Christmas is sort of an anomaly in Thailand, but despite that fact I still managed to get Jolly and have some Christmas fun! First shout out goes to Maria for giving an unforgettable pre-Christmas celebration in Korea, where I actually got to see snow! Next shout out goes to the church here in Thailand. After reading this post you’ll understand why they deserve it!

Thai School Christmas Outreach

On the 21st, I had the opportunity to go with some members of the church out to a school a little ways out of the city. The school only had 45 kids in it and is right on the borderline of being shutdown by the government. It a lot of ways it reminded me of my own grade school, in which there were only 12 kids in the the school when I graduated from 8th grade.

We started at the school with some ice breaker English games and songs. Then we eventually got into telling the Christmas story. The missionary pastor, Pastor Rob, told the story in Thai while I stood up there on the stage holding his props. It was an awesome opportunity to be able to share the news of Jesus’s birth to kids who may have never heard it before!

Thai Christmas Caroling

On the 22nd the church carried out their tradition of Christmas caroling. We started around 6pm by piling into cars and driving to one of the members houses. At the house we quietly passed out music sheets and lit candles and then walked to the front door singing classic Christmas songs. The family came out and then they chose their Christmas favorites to sing. After we sang a couple songs we had a Bible reading and prayers. Then, as the tradition goes, the house we visited feeds everyone special treats!

It went on this way from house to house. I wish I had known about all the food, because I foolishly ate dinner beforehand. At the first house we had rice, meat, and fried eggs, as well as fruits and desserts. It was practically a full meal. At another house sweets and drinks, then at another rice cakes, and at another donuts and hot drinks. Not sure where all we went, but we sure covered some distance. We started in the city and by the end we were out in the countryside at some member’s house. When I finally made it back to my apartment after the caroling is was midnight!

Even though I was the only native English speaker there and not many of them spoke English and I wasn’t very good at sing in Thai the fellowship was apparent! It was a heart warming night and awesome to be apart of their loving church community!

Sunday Christmas Service

Though it was only Christmas Eve the main celebration of Christmas was on Sunday. It was the most packed I have ever seen the church! Most of the Thais came in traditional clothing and everyone was in such a festive mood! After a nice service (thanks to Pastor Rob for translating) we had a traditional Northern hill tribe meal.

The meal was prepared and set out on trays with everyone sharing from bowls on the table. Each person got a bag of sticky rice and you use chunks of the rice to scrap up the different meats and sauces. Traditionally they eat with only their hand and no utensils. I welcome that to chopsticks even though it might be a little more messy!

Before eating one of the girls performed a traditional dance, in the photo above. Later on, another girl from the congregation played some traditional music. Then all the native English speaking folks, myself included, sang an English Christmas song for everyone. Then after that was a good old fashioned game of bingo to win some Christmas prizes. I was actually the first winner!

 

It was an awesome experience to have the traditional meals, dancing, and music especially for a holiday that isn’t traditional at all to Buddhist Thailand. The fellowship was awesome and giving spirit was incredible! I got sent home with so much left over food , a goodie bag of candy, a goodie bag of soap and laundry detergent, and two bags of mountain rice. The rice came from a hmong village in the mountains. I’m told this rice is big grained and has a different taste and texture due to where it’s grown. I had so much to carry that my “Thai mother” pictured above helped my tie to my bike for the ride home! So much to be thankful for! I have been truly blessed by the people here in Thailand!

Christmas Day

My first Christmas outside of the US was spent in Thailand, at where else but a Japanese steak house. Not really your typical Christmas meal, but Christmas is anything but typical in Thailand.

I’m always super appreciative of the help and support I’ve gotten from the people at church and no people have taken care of me and made me feel at home more than the Meister family. Pastor Rob Meister is the missionary pastor who started the mission years ago (I’ve heard the story several times, but always forget the number of years they have been here. It’s around 20.). They are some of the most genuine, caring people you will ever meet and they have given their whole lives in service of spreading the good news of Jesus.  I’m so blessed to have met them and to have learned from them! In a clear example of them making me feel at home and taking care of me, they took me out with their family for a Christmas day lunch!

