Prayers Requests

Pray for all the students who are away in their home towns for the holiday. Pray that God will keep them strong in Him.

Pray for Tak, a student at RCC who came to church for the first time today. Pray that God will grow her courage and her trust in Him, if she chooses Christianity it will be very difficult for her with some of her family.

Pray for Yut who has been away visiting his family for some time and is really missing his Christian family. Pray that God will encourage him and refresh his spirit.

Pray for my reader, Boy. One of my team mates received a phone call from him a few days ago indicating that he was thinking hard about many things. Pray that God will be with and guide his thinking. Pray that Boy will not be able to resist God's call any longer.

Christmas

Mery Christmas from Bangkok!

I've had a very good and unexpectedly usual Christmas here.

Christmas eve my whole team had a fondue party at the Miller's house and we exchanged gifts.
Christmas day we had a huge party at the RCC. There were about 50 people there. We ate and had a little talent show and had a gift exchange game. It was good fun and good to see so many of our students there.
Christmas-New Years is kind of a quiet time at the English center as many students have gone to their home towns to vote in a recently election, to see theri families for the new year and have also been busy with exams.

Pray for all the RCC students as they will be away from the Christian influence of the English center around this time, and as some of them will be talking with their families back in their home towns about Christianity and the things they are learning or coming to believe.

Jeab

I want to tell you all a little bit about one of the readers at RCC named Jeab. She is a young woman studying at Ram university here in Bangkok. She has been part of RCC for some time, and is close to becoming a Chrstian, but has not yet made that commitment. She is, however, one of the most evangelistic non-Christians I have ever known. Back when Yut was still thinking about being baptized, he said at one point that he thought he would wait until after the new year to be baptized; Jeab told him that if he believed he should not wait because he did not know what would happen to him tomorrow (it is not yet the new year and Yut has been baptized).

And yesterday Jeab invited another one of the RCC readers, Oaf (who has just begun to think about Christianity) to come to church on Sunday, and he agreed.

Please pray for Jeab, that God will remove whatever obsticles remain in the way of her dedicating herself to Him.

Some Culture

The following are all things that during my first few weeks here have struck me as different:

In Thailand . . .

You may look out the front window and see a man riding an elephant down the road.

You may have to stop your vehicle in the middle of the road because monkeys are blocking the way.

You can see people wearing sweaters when it's 88F outside.

You can eat out at a sit down place for under $1, but pay $50 for a bottle of vitamin C.

Driving 40mph over the speed limit is usual, acceptable, and sometimes necessary.

Taxi cars are distinguished by being a bright color such as neon orange, hot pink, bright blue, or grasshopper green.

Stray dogs are EVERYWHERE. They are allowed to run all over the place because they don't bother anyone and they eat the rats and snakes.

Mondays are national wear yellow days, and people seriously participate. I'd say about 1/2 of Bangkok wears yellow on Mondays. Yellow is the king's color and is worn in his support (does this king know how to be king or what).

The meaning of the words efficiency, hurry, and organization are unknown. One always feels like they are flying by the seat of their pants in this country, and schedules are all but tossed out the window. This all stems from a cultural beliefe that spending time with people is very much more important than getting anything done.

Fish say "w, w, w."

Address

Here at long last is my address:

Lydia Robison
Ramkhamhaeng Christian Center
23/6 Ramkhamheang 12
Huamark Bangkapi BKK
Thailand 10240

A phone number is yet to come.

Prayer Requests

-- For a distressing situation our ministry is in the midst of. Satan is attacking and everyone on the team is feeling it. Pray that God will grant us the wisdom, love, strength, and peace to work through it.
-- For my readers Boy, Ake, Tip, and Ja. That God will turn their hearts towards Him. That He will open their hearts and minds to His Word, and that He will guide my thoughts and words as I read and talk with them.
-- For Yut (Kat's readers who has recently become a Christian). Praise God for His work in his life. His faith and zeal to grow in God are such an encouragement to all our team. We are all certain that God has great things in store for him. Pray that God will strengthen him everyday and keep him from the Evil One.
-- For Heusamer. He is Aaron's reader and is showing great interest in learning more about God. He is dear to all our team and we all long to see him turn his life to God.
-- For Nut, Son, Kwan, Jon, Ning, Thoe, and Hong, Christian brothers and sisters whom I've gotten to know and love over the passed few weeks. Thank God that they are part of my Christian family and pray that He will grow and strengthen them in Him more and more every day.

