daily rambliniscings

new gods

It is funny to me, that in many SE Asian countries, people will put things they worship up at the highest place in their homes.  So in many places you can see pics of kings and queens or dead heroes or ancestors or little shrines or idols up near the ceiling.

 But in modern times there are new gods.  Usually their names are Toshiba, Daikin, Samsung, LG, Mitsubishi, or Carrier, and they continually give out blessings of cool air 🙂 

da beat

Last Sabbath a little kids’ group came to our church and did some songs.  I got up and walked out.  After they were done, i went back in.  After a bit, they got up and did some more.  I went out again.

After lunch, a western pastor came up and said that he understood why i walked, but that the better way is to work with the people, and slowly get them to see that the worldly type music is not the best.  I politely disagreed.

What lifted my heart so much, and gave evidence of doing the right thing, was that one of the directors of that childrens’ choir is someone i know, someone i thot was quite strong in the faith.  She confided that she was struggling with this, and that her children in the choir were not comfortable either.  She thanked me, saying how this really helped solidify in her heart that her instinct about the music was correct, and she assured me that the group has already made plans to have her be the sole choir director, and she will see that the songs are more Christian.

It is a wonderful plan they have, as the Thai people go out of their way for children, even giving up their seats on busses to them!!  They usually don’t want to hear about Jesus from adults, but from little kids, they can hardly resist 🙂

May we always make a stand for truth, in love, asking “What Would Jesus Do?”

ants in pants

There sure was a mean, biting one while i was riding the bus last Friday.  Since it is not decent, and probably jailable, i just sat there and took it while the little critter was biting me in sensitive areas.  About an hour later when i got off, i went to the bathroom to find red welts all over.  Then the itching started.  Funny that i’ve only been bitten by one thing on my long 22-month travel, and then two nites before this, and again.

Buying some caladryl lotion and a huge can of ant spray, along with some chalk seems to have stopped the critters.  Sorry to see several hundred dead ones in my room, but would’ve been even sorrier if even one more of them had bitten me.  I was really thinking that if i would have been bitten around 7 – 10 more times, i might have to go to the hospital or something, as they REALLY ITCH!  haha

first sabbath

My first Sabbath in Bangkok as a live-here type personality was quite nice except for a tear in the pants.  Three of us worshipped on Friday evening, and while the furniture looks lovely, the nails sticking up stuck it up my seat, and my most expensive item bot for myself since leaving Japan in October 2005 except for the computer now has a tear in it 🙁

Sabbath morning i was invited to give the sermon, and i did to all 10-11 gathered.  I gave it on my personal life testimony, and on the 3 distinctive doctrines of Seventh-day Adventists.  Most of the people are Filipino, with 3 Korean, and 1 Thai included.  Later i was told that one of the young men was not SDA, and that this subject was good for him to get to consider the SDA faith.  May God lead him into all truth.

There was no cooking on the Sabbath, for which i was very pleasantly surprised.  The noodle salad was good, and the watermelon was excellent.  That kept my mind clear for AY meeting in the afternoon, where we sang songs, i showed pics and videos of my trips, and of course the anime of the 1858gc book, and a moral story was told.  A very pleasant first Sabbath as a Bangkokian.

last day before school

Should be running around like a chicken with my head cut off, but instead spent most of the day scratching my head for the perverseness of one computer on a 3-computer network refusing to print to the network printer.  I felt great when i got the other 2 working, and still wonder what i did wrong for the 3rd one….

 It felt good to get out and go to BigC, a Walmart-like shopping centre, and buy some stuff.  Ink cartridges are behind locked glass, and the employee with the key looked at me like a potential thief, at least it seemed.  He ushered me over carefully to a cashier, where i waited for the lady for around 3 minutes.  Finally the key-man came over and said this cashier was closed, and i should go to the front of the store.  I didn’t even feel anything.  Guess that means i’m almost Thai-ascized.  Things you could not imagine in Japan…..Good and bad.  Like the bus ticket taker who let me ride for free the other day because she didn’t have change for a 100baht bill.  Hmm, maybe i could ride everywhere for free if i flashed a 1,000baht bill??? 

 I got my first junk food in quite a while – green pea curls – buy one at 18baht (53cents) and get one free.  That, along with a bag of 5baht rice, 6baht tofu, and 5baht expired wing beans (raw), along with a touch of ketchup, formed my meal in my guest room at the school.  Yummy while listening to Thai lessons on my computer 🙂

apartment hunting

Looking for a place to…..

live.

