Day 39?

Ack! I have so much to write about piling up that I'm not sure I can say or remember all the good stuff I want to. Let me make a quick list for myself...

• e-day to school
• princess visit
• speaker on Sunday
• STEP outing
• faith trip
• other e-day
• friends, cabin mates etc.
• general reflections

OK, I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, and I probably can't cover all that.

So the E-day. I said I would figure out what the deal was with the anti-proselytizing warning we were given concerning the "World Vision" school we were going to visit. I talked to the Line-Up department, the people that go ahead of the ship to each port to arrange everything, and they explained that these are public schools where World Vision is involved. As public schools they are naturally Buddhist. Line-Up said that we could share our testimonies and mention our beliefs but we shouldn't preach to them or be to forceful in our speech. This sounded a lot more reasonable and I was glad to clear that up before we went. In the end though I was dissapointed with the day. One problem was that we had no translator of our own and had to depend on one of the teachers whose English was not much better than the children's. This made things confusing and awkward. We played some games, and did some skits and talked about the ship, but in the end I don't think anything was mentioned about Jesus or Christianity. I think we left a positive impression; the kids had some fun and maybe learned some stuff and the teachers were thankful toward us, but I think we could have done better.

This would be a good time to talk about the next E-day. This time, the schools came to our ship rather than us going out. We performed a program 3 times with about 150, 300 and 350 students and teachers. The program involved introductions of the Douloi involved (Douloi is apparently the plural of Douloid), demonstrations of various cultural greetings, a video about the ship (it is really cool, you should see it) a powerpoint quiz about countries of the world and a skit called "Work, Eat, Sleep" or in this case "Study, Eat Sleep". This skit involves one person saying the words "study...eat...sleep" repeatedly while beating a drum. Meanwhile other people mime these activities. The "study...eat...sleep" cycle is occasionally interjected with, "party", "sports" and "shopping". The words and beat become faster and faster until the mimers can't keep up and the last word is "death!" Then the drummer/speaker asks, "Is there more to life than this?" The short answer is of course "Yes: Jesus!"

This skit came at the end of the program and on our first run through, when the MC was explaining the meaning of the skit to the students I couldn't help but notice that there was no mention about Jesus or God or anything useful like that. I thought, um, is there some more rules I wasn't aware of that we can't share the gospel to these students? Then I thought, this is ridiculous, they are coming to our ship, if they don't like the message they can leave and they have seen the whole program by then anyway. I already know what the Line-Up had said so I talked to our leader and the MC and aked that we kick it up a notch on the giving glory to God. For the next run, the MC did mention that he was a Christian but that was it. I hoped the last time would be more bold but actually he went back to just talking about how the decisions we make in life can effect others. I was really dissapointed about this and gently said so to our team in our debriefing. The longer term Douloi where like "Yeah, well, you know...this and that..." I was not convinced.

If you are one of my non-Christian friends reading this you may be glad that we didn't try foisting our religious baggage onto these perfectly happy Buddhist students. But if you are somebody who loves God and wants other people to know him, you will understand what a big let down this is. Doulos is one giant opportunity to share the gospel with whoever comes near it or us. We had 800 people come to our program yesterday to hear whatever we had to say and the most meaningful thing that was said was "Consider the decisions you make in life". Besides being next to useless, such advice only reinforces Buddhist beliefs. They already have their Eightfold Path with its Right Thoughts and Right Action and Right Efforts etc. They need to hear that there is a God out there that loves them, and sent his Son to do everything right for us and pay once and for all for our sins. I'm noticing that a lot of us get scared and intimidated when we here rumours that we should be careful what we say to these schools. So scared apparently that we say nothing of value and our message amounts to a bunch of bland fluff. I remembered afterwards that I was given the opportunity to be the MC but I thought somebody else could probably do a better job. I don't mean to insult the guy who was our MC, God bless him, but I think that was a lesson to me that I should step up and take opportunities to speak when they are presented.