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day in Thailand, and everyone got off work and out of school (that's how much they respect older people and parents in this country). We all gathered at the church building and had a day of games and sports (cards, volleyball, basketball, relay races, soccer, etc). It was a great time of fun and fellowship. After dinner we had our regular Wednesday evening worship. As part of it we had a foot washing for the leaders in the church, which, as foot washings are want to be, was very cool. It started with the leaders' children washing their feet (since it was father's day) and then anyone else that wished to show them their love and appreciation in this way was welcome to wash their feet also.

There was also a part of the evening where we lit candles and sang a song for Rama IX, the present king of Thailand, who is very much respected by the Thai people.

A regular day

I want to write about what a regular day is like. There really isn't much of a regular day or schedule on the mission field, but here's the general schedule that about half my days follow:

8:00am - Go to RCC. Partly by song tau and partly walking and sometimes stopping for breakfast along the way.

9:00am - Staff devo with Kat, Andy, Aaron, PiTuli, PiYai, and PiNong.

10:00am - Little bit of free time for staff to e-mail, blog, and prepare for classes.

12:00pm - Lunch. Usually at some restaurant in the area (eating out is very cheap here).

1:00pm - Thai class. Thai is comming along for me. The tones are difficult, but once I conquer them I will be well on my way with the language.

2:00pm-5:00pm - either having a reading session or hanging out with the students.

5:00pm-7:00pm - English class and Thai devo with all the students as a group.

7:00pm - Wrap things up at RCC. Go eat and then home. I'll usually get home between 9:00 and 10:00 and hang out with my room mates, unwind, and journal.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Yesterday began to feel like the Christmas season, though I am in Thailand, and the weather is what most would call summerish.

Yesterday was monday, the missionaries' day off, and I met up with the Millers, Aaron, Yut and Huesamer in the morning. We first went and bought Yut a Bible of his own. It was cool to see someone get their first Bible. When he first got it, Yut was flipping through it and asked me what he should read first, so I got to explain to him how the Bible is divided up and what each part talks about. Then we all prepared for a xmas party the Millers were going to have at their house that evening. A lot of the RCC people came over and we had pot luck and played games and decorated the Millers' xmas tree and sang carols; it was very fun.

Yut's baptism slide show

Banana Village revival

Rejoice with us!

We have a new brother in Christ! The man named Yut whom I mentioned in my prayer requests post from Monday was baptized yesterday evening.

Yut has been reading with Kat for the past 3 weeks. When he was younger, Yut had been a monk for a period of time, and he said that he saw many evil things in the temple where he lived that convinced him that Buddhism was not the truth. After his experience as a monk, Yut looked into Islam. He said it made sense to him, but there was nothing in his heart that told him that this was the truth. Then he began to read the Bible and to study with Kat, and he said that immediately his heart knew that this was the truth. He said the truth he found in the Bible was so exciting to him, that he couldn't stop talking about what he was reading in his Bible with everyone he knows. Pray that God will bless our new brother and strengthen him in Him in every way.

Focus

The other day Patinya asked me out of the blue, "Lydia, why are you here?"
Dozens of reasons and answers popped into my head, but the one that came out was: "Because I love God, and I have to tell other people about it."
"Good. Don't ever forget that." He said to me. It is easy to know why you're here when you first come and just as easy to forget it. That's what he said to me, and I took it to heart. It is so important to keep one's focus when on the mission field; when one's focus is right and with God, then the rest falls into place. I'm so glad Patinya made me vocalize my focus. To have it put into one brief sentence makes it easier to hold onto and to remind myself of it everyday.

Prayer Request

Praise that I am adjusting well to the Thai culture and life in Bangkok.

Request that as I begin giving English lessons this week that they will go well and that I'll click with my readers.

Request for a Thai man named Yut who is Kat's student. He is very close to becoming a Christian and is talking about some reservations that he has with one of the Thai Christians here.

Request for a girl named Thwo who is Aaron's student. She is hearing the gospel story for the first time and considering all it means; request that God will be in her thinking and that He will move her towards Him.

Week-end

This week-end Andy, Kat, me, and a hand full of other Christians from the Watchrapon church here traveled to Banana Village (a 10 hour drive to the North) on the Thailand-Laos border for a revival meeting. Christians from many villages in that area gathered for a week-end of lectures and fellowship.

