Dead Ancestors Visit on New Years Eve

While living in a village in the Isaan part of Thailand, people tend to ask the foreigner, "What are you doing here?" We tell them that we are here to talk to people about Jesus and Christianity, but also that we are here as learners, to learn about their culture and language. Being learners has helped us to learn a lot about what the people here really believe, and has gotten us invites to watch (not participate) in a variety of rituals and celebrations.

Tonight, on New Year's Eve, we were invited to come watch and understand more about a yearly ritual called "Baan Pa Bu Rut." At this ritual, more than 70 or so people came. There was a decorated altar with bananas and other foods created for the worship of ancestors. Around this were many people sitting, musical instruments playing, lots of laughter, and one particular person who acted like some sort of a medium. She would do a little motion with her hands for a minute or so, and then after that, they believe that one of their deceased ancestors has come, and is inside of the ladies body. After the person introduces himself/herself, family members come and talk with their deceased ancestor. They believe that these deceased ancestors have some kind of influence over their lives, so they want to make sure that their ancestors are appeased. This ceremony also includes traditional dancing and doesn't finish until morning on New Years.

Please watch the following video to get a small glimpse of the reality of the Kui beliefs in Sisaket, Thailand. Pray that God will transform their lives into worshipers of Him and Him alone!

Quote of the Day: Bleed Wolfpack Red

This morning, I was about to put up the aluminum foil, and I was helping Hudson understand not to touch the sharp thing on the aluminum foil box because it could hurt him and make him bleed. Then I asked, "Hudson, are you going to touch the aluminum foil box?" He responded:

"Yes, (I) bleed Wolfpack Red"

Christmas Pics and Videos

Here are some pics and videos from around Christmas time that go with the previous article

Christmas in Thailand

The past few weeks, I've often asked people in our part of Thailand "Do you know what the meaning of Christmas is?" Hardly anyone has a clue what it is really about. Some believe that it is our New Years (that came from the principal of a school). Some think its just a good time for partying. Most, however, have no clue. Thailand has Christmas trees, lights, and even Santa Clause these days, but I've met very few people out in rural Thailand who understood that Christmas is a day for celebrating the birth of Jesus. This gave our family many opportunities for sharing about Jesus this holiday season. I was given the opportunity by some of our World Vision friends to go share at a school recently with over a couple hundred kids. Because it was about Christmas, I was able to share about who Jesus is, why he came, and what this has to do with Christmas (a rare opportunity in Thailand).

Last night, Christmas Eve, we loaded up the truck with our fellow villagers (2 loads of people) and took them about 20 minutes down the road to a big event put on by a nearby church fellowship. The ride there was interesting. I think that with one load of people, I had b/w 15-20 people in our little white truck. They listened to music, watched dancing, and heard about Jesus (for most people, this was a first). This lead to a great conversation with a lady across the street on Christmas day who was reading a tract given to her the night before. Please pray for Nah-Ree and others that God would continue to work in their hearts.

Today, Christmas day, we had a great time opening presents, and spending Christmas as a family. Pamela and I really miss spending Christmas' with our family back in the States. We had intended on using Skype to talk to them, but our computer broke 2 days before Christmas and just got repaired this afternoon. There is no substitute for spending Christmas with family, but we extended our family tonight. We invited some of the kids and adults in our village to come join us for Christmas. We ended up with over 80 people in our house...we shared the Christmas story (starting from Adam and Eve), played a game, sang some Christmas songs, and ate some of Pamela's Christmas cookies. It turned out to be a pretty good Christmas!

P.S. i'll be getting some pics and maybe a video or two up soon...

Sports Week at the Baan Buay School

This past week has been a big week for our village. In small towns in America, people can't wait to go see their favorite high school football or basketball games. In our village, people can't wait for the yearly middle school sports competition. For the entire week, almost no kids at the school in our village studied in school, but rather, they watched/played football (soccer), volleyball, betong, and takraw. Today, was the closing ceremonies, complete with dancing (we were glad to see many of our neighbors doing this), a parade, and guess what...more sports competitions. Here are some pictures from today's activities. If you have time, check out the "Takraw" video; it is basically like volleyball, but without hands...cool sport though.

Urgent Prayer Request

Please be in prayer for Neey, a school teacher at the school in our village. She is pictured here with her brother Nai. They live just a couple houses down from us. Many of you may have already been praying for her at some time or another. Neey has recently expressed much interest in the Gospel. I had her talk with a Thai Christian believer today, b/c my language is still limited, and he was able to answer many of her questions, that I was not able to. Neey seems very interested, and is trying to decide if she is willing to give her life to Christ. She, like everyone else in our village, comes from a Buddhist background, and turning to Christ is a difficult decision. Pray that God will continue to work in heart, and that if it is His will, that she will put her faith in Jesus Christ.

Happy Birthday to the King of Thailand

The King of Thailand's birthday was the 5th of December. Today, the 7th of December, we were invited by a friend to attend a celebration for the King's birthday. It was lots of fun. There was Thai dancing, singing, various Thai snacks, and lots of people. Here are a few pics taken tonight.

