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Saturday, February 17, 2007

Adios from Thailand and CNY...

Happy Chinese New Year everyone.

Today I'll be going back to Perth with my team and we'll be leaving in about 7 hours. Mixed feelings. Loved the people and the culture. Probably my best outreach experience yet not because of the place but because of the way God lead us and what He allowed us to see here in Thailand.

Chinese New Year
Probably the most important festival or celebration for any Chinese. It's the mark of the new lunar year where families get together, feast and catch up. I have not celebrated CNY for 2 years now but most amazingly I will be travelling back at just the first day of the lunar new year. To me, it is a significant time.

Chon Buri Experience Summary
It feels like a gust of wind blowing past. Just a short week and now it's over. In short, we did kids ministry, open air in a slum street, visited house churches, 4 salvations, sports camp and campus ministry. We worked with 'The Life Center' that was started by Team 2000. A missionary team consisting of 3 families who committed to 10 years in Thailand since 2001. So cool to see them speak and converse in Thai. Our time here was pretty relaxing though we were still keeping a tight schedule.

================= THAILAND 7-WEEK SUMMARY =====================
Best Ministry Experience
Bangkok - seeing people coming to Jesus through friendships in sports.
Ubonrachatani - playing with kids in the slums... looked like a warzone literally.
Chonburi - teaching hip-hop for over an hour

Best Non-ministry experience
Bangkok - awesome cinema experience with massage,drink, a lounge chair with blanket ...
Ubonrachatani - riding on top ofa truck for an hour at 80-90km/h.
Chonburi - waterpark slide trying all sorts of stunts and going off a 170m high tower on a zip line.

Best Eating Experience
Bangkok - spring rolls, fried chicken, corn and Dairy Queen blizzards.
Ubonrachatani - hot pot buffet, pattaya noodles and Dairy Queen blizzards.
Chonburi - The Tide Resort* and still ... Dairy Queen blizzards**.

* The Tide Resort is a recommended restaurant designed for hotel customers and western food. Though it was a little pricy than normal,the atmosphere was awesome and the food was great. In our short 7 days here, we spent 3 of these meal times at the Tide. Now we have a phrase, "The Tide is coming!"

** DQ is a trademark ice-cream known to many Americans. A blizzard is ice-cream with some confectionary added to it and put into a machine to mix it up. Thus the name blizzard. A small Oreo blizzard only costs a meager 19 Baht (2 Malaysian ringgit or 80 Australian cents). Now you can imagine the frenzy my friends have everytime they see a faithful DQ sign. Unfortunately, no one got a free ice-cream. "Served upside-down or you'll get it for free" is their motto proving its richness in awesome creaminess.

Hard Times
- learning how to lead and serve others
- knowing a friend has leukemia and there's nothing I can do but to pray
- a spiritual attack on team unity being made manifest in the physical

Awesome Times
- seeing students grow, change, transform, challenge and stepping out in faith

Things I thought I will do in Thailand but didn't.
1) Getting a Thai massage
2) Riding on an elephant

Things I didn't think of doing in Thailand
1) Sleeping out in a tent for 10 days.
2) Cold showers for 2/3 of the outreach.
3) Jumping off a 170m tower.
4) Riding on top of a truck.
5) Eat so much.

================== NEXT CHALLENGE - Impact World Tour ===================

IWT
Once we get back to Perth, the Sports DTS will be splitting into 2 teams with Trisha leading one and me leading the other. My team (7 people) will be joining the GX TEAM. This team consists of skateboarders, bladers, hip-hoppers and bikers that do amazing stunts. I'm so stoked (excited) to be a part of this team.

The other team will be joining up with TEAM EXTREME. The big muscled guys who will demonstrate their tremendous strength by breaking concrete bricks, steel pipes, baseball bats, barrels, roll truck tires and even crush a car.

Are you hungry for more??? Stay tuned...

Monday, February 12, 2007

15 minutes to go

Only 15 minutes to update everyone ...

