The End of November

Well, faithful viewers, it's that time again. Time to be whisked away from the snowy, frosty climes of wintry Canada, and by the mere power of suggestion, find yourself amidst the hustle-bustle of smog, people, traffic and sun in Bangkok. Let the adventure begin... Now.

I'm sitting here on this, the penultimate day of November, in a Starbucks sipping on an over-priced iced-tea, typing away on my PDA with a sinful wedge to my right, that they call "cranberry bliss," which tempts my taste buds as it screams to be slowly savoured till it's gone—bit by bit—into the depths of my stomach. This notion of "bit by bit" reminds me that each passing day accumulates a wealth of hours until its exchange equals the weight of a fully-spent month. And that is precisely what I have before me: a November gone full-by in what should only really feel like a week. There are three months left in my contract here at GES, and many paths lie ahead. None of them, however, glare as the obvious route to proceed. Here's why.

Over the past several months being here, one of the Thai families that I have become quite close with has been mulling over the idea of starting up a church / outreach ministry in our local community. Many variations on this theme have been discussed, including buying a building & operating the venue as a café during business hours while providing Spiritual nourishment to a potentially overlapping clientèle in the evenings. These plans were always great & it excited me to hear about them—that there could be a less rigid, more accessible avenue for new Christians to experience Christ in community. I had asked for your prayer concerning part of this venture earlier in the month, regarding the acquisition of a building for said project. My last update brought tidings that the Lord looked favourably on this step & granted access to the building for this purpose (hooray God!). There are new developments in the progression of this church / outreach ministry.

Ten days ago, the mother of this Thai family asked to meet with me after school in a coffee shop at the Big C shopping centre [a mini-mall of sorts, for those of you who haven't been to Thailand ;)] to talk about this church plant. Arriving to meet her there, I was a little surprised to see that she had brought along her Thai pastor friend. "Hrmm... I wonder what this is all about?" I wondered to myself as I met them, sat and began the meeting.

We started talking about the new church building & some ideas about what they were thinking about doing with the ministry. Soon, the conversation moved toward the leadership model that the church would have & it became clear that this Thai pastor sitting with us was ready to take up a position of leadership in the new community alongside this family. They started talking about some of the middle- to long-term plans & visions that they had for this ministry, which seemed both intriguing & ambitious for this project. After talking about these things, they then both turned to me and asked, "We were wondering if you would be interested in helping us be a part of leading this church."

I told them that I was honoured that they would think of me, but that I would be pretty busy with my schoolwork at GES until April. They understood, and then said that perhaps I could do more with them after the school-year ended. At this, I reminded them that my contract with GES would expire in April, and that after that, my length of stay in Thailand would be extremely short, given my lack of continued employment. This didn't seem to faze them, citing that there knew of organisations that could help me stay and work with them on this project. I was beginning to get at what they were hinting toward, so I asked, "How long would you like me to stay and help you with this church?"

"As long as you want," they replied.

And there's the kicker. I had officially been asked by a group of Thai Christians to jump into an explicit missionary partnership. Full stop. I nearly crapped my pants. During one of my prayer times with God at the end of October, the idea of staying in Thailand was brought to mind, and this was punctuated with the idea of partnering with this Thai family to bring this church plan project to life in January. I thought about it during that prayer time in October, took a deep breath and said, "Lord, if You want me to stay in Thailand & work with this church, then I am willing to do so."

I never thought at that time that He would actually take me up on my willingness to serve here. I mean, so many times I've heard & read about how Isaiah responded, "Here am I. Send me,” to God when the Lord asked, "Whom shall I send?" (Is 6:8), and often I have told God that I would be willing to serve Him in this place or that, but never has He ever actually cashed in to my submission/willingness until now. I mean: holy crap. The full weight of what I had offered to the Lord suddenly fell full-force into my lap. Staying in Thailand indefinitely would mean that all—all—of my goals, all of my dreams—all of my plans that I had laid for my life already—could potentially be completely wiped off the slate. Forever. The idea of trading my life in Canada, with its comfortable environment; familiar language & customs; storehouse of supportive family & friends, for a life serving God in Thailand, where I know almost nobody; where I can communicate with only a handful of people; where I have no access to the pervasive wealth of free refills on diet cola that I have come to love; where I will forever be an outsider—and visibly so—didn't seem all that attractive. But yet, God has called.

