A couple moments from the morning routine

One of my responsibilities is to be the adult in the back of the truck each morning. Instead of school buses we use small trucks with padded bench seats, a roll cage and roof over the bed. My truck has 14 children mostly from the hostel.

It's a beautiful drive through the mountains, but sometimes it's nice to just close my eyes and listen to the girls sing. Usually it's in Thai, and I don't understand, but it doesn't matter. The voices of these half-dozen upper-elementary school girls are the perfect sound track to the setting.

A few days ago, I was surprised to hear them sing in their broken English,
"Make a difference in me, make a world of difference. From the
inside out let it show.
Make a difference in me, make a world of difference. Change me
so the world will know.
Change me Jesus, let your love shine through. Change me Jesus,
make me more like you..."

These Christian children are taken each morning from the safe, positive environment of the Outreach to Buddhist schools where they are criticized and discriminated against for their faith. They were probably taught this song by a short-term missions group from the states. Thank you to whoever that was. You touched the heart of this white boy.

Maybe you just had to be there, but it was "a moment" for me. So beautiful, so inspiring.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few days later, on the same routine drive, we happened to be passing the market at the same time the monks were there making their morning rounds. We stopped at an intersection next to a row of five monks and their "caddie." They stood with their backs to the street, just inches from our truck, waiting for handouts from the shopkeepers. I noticed that a number of market workers had left their work to bow down and worship before the monks in the middle of the morning rush.

It was disturbing to me on two levels. First, I was struck by how lost this culture is spiritually. Then, as we drove on, I began to compare their devotion to that of the American Christian. How many of us would take time out of our busy morning routine to make a humbling statement of faith for several minutes on a crowded sidewalk?

God help us all, the lost on the streets and the found that are sleeping.

Some highlights from the past few weeks

Offended a co-laborer by going to sleep in the first staff meeting (jet lag was rough).
Helped make bricks.
Scolded Heidi for making fun of the king in public.
Worked with hostel kids to sort trash into 3 categories (compost, burnable, and plastics).
Planted vegetable trees.
Called Mom to make her feel better.
Planted banana trees.
Took a walk with Keen.
Found that the sorted trash had all been taken to the burn pile.
Planted lemon grass (mosquito and bug repellent).
Went to an organic farm to learn about growing worms to produce fertilizer.
Made new desks for the school.
Built two outhouses.
Stopped to watch the sunset over the mountains (We can count 7 layers of mountains in one direction form the new campus)
Sent the hostel boys in to rescue Kendra from the "rat" in her room.
Installed "security systems" in the boys dorm and school building (rebar on windows)
Bought Kendra a rat trap.
Built bunk beds for boys' dorm.
Led communion for Sunday Service.
Got beat by a little girl at checkers.
Gave Kendra permission to move into girls' dorm.
Rebuilt the dish-washing station
Gave Heidi permission to move into girls' dorm.
Fought to stay awake in second staff meeting.
Brainstormed with Nick about windmill designs.
Brainstormed with Dad about timber construction and proper footing for adobe buildings.
Took a walk with the girls.
Bought graph paper to make building designs for the new campus.
Visited a rice mill.
Ate fried termites.
Shaved my goat and stash (but Ahtapa said, "No more shaving.").
Went to a mountain village to comfort a family that lost a baby to malnutrition.
Appreciated the natural light, but was a little uncomfortable with the glass walls on the public restroom.
Played in a 300 foot cascading waterfall.
Received temporary healing from a terrible headache long enough to preach a Sunday morning sermon.
Slept like a baby.

Our trip to Thailand “Twitter style”

• Ate breakfast with my folks and Mom's folks at Bob Evens (Christy Page showed up and joined us. Pray for her as she and Larry are trying to return to PNG)
• Gave our contact info to a ticket agent who wants to take her kids on a missions trip
• Met a young couple struggling to raise a family while he attends seminary
• Got an email from Ahtapa that he's excited we're coming
• Traded seats with three other passengers so we could all sit together for the kids first flight.
• Let Kendra sit by a window
• Made Heidi sit by a window
• Talked about scripture with a flight attendant
• Talked to a Christian mom about living by faith not fear
• Rode on a stand-up tram; got off at the wrong stop
• Rode on a six-seater golf cart to the correct gate
• Helped Heidi get an autograph from a stranger (she was collecting random signatures from each airport)
• Put the computer away after Kendra ran down the battery playing solitaire
• Played Mad Libs with Kendra
• Met a woman who manages an ammunitions factory
• Gave Kendra a back massage
• Learned about ancient Islamic windmills (fascinating!)
• Gave Keen a back massage
• Got quarantined to the plane while men in medical masks and goggles boarded and fumbled around with a bunch of paperwork
• Helped an elderly illiterate man fill out his health survey (how do you ask about one history of diarrhea through a language barrier)
• Helped Keen explain military time to a woman
• Had my tooth paste confiscated in Tokyo
• Kids were invited into the cockpit and met the pilots
• Gave a man Heidi's dinner while she slept
• Watched an episode of the Office
• Had a six hour layover in Bangkok
• Took a nap
• Scolded the kids about laughing too loud
• Waited in the wrong ticket line (twice)
• Let the girls have coffee on the plane
• Scolded the girls for being too hyper
• Got held up in baggage claim for bringing tools
• Let Ahtapa tell the officer how much taxes we were willing to pay for the tools.