It was good to travel outside of Bangkok and see and experience the different between the richness and industrialness of Bangkok and the poverty of the villages. The Christians at the revival were so welcoming to us and so happy to be all together.

One of my favorite parts of the revival was hearing from one Christian man there who asked to speak. He told the story of how he became a Christian 20 years ago, and how he didn't know how to read, and how he wished so much to be able to read the Bible. He prayed that God would send him a wife that could read so that she could read the Bible to him. God sent him a wife, but she could not read. God eventually answered his prayer though and made it so the man's children had the opportunity to learn to read, so now his children read the Bible to him, and to any of their neighbors that will come to listen.

Thursday

Thursday I met with the Andy and Kat and Aaron and we all got organized for me beginning to give English lessons next week. I am very excited to begin the English lessons. Right now I have 3 people I will be reading with. I sat in on a couple of the English lessons on Thursday, just to observe. It was so neat to see people considering the tremendousness of the gospel story for the first time.

That evening the whole team (the farangs (white people) and the Thais) all went out to The Great American Grill restaurant for Thanksgiving dinner and finished off 4 platters of barbecued ribs between us. It was very different from regular Thanksgiving, but so cool at the same time.

Wednesday 21

Went to the dept. of labor with PiYai first thing in the morning. It went really smoothly and didn't take too long. Hung out at RCC for a while after that and then went shopping with PiYai and PiNong for groceries for dinner (there's always a big dinner at RCC on Wednesday night before Wednesday evening worship). We went by an open air market to buy some of the food and that was a neat experience. I got to help cook a little too, which was great. Played some games and chatted with people who came in to RCC until dinner time, then we all ate, and then we had worship time.

In the evening when I got back to my apartment I got to talking with my room mate PiJon. We got onto talking about Christianity and spiritual things. PiJon is a Christians, but she still has a lot of questions and a lot of things she doesn't quite understand yet. I thank God for providing this opportunity for me to talk with her and I pray that He will put all the right words in my mouth to say to her. I look forward to having lots of conversations with her, and I hope through those that her faith will be strengthen and also that she will begin to learn how to grow her own faith (without having to rely solely on missionaries to be fed spiritually).

Adapting

I feel like I am beginning to adapt and be able to operate on my own a little. Last night at RCC (the Christian Center where we give English lessons and hang out the rest of the time) we had a group English class followed by a short devo and I got to help a little with each (and it felt fantastic to be able to begin and help out a little). I was also able to take the public transportation home on my own yesterday evening and I have begun to be able to have some basic interaction with non-English speakers.

There is still lots and lots to be learned, but I feel like I have begun on a good foot and am well under way.

Additional Prayer Request

Today PiYai will be taking me to the Dept. of Labor to finish my work permit. Please pray that it will go smoothly.

Prayer Requests

Thanks for a safe trip

Thanks for all of the wonderful Christians here in Bangkok who have welcomed me so warmly and helped me through each day as I am learning to do everything the Thai way.

Request to be able to gain an ear for the way the Thai people speak English

Request to be able to get good sleep (which hasn't happened so far).

Request to be able to learn and adapt to the culture

My team

There are many people on the Bangkok team, and I have not met them all yet, but let me tell you some about the ones I have met.

Andy and Katherine Miller are wonderful, dedicated people who really know what they are doing in their work here. I am so glad they are my internship mentors; I know I will learn alot from them. They aren't kindred spirits, but they are good, reasonable people and I know we will get along well and work together well. They are 3 kids.

Aaron is around my age (a little younger I think), I know we will be glad to have the company of another person our age and that we will become good friends notwithstanding his being a Texan (if you know what I mean).

PiYai and PiNong are a young Thai couple who are absolutely precious people; they just radiate goodness.

P'Atinya (who may be my favorite team member) is a middle aged Thai man who is one of those people with a genuine spirit and who has a calming presence.

I am so thankful to God for each of these team mates; they are truly a good group of people to be working with.

