Thanksgiving Overseas

Celebrating Thanksgiving outside of the USA is a bit of a different experience.  First of all, it is not a holiday and therefore not a day off.  On Thanksgiving Day we sat in orientation lectures and carried on with life as usual.  So on the actual day of, we didn't do anything although some of the Americans in our international mission are putting together a meal for this Saturday night.  They went out to the store to get the fixin' for a traditional Thanksgiving meal, or at least as many as they can find.  Turkey is rather hard to come by so I think we are having chicken, or maybe Chinese roast duck instead.   All the missionaries who are here have been invited although the number of Americans among us is not that large. 

 

Thanksgiving Day is an American holiday although you don't need to be American to celebrate God's faithfulness.  As I have been preparing a brief Thanksgiving devotional for us, it has occured to me that Thanksgiving celebrates not merely the beginning of nation, but the continuing covenantal faithfulness of our God who continues to build his church in an ever increasing number of lands.  The Pilgrims sought to establish a truly Christian nation and although their dream was left unfulfilled, God was pleased to use them to establish his church in what would become the United States, and as God built his church in the U.S., the Gospel has gone out to still further nations. 

 

Praise be to God that his was pleased to provide for and to use for his glory those first Purtian settlers in his work of bringing about the kingdom of God on earth. 

 

"If we are faithless, he remains faithful-- for he cannot deny himself." (2 Tim 2:13)

Orientation Course (OC)

We've been in Singapore for about two weeks now and are well into our Orientation Course (OC) at OMF's International Headquarters. We are here together with other new OMF missionaries (and their children) from a variety of countries - USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Switzerland, Philipines, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, etc. There are about 40 adults and 16 kids. Fortunately, there are some kind grandmas from UK and Australia are helping with childcare so that Sun and I can attend the lectures and not have to watch Joshua all the time.

The content of the lectures have covered medical issues (insurance, malaria, dengue fever, where to get medical advice and care on the field), finances (how OMF financial system works), the vision and mission of OMF International, times of Bible study, prayer, and worship, and meetings with the International Directors and Intl Medical Advisor. Joshua was able to get his six month shots right here at OMF HQ so we didn't have to go look for some place around town or wait.

The OMF HQ is right across the street from the beautiful Singapore Botanic Gardens, to which we have gone several times already. We went as a family a few times (of which I hope to post pictures soon) and I have also gone jogging in the gardens in the morning. There is no admission fee and they open at 5 am so 6:30 or 7am is an ideal time to go for a run before it gets really hot in the middle of the day. Of course, anytime of day is HOT in the tropics and the heat and humidity of this part of the world are dominant feature of the environment here. We are adjusting the the hot, humid weather well but I would be lying if I said that I don't enjoy the air
conditioning in the training room where we have lectures.

One of the best things about OC is the wonderful fellowship with the other new missionaries from around the world. It is encouraging and inspiring to here their testimonies of conversion and leading into missions as well as to learn about their home countries and churches. The other day after a meal, I sat with a couple of brothers from Scotland and Australia and we took
turns trying to fake each other's accents while reading an article from a Singapore newspaper. We all did a miserably poor job but had fun doing it. As one who is fascinated in theology and history, I've been fascinated to learn more about the church in Scotland and Switzerland and the various problems associated with having a State sponsor church. I praise God for how he has established his church in many lands and continues to work their and call our workers for the harvest despite our weakness, failing, and sin. How God is the God we adore!

Arrival in Singapore

We arrived in Singapore around midnight on Nov 1st and have been catching up on sleep ever since. Joshua did well in the airplane and more than one fellow passenger remarked on how good our baby was. We are relaxing for a few days at the OMF guest home and have had some extra time to read the Bible, pray, and talk which has been very good after our busy final weeks in the States. Our orientation course starts next Wednesday, I think. Until them, we are enjoying a little bit of down time as a family.

God was really good to us in the final weeks leading up to departure and provided so many friends to help us with packing, moving, and so forth. The night before we moved out of our apartment, the doorbell rang and UPS had a surprise gift for us. Someone had sent an anonymous gift of a full set of Calvin's Commentaries. Awesome. So I put them right into the pile to ship via ocean freight and will get much use from them starting in a couple months when all our possesions catch up with us in Thailand.

We've been learning about the city/nation of Singapore. It only takes an hour to go from one end to the other and it is super clean and highly regulated. It feels a lot like Thailand in some ways, but different in others. Maybe I'll write more about Singapore later, but in the meantime, here's a map of Asia to show where we are right now. You'll see Singapore at the tip of the Malaysian penninsula.