in thailand1
At Bangkok train station i’m approached by someone i take for a “tout”, so i brush him off.  I apologize after he shows me his badge, that he is a volunteer for the tourist information center.  Unfortunately, the information center has no maps, but point out to me about where on the map the Bangkok Chinese SDA Church should be.  I walk in the hot sun pulling my suitcase to a large Chinese Church, but it isn’t SDA.  I ask a young man walking by, and he says it’s across the road behind the Shell station, and sure enough, the familiar Chinese characters for “Sabbath day” and “Advent” appear, and i walk thru the gates.  A Filipino man is sitting inside, waiting for English students.  He used to be a successfull literature evangelist here in Bangkok, but for some reason the school sponsor made him quit that to devote full time to the school, even tho there are only around 25 students.  It’s sad to see someone with plenty of time, talent, and experience to sell truth-filled literature not be given freedom to do that.

In the classroom at nite i teach English in front of a whiteboard for the first time since leaving Japan.  The teacher is not experienced, and doesn’t really enjoy teaching, and frankly, needs more English training himself (which he admits).  My faster style takes the students a bit by surprise it seems, and they struggle a bit to keep up – good!  No going to sleep in this class 🙂  I hear later that they really like my class, even tho it was a bit too fast for them – haha.

I go to a little open-restaurant on a back street, and eat some rice and vegetables for 30baht (75cents usd).  It makes one lose their appetite tho when cockroaches run up the leg when eating, and i do mean “es”, as two of them did it – yucko!

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in thailand 2006Read More »

Happy New Year 2006
I had expected to greet the new year in Thailand, and had been telling people that, but this is where i am – Melaka, Malaysia.  God has a great gift in store for me today!!

Around 4 in the afternoon the young literature evangelist i’m sharing this room with takes me over in the old Portugese area of town.  They have intermarried over so many years, that there seem to be no Portugese speakers really left now, but some of the customs and houses are a bit different.  We go to an apartment area.  The doors all have crescent moon symbols over them.  Not a good sign.  It is illegal to proselytize a Muslim in this country.  OK, we’ll move on.  The next apartment building holds much better promise, as nearly every door has a cross, pic of Mary, or a Christmas decoration over it.  He starts his talk by promoting the health benefits to be found at Aenon Health Farms.  He sure does have a lot of courage, as English is not even his native tongue, but he does his best, and i admire him greatly. 

Then i notice a 40-something man standing near the front of the building.  We go over to him and give the promotion, and he is quite receptive.  Mr. A tells us he is visiting from Kuala Lumpur, where he is a teacher in a Roman Catholic church.  Yes Lord!  Then the current, large Great Controversy is presented to him.  He takes a look at it and says: “What is the controversy”?  Exactly my thots on the matter, but to see a real person have the same thots as me on the matter, it helped immensely in verifying my thinking.  I pull out the original Great Controversy printed just 2 weeks earlier.  He looked at the title, and nodded, “It’s between Christ and His Angels and Satan and His Angels is it”?  Being a Christian, he knows this much already, so we didn’t have to explain who Jesus Christ and Satan are.  After a few seconds of flipping thru the book, he asked how much it was.  I told him 5 ringgit (around 1.30usd).  The young LE who took me said he would sell his big book for 5 ringgit also.  The man didn’t hesitate.  He said he would rather have the small, easy to carry book over the big one that looked so imposing.  Another verification of my thinking.  This 40 minute interaction with this Catholic leader (who later asked if i was a healer, because he likes to go to “healings”) was the perfect gift from God to start my new year (^-^).

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in malaysia 2006Read More »

I have lunch with a South African man and Yogi again at a vegetarian restaurant.  The conversation is interesting, and what i’ve heard about car-jacking and things in general going to pot in S.A. and Zimbabwe is verified:(  So sad as that part of the world used to be the shining star of Africa, altho they did have discrimination based on skin color, which is evil.  But now they have reverse discrimination, and the people’s standard of living has dropped dramatically.

The poster to promote the original Great Controversy in the Philippines is finished now.  Yogi helped me scan in a few book covers that i used in it.  I know i scanned them in while still in Japan, but can’t find them now.  To see or use as you wish:
http://www.great-controversy-movie.com/images/pr-philippines-poster.jpg
Looks pretty nice if i say so myself!

I was asked to go caroling with the church Christmas carolers on the 14th, so arrive at 7pm only to find the pastor quite cold.  His first words to me are: “You should learn Malay”.  I smile weakly.  He knows that i plan to only be here 2 or 3 more weeks at the most, so why does he, and one or two others, insist on this?  What is even stranger, about 1 minute later he is talking to someone else in English!?$%&!  He finally says something like: “Why don’t you come back tomorrow?”  I pretty much brush it off, and look out the door for the friends that invited me.  They come pretty soon, and after explaining everything, all is well.  We go to a hair salon, then a home, then a home by a church.  At each place we sing around 4 Christmas songs.  Then the pastor has a prayer, and then they have cakes and drinks which i don’t partake of, to the disappointment of some.  Next day i go to the hair salon place again, and get my hair cut for 5myr (150jpy).  Not a bad deal, even if it is with electric clippers that make me dig cut hairs out of my ears for 2 days – ha!  The owner is not SDA, but is studying the Bible with a church member, so i share the GC anime and have prayer with her.  She seems so happy.

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in malaysia 2005Read More »

10/24 I leave Japan.  My suitcase is still empty up until 8:45am.  I have to leave by 12:40.  The whirlwind goes thru the house throwing away things i thot i couldn’t part with, but when it comes to everything in one suitcase, and one backpack, some things inevitably get left behind.  After leaving Japan i remember that i forgot the power pack to my notebook, and left some food in the cabinet above the sink.  I hope my 2nd mama wasn’t too upset 🙂

The grandkids took off school today to go with me to the train station.  I was quite touched by their love for me.  Already i miss them, and pray they will grow up to love Jesus so we can meet in heaven some day.  Friends J and A met me at Kyobashi station to ride with me a few stations to where i had to change trains.  There was an accident somewhere, so all the trains were stopped, and i missed my train.  It worked out OK because i was able to take a slow train for awhile, and save a few yen on express fare costs.  At Nabari i struck up a conversation with a nice lady – S, and she was very helpful in assisting me to the correct platform and everything in Nagoya for the airport train.  She accepted a Great Controversy book.

When i got to the airport the sign said that my 7:40 flight to Manila was delayed to 0:00.  After my final meal at Lawson’s convenience store, i made it on the plane and asked a passenger what happened.  He said that the plane from Detroit had gotten past Anchorage when it was discovered that the toilets had not been serviced in Detroit, so they turned around and jettisoned lots of fuel and landed in Anchorage to clean the toilets.  Sounds very Northwest-like.  He was a nice man who worked with the World Bank, and altho he had a Diplomat passport, he was flying economy like me.

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in philippines 2005Read More »