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.