The rest of my Christmas day has been spent training at the gym.

I’ve had one heck of a different Christmas experience here in Thailand, and while I miss my family more than anything, this is a Christmas I won’t be forgetting soon! God’s blessings on your Christmas!

Not a lot has happened, but I just wanted to give a quick update, especially so people can know how my concussion situation is going.

I had two other doctor’s appointments. The first one, on Monday, was just to ask about the nerve pain down my arm and in my shoulders. It had been hard to sleep with all the constant throbbing. The Doctor, Dr. Scott, was ironically Scottish. It was nice to be able to get an English consultation and really explain my concerns. I then had a follow-up appointment with him on Wednesday. On Tuesday before the follow-up I went and had acupenture done. The couple pictures above are of that experience. It was quite weird. I laid down and had some needles stuck in my neck, shoulders, and down my right arm that had been hurting the most. They also had this “magic” energy lamp they put on my shoulder and later moved down my arm. It was interesting. The lamp was supposed to get my qi energy moving to help facilitate the healing of the area. And you know what? After the appointment I felt a lot better! Almost completely healed. But after a little time my arm started throbbing again, but it was definitely better than before. So I would have to say, in my case, acupuncture worked!

My follow-up appointment on Wednesday was good. I was feeling a lot better and I was able to get my stitches out that day as well. With the blessing of the doctor I was going to start Muay Thai training the next day. And this week I trained Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning. I would normally do the morning and night sessions, but I wanted to take it easy at least until the end of the week. So things went well the first couple of days, but Saturday I actually felt really good. Monday I will try to return to twice a day.

In other news, related to my income schemes, I acted in a video for a popular Thai YouTube channel. I got paid 1000 baht for the gig or roughly $30. I also got to eat a lot of delicious food during filming! It was a really weird experience and I can’t wait to see what the video looks like. In the meantime, while the video is being produced, I have some pictures of the filling process above.

Lastly, with all the time out of training with my concussion I was able to volunteer my time helping out at Thai Village (thaivillage.org). I did really simple stuff like counting inventory, and packaging. It was a really awesome experience to see the local workers making their crafts though. For those who don’t know Thai Village is a organization spun off of the church I have been attending there that teaches and facilitates income producing projects and vocations for local Thai people, especially nothern hill tribe people. It was an amazing opportunity to see how this organization has blessed the live’s of these workers and how God’s word is spread through it. The pictures above show a pickup truck that was at a location where we were picking some stuff up. I thought the truck was super cool, and I was really surprised when the guy got in and started driving it!

On Saturday night, I was able to help out with the international church craft fair. I helped Thai Village get their table set up and they were able to do a good amount of sales! It was interesting also to see all of the different international churches there. Even in Thailand you’ll see massive amount of older white women “oohing” and “aahing” at different knick knacks and crafts.

When the Christian population in Thailand is around 1% it’s almost a necessity to work together. I know people in the US, especially conservative WELS members, might see that as a bad thing, but really it’s eye opening to see what’s really important. There is definitely a delicate dance of weighing the pros and cons regarding how best to advance God’s work when working with others. Would you rather work with a Christian Church you didn’t 100% agree with if it meant that it would be the only opportunity for these people to hear about Jesus? Every situation is different and it makes you contemplate much more deeply how best to share God’s word. It is, for sure, a delicate situation. The circumstances in the United States are completely different, and I am glad to have had the opportunity here because there aren’t many parallels in our own society. I’ve learned it’s not always as black and white as I grew up thinking. The best thing anyone can do is pray and ask God for his guidance!

That wraps it up for me! Soon you’ll get to see my Thai acting debut and I’ll have a post about my Thai Thanksgiving celebrations coming up as well.