First Words & Ketchup

Do you know what a TCK is? TCK means third culture kid and is coming to replace the term MK (missionary kid). Joshua is a TCK. A TCK is a kid who grows up somewhere between one culture and another, not really feeling fully at home in any culture. Along these lines, Joshua is making an interesting beginning in life as he interacts with us and the world around him here in Thailand.

We are still waiting for his first English words but he has a few Thai words that are very clear and very frequent. Although we think he has said "Dad", "ball", "amen" and "book", all of these have been one time occurrences. His favorite word is "nam" which is the Thai word for water. However, he uses it not only when he wants water, but when he wants milk, or grilled pork sticks, or sticky rice, or that tasty cherry children's Tylenol, or the toy we stuck

Enter the Dog

This past Wednesday I went out to Chaat & Mui's home in Nong Doan to teach Ephesians to them as I do every week. Pastor Jarun and I are hoping that this Christian family will be the core of a new church in Nong Doan. This particular week we were studying Ephesians 2:11-22. Usually it is just Chaat, Mui, and myself (and sometimes Sun & Joshua) but this week Chaat decided to bring along Yong, another guy who lives in Nong Doan. Yong is not yet a believer, has shown some interest in the Gospel, but is still not yet decided whether he wants to become a Christian or not. Since Yong doesn't know much of Scripture (at all), I needed to make sure I gave enough background info as we got into our study. Eph. 2:11 starts off, "Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called 'the uncircumcision' by what is called the circumcision..." and Paul goes on to describe the enmity between Jews and Gentiles that was destroyed by the reconciliation brought about by Christ's work on the cross. I made sure that I went through thoroughly who the Jews are, and who the Gentiles are and why circumcision was such a big deal.

On the whole, my Thai language ability is not stupendous and needs work but I can manage my way through teaching a Bible study or preaching a sermon well enough to be understood and a blessing to others. I mention that because after I had been explaining about circumcision, Jews, and Gentiles for a few minutes, Mui quietly says across the table

Life Is Like A Boat

Thai evangelistic tractA couple months ago I was chatting with our neighbor across the street and I decided to get out the poster preaching book that I had bought for personal and open air evangelism and tell one of the stories in it, about some people riding in a boat. This neighbor had previously told me, from his Buddhist perspective, about how life is like a boat and we are all riders in the boat. So, I had another boat story for him.

If you've read some of the previous posts in this blog, this is the same guy who thinks that God helped him get a winning lottery ticket after we prayed for him (we didn't pray for a winning lottery ticket, by the way).

The story is told using a series of poster size pictures, the first of which is also the cover of a tract which tells the same story (see picture above). In brief, the story goes like this: A bunch of people go out for a pleasure trip in a boat and while they are having a good ol' time, the boat flips over. None of them can swim so they are frantically thrashing around for dear life when another boat approaches. They think they are saved, but NO! The man rowing the boat in their direction stays a little distance away and takes out a swimming manual and begins to read it to them, instructing them in the proper swimming method that they need to use in order to save themselves. So some of them drown, but then, while the first guy is still reading the "how to swim" book, another boat approaches and the man in that boat comes right up to the people and starts lifting them out of the water and into the boat. The point of the story is that in order to be saved from sin and hell, we don't need someone to teach us how to save ourselves, but rather we need a Savior who will save us. Thai Buddhists usually think about religion as

The Fanmaster

One of Joshua's latest games is to turn the fan on and off. We have a few tall floor standing fans and Joshua loves to squat down and press the buttons on the fan, usually number "0" or "3" always leaving the fan off when he is finished playing. I am sure he is enjoying exploring his world but it is frustrating when I turn on the fan and then go and sit down across the room only to have Joshua pitter patter over and turn off the fan. I'll tell him, "Joshua, please turn on the fan" but usually to no avail. He'll hit "3" and the fan will whir for 5 seconds and then he'll hit off. They on again, then off again. Then he leaves it off and goes to play with something else so I get up and turn it on. But, ah, since Daddy has taken an interest in the fan Joshua returns to the fan again - 0....3...0...3....0.....3....0 until he is bored. I love our little boy and I am glad he is learning about the world around him and he sure is cute but Thailand sure is hot and I would really enjoy having that fan on. Lord, give me patience.

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