First of all PRAISE REPORT...

Medical examination.
2 days before we left for Ubonrachatani, I still have had not enough money to get my medical examination done. That night however, one of my students suddenly asked me how much I needed for it and I told him the figure. Then he told me that he would pay for all of it. I was shocked and asked him why and he shrugged and simply told me, "God told me to." So the next day, we went to a really nice hospital and got it done. It was a miracle and again at a crucial time.

Student Visa
Well, I guess I'm going home. I was scheduled to leave Thailand on the 6th Feb to return to Australia in a bid to renew my 416 Special Visa. However, my first week in Thailand, I found out that I could not apply for that anymore and I will need to apply for a student visa which is more expensive. Before we left Ubonrachatani, I had taken a step of faith in trusting God for the money and had moved my returning date to the 17th Feb so that I could return with the team. That gave me 12 days extra. Trusted God to provide and enough time to gain approval. Just this week Monday, God provided enough money to apply for my visa and I quickly did it online. It was frustrating because the internet was slow but finally it got done. Today, 3 days later, I checked my status and I saw that my visa was approved!!!! I rubbed my eyes and checked again, and yes... it says, "APPLICANT APPROVED" and a nice message saying, "You may now enter into Australia!" Yahoo!!!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
It has been an incredible journey here in Ubon and walking in faith again. But most of all, it's because of you all who prayed for me, those who gave and those who believe in me. I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your encouragements and support.

Love you all. Tomorrow we leave Ubonrachatani for Chon Buri. Hopefully they'll have better internet speeds.

Some highlights ...
- was at the border of Thailand-Laos ... just too bad we couldn't cross over.
- visited and encouraged several small house churches in rural villages\
- slept in tents in the middle of nowhere
- bonfires and campfires
- played full-field football (soccer)
- many more ....
Ubonrachathani

On to Ubonrachathani...

Dec 25th - Jan 29th. That is our time in Bangkok. We spent a good 5 weeks here with Siam Bangkok Church and it's sad to be leaving. All of us have grown close to the church and have so much of fun together it's not even funny. The church has blessed us very much and we hoped that we have been a blessing to them. Today is our last service with them and they had an honoring time for us. We felt really blessed and had awesome time of writing autographs, picture taking, hugs and promises to keep in touch.

Monday morning, the Sports DTS team will be leaving to the North-East of Thailand to a place known as Ubonracathani (Ubon for short). The mode of transport is a sweet coach bus and the length of time is 8 hours. Like before, we'll be working with a church as well over there but unlike Bangkok, we'll only be there for 10 days. So God will need to do some quick breakthrough and adjustments to the team. The people group that we're going to is called the Isaan people. We've been praying for them for a long time and the students have done a lot of research so we can't wait to get there!! Oh, I did forget to mention that we have to get up as early as 4:30am to pack and eat and clean so that we can leave by 6:30am. FUN FUN FUN!! I love travelling ...

===========

T E S T I M O N Y
As I had written previously, my visa situation is at a critical stage. Without enough finances, I can't apply for my visa and thus jeopardise my stay in Thailand and also for the team when they return to Perth for IWT. My first hurdle was to do my medicals here in Bangkok because that takes the longest time. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money (2500B ... 70 AUD). And what makes it worse was that I need to get it done before we leave for Ubon so time was running short for me as of Friday. I still have not had enough money and I was getting to the point of frustration. I felt like I was hanging on to God by a thin thread as though I'm doing a bungee jump with a 0.5" diameter thick rope. But God is SO SO FAITHFUL. He spoke to one of my friends who asked me how much I needed for my medicals and he said that he would pay for it. So yesterday, Saturday, I had to frantically make an appointment with the coolest hospital ever (it's like a 5-star hotel) and did my medicals there. All within 12 hours, I got the money and got the medicals done... ISN'T HE AWESOME (mimicking Mark Parker)?? So now, I just have to trust God for my actual visa. Well, He's provided money for my medicals means that He desperately wants me back in Australia so please pray that the visa money will come in soon.