I am hesitant and uneasy with this development. I mean, it quite literally has put me in a position of either: "Give up everything you've known, everything you have & everything you've been planning for yourself and follow Me," or: "Go home and admit that You had been foolish in making rash statements. Pick up on where life left off & serve the Lord in my home community with my friends & family, growing the Church from the inside out." Of course, the hidden implication in option number two is this: "Recant the statement that I had given to God, where I professed to be willing to serve Him in whatever He wanted and keep all that I've known and all that I've become accustomed to because it's easier & safer and more comfortable."

I must. I am, from the depths of my soul, compelled to follow in submission to the Lord in this. I cannot, cannot, cannot walk away from this—even though the majority of my being is aching to fly home to Canada in April & stay there for a long, long time. I must pursue this calling insofar as He desires me to be here. How long that is, I haven't the foggiest idea. Could be months; could be decades. All I know is that I must follow.

Pray—please pray—for me and for wisdom from God in how to proceed with this development in my life. Honestly, I feel a tad bit blindsided by this all & I'm not too sure where to even begin tackling all that lies ahead.


All That Lies Ahead

What does the future hold? Good question. My parents & I had in mind to have me back in Canada for Christmas this year, but the political unrest over here in Thailand may have other plans in store: The anti-corruption protestors have seized control and occupied both of Bangkok's airports, refusing to disperse until the current prime minister steps down & an election be called for a new government. All air traffic to & from Bangkok has been cancelled until further notice, so there's a good possibility that I won't be seeing a Canadian Christmas this year.

About the School

For those interested in the activities at GES, here's the scoop:

• There are three weeks left of school before Christmas break, and there are three days (at least) of no school in those weeks, due to holidays & Christmas programs.


• This year's music teacher has asked for my help with the Christmas program. She got wind that I have training in acting & theatrical production, so she's wanting to put me to work both in acting & as an acting coach for the students in this year's production. It's a cool idea; it just needs a bit of organisation & synchronisation so that we're both on the same page & working toward the same outcome.


• An interesting shift of attitude has occurred in the oldest students on campus since the new term began. What once was a group of lively, enthusiastic & eager students has now become a gang of aloof, unmotivated pains in the neck who no longer give teachers the time of day / respect deserved. It's discouraging & atypical of these students. All of the high school staff (except for maybe their female teachers, both of which have not noticed a change) are concerned about this new shift in demeanour.


• We finally have a library server & digital catalogue software set up & installed. It's cool to see that things are progressing... But the daunting task of indexing & tagging every single book in the collection looms over my head, and I'm pretty confident that—with my teaching Computers—the arduous task of inputting the book records into the system will not be completed by the end of this school year. I've already talked to one of the school's owners, and she has expressed zero interest in keeping me on to see the job completed at this point. Perhaps the enormity of this task will become more apparent to her in the upcoming months, and that the importance of having a completed catalogue also materialises in her thoughts...

Items for Prayer

• Pray that God would give me wisdom & direction in seeing exactly what He wants from me in Thailand and with this church plant. I'll send out a letter soon detailing exactly what this project hopes to accomplish (and already has begun to accomplish).


• Pray that the resources, funds & supplied for this church plant would come together. We need 8,000 baht / month for rent & about 3,000 / month for ongoing utilities (a total of about $350/month in operating expenses for the building). Pray that we could acquire some chairs, a few tables and a water cooler to furnish the building.


• Pray for Thailand & its unstable political environment. Pray that wisdom would reign over each side's actions and that resolution would come swiftly.


• Pray for staff & students as we prepare for our Christmas program—what potentially is one of the greatest tools to present Christ & His good news to families & community members that GES has at its disposal.

More later. I just checked my word count & this letter's scraping dangerously close to the 2,000 word mark. Sorry for my verbosity for those of you who don't like to read! Hopefully the bulleted lists help you access the highlights of my updates.

Thanks to all of you who read & my gratitude for all you who pray,