Well, that is two items off my list. I have vastly overshot the 30 minute time limit for computer use here, so I will bid you adieu for today.

Prayer requests:

• pray that I will be man and take opportunities to speak when they are presented to me

Day 33 cont.

OK, please don't miss my previous post, but in all the excitement I forgot to tell you about something else that is happening today. While the princess is visiting, us commoners have to be off the ship, right? So at the same time many of the STEPpers will be at the center of Bangkok singing in a choir and performing skits and such. I forget if I mentioned it, but we had a STEP choir when we led prayer night a few weeks ago. Prayer night was such a success that we wanted to take our show on the road. The princess visit was an obvious time when we could all do it and Center Point, Bangkok is an excellent, if bold, location. There is a large mall with a huge plaza.

In one corner of the plaza there are two big shrines, one with an elephant man and one with a female figure. In the West we scoff at the people in the Bible and say who would literally bow down to idols in this day and age. But here in the middle of modern, technologically sophisticated Bangkok, they take it quite seriously. Yesterday I was walking through the plaza and there was a gigantic tent set up and a huge sound system. What was the crowd watching? Transvestite hip-hop dancing. I know that Bangkok has many transvestites but I'm not sure of the reason.

So we are bringing a very different sort of message and performance to that plaza. If you read this in the next 8 hours please pray for us. Thanks.

Day 33

There are many things to write about but I don't have much time right now. The pressing matter is the Princess' visit. (Princess Sirithorn is one of her names I am told (pronounced British style), don't Google it, I don't think I'm spelling it right). The place is getting all decked up around here. It is quite fancy, but you can't hide all the flaws on this poor old ship!

Our director, Daniel Chae, from South Korea will be the one walking by the princess' side during her visit. Many others will be involved in various ways but the majority of us will be off the ship.


Two versus come to my mind in light of this event:

"When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not
worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the
Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say." Luke 12:11-12

"But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves" 2 Corinthians 4:7

The first one would be for the director, Daniel. The second one, I think is just great as a theme verse for the Doulos. I chose the NASB translation because it say "vessel" and sounds best in general. I just realized I don't have a good picture of the Doulos on my blog yet, my apologies. Well, here is a picture of the princess' pad.

And for the Doulos, you just have to imagine a 95 year old vessel that has had lots of TLC but it is still 95 freaking years old and overdue for some drydock time. I touched on this idea before with the story of the Vietnamese visitors from the cruise ship in Cambodia. Outwardly, this ship isn't much to look at. But there is something - or should I say Someone - that draws people to us wherever we go. Our bookshop is not exemplary. Sure, in Cambodia and other poor and remote countries we bring desperately needed literature. But here in Bangkok I'm sure there are bookshops 20 times larger, albeit probably with a smaller bible selection. The thing that makes us special of course is that we represent Jesus. And this ship shines in a spiritual way. I heard of one Muslim man that recently visited the ship and when he first saw it he said something to his host about how glorious it appeared.

So, I don't know why Princess Sirithorn is visiting the ship except that she is a huge fan of education and literature and she visited it once before in the 80's. But as Daniel Chae said at our prayer night, "We are just ordinary people, not used to these sort of prestigious occasions" (not a direct quote). And as I have said, this is just a humble boat with a modest bookshop. God has given us a tremendous opportunity to impact the royalty of Thailand, and through them, the rest of Thailand. So please, please pray, and even fast, asking God to make this visit run smoothly, and more importantly to touch the princess' heart with his love and truth.

Day 29

So, where was I? Pictures and stuff. Here are a couple pictures. Hover you mouse over them to get the captions.

