asi bangkok

2 Comments / travel spreading 1858gc / August 9, 2007

The 2007 Southern Asia-Pacific Division ASI convention is running from the 10th to the 13th.  I went to the location – Twin Towers Hotel – by bus, and walked the last 20 minutes carrying probably around 15kg of stuff.  I was probably the 3rd or 4th person there to set up a booth.  Each one is 3m by 3m, and don’t know quite how God worked it out, but it looks like i have the best one in the whole place (but i might be prejudiced) 🙂

Everyone reading this, please pray fervently for me during this time, that the Lord will meld the attendees’ hearts to mine, that we will all desire from the bottom of hearts to know more about the words he gave his prophet to write, and that these words will get spread in many languages, and if it is his will – that this precious 1858 Great Controversy book can be made into a full-length movie.

I also need a prayer to be able to find a key to stay in the little room at church here.

Oh yes, the very first 5 copies of the 1858 edition of The Great Controversy Between Christ and His Angels, and Satan and His Angels came off the copy machine tonite – sweet!  Now to upload to:

www.earlysda.com/asi-bangkok-1858gc-study.html

chinese great controversy

2 Comments / great controversy book work / February 10, 2016

This is an answer to prayer.  There was a Taiwanese man studying in America to become a pastor who i got in contact with on the internet in 2001, and he translated the 1858 Great Controversy book into Chinese, only wanting as payment a Japanese version of the Bible which i gladly sent him.  I did notice some things in his translation which made me very hesitant to even put it on the internet, let alone print it.  For example, the title of the book he translated “The Great Controversy Between Christ and His Angels, and Satan and His Angels” as just “The Great Controversy”.  He also did (didn’t do) some other things as this email received today shows.

About 10 days ago in Malaysia i met a young Malaysian lady fluent in Chinese who showed a great knowledge of, and desire to spread Spirit of Prophecy material.  When asked if she was interested in translating this 1858gc book, she showed eagerness, and praise God, today she sends me this email!

After having it translated poorly once, then promised to be translated by a lady in Vietnam and a pastor in Malaysia, finally it looks like things are moving forward to get this book into Mandarin.  This encouragement is just what i need before going to the ASI convention and displaying this book in the various languages tomorrow.  Thank you Jesus 🙂

————————————————-

I guess you’ll be really pleased to read this: I’ve actually started translating the 1858 “GC”. So far, I’ve finished the title, the table of content, biographical sketch and the foreword. 

The Chinese translation that you gave me is really a poor one. It doesn’t have a table of content. He added his own words in the foreword.  He wrote that there’re the 1858, 1884, 1888 versions of the “GC”. I didn’t see the same in the English version.  

Since he’s a Taiwanese, he used the traditional version of Chinese font in his translation. I’m using the simplified version since all Chinese in the world except the Taiwanese are using it. So, I can’t just make improvement on his work. I’ve to start all over from scratch. However, I did go through the correspondent portions of his translation while I’m working on mine.

I’ll try my best though I can’t tell you for sure when I’ll finish the translation. I’ve been quite free most of the time prior to
meeting you, but more “work” has been given me since the end of July.
—————–
edited 2016-2-10 to add:
The Chinese Great Controversy was put up on the net last May. Please read my blog post about it:
http://great-controversy-movie.com/blog/?p=921

基督及他的天使们
和
撒旦及他的天使们
之间的
大争战

first sabbath

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / August 7, 2007

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

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / August 7, 2007

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

2 Comments / daily rambliniscings / August 5, 2007

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

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / August 4, 2007

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

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / July 20, 2007

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!!!

1,000 voices concert

Leave a Comment / travel spreading 1858gc / July 18, 2007

July 15 has been marked on the brain calendar since February as a “big day”, and sure enough, it was.

Malaysia is a Muslim country, officially designated so, and while being more open than most other Muslim countries, is still antagonistic to other faiths.  While i’ve been here, i’ve read in the newspapers about a woman who married a Muslim man, so changed to Islam (easily!), but after her husband’s death decided to switch back to Christianity.  No go.  Everyone here has an identity card, and on it is the religion of the holder.  Also, anyone born here of the Malay race is automatically registered as Muslim when they are born, and it is next to impossible to officially change that status.  All Christian material must have the phrase “For non-Muslims only” printed on it.

But the two Borneo island states of Sarawak and Sabah have a little bit of autonomy, and being non-Malay, the majority of the population is not Muslim.  This concert was planned in the city of Kota Kinabalu in the state of Sabah, being either the biggest or 2nd biggest metropolitan area on the whole island, with perhaps close to 1,000,000 residents.  The approval process dragged on, and many times the church members gathered together to fast and pray for govt. approval.  They decided if it was not approved by May 9, that they would call it all off.

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working on blog…

1 Comment / daily rambliniscings / July 16, 2007

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

Leave a Comment / daily rambliniscings / July 16, 2007

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.