=========================================

V I S I O N
More and more God is shaping my future. Today, He challenged me seriously about being a photojournalist. Questions I never thought of started to come up like "How does a photojournalist gets his work published?", "What makes me a different photojournalist compare to others?", "I should start writing, taking pictures and actually submitting them." I realise today that it doesn't matter if my work gets rejected. The point is that I try and keep trying. A verse came to my mind about, "ask and it will be given, knock and the door shall be opened". What if I get rejected? That's not the point, it is to keep asking and to keep knocking. I'm excited about this year!!

RANDOM THINGS....
Things you can get for 10 Baht (0.30 AUD)?
A piece of fried chicken, packet of gum, bottle of Coke or coffee, tea, 2 packs of rice, half a watermelon, small bag of laundry detergent, use of washing machine, fruit smoothie and many other small things.

What about 300 Baht (10 AUD)?
2 movies tickets, nice shirt, cheap shoes, 3 small Big Mac meals, 10 medium Oreo Blizzards from DQ, 3 taxi rides from church to the downtown, ticket to go up the tallest hotel in the world (89 floors), 3 times all-you-can-eat buffet, a DVD (original), 10 2-liter cokes ... etc ...

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Thai People and fun times

This is Sceezoe live from Bangkok once again reporting on the daring and adventurous exploits of Edwin on the field. Right now, time is running out for him as his visa situation is still unknown at the moment. What will his Big Daddy do? Even as he awaits for this miracle to happen, he is able to hold on and persevere drawing on past experience with his Dad and how He had delivered Edwin from a very similar situation just over a year ago. But more on that later. Let's hear what Edwin has to say this time round.

A Little Thai
Sawadii krap. Phom cheu Edwin krap. Phom cheu yee sip kau. Hiu kao mai? Phom hiu kao. Phom hiu mak mai. Tom yam gooung, neng. Ummm.... aroi mak mai. Kap khun krap.

(Hello. I am Edwin. I am twenty-nine years old. Are you hungy? I am hungy. Very very hungry. Tom Yam soup, one. Ummm ... very very delicious. Thank you.)

Thailand People
I have to repent. In the past I had a terrible misconception about Thai people. Eventhough I've never been in Thailand before, I had developed a presumption about these people group from media and people. I won't share what my presumption was but I will share what I've discovered. For one thing, they are very hospitable and very friendly. They may be strangers to one another but when they meet, they can be friends the next minute. It's awesome. They love to talk and love to share. A little shy with foreigners but once they get passed that, they open up real fast. Physical appearance, there are 2 very distinct looks. The Malays and the Chinese. It's very weird for me. I feel at home because the streets and stuff are very similar to KL but then, there will be Thai words all around which reminds me of where I am. And then when I look around at people's faces, there will be Chinese and Malay (or Indon) faces. So it's weird not to be able to speak Malay or Chinese to them.

Even here, God can use Chinese and Malay
I have often wondered how can God use me in the way I was brought up. I know that God is a redeeming God and that He will use whatever that we have to offer Him. I know that Chinese is becoming more common and I have had an opportunity in the past to use Chinese to lead 2 Zulu boys in South Africa to Christ. It makes no sense but hey, God did it!! What about Malay? Malay is not commonly used except maybe Indonesia and Malaysia but in Thailand, hardly. But wait till I tell you what happened.

Last week, on campus evangelism, my friend (Jang Kor, Thai translator and friend) and I sat with a group of 6 students. Their English was pretty limited but then the guy next to me started to speak Chinese and it turns out that he is studying Chinese. So excitedly I spoke to him with my less-than-average Mandarin and started to tell him about the gospel. He in turned translated it to Thai for his friends. So in between I used English (so that Jang Kor can translate) and Mandarin (for his guy to translate) to preach the gospel. It was awesome! First time ever to have 2 translators working! Hahaha ... so for those who know Mandarin, I basically expounded on the word 'yi' (righteousness). To cut a long story short, he among the six was most impacted by it and he wanted more time to think about it. So that was awesome.

