Travel Tips

On yet another interminable flight, where I've read my book too fast again, I began to cook up these south east asia travel tips:
• always book check-in luggage weight for the return journey if flying the budget airlines. Inevitably you will buy some oversized souvenier, too many clothes or be given a gigantic carving by your sponsor child
• Pack toothpaste. It generally doesn't taste right in other countries.
• For girls, the occasional fake wedding ring could be useful. Be prepared anyway to answer the questions "how old are you?" and "are you married yet?" within the first few sentences of a convo with ANYBODY.
• It really helps to get around if you know how to ride a motorbike.
• Do not pull faces or make friends with small children on flights. You can't keep it up for the next however many hours and they'll keep staring. And they are loud.
• Just cave in and buy plane food if it isn't provided on a budget flight. It is overpriced but in the end your ticket is probably still cheap.

"Thankyou God for sending us Pi Jasmine to lead worship for us today even though..."

Last Sunday I intended on going to visit my friend Gade's church. So I turned up on time according to her directions and walked into church to find barely anyone there but a frazzled church leader. She was missing her guitarist (he had gone to Laos) and it looked like it was down to playing bad mp3's for worship so I offered to play. After breaking a string trying to tune their guitar, I even went home to get my own.
Then the congregation arrived- mainly village families from Maejo. The songs were all in Thai and so I only survived playing by having a small boy standing next to me singing and running his finger along the lines so I could guess where the chord changes were. In fact the families were so excited to have a guitarist they kept calling out more songs, so I was originally only meant to play 3 and ended up sightreading 7 songs. And still no sight of Gade.
Finally I finished playing and the church leader prayed "Thankyou God for sending us Pi Jasmine to lead worship for us today even though she meant to go to the church two doors down..."
I thought "WHAT!!! I'm at the wrong church?! And you knew?!!"

The Attrition of the Heart

This attrition of the heart is somewhat horrible in overseas missions. Either you're missing people from your home country, knowing you're not there for major and important parts of their lives, or you're at home missing friends from the mission field. And after a while, parts of your heart are spread out all over the world and even though globalisation and cheap airlines are drawing us together more often; there is simply no substitute for lives intertwined in daily rhythm.
B, I'll miss you.

Rest & Stability

The main message at church today was to rest in God rather than just work for Him. It made me realise how much my perspective has changed. I'm over 'doing' church and into 'being' church. I'm actively avoiding religious duties and no longer believe in putting on a program just because we should be doing something. I'm into organic community and just being with people- flaws, absurdities and all. People over programs every time.
The other major mental gear shift God has changed was my idea of where my stability came from. Frankly, coming into the middle of this year I was getting tired. I have changed continents every 6 months for the last three years. I'm always leaving my friends or they're leaving me and who knows how many years will pass till our next meeting (heaven?). Then I start over afresh in every new place with new people and sometimes a new language (or accent). I just needed a home. So seeing as I know I will be here in Chiangmai for a while, I began to look for a more stable living situation. Hilariously, while I was thinking this, I have had at least 5 good friends and 3 flatmates leave and moved house twice already. One of my closest friends here is leaving on a jetplane in a couple of weeks, don't know when they'll be back again. Driving me, in desperation, to the realisation that my stability is in God and that must be enough.

Thai Plumbing

This week all our plumbing problems came to a head. Nearly a fountain head. The upstairs toilet had been leaking for a while all over the floor and the butt-sprayer would not turn off if we tried to flush but hey it was a slow flood so we told the landlord's representative, stopped using it and weren't too worried about it. Then in the space of 24 hours, the downstairs sink broke so all water went straight through to the floor, the upstairs shower knob was missing so my housemate cut herself on the rusty thread sticking out and the upstairs sink tap broke and would not stop shooting water full force. Part of my morning was spent alternating turns in holding down on the tap to stem the flow so that the other person could continue getting ready for work.
All fixed now, but what a morning! Is it possible there's some sort of synchronised built in break down date on thai plumbing?

Adaptation

Last night I could not sleep and decided to have a midnight milo. I went into the kitchen without turning the lights on and reached for the jar. As I opened it up and went to put my spoon in, I realised that my milo smelt a bit damp...and there seemed to be a streak of black in there. 'Probably water leaked in' I thought as I flipped on the light.
A dead gecko lay with it's head buried in the milo.
This was a real dilemma...milo is my treat, but that was the damp gecko blood I had smelt.
In the end I tipped half the milo powder, and the gecko, into the bin and then continued on making myself a hot milo out of the same jar. Ahh... how I've adapted to the life of a missionary.

Where did you recieve your call?

Interestingly we just took a survey in ywam staff meeting and only 2 people recieved their call to missions while at their home church. 8-10 people recieved a call to missions while on a short term mission trip. Most people recieved their call between 20-30 years old, a few people knew as kids they wanted to be missionaries and 1 person after 50 years of age.
So hey, next time we send some young adults off overseas and wonder what they could do, just remember if even only one of them decides to go into long term missions and the rest just come back with a greater understanding of missions...its worth it!