Northern Thailand Foursquare Pastors

We are in the city for a little while as we try to work out some of the details for our home. Since we have the time (and the computer access) we wanted to give a few updates on our recent activities. In Asian cultures you have to spend a lot of time just visiting, and that was on the agenda for us last week as we had a chance to get out of the village and visit two of the Foursquare pastors in Northern Thailand.

We first went down to Fang to visit our old friend Pastor Timothy and his wife (Expanding our Map, June 2005). Pastor Timothy is from Singapore, but they have been living in Thailand so long now that they are basically Thai. Pastor Timothy is the point-man for Foursquare Northern Thailand and has the heart of an evangelist and the vision of a leader and it is always great to spend time with him.

As soon as we got to Fang we got to work clearing land near a Lahu Village. The Lahu are another hilltribe in Northern Thailand whose language has some similarities to Akha. This village had asked Pastor Timothy to come up and share for a week and then will decide if it will become a Christian village (such a different world from America!). We didn't last long, it was really hot and by noon we were all ready to call it a day. We set fire to the fields (another thing that is difficult for us Americans) and went off to lunch.

The next few hours were spent just talking vision and the direction of churches and orphanage (there is a small orphanage of Lahu children run by the Foursquare church in Fang). They are building a new church next to the orphanage and need finances and prayer to see that project completed.

Next we went back towards Mae Salong to visit an Akha Foursquare pastor who just had a baby boy. It was the first time we had been to the home of Pastor Noah and we met his wife (who was shocked that we spoke some Akha) and his 10-day old baby boy Solomon. No one had visited them yet, so it was wonderful to just sit down, eat some fruit and visit with this Akha family.

Please remember each of these Pastors and the Foursquare and AOF churches in the North as they continue to minister to all the different people groups living in Northern Thailand.

Tags:

• Foursquare
• Lahu
• ministry

Akha - the Written Language

An interesting change is occurring among the Akha as the younger generation is learning how to read and write the Akha language. While we were in the city last weekend our old pastor and housemate was up in Mae Salong. Now, whenever someone visits our village they usually sleep in our house (which is really the village's home), we are then told dozens of times by various neighbors all about who stayed in our house while we were away.

This last time, however, the pastor left us a note (in Akha) on our door. Everyone in the village saw him do it, but just didn't understand what he was doing. When we came back to the village one of the little girls and one of our Akha grandmas, who we affectionately call Mrs. Santa Claus, took us to the note and said "The pastor did this".

We then proceeded to read (out loud) what the note said: "Paul and Lori, I came and stayed at your home, slept on your mats, ate your rice and food, and drank your tea. Thank you very much, God bless you."

They really enjoyed hearing us read this message in Akha, and insisted that we do it multiple times - and we were happy that we understood the whole message so we were glad to read it over and over again. They were especially tickled to hear this message passed over time and distance in this fashion and in their language. It certainly did not replace the oral tradition of passing news (everyone in our village still told us about the pastor coming to visit), but added to the story by sharing about how a 'written conversation' was left on our door.

Tags:

• Akha
• language
• culture

My Akha Mom

Some time ago I wrote about my Akha wife and how proud I am of her. Although she is my wife, she is not really Akha. Today I am writing about my Akha mother and how much fun we have been having with her these last few days. Although she is Akha, she is not really my mother.

We have shared in our newsletters and in previous blogs about the Akha woman we lovingly refer to as Lydia because of her generosity. In reality, we call her 'Atsu Kuh', and she is our Akha mom.

From our first moments in the village this widowed Akha woman has taken care of us. Feeding us, teaching us, administering painful Akha remedies on us when we are ill, and generally trying to get us to live with her. Through our time with her we have learned that her husband died nearly 23 years ago and she raised her two daughters alone. Her daughters have since grown up and now live in Korea where they sell Ginsing products for a Korean company.

Well, her daughters have come back for this week and we have been able to spend some time with them. We are the same age, 28 and 26 (not taking Akha years into account), and have had a lot of fun with them while they have been running around and fussing over their mom, buying her telephones and things for her home. And Lydia is loving every minute of it.

With their Chinese education from Doi Mae Salong, her daughters can make more money in Korea than they ever could here in Thailand and are therefore able to take good financial care of their mother, but she misses them so much. Seeing her with her daughters helps us to understand why she has taken us under her wing. It also helps us to understand how our parents feel about us living off in a distant country. But we also see the pride and love in Lydia's eyes when she looks at her daughters.

Seperation is hard on all of our families but it also reminds us that wherever we go in this Family, we will always find love, and those who need it.

Tags:

• Akha
• family
• culture

Baby Geckos and Other Critters

A couple of our recent posts have talked about some of the animals common in the village (like cats, dogs, chickens and rats.) Since we've been in the city the past week or so, I wanted to tell you about some of the critters we encounter here.

While our village home is literally a bamboo hut (thatch roof, dirt floors and all), the house we live in when we're in the city has concrete walls, tile floors, an internet connection and even air conditioning in a couple rooms. Still, we run into a surprising number of bugs and critters in our city home. We are constantly fighting (what seems to be) a losing battle with the ants, cockroaches and centipedes, which is, oddly, not something we deal with in the village. Also, in the city home w e generally live in peace with about 5 geckos who pretty much have free run of the house. I say "generally", because we've gotten to the point where we don't even notice them, except for when we occasionally find a gecko dropping in an inopportune location (like on the clean dishes drying on the rack! Gross!) Geckos (at least the ones in our house) are usually about 4-5" from nose to tail, but we've noticed that July and August must be "hatching" season because lately we've seen several "baby geckos" who are only about an 1" long.

As I said, I don't really mind the geckos, but I don't particularly like them either. However, these baby geckos are so darn tiny and cute that I always find my self saying, "Oh, look at the baby gecko!" and running for my camera to snap a picture. I've taken lots of pictures of baby geckos, but they never seem to turn out because most of them lack a point of reference. You see, a picture of a baby gecko on a white wall looks pretty much like a picture of a full grown gecko on a white wall. But the other day I went to turn on the light in the kitchen and there was a baby gecko right next to the light switch, so I finally got a picture to show you how cute these little guys are! I photoshopped a tape measure in to show you the scale.

Tags:

• animals
• nature
• Thailand