Random thoughts

Last night, Kay and I went to a Mexican restaurant in the middle of Bangkok. Whenever we go places, we always try to speak Thai, if at all possible. So, with that in mind, I ordered my dinner using the best Thai that I could. The server just looked at me with a confused look on her face. So...I tried again, changing up the sentence to say the same thing in a different way. Again, she didn't say a word but just stared at me. I was at a loss as to what to do. I felt my grammar and sentence structure was okay and I could not think of a reason she should not understand me. I was beginning to feel somewhat desperate.

Finally, she looked at me and, in perfect English, said, 'Uh, I can't understand you. I don't speak Thai. I'm from the Phillipines.' Whew...I ordered my beef Tex-Mex enchiladas (using English, no less) and we all had a good laugh.

Let me share another experience that has haunted my memory this past week.

There were about a dozen songs in our music library that the Celebration Singers could sing on a moment's notice. They were songs that we loved to sing and were practically memorized by the choir. I called them 'sugar daddies.' I could pull one out and go over it one time and it would be ready to sing for worship the following Sunday. Each one was special to the choir in its' own way. One of these songs was People Need the Lord. Last week, while walking down one of the large, main streets in Bangkok, an experience we had brought the words of this song back to my memory.

As some background information, when walking down a street, if one should meet a Thai coming the opposite way, seldom will the Thai speak first. They will almost never make eye contact, usually just a quick glance and then they'll look back down at the ground. (As bad as the sidewalks are, everyone always looks down to avoid stepping in a bad spot in the walkway! If you've been to Bangkok, you know what I mean.) However, if you speak first and smile and say hello, they will always smile back and most respond with a verbal hello. But prolonged (key word) eye contact with a stranger is never experienced...unlike New Mexico where you can carry on a 10-minute conversation with a total stranger and, by the time you part, you know just about everything in regard to the person you met just 10 minutes earlier, children, job, religion, political party affiliation, etc.

However, last week, I met some ladies who gave me prolonged eye contact and the words to People Need the Lord burst upon my mind. When walking down the street, we came upon some prostitutes looking for their next client. There were 8-10 in this one location right in front of Tony Roma's Ribs, just standing there...waiting...and, as I walked by, we made eye contact but, unlike most Thais that quickly look away, their eyes met mine and they continued with prolonged eye contact until I walked past. (I was very uncomfortable at the moment, to say the least.) They were all young women, every one of them in their twenties and the empty looks I saw in their eyes, coupled with the lack of smile on their faces, easily displayed the hollowness that I know is in the depth of their souls.

Every day they pass me by, I can see it in their eyes. Empty people filled with care, headed who knows where...

Bang!

All of a sudden, the words to that song blasted into my mind, searing themselves deeply upon my heart.

Here were some beautiful young women, each one uniquely created by God, needing to discover the freedom that can be found in Jesus. The awkwardness of the moment was more than counterbalanced by the realization of the truth found in those words.

Every day they pass me by, I can see it in their eyes. Empty people filled with care, headed who knows where...

I am happy to tell you that there is a vibrant, Christian ministry called The Well that was created and exists solely to minister to the needs of the thousands of prostitutes and bar girls in Thailand. If you would be encouraged by reading some of the success stories of how this ministry has literally helped take women off the street, here is a link to get you to the right place.

www.servantworks.com/well

A couple of nights ago, we were at Central Dept. Store. I stopped for a moment just to look around. To my left were some Hindu families from either India or Pakistan. The women were wearing brightly colored saris and had the tell-tale red dot in the middle of their foreheads. To my right were a large group of Muslims. The men were wearing the white, pleated hat and the women had on solid black burqas with a small slit as an opening for their eyes. There were also a number of shoppers from Japan, carrying large bags of clothes from the store. Surrounding us were dozens of Thai Buddhists, each one hurrying to get on with their life. And, of course, there were a few farangs (foreigners) usually from Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Indonesia, or any one of dozens of countries.

Yes, Dorothy...we are not in Kansas anymore... What opportunities continue to await us.