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departures

1 Comment / travel spreading 1858gc / July 16, 2007

Last week in Bangkok, there was a 4 Division wide Literature Evangelist Convention.  My friend thot i would like to go, and she was right, this would be a good opportunity to see some friends i’ve made, and to promote the 1858 Great Controversy book.  I get unofficial approval from a delegate, so am off and away on Thursday afternoon to the site – the Ambassador Hotel.  The bus takes about 1 hour to travel the 6 or 7kms, and while in the bus, i can only think of my friend in Georgia.  He used to be the Mission President there, and now his wife is needing surgery.  I can’t get it out of my mind, so even tho it is my birthday, i take out one of the 5 remaining crisp 10,000yen notes, and for the first time ever in my life, send money by Western Union.  It was quite painless actually.

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soft day

1 Comment / travel spreading 1858gc / July 16, 2007

Two weeks ago was a “hard day”, and knowing how the Lord has been leading recently, i was expecting a “soft day” some time soon.  Well, actually, the “hard day”, was not in a spiritual sense – an apparent defeat for the spread of the 1858gc book, but just a physically hard day.  But the last few days, culminating with the wonderful victories yesterday in spreading this book, have more than made up for many “hard days” 🙂

After the first few days in Sabah, i’ve been living with a family, and going to their clinic every morning to use the internet.  There are three receptionists there, all Adventist, and one of them i met before, when first coming to Sabah in the fall of 2004.  She started talking to me, and in showing her what i’m doing, i held up a 1858 Great Controversy book.  She said she had one, and that every Sabbath afternoon this quarter at her church, the Adventist Youth group are doing a study and quiz on that book.  WOW!  I had met the man she said was leading out in this, and met him on Friday.  He was happy to see the study guide i’ve done for the book (all except 5 chapters), and put it on his computer, laughingly saying that it would save him a lot of time in preparing questions.  It thrilled me to think that i could be a small help to him in this.

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hard day

Leave a Comment / travel spreading 1858gc / July 16, 2007

The nite before brought me great joy, when the printer arrived just after Sabbath with 2 boxes full of 100 newly-printed Khmer 1858 Great Controversys.  So with a joyous heart i went to bed.  From 1am – 3am i couldn’t sleep, thinking about what had happened, and what was planned to happen the next day and near future.  The mama cat calling for her one kitty unable to claw it’s way out of a room reminded me of the here and now tho 🙂  After returning to sleep, i dreamed the worst dream i’ve ever had.  Perhaps this was a precusor to what kind of day i was going to have.

Things started out well enough, the young man of the house kindly took me to the Sorya bus company’s station near Central Market.  I arrived at 6:15 for the 6:30 departure time.  Hmmm, our bus is behind another bus that has a “7:00” sign in the front window.  Not good.  Sure enough, we get out of there a bit after 7:00, only to wait another 15 minutes or so just outside the station… Time to eat!  I bite into the crunchy apple, and with some crackers and raisins and p-nuts, makes a standard travelling-fare breakfast.

About an hour later, i realized my stomach was telling me the apple was too acidic.  This happened before to me with apples, when i ate 2 very acidic ones in India in ’98, and paid for it with all my insides for about 16 hours.  It wasn’t as bad as fresh gralic attacks i’ve had several times that have lasted for 2 days, or even the durian in Vietnam last year, but it was bad.  Now i’m on a bus, just starting a long trip back to Bangkok.  What to do?  Pray, pray, pray.

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in thailand april 2007

Leave a Comment / travel spreading 1858gc / July 16, 2007

The bus lets me off at Lumphini park, and i see a tatooed man standing nearby who is going thru his stuff and throwing trash out on the street.  In my heart i despise what he is doing – littering.  Wouldn’t you know it, this is the man God was wanting me to talk to, as he comes over to me and strikes up a conversation, saying he was a mercenary in Afghanistan etc.  I tell him i’m a missionary, and give a short witness as we catch different busses.  Lord, please may that short contact not prove unfruitful.  Sure do wish i had some little pamphlet to hand him…

Of course i go to Pantip computer mart, amaze myself at how the prices for flash memory has fallen, and spend time on the free internet, getting caught up with stuff that had been left when i had to pay by the hour for usage.  I plan to go to Mission College on Wednesday, stay one nite, then go with my friend up to Chaing Mai on Thursday to the first-ever Hmong campmeeting that i first learned about from MaryAnn Mcneilus.  I need to go to Pantip again (of course), but my bus #113 doesn’t come.  Bangkok busses amaze me, in that there are so many busses, and that sometimes the same number bus will be 3 in a row, and then sometimes, the one you want doesn’t come for an hour, and then when it does, the driver doesn’t stop.  Finally i grow tired of waiting, and take #29.  I know it lets me out at the corner of the road going down to Pantip, about a 7 minute walk.  But what i don’t know, is that i’ve left my 17 1858gc books in a white, plastic bag on the bus.  About half way to Pantip it dawns on my memory-challenged mind, that i’m missing something – books!  With a sick feeling i go to Pantip, only to hear that they haven’t looked at my computer yet. 

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