Tomorrow I have another e-day, which actually stands for evangelism day I'm pretty sure now. The odd thing is, we are going to a World Vision-run or -sponsored school and we aren't allowed to evangelize. This really irks me, especially since World Vision is supposed to be a Christian organization right, at least that's what they say in their mission statement? I need to figure out what is up with these schools. The Thai government probably puts these restrictions on them or something. But I didn't come to the other side of the world to tell people to be nice and encourage teamwork, ugh. I have been trying to get opportunities to share the gospel around here and I haven't been feeling too successful. But when somebody says I can't share the gospel that does some extreme reverse psychology to me. I want to say like Peter did to the Sanhedrin: "Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God's sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard." But like I said, I need to understand what the real situation is. It would be unfortunate to undermine years of careful development by World Vision in Thailand, but . . . grrr.

So while I'm sort of on the subject. . . I have been hearing all these wonderful stories from other Douloids of encounters they have had with various people, from monks to street vendors and many of them have been led to Christ. Some people have prayed that God would give them one special conversation that day, or that they could see one person saved at each port and God has faithfully answered them (I know God is particularily fond of such prayers). Of course my heart jumps for joy with these stories but then I think, hmm, I haven't really had any opportunities like that, and come to think of it that sounds like my whole life so far. I figured God put me in the Book Ex department so I could practice me interaction with people. So of course I too have prayed for some opportunities, a bit, but so far nothing major has happened. I do feel like I am growing lots in my job and I'm giving and getting lots of smiles from people and having a few pleasent chats, but nothing that leads anywhere deep. I don't know . . .

In other news, it is my birthday today, and the Queen of Thailand's birthday (national holiday), and also Maurits from the Netherlands' birthday and also Kieren van Roekel whose ancestors are from the Netherlands' birthday. So, as one girl put it, only two years left before my life is over! Everyone has been really nice. I have had "Happy Birthday" sung to me 5 times (breakfast, STEP group meeting, lunch, after work, and dinner with water soaking grand finale) and numerous signs and cards posted in the main stairwells.

Speaking of the Queen of Thailand, the Princess is coming to the ship - as I mentioned before - on Monday. The port area is suddenly getting a paint job, at least in the parts that the Princess is expected to see. Apparently hiding in our cabins is not an option after all. All non-essential personel have to be off the ship. I am non-essential. This visit will undoubtedly raise the profile of the Doulos in Bankok and bring more visitors. We really need to pray for this visit and for the salvation of the Princess (sorry, nobody knows what her actual name is). If she became a Christian it would obviously have a huge impact on the rest of Thailand. This is an amazing opportunity for the Doulos and whoever those essential personel are. Please pray for them.

Prayer requests:

• if you read everything above I think you can figure something out
  
  

Days 25 - 28

Well thanks for your prayers. My cold went on for one more day with no sign of improvement and I started to worry it might drag on, but then suddenly on Monday I woke up and didn't feel horrible, which was a pleasant surprise. I have still had some minor symptoms but the sore throat is gone, my energy is good and I don't feel the need for a head and neck transplant anymore! So thanks to God for that.


Additionally, we had a big jump in visitors over the weekend. In the 3000's both days, even though Sunday it is only open half the day. There was a large line-up when we opened on Sunday, I was in the ticket booth with one other person. As the line passed through more people joined the line. By the time the line was done 2000 people had come through in less than 2 hours! We had to stop selling tickets from time to time because the bookshop was getting overloaded. This reminds me of one funny fact I have learned. We have the occasional Buddhist monks come to visit the ship. Apparently one of their vows is that cannot touch any woman. So when the bookshop gets crowded on these busy days they end up standing on the deck looking nervous, waiting for the crowds to die down so they can get into the shop. Another random observation is that a disproprtionate number of visitors over the weekend had SLR cameras. Lot's of people were buying stacks and baskets of books and the credit cards were out in force. So I think this solves another one of the prayer requests. I mentioned before that the ship finances were low coming out of Cambodia, but I think at this rate we won't have any problem sailing to our next port.

Dang. I have a lot more to talk about and pictures to add but it is past curfew so I have to slink back to my cabin post haste!

Prayer requests:

• thank God for being so good

Days 20 - 24

Seems I have neglected this blog for a few days. You can stop holding your breath now.