Bless each one of you for your prayers and words of encouragement. To God be the glory.

Back in the saddle again...

The past two months have been quite a journey for both of us but through the experiences have learned a great deal about ourselves and the Lord who supplies us with grace each day.

We returned to the states in late June to attend the wedding of our youngest daughter, Kara, to a fine, young, godly man named Zane. The wedding, the reception - everything was just perfect!!! After spending a few days with friends and family, I (Robert) returned to San Antonio with my mom and Kay went on to Amarillo to spend several days with her parents before we returned to SE Asia.

However, Kay slipped on a freshly mopped floor in the facility where her parents reside (no - there was not a warning sign), fell, and broke her elbow. Six days later we were back in Roswell to have a 2 1/2" screw put in her elbow. The surgery went well and we returned to BKK a week later with the left arm in a sling, not to be used for six weeks. At first, everything seemed to be going well but, after our six-week checkup, it seems that the bones may not be healing as fast as they should be. So...another six-weeks in the sling.

Besides that, her left shoulder has begun to hurt a lot and there seems to be no proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel.' So, if you would pray for healing in her arm and shoulder. With all that we have on our plate, this truly has become a major distraction.

On a more positive note, I finished Module 5 (and decided to take it again for reinforcement) and Kay will finish Module 4 this week and begin Module 5. We are both on a good pace for our language study. In a couple of weeks, we will both take oral 'snapshots' of our language learning as we will record a conversation with a Thai friend to show just how far we have come. When we reach Level 5 (not Module 5), we'll receive the okay to head on to our assignment in the southern part of the country to begin our work there. (A Level 5 would be equivalent to how a 5th or 6th grade Thai student would speak. We relate to the TV show, Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? In a few weeks, we'll find out!) It is important we do well in this assessment. Pray we'll have good ears to hear and steady tongues to speak on that day.

All else is moving along. We have continued to develop relationships with several Thai friends (as well as several from other countries around the world) who need to know Jesus. They are all an intense burden upon our hearts. Pray that, as our strategy coordinator said this week...'they would find Jesus irresistible!'

I'll do my best to update our blog on a weekly basis. Our schedules have been fairly complex these past few weeks.

Blessings.

And here we go........

This past couple of weeks we have been blessed to have been asked to participate in a number of teaching opportunities with Thais.

The first was to teach a couple of Sundays in our English-speaking Bible study. The teacher is the only other 'farang' in the class. Though the students attend to learn English, by using the Bible and the stories found therein, we are able to share the good news of the Savior. Many in the class are believers but many are not.

We also were asked to lead a session on prayer with the Alpha Class, a seekers class full of people who know very little or nothing at all about Jesus. It is remarkable to hear the questions they ask - topics I've grown up around all my life - but, to them, are being heard for the very first time.

I also was blessed to spend a day working with a choir at one of the drug rehabilitation prisons. There were about 35 in the group. Not a single one is a believer so it was a profitable time to share about the hope found in Christ and how He can - literally as well as figuratively - set men free! Needless to say, they were a 'captive' audience. They sang well and responded beautifully to all we had to say. The director of the choir is a remarkable woman with a wonderful gift of music.

On Saturday afternoons, I also try to help with another English-speaking Bible study. The teacher allows me to have input every now and then. I'm there, primarily, to develop relationships with the Thais at the Baptist Student Center (BSC).

So...our life is not just spent with our noses in our textbooks...though most of our day is focused on language learning. The more we stick with this, the more we learn just how little we know. We are fortunate our teacher is very patient. We are blessed to have him guiding us through the language acquisition process.

We'll be heading home next week for our youngest daughter's wedding. Pray it will be a fruitful time of R & R, spending time with family and friends before we head back to a country and people we have learned to love so very much.

Blessings.

It has been an uneventful month in many ways. Go to school...come home and study...go have dinner...study some more and go to bed. That is our routine for many of our days. Spliced throughout the week, however, are some wonderful opportunities for ministry and well as some R and R every now and then.

