Our May 2008 Newsletter

How do you get to know a town and meet people? On foot, with a cute little baby of course. In order to really get to know Lampang town (see photo of Wat Phra Trat LampangLuang), we ditched the Isuzu and walked. We used the municipal market as our starting point and walked down the streets, going from shop to shop, introducing ourselves, telling people what we do, why we’re in Lampang, and handing out tracts.

“So, where are you from?” asked one friendly shopkeeper.
“South Africa,” we replied.
“Mmmm, where’s that?”
“The southern most part of Africa”
“Oh, is it a region?”
”Well, no, it’s a country”
“And what city are you from in this South Africa country?”
“Johannesburg”
“Johannesburg!!!! I’ve been there. I was there 3 years ago on an 8-day tour!” Then, much excitement as we talked about what a wonderful holiday destination South Africa is.

So far we’ve learned a couple of valuable lessons:

1. Nina is a great conversation starter and eases any initial tensions, but after two minutes she becomes a liability (she gets bored easily on the hip, but tends to destroy displays in shops when let loose).
2. Its going to take a lot longer than we thought to survey this town. The folk in Lampang are really friendly and keen to talk, so in about one hour, we only did one block … there are many blocks to go!
3. There is a big Catholic school in Lampang and many people think that we are associated with them - and don’t understand why we are not… others have been in contact with the Mormons and think they already know what we’re all about.

PHI NOK’S BIRTHDAY

Phi Nok’s restaurant is closed this Wednesday. It’s her birthday and she is going to “tham bun” (have a merit making ceremony) at the restaurant because it is an auspicious day for her. She usually does this at the temple, but this year she’s decided to do it at the restaurant, hoping that it’ll bring her lots of luck and make the restaurant more prosperous. She admits that it’s the first time she is doing it at the restaurant, but really, she should have a merit making ceremony there at least once a year. On the 4^th some monks will come to the restaurant at 10h30 (we’ve been invited to join in) as Phi Nok goes through with the ceremony.

Phi Nok tries to be a good Buddhist, but she knows that she cannot even keep the 5 basic Buddhist precepts – she kills flies almost every day - so actually, she is without hope. We shared with her about the hope that we have in Christ and that only he can remove our bad karma.