Our July Newsletter

KHAO PANSAA (BUDDHIST LENT)

We went to Trish’s favourite noodle shop for lunch – where they
throw in boiled pig intestines for no extra charge! There was a
festive atmosphere, and a friendly guy offered Nick a whiskey.
Nick declined, but his new friend was insistent, explaining that
“Khao Pansaa” is about to start, and during the 3 months of
Buddhist lent, drinking is forbidden, so drink as much as you can
today. In fact, he told us, he was drinking enough today for the
next three months. Later he admitted that he probably wouldn’t
last 3 months without a drink!

The rains have started in earnest and we are in the time of the
Buddhist Lent ("rain retreat"). Its an auspicious time for
Buddhists: it marks a period of spiritual renewal for them. It is a
time devoted to study and meditation. The monks usually stay in
the temple grounds, a tradition which dates back to years gone
by when it was necessary to prevent them from trampling on
newly planted rice paddies when they ventured out to receive
offerings from the villagers.

Thai people are usually actively engaged in merit-making during
this period. They bring offerings of food to the monks, but it’s
the offerings that provide light, like candles, which are
considered to be particularly important. It is believed that these
offerings provide monks with illumination physically and
spiritually.

Not insignificantly, within the next couple of weeks we will be
opening our outreach centre, The Lighthouse, right in the centre
of Lampang.

ARM AND OTHER FRIENDS

His name is “Arm”, he hardly has any teeth – those that he does
have are black stumps. He is five years old, but looks as if he’s
only two. His mother is very poor and the gardener in our
housing development. Arm has adopted us. For the first few
weeks that we lived here, he’d stare at us and follow us around
on his bicycle… and race away the minute we’d try to initiate any
contact with him. Now, he comes into our home, eats our food,
drinks our cooldrinks, plays with our toys, watches our TV, and …
listens to Bible stories, learns to sing “Jesus loves me” and hears
Trish read stories about how good God is. Naturally we have to
translate for him, and even so he probably only understands a
tiny bit of what we’re sharing, but, seeds are being planted in his
life.

On Saturdays, we have Kids’ Club in our home – Carrot, Champ, Satang (Thai word for a 1 c coin), Stamp (see photo), Rainbow and others are coming faithfully despite the focus on Jesus. While its fun and games, again, seeds are being planted each week. Its rainy season and we have a powerful God, so we’re optimistic!!!

Thai Drivers

I love Thailand - its a great country and Thai people are very nice people - I guess that's why I'm a missionary here! There are some Thai ways however, that irritate me beyond belief. One of those are the driving habits of the average Thai.

• they generally are in no rush to drive anywhere fast. Average speed that I find myself driving behind most Thai folk - 35km/h.
• solid lines - purely for show. When those who do go faster than 35km/h overtake their less speedy compatriots, they do so anywhere, at anytime. Oncoming traffic? Who cares - they can move onto the shoulder of the road!
• Traffic lights - purely for show and late night entertainment in the quieter towns. Motorcyclists especially, treat traffic lights, red ones that is, with total disdain. In fact, I almost took a motorcyclist out on my way home this afternoon as I went speeding through a green light and she went speeding through a red one.
• sometimes, especially at bigger, busier intersections where traffic police are always lurking, motorcyclists do stop and give rise to my biggest and most severe irritation - motorcyclists who squeeze in front of me whilst I am waiting for a traffic light to change, then proceed to take off dead slowly and speed up to 35km/h whilst my car's bumper hovers a dangerous 10 cm or so behind their back wheel (many is the time that I have been oh sooo tempted to give them a little nudge to help them along their way).

Some other pet irritations in the traffic;

• people on cell phones - their speed then comes down to 25km/h and they weave erratically across the road.
• slow moving traffic in the fast lane of major highways - there are even signs up telling people to keep the outside lane open for faster moving traffic - these are steadfastly ignored!
• big trucks that pull out into the fast lane in order to overtake slower moving traffic without so much as a glance, a warning, or any indication at all. Most times this happens, I am the only fast moving vehicle in the outside lane and if the the trucker and waited 5 seconds, he would have the whole road to himself and I would not have reduced the lifespan of my brakes and tires as much as I had in trying to avoid a collision.
• People who do not give you a gap to get into the flow of slow moving traffic, leaving you stranded and unable to "go with the flow".
• Traffic lights out of order and there is no order as it becomes a free for all to see who can get across. No taking of turns here - you just go - he with the biggest car and nerves of steel wins!
  

Driving in Thailand is an experience that has got to be seen and experienced to be believed. It gives a whole new meaning to the term "defensive driving" and those who think that mini bus taxi drivers in Johannesburg are bad..., ain't seen nothing yet.

Our June Newsletter

SNOOKER AND SHOPPING

The shopping done, loaded into the car, butter melting on the back seat, Nick wondered whether he should go straight home or pop into the hardware store first. There was a job that needed doing at the house – and had been for some time – and he needed supplies. He quickly weighed up the consequences of the melted butter versus the job being delayed yet again, and decided to head to the hardware store. Waiting at the cashier’s desk whilst she was struggling to get the purchases scanned, Nick started chatting to the cashier’s assistant/chief bag packer, whose name is Snooker (yes, as in the game played on a baize covered table and pronounced “Sanuk cur” in Thailish). After exchanging pleasantries, Snooker asked for Nick’s business card. Nick – being a nice guy – gave it to him, and sweetened the deal by giving him a tract too.