I finished module 4 and will spend the next month with a private tutor, working primarily on my speaking and listening skills. Kay is in the middle of module 4 and will continue her work with her tutor. We study with khruu Satorn. He is a very talented young Thai with exceptional patience and understanding.

One short story to share with you. As I have mentioned before, as I was growing up, I heard from people time and time again that there are untold millions of people throughout the world who have never heard the name of Jesus. When I heard that statement, it was hard get my mind around such a statement.

However, we meet people all the time who will very honestly tell us they have never heard of Jesus and know nothing at all about Him. That statement still boggles my mind. In America, there seems to be a church on every corner, religious TV and radio shows, newspaper articles, bookstores, etc. and etc. Bottom line is this - in the states, anyone who wants to know who Jesus is has fairly easy access to the truth. However, in most places throughout the world, such opportunities are very limited.

In our city of 15,000,000 people, the largest evangelical churches would be considered tiny compared to some of the large churches in America. It is still difficult to fathom that less than 1% of the people in Thailand claim Jesus Christ as their Savior.

In our Bible study class last week, our teacher asked if everyone in our group knew who Jesus was. One 29-year old man raised his hand and said that he had never heard of Jesus - He didn't know who He was. Every single time I hear someone utter that phrase, I am again reminded why we are here and we thank the Lord for the opportunity to share the message of hope that can only be found in Jesus.

A Time of R and R

The political unrest seems to have abated, at least for a little while. The red shirts and the yellow shirts seem happy to pursue their agenda in Parliament and not through massive protests in the streets. That is good news to everyone. The latest 'comers' on the scene are the blue shirts. These Thais have a desire for all the unrest to end and hopefully will work as silent moderators between the reds and the yellows.

During our break, several of us spent some time on a day tour. We went to the floating market, the Rose Garden, the Crocodile and Elephant Show, as well as a few other stops along the way. It was a good time of R and R from the rigors of school.

Kay and I had a surprise blessing last Sunday morning during Bible Study. We attend the English speaking Bible Study class at New Vision Church. Besides the teacher, we are the only farangs (foreigners) who attend. Though it's main focus is teaching the Word, it has a secondary goal of teaching English. So, several of the participants are not believers in Jesus but come for English study.

A young man attended for the first time last week. He is in his mid-20's and is a soldier in the army. We were reading the story of the feeding of the 5000. To be honest, having heard that story numerous times in my life, I listened without paying much attention. When it was the young man's turn to read, he read it in total amazement and then posed some questions to his friend to discover if the story was actually true. You see, he had never heard it before and was in awe of the miracle. He didn't have to say anything - his wide eyes and dropped jaw said it all!

Sometimes the Lord has to hit us between the eyes with a board to get our attention. This past week, He used the simple story of the feeding of the 5000 to remind me that the truths in the scripture are never too old or simplistic to attract someone's attention.

I'll be watching this young man in the future weeks just to be reminded of beauty of simple, childlike learning. Pray with us that this young man will understand the deeper things of God and have a desire to turn to the truth found in Jesus.

Bangkok protests

Just thought I'd take a moment to get everybody up-to-date with the protests and all in Bangkok and let everyone know how we're doing.

First off, as some have asked, it is true that our apartment is near the epicenter of the clashes between the government and the red shirts so we have 'hunkered down' in our apt. and will do so for the next few days. At the same time, our apt. is a couple of hundred yards off the main street so we feel very safe and secure and do not anticipate any trouble near our apt. but it is always prudent to take precautions for it truly is an extremely volatile situation. Even as I update this blog, there are some physical clashes between the red shirts and the yellow shirts just down the road with volumes of smoke coming from fires that have been set.

We took the skytrain past Victory Monument this afternoon and saw a number of barbed wire barricades manned by government soldiers blocking off most entrances to the monument. This is where the main conflict occurred these past couple of days. It is apparent the government is not going to let the monument become a staging point for the red shirts again. In speaking to some who have been here a long time, we have come to realize this situation is different from earlier incidents and that is causing some alarm...for expats as well as Thais.













