Itsara

Here are the pictures of Sean and Prang’s wedding.

Our newsletter will be sent out later this week, and I already wrote a fair amount about the wedding in there. I keep going back and forth over whether to copy and paste it here or to write something new. Tell you what. I’ll give you a brief overview here (along with some new information not in the newsletter) and you can read the rest later. If you don’t get our newsletter (or didn’t even know there was one), contact us and we’ll add you to the list. Or you can download it from here after we send it out.

As a team, we all spent 3 days and 2 nights in Prang’s village (for those of you following along at home, that’s this village). We helped out, ate good food, and prayed for people – a lot. At the time, I flashed back to my recent post on short term missions, and how missionaries are more likely to be blessed than the Im Jai kids, and I thought it very ironic. I’m glad I qualified that post by saying it only related to my experience at Im Jai, cuz the fact is that we (or rather the Holy Spirit) made a difference in the lives of those folks at the village. I’m not talking about some nebulous, feel-good difference. I’m talking about a guy who didn’t have enough strength to pick up rice (and therefore couldn’t eat) when we arrived and who was giving us firm handshakes when we left. I’m pretty sure our visit made a difference to him, and he wasn’t the only one that God chose to heal that weekend.

Healing prayer is not new to them, but we tried to teach them what we know about it. We taught them especially that whatever they saw in us wasn’t from us. It was from the same Holy Spirit that they had.

Anyway, the morning of the wedding we killed pigs. Well, most of us watched, but there were those that helped. About 6 or 7 pigs were killed in all, and man did they taste good. We ate different parts of them pretty much all day.

The ceremony was fun. Much more spontaneous than an American wedding, and certainly more friendly. Everything had to be translated twice (from English to Thai to Karen, or in reverse). The bride herself was the only one capable of translating straight from English to Karen, and Sean refused to let her do so during her own wedding. Jamie did the ceremony, translated to Thai by Cindy and then to Karen by their pastor.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the part where our keys got locked in our truck. Fortunately for us, Chris Whyte was present (there you go, bro). With the help of Emmet Blue, he used his felonious arts to break into our car without smashing any windows (and only slightly damaging some of the weather stripping). You may rest assured, Chris, that we have since had the alarm system taken out so we can now start the car immediately. That fact, combined with the “custom modifications” you made, have officially restored the truck to A-Team coolness. I love it when a plan comes together.

This second batch of pictures is of the Coast team hanging out with the Im Jai kids. They had opportunities to do so most of the days they were here, fortunately (since that was one of the reasons they came).

The first few are from the day of the dedication. Afterwards, a few of us hung out on the playground. Wayland practiced his Thai (for never having lived here, he’s pretty dang good). I got to chat with kids I haven’t seen in weeks. And Chris Gorrie got chased by three kids (my favorite part was when he climbed to the top of the playground equipment yelling, “Wayland? Tell them I don’t want to play anymore!”).

The next day we took the kids to a waterfall. At least some of the kids. Everybody had a good time playing in the water or just watching.

The rest are from a celebration Im Jai had for Sean and Prang before they got married. The whole mission team was there for that, and we had a lot of time to play with the kids before dinner. The east coast mission team I mentioned last post made spaghetti, and the kids did some songs and dances. I was supposed to play some English worship, but nobody really told me much about it. It was just kinda mentioned in passing the week before and the day of I discovered that the party was actually a decently produced deal, except for the bit where there was no setup for me to play guitar and sing at the same time. In the midst of my fumbling around trying to figure out what to do, I think the MC gave up on me and moved on. Oh well. Sorry, Seanie.

There’s one more batch of pictures I’ve got. A big one. Sean and Prang’s wedding.

I guess the best way to catch up is with pictures. I’ll start with Im Jai’s dedication day.

Im Jai started prepping for this day months ago, and it just got crazier as the day approached (it got to the point where one day I just stayed home cuz I couldn’t handle it – stress stresses me out, you know?).

For the last two days leading up to the event, the mission team was here to help, as was another mission team from the east coast of the US. Everyone was busy. Finally the big day arrived, and all my bosses were too busy to give me more work to do, so I was free to take pictures and hang out with the kids.

The ceremony itself was too much for me. I don’t like ceremonies. I like community. I like parties (provided there’s a small corner for me and a small handful of friends to hide in). I don’t like speeches or suits or sitting quietly in stackable chairs. But at least I got to practice my Thai.

After the ceremony, we had lunch. I do like lunch. People toured the site. Everybody marvelled at how huge and amazing it is, and it really is. Big buildings and pretty landscaping won’t make these kids into world leaders, but it probably won’t hurt. As someone said during the ceremony, these children have a huge opportunity. That’s something they didn’t have before.

The next day, the Coast team took the kids out to a waterfall. That’s coming next.

We’ve been somewhat busy with being in Prang’s village celebrating Sean’s new marriage, then to Bangkok with the mission team, then to Rayong with the team to help a church there, then back to Bangkok to hang out with Cindy’s family. So this is my first time on the internet in over a week.

But I’m too busy to talk about all the stuff I need to talk about, aaaaand I’ve got a newsletter to write to you (and to those many of you who are not reading this right now). So that’s where we are. Thanks for your patience. I’ll get back on here as soon as possible.

Living in Thailand has given me the chance to see what life is like on the receiving end of short term missions.* Im Jai House typically receives anywhere from 5 to 10 short term mission teams per year. Additionally, for the last two years, we have received a mission team from Coast each summer.

There is apparently a lot of controversy surrounding short term missions. In the discussion following the last post, John talked about long term missionaries that outright rejected the help of his short term team. Is there a place for the short term team? Or are short term missionaries merely making themselves feel good while hardly making a difference to the local culture? (more…)

Dano reminisces on a little American nationalism he encountered in Hungary a year ago. Here’s the line that caught my interest this time:

People send missionaries to us.

What do we think about this? Honestly I’d like to know what those Americans who think we are God’s gift to the world think of this, but I know I won’t get that here.

Do we think, “That’s a nice gesture, but they should really be spending their resources more wisely”? Or are we upset that they think we need help? How about, “It’s about time; that church across the street could use some missionaries to set them straight”?

I don’t really think any of these responses are appropriate. All of them assume that we’ve got it all figured out. I’m fine; help someone else.

How about something along the lines of: “Thank the Lord for sending you here. What do you have to teach me?”

We need some prayer over here. I’m afraid I can’t be very specific at the moment (if I can later, I will). To be perfectly vague, we’ve got demons. They’re not very smart, but they’re quite strong. Don’t worry about us. God has been timing things in a strangely perfect way to provide us with help. Just pray for whatever we need to win this battle.

Regarding demons, there was a time when, if I read something like what I just wrote, I would laugh or be scared or think the author severely misled. With time and experience, I’ve come to accept the existence of demons as fact (a fact which, incidentally, makes reading the Bible a much more straightforward and practical affair), and at this point I might very well laugh out loud if someone told me such things didn’t exist. It’d be like telling me my bike is red.