First few days

Wow, I'm on such an information overload right now, so, so, so many new things in only a couple of days. In the last 48 hours I have met 2 dozen new people, learned a dozen Thai words and phrases, re-learned how to use a bathroom, how to sit, how to sleep, how to get from place to place, how much money is worth, what is good to eat (and what is just plain too spicy), how to make a joke, how to use my living space. Some more specific things I have learned are: they drive on the other side of the road, people tend to always eat out as it is very good and very cheap and most houses have no kitchen, breaded-fried banana is surprisingly yummy, you can find many American stores such as McDonalds, Toys R Us, and Starbucks here, showers and sinks only have one knob and that knob is cold, doing anything takes forever as Thai people do not believe in organizing anything, people are very friendly.

Everything is so wonderful and difficult all at once. I think the most frustrating thing right now is not being able to even understand people's English because of their heavy Thai accent, though I'm told that my ear will get used to it in time.

I think my favorite thing so far are my two Thai room mates: PiNuNing and PiJon. They are such wonderful, funny, and informative girls. I'm so glad to have them.

I've arrived

I've made it. Travel really was as smooth as possible. I made all of my connections smoothly, and all my bags were there when I got there. So, God has answered all of your safe travel prayers for me.

Departing tomorrow

I have spent a delightful time in York visiting with old friends, and profesors, and generally just enjoying some time off and to myself before everything begins.

I depart tomorrow and I believe the enormity of what is happening has begun to sink in, but only just. My mind is so full of thinking about finishing out the day, doing some repacking, seeing a few more friends, and knowing what a long and tiring trip I have ahead of me that I can't think much beyond that right now.

People keep asking me how I'm feeling about it, and I haven't been very good at answering that question. I think the real answer to the question is realistic: I feel like I have very realistic expectations and ideas about what is to come. I know that arriving in Thailand will be exciting, overwhelming, and difficult. I know that many wonderful, interesting, new, beautiful, difficult, unfamiliar, strange, confusing, and delightful things and experiences await me. I know I will sometimes enjoy things and sometimes get frustrated with things; I know I will love people there fiercely, and at the same time miss others that I have left behind desperately. And I also know that through all these different things and experiences and feelings I will have that God will guide me through a step at a time, and grow me and mold me in amazing ways, and I know that it will be wonderous to get to be there and watch Him work.
I look upon my arrival in Thailand with excited anticipation; I am so ready to do and to learn and to talk. But that is also tempered by knowing that I will not find things wonderful and perfect at every turn, and it is sobering to think what an important task I am about to attempt.

So, that's how I'm feeling (to put it as briefly as possible).

Pray God's traveling mercies upon me the next few days as I venture forth.

"If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast." Ps. 139:9-10

In York

God has delivered me safely to my destination once again as today I am in York NE. I drove up all day yesterday beginning at 6:30 am, and driving until 9:00pm. 14 and 1/2 hours is a very long time to be in one's own company, but I managed to mostly keep my mind busy with music and thinking and praying (and I am very surprised and proud of my car for making it).

Prayer

Thanks to all of you who have been praying for my safe travel and for my visa paperwork to come through smoothly! God has answered all our prayers!

Prayer items:

Thanks that my visa has come through.

Thanks that I have made it safely as far as Stephenville TX, and am enjoying being with my brother, sister-in-law, and niece.

Request for a safe journey to York NE tomorrow.

Be With Me Lord (hymn of the day for me)

This morning as I was heading out to Dallas, I began to pray that God would see me through the day, keep me safe, and let it be that getting my visa would go smoothly. But as I prayed I felt guilty for asking God for things once again as He has been soo good and soo faithful to me of late I could hardly bear it. I felt bad for asking for more since I had already been blessed soo much, but then I thought to myself that I didn't dare not pray and ask for God to lead me on; I didn't dare to try and take one step without God. And that thought brought to my mind the hymn Be With Me Lord, which has been something of my hymn and prayer for the day:

Be with me Lord-- I cannot live without Thee,
I dare not try to take one step alone,
I cannot bear the loads of life unaided,
I need Thy strength to lean myself upon.

Be with me, Lord! No other gift or blessing
Thou couldst bestow could with this one compare--
A constant sense of Thy abiding presence,
Where'er I am, to feel that Thou art near.

The visa has come through! I went to Dallas today and got it finished. Thank God. I tried to also go by the LST offices in Bedford (which is somewhat on the way between Dallas and Stephenville), but my directions were not sufficient and after an hour and a half of driving up and down Airport Freeway without finding the office, I headed back to my brother and sister-in-law's house.