The above pictures were taken from the same exact spot. The picture on the left shows what traffic usually looks like and the picture on the right was taken today in the middle of the afternoon, which is always a very, very busy time. The Thai New Year has taken a lot of people out of town but there is still concern and, apparently as seen above, a lot of people are not going outside.

But, on the other hand, Songkhran is going on albeit with a somewhat subdued festive spirit. Click on the file below to see where all the people actually are!!!



Songkhran is a water festival that commemorates the Thai New Year. People roam the streets with water guns, seeking to douse whoever might come their way. Young people drive around in the back of trucks with 55-gallon drums filled with water with which to saturate those standing next to the road. It is all taken in good fun and everyone knows that, if you dare walk the streets in Thailand during Songkhran, you are inviting yourself to become a water target!

What a paradox. Water guns or government guns. Laughing outloud with glee or screaming with explosive anger. A choice between frolicking with either family or fanatics.

The truth, however, is that this situation is no surprise to the Lord. It is our hope and prayer that the He can take this challenge and turn it into an opportunity...a time when the Thai people will reevaluate what is really important in their lives and, those who have been made aware of the grace of the Lord, will turn to Him.

Pray for Thailand and the future of the people we have learned to love so very much.

What a difference a month makes...

To catch everybody up, this past term I started module 4 (reading and writing short vowels) at Union Language School and Kay started working with a private tutor reading and writing long vowels. Both of us have discovered unique challenges to our learning curve and we both will have to really 'buckle down' to get the language learned. So...that has been the 'sum toto' of our past month.

I had the opportunity to spend part of Friday afternoon with Tony, an Australian who has lived in Bangkok for the past 7 years. He is a street preacher who, though witnesses to everybody, has a real heart for people visiting Thailand from the Middle East - Iran, Israel, Pakistan, etc.

While he preached in Thai at a bus stop, I walked through the crowd passing out tracts. We did that for about 30 minutes. After that, we went into MBK, a really, really big 7-story mall and just 'cruised' the hallways, filled with throngs of people, many of which are tourists. He could spot somebody from the India or the Middle East and pretty well determine what country they were from just by looking at their physical appearance. When he approached them and asked what country they were from, he was usually right. At that point, he would pull out a tract in the language of the speaker, be it Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, or whatever. Believe it or not, most of the time, the people took the tract, shook his hand, and thanked him for the gift of the tract. Really, really cool.

I want to spend the rest of this blog sharing the story of a young, dynamic man named Tong. Here is a picture we took last week. (For those of you who have forgotten what I look like, Tong is the guy on the left.) He is from northern Thailand. He moved to Bangkok and became a drug dealer...and he was very, very successful. He became a very wealthy man. However, Thailand has extremely strict drug laws and, when he was arrested, he was imprisoned with little hope for his future.

It was in prison he started singing in the prison choir and heard the story of Jesus for the first time. After hearing the Good News several times, the truth slowly began to sink into His heart and mind. He prayed one night, "God, if You are real and can somehow get me out of this prison, I will spend my life serving You." Realize, however, that, at that point, he had little hope of parole.

One day, a short time after that, he heard an announcement come over the loud speaker, asking for Tong to come to the front office for his release. Knowing that there were several thousand imates in this particular prison and, in that Tong is a rather common Thai name, he thought the announcement was being made for someone else.

A little while later, the announcement was made again but Tong chose to ignore it. About an hour later, the prison warden approached Tong and said, 'Why didn't you come to the office when your name was called,' said the warden. 'We have papers for your parole. Don't you want to be released?'

At hearing the news, Tong literally ran to the front office, not believing the news he had been given and, sure enough, someone, somehow approved his early release from prison. (Though, to us, we know it God's response to a specific prayer request.)

After leaving the prison, the immediately went to his parents home to tell them the wonderful news but they did not believe him. They thought he had escaped from prison and would not unlock the front door to let him in for fear of the authorities.

