Chiangmai Smog

It's March and a thick smog is over the city of chiangmai - thanks to the farmers burning fields in order to grow a special mushroom (allegedly) or to clear land. Strangely, it has cooled down the weather...cause not even the sun penetrates!
Along with choking smog, there's been a fair bit of gloom over the last two weeks. In last sunday's service, pastor Jonathan mentioned in one of his wandering sermons that in the Christian life we go through periods of spiritual rest (the equivalent of sipping coconuts on the beach in phuket) and sometimes periods where we have to buckle up and fight.
I think I'm definitely in the latter stage sadly. Oh I miss the days where it was all about resting in God! I've been having dreams like the one where people are doing rituals to call up Satan to come and kill me, which was pretty disturbing. Some things in life have been pretty unsettling too and on top of that, I have a fever and I need to recover before Friday's flight out!
This has been a rather depressing post, but on the other hand, even in movie plots, there's always a down time with many obstacles before the big breakthrough/climax. It probably means the enemy is not happy with what I am going to work on next, which is kind of encouraging!

Bangkok Riots to come?

I post this on, it's an email I received from the Chiangmai Prayer Network.
Dear Praying of Chiang mai and Thailand,
On February 26, 2010, the Supreme Court ordered to seize 46 billion baht from 76 billion in frozen assets belonging to ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's family.
What’s next?
Pro-Thaksin protesters (Red-shirt) announced to hold a three-day Mass Rally (March 12-14, 2010, staring this Friday. The highlight will be on Sunday at Sanam Luang, Bangkok.
1. To demand a House dissolution and a snap election
2. To destabilize the government and proclaim their support for former premier Thaksin Shinawatra
2. The red shirts claimed that it is mobilizing at least a million supporters nationwide to join the mass rally March 14 aiming at bringing down the Abhisit Vejjajiva government.
3. To cause a paralysis to Bangkok traffic and have also targeted to attack key government installations located in the capital. This will likely cause huge inconveniences and tempers might flare up to trigger riots.
4. With Maoist tactics of the "forest surrounding the town", protesters from the provinces will move from their home towns to the capital by farm and pickup trucks, plus buses to put pressure on the government.
5. Nobody knows how long the demonstration will last and how serious the situation will be - but the government is prepared for a worst-case scenario of violence and riots.
6. The red shirts did not rule out the possibility of copying the yellow-shirt group's tactics, including seizing government offices as well as Suvarnabhumi Airport, the source said.
7. The bottom line was to stir a chaotic situation until the government loses control.
The Cabinet on Tuesday, March 9, 2010 approved the enforcement of the internal security law on March 11-to-23 in the face of the red-shirt rally.

PRAYER POINTS:
1. The Lord to bring peace into the situation and that there will be no violence, injuries or loss of life. (Isaiah 60:18)
2. The Lord to give wisdom and strategies to the government how to solve problems (Psalm 20:7)
3. The Lord to protect innocent citizens (Psalm 10:12-14)
4. The Lord to supernaturally expose to the government authorities secrets plans to hurt the country. (Mark 4:22)
5. The Prince of Peace to confuse the evil plots of those who are obsessed with inflicting fear, confusion and violence. Pray for the Holy Spirit to move powerfully in bringing the Light of the Gospel of Christ to those who are being held prisoner in darkness. (Isaiah 9:6, Colossians 1:13)
6. Laborers to be sent out into the communities and to preach the Gospel. Pray for them to see and receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Pray for them to become zealous witnesses for His glory. (Psalm 9:37,38)
7. The Kingdom of God to come in power, bringing a tremendous harvest of souls as the Thai put their faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. (Matthew 6:10)
Thank you for your continual prayer for the Nation of Thailand.
Blessings,
Bless Chiang Mai Prayer Network

The cost of living

I was just thinking about how so many people may be thinking of moving into missions here, but are concerned about being able to afford living overseas. 'If only they realised how cheap it is' I thought, and then decided to blog about it. I still get a warm glow every time I pay for a meal and it comes to under $1.
So here's some of the costs of living in Chiangmai, Thailand. I put it in US dollars and I know the currencies fluctuate, but you'll get the idea.

