My Life in Thailand - A Missionary Kid's Perspective

During the course of our home assignment in the States, I gave the same Thailand presentation at so many churches that our oldest son Joshua (11 years old) started to raise his hand and tell everybody parts of my talk that I hadn’t gotten to yet, or volunteer other details that he thought people should know.  He did this so many times, I suggested that he do his own presentation some time.  He must have thought I was only joking because his jaw nearly hit the floor when I told him I had arranged for him to share with the all the kids at a partner church we were planning to visit in Northern California.  After getting over his initial shock, we helped him prepare his presentation.  Some slides were borrowed from my presentation, but other slides were completely his own idea.  When the big day came, his presentation went so well that when asked how it went, Joshua replied, “I think I could do that again sometime.”  Therefore, I arranged for him to do it again at another church.

In the video below you’ll see Joshua's full presentation to the kids at Grace Presbyterian Church in Yorba Linda, California, followed by still images of the powerpoint slides he used.  I included those at the end because they are kind of hard to see in the video.

We keep telling the kids that God has called our whole family to the mission field, and that they are an important part of what we are doing.  Therefore, we were really pleased to see Joshua's interest in getting involved as our family has been on the deputation trail visiting churches.  I believe this has also been a good opportunity for one of our kids to give voice to his experiences in Thailand because it is not only Sun and I who are experiencing life overseas, but our kids too.

Watch "My Life in Thailand - A Missionary Kid's Perspective” on YouTube

Joshua and Caitlin Breaking Boards

For the past month or two, our family has been enjoying learning American Kenpo Karate.  All of us except for John have gotten into it (and John even tries a bit but he is still too little to learn it formally).  During a recent Saturday lesson, Mr. Kellogg gave Joshua and Caitlin the chance to try their hand at breaking wooden boards.  They felt really good and doing it successfully and it was fun to watch as parents.  The boards were not very thick but you've got to start somewhere :-)

Watch "Joshua & Caitlin Breaking Boards" on YouTube

 

Our family with Mr. Kellogg at Kellogg's American Kenpo Karate

 

You Are Not Allowed to Take a Nap

I'm sure our experience is similar to many other parents of young kids but I thought I'd put this video here so John can watch it 20-30 years from now when he has kids.

The (very short) backstory is that I was semi-successfully taking a nap on Sunday afternoon when Joshua (11 yrs) woke me to find out if a Minecraft book he wanted to read was available online yet, or if I could download something for him from a website. After getting some answers, he went away and then John came in to show me a picture he drew. I affirmed it was a good drawing and he went away. I turned over and tried to get a little bit more shuteye, but before long John bounds in again, which is what you see in the video below. I didn't get much rest after that, but John did succeed in getting me to play Legos with him.

Watch "You Are Not Allowed To Take A Nap" on YouTube

 

Church Members Say the Darndest Things to Their Missionaries

guest post by Larry Dinkins

Growing up, I enjoyed a TV program called, “Kid’s Say the Darndest Things” hosted by Art Linkletter. A few of my favorites are:

What do we learn from the story of Jesus turning water into wine?
The more wine we get, the better the wedding is.

When God punished Eve, what did he make her become?
A housewife.

What ever happened to Adam and Eve?
God sent them to Hell and then transferred them to Los Angeles

 

Recently I read an article called “25 Really Strange Things Members Said to Their Pastors” on churchleaders.com. It made me think of strange things that I’ve been asked during my 37 years as a missionary to Thai people. During my mission career, church members have come up to me saying they have been following my ministry for years and would like to ask me some questions. I am pleased, of course, but many questions are so clueless that I am thinking of making a large laminated FAQ sheet with answers printed on it so I can simply point to the answers (a few of the following questions are fictitious, but most are questions I’ve been asked in all sincerity):

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