Having nowhere else to turn, he sought out the House of Blessing, the church that, as a part of the Thailand Christian Prison Ministry, was instrumental in his decision to become a believer in Jesus.

(As an aside, when an inmate who has become a Christian in prison is paroled, he can move into the halfway house at the House of Blessing and live for up to 6 months until he gets and job and finds a place to stay. )

So, Tong settled into the halfway house, very unsure of his future. As time passed, it became apparent God had some specific plans for Tong and his wife. He, in essence, became the halfway house administrator and oversees the care of the parolees who choose to stay at halfway house during their reintegration into society. He has been in this position for the past several years.

Here was a man, tagged with an extremely long prison sentence, who took the Lord at His word and prayed, believing God could do something miraculous. And, when God answered, Tong was faithful and did exactly as he had promised, serving the Lord at the House of Blessing to be a minister to others. What a wonderful testimony of God's grace in a dear man's life.

Just a day on the farm...

I remember a day several years ago when we were visiting with some church members who raised chickens to show at the Eastern New Mexico State Fair. (They could potentially read this posting so I won't say anything about how funny those particular chickens looked with the feathers on the top of their head resembling an inexpensive whisk broom!!! ) They took us out to the chicken coop and proudly showed us the nests, filled with all their prized flock. I was watching some of the chickens as they were strutting around in the dirt, using their talons to poke around the clods, looking for something to eat. I vividly remember us talking about the marks the chickens made in the dirt as they 'scratched around.'

Funny thing is that a lot of the letters we are learning to write as we learn the Thai alphabet look a lot like some of those chicken markings! Many of the Thai letters are actually kinda' fun to draw. They are very fluid and cursive in style. The hard part is that there are a lot of exceptions to the rules and then there are exceptions to the exceptions, and, in one case, an exception to an exception to an exception! Go figure...

We have been blessed with a number of beautiful new friends. Several have stepped forward and volunteered to help us in any way they can to help us try to master the language. I've included a couple of pics of our some of our special friends. The first of is Ta. She works at the Baptist Student Center and is one of our main language tutors. We attend Friday Night Live each week at the BSC to make friends with young Thai students and encourage them with their English language learning. (And, if you're wondering...yes, we do enjoy talking to people in a language we can understand!!!) She is a precious young woman with a vibrant faith and love for the Lord.

The next picture is of Nittaya Chang. We worked with her extensively in 2005 when we spent time teaching at the Seminary in Bangkok. She and her family have become very dear friends to Kay and me. The first time we attended the church they started, there were about 12 people. Here is the picture of the church taken during the Christmas celebration. Look at the growth! How exciting it is to be blessed by the Lord in such a beautiful way.











We're in the picture above. See if you can find us...kind of a 'Where's Waldo?' challenge.)

Here's a picture of our current class. We have students in the class from Portugal, Mexico, Japan, Russia, Korea, Boston, California, and the Land of Enchantment. It is quite an eclectic group. We will be finishing our current module this week and will have to prayerfully make some decisions about the next one - whether to move on or take this one again, in that it is so difficult. So we would appreciate your prayer support in this endeavor. Otherwise, life for us is fairly mundane. Go to school, come home, study, go to bed and get up the next morning and get ready to go to school again. But, please know, we are so truly blessed to be where we are and are thankful to all who support us through their giving to the Cooperative Program and the Lottie Moon Christmas offering. Your love and support make all this possible. Bless you for your encouragement and prayerful.

The hot season is a-comin'...

For the past three months, the weather in Bangkok has been unlike anything we expected. There has yet to be an exceptionally hot day and we have been pleasantly surprised as to how cool it has been. After all, we were told that there are three season in BKK - hot, hotter, and hottest!!! The Thais have been walking around in jackets, gloves, scarves, and woolen hats. And there I was - in a T-shirt, shorts, and sandals. No wonder they think the farangs are crazy!!!