Seems surreal, to look for a place to call “home”, a place where i can know i have to go back to whenever, whatever.  Feels very strange.  Most of the places were 5 story apts., with no elevator.  The going deal here in the Minburi suburb of Bangkok, is that the first 3 floors will have air-con, and the top two only a fan.  All rooms are just a 4-square “one-room mansion” as they would say in Japan, with a toilet/shower, and tiny balcony to splash water around and hang clothes out to dry.  There is no kitchen.  The only big difference between rooms, aside from air-con/not air-con, is that while most rooms come furnished, some do not.  The price range was from 3,800baht/month for a place with lift and internet and 24-hour guard etc., to 2,700baht for the average one, to 1,800baht for a small, non-furnished spot up on the 5th floor.  Yes, you guessed it, that is the one i want.  Should i jump on it now, or wait until next week when i will first need it?

It seems a bit strange that i can earn more in one day than a month rent costs…. But i’m not looking forward to a tiny cubicle again.  Oh well, i hope to save as much as possible, and help spread God’s words quickly, so he can take me to my mansion in the new Jerusalem 🙂

krung thep

It was confusing for me to try to learn how to read Thai, and see “Bangkok” on many road and bus signs, and yet not be able to make out the letter for “B”.  Now i know why – the city is known by the Thais as “Krung Thep”, and the official name is so long, that it is in the Guiness book of world records, and is translated something like “eternal city of angels dedicated to eternal king blah blah blah about Indian gods etc. etc.

 Feels good to be able to understand some Thai letters for real now 🙂

payback

Wednesday i went to the printer and paid him the 2,300myr for the 2,000 Adventist calendars and 1,500 each Bahasa Malaysia and English health pamphlets.  I was wondering how to pay all that, when my brother kindly offered to do it, as “the work needs to be done”.  Somehow tho, i could scrape it up after finding 300myr in my Japanese note stash, and decided that it has been long enough of me pining for the Japanese islands, and decided to cash in 3 FujiZawas (10,000jpy notes). 

 Somehow it seems that God’s jar of oil never runs dry 🙂

Now the big thing, like a mountain, is how to pay for the animation of the 1858gc book……

Our God is a rich God!!!

working on blog…

Think i’ve gotten up all the old posts now, but still need to make them clearer about WHEN the events described actually occurred.  Will work on that hopefully in the coming weeks.

useful travel items

Useful and other things to take on a trip

Things that are super-useful:
1. Quick drying clothes.  It is great to be able to wash at nite, and have them dry in the morning.  Think especially of underwear, socks, and a towel.  My quick-drying towel is probably the single most useful thing on this trip.  You can of course dry yourself, keep the sun off, wipe the sweat off, tie up something that is sliding around the bus etc. etc.

2. Mosquito repellent:
Whether you glide it on, spray it on, or fog it on, just put it on.  Then around you, you may wish to create a mosquito-free bubble, so take a battery-powered Vape thing to put around your wrist or on a belt loop.  This works great in the bathroom so that you don’t get bit in unexciting places.

3. Ear plugs and eye mask:
It is noisy everywhere you go.  The eye mask is good for long bus rides, or for when you wish to take a nap etc.

would’ve been 80

Dad would have been 80 years old this December 2nd. 

In November i was thinking a lot about this, and especially about the circumstances leading up to me being at the right place at the right time.

When i left for Japan in 1989, dad was quite sad, and not entirely in favor of it.  He said that i would probably marry a Japanese, and never come back.  No need to worry dad! (- 0)  He always had a hard time with goodbyes, and being so happy to finally get all his children back in Tennessee just a short while before, he was not so pleased with losing one, especially to some far-off country.

He and mom and a niece came to visit me in Japan around the time of the Osaka Flower Exhibition in 1990, and i remember mostly that he didn’t appreciate bicyclists on the sidewalks, and the wonder and amazement that he was standing in the exact spot where an atomic bomb had obliterated a city 45 years earlier.

still working

still working out the kinks.  have spent don’t know how long tring to get all 4 domains transferred nicely from RegisterFly to GoDaddy, and finally this morning, after talking with a support rep., decided that it just won’t get done like it was supposed to when i purchased this last March.  The only thing left to get this done successfully, (after paying 17usd for 5 years for 2 domains), is that privacy wasn’t included on them…..

 Now to start slowly populating this blog with many of the stories in the old blog, which YES, Agape-san, fortunately i do have many of them 🙂

first post (again)

Sorry about losing 2 years or so of blogging.  I backed everything up like i was supposed to, but something didn’t work correctly – alalala 🙁

This hoster is GoDaddy, and if they honor what i’ve paid for, this site will be here until June, 2012.  Hopefully we’ll be in heaven by then 🙂