Just an update

I'm still not feeling 100%, so we're wondering if it really was food poisoning or if it was something else. Part of the problem is that I was afraid to eat anything, so we went to a western grocery market and bought stuff I wasn't scared of. When all is said and done, I'll still eat the food from over here, because being sick isn't that bad, it's just annoying and uncomfortable.

The good part is I lost the few pounds I'd been trying to loose since last Christmas. Missions work is great!

A few more Thai tips:

#9 male A showing affection to male B (holding hands, playing with hair, cuddling) does not equal/is not congruent to: they're gay.

This is taking some getting used to. At home, it's common to see girls leaning on each other, playing with one another's hair, just being physically affectionate in a totally innocent, sisterly and childlike way. But boys don't touch each other because it would mean they were gay.

Here, it isn't wrong. We've talked about this with the long term missionaries. It's a cultural thing. When the long term Americans arrived and saw this, they thought the boys should stop, but the Thai Christians assured them repeatedly that it was not wrong or unscriptural or sinful. They are just showing one another healthy love. (PM, I know you are lovin' reading this!)

Anyway, it's still surprising to turn and see one teenage boy playing with another's hair, or to hear of them holding hands with fingers interlocked. But, if anything, I think our culture's the one that is a little messed up in this area. We have made something innocent into a taboo because some people have twisted what God intended.

If you are wondering, there is a large homosexual population in Thailand, and it is much more culturally accepted here than in the States. Yet even with this fact, the male affection is apparently unrelated.

#10
Always keep toilet paper with you. Kinda like the parka thing. Even if you're going to a developed area. Sometimes they charge for TP.

#11
This one comes from the Aussie pastor of the church we're attending. I told him I was sick from the food and he said in his great accent: "you should go eat a dog, that'll fix stomach problems." I haven't tried it. I still don't know if he was kidding or not.

Ok, a little about the ZOE kids without giving too much away. (Due to the nature of their backgrounds, I can't tell too much about them because it would endanger them. A very real and scary thought.)

I would say that 2/3 to 3/4 of the kids here are teenagers. There are some that have graduated and are attending ZOE's small Bible school. But these most of these guys are teens, pure and simple. They're the most responsible group of teens I've ever worked with. (Sorry U-Turn teens, but they have you beat. You know I love you still and miss you incredibly, right?)

They LOVE music, of any form. They like to sing all the time, play guitar, base, drums, keyboard, anything they can get their hands on. Including an annoying recorder that someone brought out at about 6am this morning. Like I said, responsible or not, they're still teens. They have their own worship team, that one of the Thai Staff leads. From our perspective, a different teen leads the singing each meeting. We could be wrong about this though.

They also love sports. At least the boys do. I think the girls do also, but I don't live at the girl's home, so I don't know. They are such incredible athletes; they worked Jonathan in a game of soccer. Jonny Mac has met his match. This is a country of Jonny Macs. (I will say for his sake that he never played soccer before, and they play every weekend almost, and practice whenever they have a free moment.) They also love volleyball and have a cool came called Tac-craw (closest English spelling I could come up with) It's played on a volleyball type court, but the net is only chest high. And you don't hit the woven wooden ball with your hands, you kick it or head it, hackey-sack style. So, it's kinda a mix between volleyball and soccer. I haven't seen them play yet, but I've heard it's incredible.

One thing I've noticed about the ZOE kids and Thailand in general, is that everyone is very polite. Even the street vendor who's trying to rip you off is still really really polite as he does so. (Try to bring a long term missionary or Thai friend with you on market trips. Bartering is the name of the game.) Something that goes along with the politeness is that they are often pretty quiet.

I was standing in line at the airport in Bangkok, watching people about their business, trying to imagine a group of people from our church invading the place. I couldn't help but smile. We are so loud and boisterous and... well... just American to the fullest. There's no way we could ever blend in and disappear into the crowd. There's nothing wrong with that, but I found it incredibly funny.

I have sense seen the ZOE kids really having a blast, and realized that they are as noisy as any other nation; you just need to see them interacting with each other and having fun. This is a video of family game night. The goal of this game was to not have any 'snowballs' or wadded up pieces of paper on your side of the room at the end. Which is a fancy excuse for having a paper wad fight. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql4v836v9js

The little kids are just that, little kids. Jonathan was trying to teach them to juggle during free time. Of course, the little girls were nicely throwing the ball as Jonathan instructed, the boys were throwing it at each other's faces. Boys being boys. They learned the English word 'gentle' that day.

Well, the computer with Photoshop that I've been waiting for just opened up, so off I go. Love to all!!