Looking back on Christmas time in Roi Et

First of all, we want to thank all of you that have been so generous in helping us with our truck fund!  We are getting very close to the funds necessary to get a truck for the ministry thanks to you!  If you are interested in knowing more about this project, please check out the next post on this blog.

Also, thank all of you who blessed us in so many different ways over the Christmas season.  We have never felt more loved than we do now!  Now, to the blog...

Hello, Chris here!  What an incredible December we had!  Forgive us for not writing sooner, but we have not even been in on place long enough over the past month and a half to put our thoughts together.  We are settled back in for the next three weeks at our school home in Roi Et, after which we are leaving for Bangkok to prepare for the birth of Natalie Paige Barbee!!  Thank you, as always for your prayers for the two of us, as now we are asking you to add a third to that prayer list!  We are looking forward to meeting her around the 8^th of March, and we promise to send pictures as soon as we have them! 

So, get ready to join us in reliving our crazy Christmas season! 

The Banon, Roi Et Christmas Party:

We had an incredible Christmas party at the center in Banon.  Honestly, not much has stressed us out more this year than planning this Christmas party, because we have seen pictures of the event from years past, and were very sure we would not be able to plan something as fun, meaningful or memorable.  However, we had many of our outer village schools cancel our teaching appointments the previous week (praise God!) so we had time to thoroughly prepare.  In the past this event has become a time for all the students who normally just see us once a week for English class to come together and encounter the true meaning of the Christmas season.  We also extend the love of Christ to them through gift giving.

We decorated the outside and inside of the ministry center, and brought the students over from all the different villages in two groups: Saturday night was all middle/high school students and adults while Sunday morning was all children.  We all ate dinner together in the courtyard before the party started.  I played guitar for a Christmas carol sing-along in Thai (sadly, I still sing all the carols in my head in English to be able to play guitar in-time) and Dora taught about the meaning of the Christmas tree.  She taught that the ornaments served as a means of remembering the birth of Christ and of thankfulness, so we had the students all take an ornament down from the tree and write what they were thankful to God for.  Dora and I played trombone and saxophone while they were writing, and we were truly shocked with how long they took thinking of what they were thankful for.   We really pray that when life gets rough for our students (as it so often is) that they can look at these ornaments and remember the blessings of God in their life. 

During the Christmas party, Mot, a Thai Christian college student that grew up in this ministry, lead an incredible skit that captured the awe of the birth of Christ while still being very funny and VERY Thai (as you can see from the picture above-these are the dancing angels that came to meet Mary!).  

Then, we had a small “band” of instrumental students Dora and I have taught play “Away in the Manger,” followed by Dr. Nantachai sharing the significance of gift giving in the Christian Christmas tradition.  We gave out gifts, both given by Samaritian’s Purse and a church in Canada, to all the students.  It was an amazing time, and I think the best part was watching the faces of those children light up as many of them opened their first Christmas present. 

Teaching on the Birth of Jesus:

            

While the Christmas party was for all our students around the province, we also had an incredible opportunity to share about Christmas at our home school (probably a greater opportunity than we would ever have had teaching in the public schools in the states!).  Coming into December, the director of the English program at our home school asked us if we would teach about Christmas to our classes.  At first we were both quite apathetic, because we assumed she wanted us to teach about the Western secular Christmas traditions that are ritually celebrated here in Thailand as well:  Where Santa came from, reindeer, why the Christmas tree, etc.   But, to our surprise, she asked us to teach on the history and story of Christmas.   That is one invitation we did NOT want to miss!!! 

We began teaching only after clearing up the fact that Christmas was in fact a celebration of the birth of Christ Jesus, and not Santa Clause, and the fact that Jesus was actually born in Asia and not America!  Through pictures and two languages we taught the story of the birth of Christ.  We did vocabulary, fill in the missing word activity sheets, and word searches, but the most exciting part was fielding the questions about Jesus’ birth, life, and death, in a Thai Government-run boarding school!  Questions included, “Why did people kill Jesus—did he steal something?” and, “How could his death affect me?”

We are continuing to learn more and more that these seeds planted in the lives of these Esarn youth really grow!  They grow VERY slowly, but as they take root, they don’t easily let go! God always opens incredible doors when people are ready and willing to hear the life-changing story of Jesus.  Please pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to continue to bring answers, reassurance and hope into the lives of our Thai students.    