And just today, Roman (German), Miriam (Norwegian), Robert (Canadian) and I prayed and asked God to lead us on our daily campus evangelism. Roman prayed that we will meet people who can speak any of our languages so that we can talk to them. We didn't have any Thai translators today. So the word was 'to go where the wind takes us'. Basically it was a windy day and we followed where the wind blew. In a funny way, the wind died down when we were just walking by this guy sitting by a table. So we talked with him. Roman asked him what languages can he speak and he said, 'Thai, Arabic, Malay'. When the word Malay was mentioned, I took over. He is a Muslim and his name is Hafiz so I began chatting with him a bit. So as Roman spoke to him about the gospel, I translated for Roman into Malay. Boy, did I struggle!! I have not used Malay much and never have I used it to preach the gospel!! Who would imagine this unlikely scenario?!? Anyways, we really challenged Hafiz and then later his friend came over and heard the whole gospel as well. The highlight for me is that God is so good at His faithfulness to use every bit of me.

Futsal Tournament
There were 4 teams including us and we played a round-robin style. The Thai people are really good. They showed a lot of speed and control of the ball. So basically we came in second and had loads of fun. Then we invited them back to have fellowship and presented the gospel to them. Some of them are friends that we've made before and so they already know about us. Out of this tournament, 2 have accepted Christ and another one has expressed great interest.

On To Ubon
In a couple of days time, we'll be travelling 8 hours to a new place called Ubon. We're getting into that mode of closing our time in Bangkok and making that transition to Ubon.

01. team worship.JPG - almost everyday we'll have worship to get into God's presence
02. eat out.JPG - looks like a typical mamak stall in Kuala Lumpur
03. graduation.JPG - 60,000 people were graduating per day for a whole month!! (imagine that!!)
04. witnessing.JPG - we spend lots of time making friendships and sharing our testimony
05. jenga.JPG - we also had fun with ourselves and making Thai people laugh at our antics
06. level 3 english class.JPG - this is the class I taught. All the brown people except me are Thai and they're all girls!
07. church dinner.JPG - this is how we have dinner and lunch sometimes at Siam Bangkok
08. exercises.JPG - we're sports dts ... we can't help but exercise
09. toilet training.JPG - exercises in the toilet
10. dramas.JPG - a gospel drama from creation to redemption
11. worship.JPG - every sunday evening is like a concert
12. worship 2.JPG - reminds me to back home
13. elephant fun.JPG - this elephant was found in the parking area of a hotel
14. invisible audience.JPG - during prayer walk, God lead us into this national theatre where we got to sing to God!
15. level 37.JPG - on the same prayer walk, God lead us to this building (second highest in Bangkok) to proclaim His name
16. futsal fun.JPG - love this game
17. futsal tounament.JPG - the people we played with
18. short hair.JPG - me with cropped short hair
19. english grad nite.JPG - english classes are done and the students are required to do an english skit
20. blind skit.JPG - we did a skit too to present the gospel
21. englishclass.JPG - my english level 3 class
22. me and robert.JPG - this Canadian guy has only one volume ... EXTRA LOUD
23. me and jiew.JPG - this Thai girl reminds me a lot about Kimberly, my sister ... very fun and joyful
24. sports dts 06-07.JPG - proudly presenting the Sports DTS 06-07 (minus Sharon Ross)
25. futsal court.JPG - the court where we played our tournament
26. fire away.JPG - me firing away and my shot was blocked
27. trophy.JPG - the trophy that we almost won
===================

Well well, thank you Edwin for that wonderful report about the Sports DTS. So please continue to pray for Edwin and his team as they will be going through a transition soon. Also pray that within these few days till Sunday, they will have contacts with friends they've made in the past and will challenge them with the gospel. Thanks heaps. This is Sceezoe reporting to you live from Bangkok ...