Imagine our delight when about an hour later we got a call from Snooker. He is keen – he wants to know more about Jesus because he is dissatisfied with life! We have since met with Snooker again and have given him a booklet about what Christians believe. We hope to meet with him on a regular basis, perhaps over lunch or a cup of coffee, perhaps even with a friend if his or a colleague, and talk more about this awesome God that we serve.

HOME ALONE

Nick was in Singapore and would be gone for a week. Trish was home alone – if you can call being left with three children “alone”. She was feeling a bit down, a bit discouraged, a bit lonely, even a bit nervous. We are still so new in this town – what would she do if there was an emergency? Who would help her?

Then there was a voice calling downstairs. Phii Nok had brought some supper for Trish and the kids. She stayed and chatted for a while. Then, as she was leaving, Khun Yaay brought little First to play.

Soon six other neighbourhood kids and their parents were in our garden having a whale of a time – running races, riding bikes, playing basketball, while Trish fed them savoury pies and chocolate cookies. Next morning none other than the vice-governor of the province (who lives 2 houses down) and his wife arrived to whisk the kids off to their home where they duly entertained and fed them for the morning – while the Bekker blessings destroyed their otherwise pristine house, Trish enjoyed a welcome break.

Home alone - maybe, but certainly with a God who supplies all our needs!

Bangkok Taxi Drivers

If there's one thing I detest with a passion, its being ripped off. It's bad enough when you find out after the event that you were ripped, but its even worse when the rip-off is so blatant that you can see it happening right before your eyes. Most of the worst and most blatant rip-offs and attempted rip-offs, that have been perpetrated on me, have been by Bangkok taxi drivers. These fellows are in a league of their own. I admit that it is unfair to tar them all with the same brush, there are, no doubt, some really upstanding guys out there, but on the whole, they are a fairly scaly bunch. Let me relate my two latest experiences;

I arrived at Bangkok international airport this morning and caught a taxi into town. The taxi driver tried to get me to agree to a fixed fee of 300 Baht. I politely declined and insisted that he turn on the meter. Fortunately, he did not push the issue and I arrived at my destination with the meter sitting on 205 Baht. This was clearly an attempted rip-off and I don't know why he even tried - was it because I am a foreigner? Would he have tried the same trick on a Thai man?

My business in town finished, I needed to catch a taxi to our head office, which has a guest house attached to it. This is about a 25km drive and the average taxi fare is maximum 230 Baht. It was 7 pm and the first two taxi's that I got into refused to take me (as I understand the law, a taxi which is on duty is compelled to take the customer wherever they want to go within the city of Bangkok). So, not a rip-off per se, but a flagrant violation of the law and a major source of irritation to me, a tired guy who wants to go home. Once again, I ask myself, "Would these guys have refused a Thai man who got into their taxis?" Anyway, the 3rd taxi I find is willing to take me, but he refuses to turn on the meter and because I'm getting fairly desperate to get home and am not in the mood to try to find another taxi, we agree on a fare of 300 Baht. Rip-off right there! If his meter was on, it wouldn't come to more that 230 and I still have to fork out 75 Baht in tolls.

Now, its clear to me right from the outset, that this fellow has no idea where I want him to take me. He keeps mentioning places that I have not heard of and I keep telling him which highway to take and which off-ramp and near which temple my destination is. I give him street names, but he still has no clue. I tell him not to worry, that I know exactly where it is and will direct him as we go. So we're going along the freeway on our way home when he decides that he wants to take the next off-ramp, which is one before mine. I ask him to please keep going, that my offramp is the next one and it is literally 3 minutes away at his current speed. He refuses, takes the wrong off-ramp and starts ranting and raving about how I told him that this was where I wanted to go. I tell him that he has just squandered his fare and that he must stop so that I can get out. At this stage the situation escalates to a loud screaming match. He refuses to stop, but says that he's going back to where he picked me up from (20 kms back). He is so irate that he tries to drive up the wrong way on another freeway off-ramp. I'm in the back, threatening to call the police because he's ripping me off and I'm telling him that he's not doing his karma any good. Eventually, still speaking in very raised voices, we agree that he would take me to the old Bangkok airport, which was further than he would have had to go had he just carried on on the freeway as I had asked him.

As I reflected on this whole ugly incident afterwards, I realised that I had handled it very badly and had not been a very good witness. Then again, what do you do when an irate taxi driver accuses you of lying about where you wanted to go and refuses to drop you off, but instead insists on going back to where you started from, thus wasting more than an hour of your time and money paid in toll fees? What really irks me is that the whole situation arose from his greed and intention to rip me off in the first place. He stung me for 300 Baht and when he realised that he had to take me further than he originally understood, it was no longer such a bargain for him. If, on the other hand, he had had his meter on, he wouldn't have worried. In fact, the further he had to take me, the longer the meter would have run and the more money he would have earned.

So what lessons do I take away from this? Don't trust taxi drivers? Give very detailed instructions with names and numbers of offramps and streets and suburbs? Use only those taxi's that are prepared to turn on their meters, even if it means taking a bit longer to find a guy honest enough to do it? I don't know. I just know that right now I'm feeling a little jaded, but I'm sure I'll be alright in the morning:-)

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.