Looking back on the passed couple of days I'm kind of impressed with myself; there are lots of things I can do I didn't know I could, like:
Take care of a car (I put water in my radiator cause I was overheating, added a quart of oil cause I was low, and added air to my tires which were only at half the air pressure they were supposed to be at (yikes)).
Drive in big city, rush hour traffic when I don't even know where I'm going (which I did through Dallas twice and through which I discovered that intense classical music helps me drive).
I can go to a city I don't know all by myself and figure out where and how to get important documents processed (which is what I did with my visa today).
Not to say that these things were not accomplished without pointers from other people and lots of help from God, but it's still neat to find out that I have it in me to do all those things, and I thank God for having equiped me with the knowledge and gumption to do them; it is truly amazing how God makes you ready and then leads you through everything he puts before you to face.

There have been many snags with my visa, but God has been faithful, and each one has been overcome in time. It has worked out for me to be able to complete my visa paperwork in Dallas, and it has worked out that I don't need the medical form, which it would have taken me so long to obtain (I called the Dallas office and asked to make sure I really did need it, and it turned out that I didn't since I had an American passport and I had never been to a third world country), also there was part of my paperwork that was supposed to arrive to me by mail on wednesday so I could leave thursday and complete my visa at the Dallas office friday, but the papers did not arrive when I had expected; I didn't know where they were, but they turned up saturday (yesterday) and today (sunday) I am on my way to Dallas.

And so I am on my way to Dallas, my journey begins, and it is thrilling to be on the move once more with God going before me and the loving support of so many friends behind me.

Praise God for being so faithful and bringing me and blessing through this passed week during all my preparations to leave Searcy.

There is so much more to tell about this passed week, but time is short and I must hit the highway and so I shall leave it here.

Fund Raising Update

Fundraising it at 66%

Visa

Preparations are coming along. I have hit one big snag in getting my visa. There's lots of paperwork that needs to get done for it and not a lot of time. One good thing about the visa is that once I get all the papers together I can get the visa processed in Dallas in one day, which is great for me as I was planning to be near Dallas in the next couple of weeks to visit my brother's family. A lot does go into getting the papers ready, not only do they require information, but all sorts of proofs for this information, also I must include photos and I must go to a doctor to certify that I don't have leprosy, syphalis, and other such strange deseases. The medical stuff is what will hold me up the most as some of the tests can take up to three weeks!

I have two more days at work, and then I will have my big packing day, and then Thursday it's off to World Missions Workshop.

Pray that all my preparation will get done and that I won't hit too many rough spots while growing through them. God has been amazingly faithful to far in getting me through all my preparations; pray that he will see me through to the end.

Fund Raising Update

My funds are currently at 60%

Preparations

Ok, here's a quick rundown of what all I'm looking at needing to get down before I leave Searcy in a month:
-Finish my LST assignments. I have one assignment left which involves reading a book and writting about it.
- Attending and doing homework for my LST training sessions. These will probably be 3 sessions of 2-3 hours each with homework inbetween.
- Finish reading my book on Thai culture (about 150 pages to go).
- Figure out what all's going on with my visa paperwork and when and how I need to mail my passport, and getting that all done.
- Learn about and buy health insurance for while I'll be in Thailand.
- Pack. Figure out what I will and won't keep, out of the things I will keep decide which go and which to box up, and out of the things that I won't keep decide which are trash and which are too nice to throw away and give that stuff away to people (so if you've ever coveted any of my stuff now would be a good time to let me know).
- Buy things I will need to take that I don't have (especially gifts for my readers).
- Wrap up and close out my bank account (right before I leave).
- Have the oil changed in my car (and have other stuff checked) to prepare it for the trek to Nebraska.
-Write letters to all my contributors.

Well, that's what I've got off the top of my head; I'm sure I could add to the list if I consulted my planner.

I'm actually not stressed about getting all these things done, but I do sometimes feel the wear of going-going-going all the time. My biggest concern is keeping on top of things and keeping at it, as long as I work on this stuff a little each day it'll all get done.

Prayer

- Preparations. I have lots to get done between training and packing. Pray that I will be able to get it all done.
- Visa. I have sent the paperwork for my visa and it should be in processing.
- Fund Raising. Praise that I have the funds I will need for my first year (it was my goal to have that much raised before I left), and request that I will be able to raise the funds for the second year.
- The Thailand team. Those I will be working with and the work they are doing right now.