Christmas in our new home:

We prepared for Christmas season in our new home in Roi Et with a small tree that we found at our local Macro store, a lot of great Christmas music, and our stone Nativity set from Kenya.  It made a great conversation piece throughout the season, especially with the little children who had never seen a nativity before.  But our most memorable conversation was with one 3^rd grade boy who looked at the little carving of a face sticking out from a sheet (intended to be the sleeping baby Jesus) and asked, “Why is that person sick?  He sure has a lot of visitors!”  Thank God for the innocence of young Thai hearts and the opportunity to share about an incredible baby laying in a manger over 2000 years ago.    

A season of visitors:

It was truly a season of visitors of us.  First, we had Jason and Christine Blaikie, our good friends who have been serving as missionaries in Bangkok, come spend a week with us in Roi Et in early December.  We were quite overwhelmed to see the attention their 6 month old baby, Aaliyah, got from all the students.  Just a sign of what is to come!

Then we had our moms visit for two weeks surrounding Christmas.  They helped us decorate the bedroom for Natalie Paige (WHO IS DUE IN 42 SHORT DAYS!!!!) in Roi Et, while watching us help lead the Christmas celebration at our home school.  Then we traveled to Elephant Island for a much needed week of rest.  Next, we were visited by my dad and step mom last week for just one week.  We traveled up to the north, the mountainous region of Thailand, for the very first time.  I have now ridden an elephant in the mountains and on an island, so I would say I’m pretty much a professional.   Both visits were an incredible encouragement to us, both in that we miss our families so much, and in that our parents were very complementary of our conversational abilities in Thai.  We so often feel defeated by looking forward to the overwhelming amount of language we do not understand, so our parents were truly a God-sent encouragement. 

Answered prayers:

Two weeks ago we were coming back from renewing our visas in Laos (an experience we ALWAYS dread, because no matter what, we always do something wrong!) and we met one Australian girl with four Thai guys.   We often see one or two farang (white) men with many Thai women hanging out, but never the other way around.  They approached us while we waited to receive our visas and told us they were with YWAM (Youth with a Mission) and were doing worship ministry in the Esarn region of Thailand also!  While I thought the situation was quite unique, my attention was not sparked by their work in music ministry, at least not initially.  The four offered to help take us back across the border and to the bus terminal in Thailand, and on the road they cranked up their stereo.  It was Esarn music for sure, but after listening for a minute we realized it was worship music!!!   It was Esarn-original Christ-centric worship music!  One of our prayers since before we ever moved to Thailand was that we would one day watch the Esarn people taking joy in Christ in their own language with their own music!  We have nothing against the Thai people translating and using Western worship songs that connect with their hearts as well, but how much more joy do the people of northeast Thailand have when they worship with songs that are birthed out of the prayerful meditation of their own people.  Praise be to God for this YWAM team that they are making this vision a reality in Esarn.  I know this will not be our last meeting!   

We're Not in Kentucky anymore; 

Language mistakes and other noteworthy moments:

• We were walking down the street in Laos two weeks ago waiting for our visas and a Lao man said to his friend (quite loudly, we might add!) ‘Farang tong muenkan!’  Translation “White people get pregnant too!”  How funny is that!!! 

• As we closed our first year in Thailand the language mistakes continue.  These are all simple words to confuse, but they sure did get big laughs!

1. Dora tried to complement a girl on her shirt, but instead of saying “I like your shirt,” she said, “I like your tiger.”  Shirt and tiger are the same word in Thai but use different tones.  It gives a new meaning to “Don’t use that tone with me young lady!”
2. I tried to tell our fellow teachers at our home school that Dora’s mother is a nurse (phayabaan), but instead I said, “Dora’s mom is a hospital (roong phayabaan)!”  Who ever heard of naming a hospital ‘the building of the nurses?’
3. Dora was explaining our travel plans to the beach for vacation to our fellow teachers and instead of saying we are taking a van (rot tuu) to the beach, she said we are traveling on a refrigerator (tuu yen) to the beach.  I’m sure glad we rented a car for that trip.  We would have had major road rash after a trip on the refrigerator!

 Pictures from the Sports day in December at our home school, Suksaasongkhrah:

I don't want to make you read any more.  This is quite long enough!

Thank you for reading along with us.  We love you all and are so grateful for your support.  Thank so many of you for thinking of us in so many special ways over Christmas.  We are blessed to be your friends!  God bless you all!