super-sweet things, as bread and cakes and cookies are not part of everyday Thai nutrition, but they still manage to take bird bites of my baked goods, through their groans of “this is going to make me so fat” and “ugh, this is too sweet” blah, blah, etc, etc. Thais don’t use ovens at all in their cooking, so ovens are quite difficult to find here and very expensive. I have a small toaster oven that I use for everything, and it has served me well over the last 2 years with all of this baking!

Lately I have also been going on campus – the Ram 2 University campus in our neighborhood – to meet college students. This proves difficult when most students on this campus are only freshman – as it’s a freshmen campus – and it’s also an “open” university. This means is basically open for anyone to enroll and study at any time, and almost all students are working full-time or part-time simultaneously to support themselves. When they are done with their freshman studies – which can take up to 4 years to complete while working – they move onto another campus called Ram 1, which is far away from our neighborhood. Part of the way we meet people on our campus is going to play badminton in the public, free gym. Between 3-6 everyday, students, adults, and kids in our neighborhood come there for badminton, basketball, ping pong or aerobics. Our group chooses to play badminton. This is a new sport for me! It’s fun but much more difficult than it looks!

And, finally, our latest outing to Rayong, a beach near Bangkok for our team retreat. Elephants always abound and we are never without entertainment with all the kids floating around. Our hotel was simultaneously hosting a huge travelling tour from China and they set up an outdoor stage, singing well into the night on a bass-pumping sound system for their precious karaoke. No party or get-together is a party or get-together without it. It never ceases to amaze me how loud Thais like to be with karaoke and yet they are not loud people: they talk softly and quietly and never show impatience or frustration outwardly. And yet their karaoke is the craziest, loudest, partying-est of karaokes I have known. paradox? Here is our other new team member – Preston, who is here for 5 months as an intern, from Birmingham. He arrived end of February and was promptly whisked off to our team retreat the next day. How’s that for a first day of work? A beach in Thailand!

These two things do not go together, I know. It just so happened that within one 24-hour period we went to an “Entering the Monkhood” bash and also had our office’s First Annual Bowling Tournament. You learn something new every day. In this case, I learned 1) what it means to enter the monkhood 2) that bowling is, according to Thais, from America (what Thais call the U.S) and 3) that it’s also a sport. I also found out that Thais use the same word for “bowling pins” and “bowling ball”. I did not know these things before Saturday.

Our English school put on the bowling tournament and it was a big success for it’s first year – also good to have a fun activity outside of the office since most of our events happen there. Pray for these students that their hearts will be more open to and interested in the Gospel! Many of these students have had a relationship with our team and foundation for over 3 years.

Many Thai men will serve as a monk in their lifetime, even if for just a short time, in order to increase their status for the next life – as in increasing their merit so that when they pass on they will be at a higher status because of their good-deed doing. So many men prefer to enter the monkhood to accomplish this. Even the King of Thailand has done it! We attended the “Night before entering the Temple for the 15 Days of Monkhood” Party last night for a friend of ours’ son. The bash took place at Mahatthai, a community we have been increasingly involved with over the last 2 years. It very much resembled a wedding – a stage with performers and live music, huge round tables serving a sit-down dinner, with the hyper mother-of-the-monk running around as the social butterfly, greeting all the guests. We had a good time seeing some of the women that come to my weekly brunch and Andrew hung with some of the guys he knows at Mahatthai.

There are lots of dogs here in Thailand….LOTS. Most all of them are street dogs, street-smart to the core, diseased and mangy, and very growly to foreigners (assumedly because we look different, I’m not sure…) Many sleep in the streets all day long or under the shade of parked cars. All grounge for food from street vendors, markets or trash heaps. They drink standing water, poop on doorsteps, in the streets or wherever they please. To keep them from stopping in front of houses or businesses, people put filled water bottles lining their doorsteps, patios, front yards and car parks. For some reason this keeps them away.

Bony, spotty, filthy, smelly, and sometimes scary, they are not a favorite part of my life here. They chase me on my bicycle and snap at my ankles. They growl and lunge at me as I pass, walking home from the office, and I have to try to ignore them and not look back. I am not sure why there are so many surviving, but I can conjecture that part of the reason is because Thai people (mostly of the Buddhist persuasion) do not believe in killing anything (even cockroaches!) In addition, these dogs are incredibly survival-adept. They look both ways before crossing the road, they stay out of the way of speeding cars…they even cross 6-lane highways by using the elevated cross-over walkways!! One time I actually stood in line behind a street dog while I ascended the steps of a highway crosswalk, walked across the highway, and descended the other side.

This picture was taken of a particularly clingy dog that hangs out at the church all day in Nong Khai. He followed me one day when I went running – the whole way, he just followed me loyally. That is, until some other sawy dogs attacked him for passing through their territory.

To read a pitiful street dog story, read my fellow teammate Rhianna’s blog, That Great City. http://thatgreatcity.blogspot.com/

Sorry, Rhianna ;(

As of late we have had so many visitors…just in the last 6 months we have had Andrew’s sister, both his parents, my sister and brother-in-law, my brother and both my parents here to visit us in Thailand. All of our immediate family! Recently Aaron, (Andrew’s brother) and his two friends joined us here in Ram 2, Bangkok, before visiting the beaches in Phuket.

They are too cute, no?

There were definitely sobering moments of realizing that I did, indeed, have FOUR guys in my house. So maybe they are 30+ plus but they are boys just the same.

It is always fun to see things here with fresh eyes through those who come to visit. Here are some more market pictures…produce, fruit, pigs heads, nasty street dogs, etc.

Good times with the Bronson boys and the Mikes! Thank you for visiting us!