That being said, our future hopes for cooler weather were quickly dashed when we were told that it has been forty years since Thailand has experienced weather such as this. In essence, the locals have told us, 'Don't get used to it. It is not the norm.' Well...thank the Lord for the past three months.



We will finish module 2 this coming week and begin module 3 on Thursday. We will have our first taste of the Thai alphabet, reading and writing the language. We have been blessed in that we both feel we are attending a wonderful language school. The teachers - khun khruus - are very skilled and capable instructors. Everyone seemed to make such a big deal about the tones - and the tones are very, very important - but the tones have not been as much of a challenge to me as sentence structure and word patterns. And, as in almost any language, there are same words that have a variety of meanings and that seems particularly true in Thai.

This past Friday, our class spent a couple of hours in a park speaking to Thais. It was a good experience. We try to talk with people we run into at the market, as we ride the skytrain, or meet throughout the day. Usually, those conversations don't last very long because the people are busy and can't make the time to stop and talk to strangers. However, at the park, it was a very relaxed atmosphere and we had the opportunity to speak at length with several people. (I had one woman try to corner me into committing to teach her to speak English!!!)


Chinese New Year has been a lot of fun. The decorations seen throughout the town are beautiful - lots and lots of red color, the Chinese color for good luck. It is not uncommon to see 'dragons' coming your way, accompanied by drums and cymbals.

Last weekend, we went to Chinatown in Bangkok on New Year's Eve with Rocky and Pam Johnson and about 200,000 other people. We thought a parade was coming by for people were standing 6-7 deep along the street. In actuality, the princess of the country was walking the parade route and everyone was waiting for the opportunity to see her. There is such a high degree of respect and admiration given to the royal family. It really is a beautiful thing.

Other than that, we go to school in the morning and study pretty much the rest of the day. It has become a rather comfortable routine.

One night this week, we went to the Baptist Student Center near our apartment and spent the evening conversing with Thai students who are taking English. It was a very profitable and rewarding time, spending a few minutes with several different young men and women.

One of our new friends is a championship caliber badminton player from Japan. We went with him one evening to watch him play. It is an extremely fast game. The players must have lightning fast responses. I included a short clip in this update to show him in action. (He's the tall guy in the gray T-shirt.)



We again appreciate everyone who is praying for us on a regular basis. Your thoughtfulness, encouragement, and prayer support is so important to us on a daily basis. We have had the opportunity to share our faith with a number of people and we will continue to pray the Holy Spirit will take those seeds and bring them into fruition.

Bless you all,
Robert and Kay

Movin' on to Module 2

We have finished our first module in language school and are a week into our second module. Things are going exceptionally well. (Kay might choose to disagree with that assessment, however.) We are beginning to be able to speak in Thai to just about anybody we run into. The conversational topics are rather mundane, however, but those conversations are building blocks to our future success with language acquisition. Besides, how many Thais have 'farangs' ask them if they think pineapples are sweeter than watermelon or if they think Thailand is hotter than Canada...

I got to use a question today in class I've been contemplating. The English translation goes something like, 'When my hair is long, I get a haircut. I like haircuts.' But the Thai translation goes something like 'weelah phom phom yaaw phom kaw tat phom. phom chaap tat phom.' (If you say it fast enough, it sounds like a few explosions going off.) Of course, the all-important tones are absent but you can get the general idea.

We found this manger scene (along with 5 other scenes of angels, shepherds, etc.) in the middle of the largest park in downtown Bangkok. It was quite surprising and a pleasant discovery. So much for separation of church and state in Thailand. Today is January 10th and we still hear 'Joy to the World, the Lord is Come' being played over the loud speakers in the mall. Of course, 'Here Comes Santa Claus' is right after it!!!

We get asked unusual questions every now and then. One particular question has been sticking in my mind. Here's the background.

If you walk the streets in Bangkok, you will quickly notice that the vast majority of Thais are extremely clean. Their clothes are laundered and they usually appear clean and refreshed, even on the hottest days. We have noticed that this is true in the rural areas, as well. Though the people outside the cities are much less fortunate, even in the poorest areas, the Thai people still take their personal hygiene very seriously. The house may be falling down and the cattle may be bone poor but, as a whole, the people exhibit a high degree of personal cleanliness. (The average Thai takes several baths a day because of the climate.)