Visit from David's Family

This past week or so, we were very excited to have some of our family come and visit us. My parents and my brother and his wife came to stay with us for about a week. They spent most of the time with us in our home in Sisaket. They helped us teach English, spent time with villagers, played with kids, etc. We had a great time catching up. We also had a lot of fun together. We rode elephants, worked out in the rice fields, went to some neat tourist places, etc. We also celebrated many birthdays, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all in one meal. The following are some pictures of this past week.

Hudson and Pamela waiting for Grandma, Gaga, Derek, and Erin at Airport

Celebrating birthdays, thanksgiving, and Christmas

Christmas in November

After our family teaches English to the kids in our village, everyone poses with "Go Wolfpack" signs proudly displayed

Hanging out with some friends after Church in Phrai Bung

Eating together at a Korean Barbecue restaurant

Posing with the travel section of the Charlotte Observer after riding elephants in Surin, Thailand. If we don't make the paper, at least the picture made it on my blog

Mom riding high on a huge elephant

Dad riding low on the little elephant

Derek and Erin showing their Wolfpack pride

Hudson makes a new friend

Dad helping one of our neighbors harvest rice

Derek removing the rice from the plant, the old-fashioned way

Pamela and Erin pretending to harvest rice (notice, they have no tool to harvest with, they are wearing short sleeves, and this portion of the field has already been harvested...however, makes for a nice pic)

Derek and Hudson at the Grand Palace in Bangkok

Mom and Dad posing at the Grand Palace

Another sad good-bye to our family...this picture is right before they boarded the plane back to America

Rice Farmer Dave

This is a picture of me getting out in the rice fields and helping to harvest some rice. All of our neighbors do this all day, 6 days or so a week, but I only did it for about 30 minutes. I got so exciting after much hard work and our friend let me know that I had just earned 1 Baht. That would about 3 cents. Most people who work all day make no more than $3.

Hudson hanging out in the rice field with his friend Bam

Hudson Sitting at the Table American/Thai Style

Sometimes Hudson does things or says things that are a cross between American and Thai. This picture is of Hudson squatting, which is what Thai people tend to do when they are just sitting around. Hudson ate his supper this way, in a high chair. We normally tell him to sit right when eating, but at least it made for a good picture.

A Few of the Neighboring Kids

Here are a few of our neighbors in Baan Buay that were anxious to have their picture taken. Feel free to pray that each of them and their families will follow Christ

Min

Ohm

Nam

Wuun

Lee

Loy Krathong Festival

Just a few days ago, Pamela and I were invited by our villagers to go and see a festival nearby. The name of the festival is "Loy Krathong." The people prepare a "Krathong," which is a little decorated float-like object often made from banana leaves, paper, candles, etc. They then float (loy) it out on the water. By doing this, they are worshipping and/or paying honor to the god of the water. By doing so, they believe that they will receive good fortune. At the event we went to, they had kids and adults from a number of villages dance. Baan Buay, the village that we live in, sent a couple of different groups to perform. They did a great job and had a lot of fun.

Before they began to float the "Krathong's," the vice governor (pictured to the left) of the province of Sisaket had just finished giving a speech. He came down from the stage and then started his journey to the water, followed by everyone else. As he was on his way, he looked at me...I knew something was up, with us being the only white people for miles. He then came to me, with everyone looking, spoke to us for a while in English and in Thai, and then made us his guest to go offer a huge "krathong" to the god of the water. We were "strongly" urged, by everyone, to follow him, so we followed along. On the way I was able to explain to him that we were Christians, and that we would not be participating. This was somewhat embarrassing for us, b/c in Thailand its not very polite to refuse to do something when someone of high prestige offers, but this gave us an opportunity to politely stand for what we believe in...thus, we just took pictures. Here are some of the pictures and a video that we took at the festival.

The kids in this picture and in the video down below are some of the very young people that we seek to minister to. The majority of them are our neighbors on the street in which we live. I guess this dancing is something like their form of cheerleading or something. Notice the tall person on the right in the black/green and the person in the back middle in the orange are not really women, but men. Homosexuality and dressing up like women is a big issue in Thai society. The person on the right is very open about it, but until now, we have never seen the boy in the orange dressed up like a girl. In fact, the boy in the orange attends our weekly English lesson, and in fact, is probably our best student. He, along with many of these kids, have heard the Gospel, and we pray that God will work and transform each of their lives.

These are some adults doing more of the traditional Isaan Dancing

Staples Mill Road Baptist Church Mission Team

During the last couple of weeks, we have had the pleasure of having a team from Staples Mill Road Baptist Church in Richmond, VA join us in Sisaket, Thailand. They taught lots of English (2 schools and 1 big English Camp), prayer walked many villages, and were able to distribute literature and share about Jesus with hundreds and hundreds of young people. The following are a few pictures from the past week or so.

The Team After Riding Elephants in Surin

Bruce and Sam doing what they do best, eating!

Paul and Sue doing a skit for a Church in Phrai Bung

Sue and Phyliss Sharing about Creation

Brenda spent the early part of her trip sick, but was delighted to have a close friend of hers, who was in the area, come and surprise her!

Gayle teaching the youth at the English Camp about musical instruments

Susan teaching at the English Camp in Kantaralak

Kids at the English Camp in Kantaralak holding up NC State Wolpack signs in celebration of the recent wins by the pack!! Go State!