Rent per month- $122
Average Thai meal- $0.92
Average Western meal - $7.65
Language Class per hour- $6.12
A full bike tank of petrol- $9
A hair cut - $4.50
A basket of fruit & veges from the market- $2.45
An hour's massage - $3.67
Can of coke - $0.43
A T-shirt - $3
To go to the movies - $4
Check-up at the doctors - $4.50
To get your house cleaned - $9
To get your bike washed - $1
To catch public transport around town one way - $0.60
Electricity bill last month - $12
Randomly watching an elephant walk down a main street in town - priceless


Oh yeah, these prices make me happy.

What does Christianity look like today?

Sourced from the World Christian Atlas at the launch presentation by Todd Johnson at Payap University:

• The majority of Christianity is shifting to the 'global south'- the continents of Africa and Asia
• A 1/3rd of the world has been Christian for the last 100 years. But in 1910 80% of them were American or European- meaning that Christianity was majority Western. 1910 was a very optimistic time as people expected life to get better and technology to solve world problems. Then the World Wars happened and the Great Depression and disillusionment grew. Now in 2010, Westerners count for only 40% of Christians. However, thanks to early Missionaries, Christianity has become associated with Western culture even though it's a minority.
• The statistical centre of Christianity is in Mali, Africa.
• In 1910, only 1 southern country, Brazil was in the top 10 countries for having a majority Christian population, today 7 of the top 10 are southern countries.
• Top 5 mother tongues (the language you speak from birth) of the world today- Spanish first, then English, Portugese, Russian, Mandarin.
• 60% of the worlds Christians living in the south count for 17% of church wealth. That means wealth in the church is very unevenly spread.
• 86% of Christian evangelism is done in areas already Christian.
• Trends in Christianity today are Secularisation (old churches being renovated into condos) and Spiritualisation (faith without reason).
• Christianity in the West suffers an image problem. It is not attractive.- a quote from Moong Jeng Lee
• The shift of Christianity from north to south happened when missionaries were forced to leave southern mission fields and local churches stepped up to the plate. an example of this is China, where the house-church movement exploded after all foreigners were expelled from the country. Also at the same time Europe and America were becoming more secular.
• Only of 14% Muslims actually know a Christian personally. A slight problem for incarnational ministry in the style that Jesus preferred.
• However the most responsive people to Christianity come from majority non-christian areas.
• Most of the world are Muslims or Christians. In Asia, the Phillipines is the only majority Christian.
• Over the last 100 years in Asia, folk religion has been dying out but Islam and agnosticism is rising. In Asia most of the Christians are in the Phillipines, Indonesia and then Vietnam.
• As Christianity is no longer a Western dominated religion demographically the question is is: "Is christianity going to be like Mangoes or bananas?"
  Bananas are yellow on the outside, white on the inside. Mangoes are yellow on the outside and yellow inside.

Loren in Korea

In the 70's Loren went to Korea which was such a poor country that at a meeting with 2,000 people not a single one owned a vehicle (in a country of 80 million there were only 16,000 drivers licenses)- but Loren told them God has told him they would become a huge mission sending nation. Koreans said 'How is this possible, we can't even get passports?'...and look at them now!

Stories from Loren Cunningham

Right now I'm at YWAM's 50th celebration here in Chiangmai and Loren Cunningham, the founder, is telling inspiring stories...
Marcia was a 16 yr old who joined YWAM in the Amazon. She began to pray with two other girls and God put on their hearts an unreached tribe in a part of the jungle thought uninhabited. So they went and a 2 wk boat trip and 3 day hike later, they sat down to rest and realised they were surrounded by men with knives. The girls realised they had found the unreached tribe and spontaneously broke into songs of joy. What they didn't know is that this tribe will not kill singers as they call them spirit people. Then a wrinkled old lady came between the lines of men and stared closely at the girls faces. Finally she smiled widely and they were brought into the secret village where they stayed for several months. The old woman had a vision two weeks before where she had seen the YWAMmer's faces and a voice saying " they are coming with a great present for your tribe".

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.