With that as a prelude, the question that was asked of one of our m's was 'Is it true that Americans only take one bath a day?' At first, it seemed like a silly question but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. The young lady found it incredulous to think that we, as a general rule, feel that only one bath a day was sufficient for proper personal hygiene.

Her question guided me to a couple of very specific points. The reason the Thai people have such a high regard for cleanliness is that (1) they make it a priority and (2) they are consistent with their hygienic discipline. Oh, that we could say the same about our spiritual discipline. (I'm not pointing fingers at anybody for I'm speaking mainly to myself here.)

Day in and day out, the Thais constantly make it a point to maintain that high degree of cleanliness through a conscious, concerted, intentional effort. Do we do the same for our spiritual discipline? I have a feeling that, if we approached our spiritual lives the way the Thais approach their physical lives, the Christian faith, as we know it, would have a much different look.

One of Bobby Renfro's favorite songs was 'All day long I've been with Jesus. It has been a glorious day.' Spending each moment with the Father each day is like taking a 24-hour shower!! Think how clean, though wrinkled, you'd be when the shower was done.

Speaking of Bobby, how our hearts were saddened when we heard of his passing last week. But, at the same time, how our hearts were elated to know he now stands in the presence of our glorious, loving Lord. We are jealous he has already had the opportunity to see our Redeemer face to face. His impact will, indeed, be felt for years to come. I know many of you have expressed your sympathies to Jane, Libby, and Lane. What a generous, free spirit he was. (I have no doubt he's checking the banquet table we will all feast at someday to make sure the green peas are absent...)

Blessings.

In the twinkling of an eye...

This past week, Kay and I went to a seaside resort called Cha-am for a couple of days of R and R. Here's a picture of Kay on the beach 'suffering for Jesus.' There are some really nice parts of living in Thailand with hour long, $5.00 foot massages on the beach being one of them.

On our way back to Bangkok, at one point we noticed that all the traffic on the opposite side of the median had disappeared. Just minutes before there had been numerous cars zooming by but now, there was not a even single one.

There were, however, policemen stationed about every hundred yards or so, blocking all the streets - large and small alike - preventing any car from entering the roadway. We began to muse about what was going on and it didn't take us long to realize that a motorcade ferrying the royal monarchy was about to pass us by.

I strained my eyes, peering down the open road, trying to get a glimpse of the oncoming yellow limo, the King's personal travel vehicle. We knew it was coming...we just didn't know when. We looked and we watched and we waited with camera in hand, hoping to get a picture of the royal family. We knew they had a mansion in Cha-am and were, no doubt, on their way there for some R and R, as well. I must admit, there was a bit of electrical energy in our car. How often do you get to see royalty!!!

And then, before I knew it, whoosh -in a flash - the motorcade flew by before I could even get my camera off my lap. They appeared and then disappeared as quickly as they had come. I didn't get my picture. I didn't see any royalty. The whole series of events happened so fast... they were coming, they were coming, they were coming and then, as John Madden would say, 'boom, they were gone.'

As I reflected upon the experience, I thought of the similarities with Jesus' return to the earth. We know He is coming, we yearn to see Him. We look and we watch and we wait. We just don't know when it will be. The scripture says it will happen in a heartbeat, in the twinkling of an eye. And, just like that, it will be over and it will be too late for those who don't place their trust in Jesus.

We, as believers, must continue to be vigilant, peering down the road, watching for His return. But, until He does come, we must continue to be faithful to share the Good News with those who don't know Him.

Thanks to all who gave to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. Your benevolence supports the work of over 5600 missionaries scattered throughout the nations of the world. Every single penny of the LMCO goes directly to evangelistic projects submitted by the 'Ms.' May the Lord's richest blessings be on you all.

And, as always, keep your camera ready...