The airconditioning on the ship was out for a few days and everybody turned into zombies. It was better to be outside where there was at least a breeze and the air was probably fresher, though I use that term loosely here in Bangkok. I can describe my personal experience, although I'm not sure it was entirely related to the AC. For at least two days everything sucked. I felt like a depressed elderly person with asthma. Climbing stairs was hard, thinking was hard, sleeping was hard, smiling was hard. I remembered being able to sweep the bookshop much more vigorously when I was in Sihanoukville, even though the bookshop is outside and the weather didn't seem any different. It seemed amazing how important it was to have a fortress of airconditioning to retreat to. But on the third-ish day all my regular energy returned, praise God, even though the AC was still down, and even while I was starting to develop a cold or flu or whatever. I will leave the interpretation of those events up to you.

Also this week, I had another one of those E-Days. I went with 8 other guys to a place called Rahab House, a part of Rahab Ministries, to do practical work. As you can possibly guess from the name, it is a place that rescues prostitutes off the streets and gives them a new life and a safe clean place to live. That particular house was run by a guy named Alex, and his wife who I didn't meet, from New Zealand. Alex explained that most (all?) of these girls enter prostitution either unwittingly or by force. Many of them come from the countryside and come to work in bars thinking they will just be serving customers food and drinks. Others are sold into prostitution by families to pay back loans. When they come to Rahab, they are required to attend church and they basically all become Christians because Christians are the only people that have ever cared for them.

Most of us did painting that day. There were also a carpenter and electrician who did some work. The painting was more professional and orderly than at the hospital in Cambodia, but still pretty ghetto compared to what I am used to. Alex had the electrician install grounding wires for a bunch of outlets because that apparently isn't standard here in Thailand.

After E-Day was prayer night, led by the STEPpers. I finally got to drum. The theme of the night was encouragement and as STEPpers we especially wanted to be an encouragment to the longer term members of the Doulos. We had spent the whole week trying to get everybody involved in the music to practice together despite conflicting schedules and scarce access to instruments. In the end we didn't have everything thoroughly practiced. I was even informed of some songs only at the very moment we were to play them! But in the end the night went really well and everybody left in high spirits. We even got to play "God of this City", here in the city where it was first performed!

Prayer requests:

• pray that this annoying cold would go away and not spread to everybody on board or to visitors
• pray for more visitors, we are getting less than in Sihanoukville, which isn't right
• but praise God we are selling a lot more at this port

Day 19

Yesterday evening there was a youth program onboard. Although it was for youth there were actually families and people of all ages in attendance. The event took place in the "main lounge", the conference area part of the ship. Tables were set up and at the front testimonies, music, videos and dramas took place. My roommate Hao and I decided to drop in to see what it was like and to meet some Thai people. At my table was a mother and brother of one of the volunteer translators for this port. The mother invited me to their church for Sunday service the next day and I said, sure why not. Hao and another roommate Sam, came along as well.

So today we went to a Thai church. It seemed like a relatively new church in what looked like an apartment building. I mean the church seemed new, not the building. And by new I mean like maybe 10 or 15 years old. It wasn't a very large congregation and the service was of course in Thai, but we had some people to translate the gist of it for us. The pastor was a woman and I believe she was also the founder of the church and Chinese. Despite all that, I was actually suprised at how normal it was compared to church as I am used to it. It started of with some familiar modern worship songs lead by the young adults. Then there were announcements and prayer then some hymns lead from the piano. Then the sermon, and a standard communion, then prayer for our translator, Eung, and girl who are going off to study abroad. After the service we had lunch with the church and in the afternoon their was a youth program that we stuck around for.

As I mentioned, Eung is going to study abroad. In fact he is going to Kentucky for 6 years. He won't see his family during this whole time. He turns 17 in September. At the end of the youth program his little brother and sister performed a song for him. His brother played guitar and his sister sang. I couldn't understand the song, but it was really touching because she started choking up and everybody helped her out on the chorus. Even the Dad behind the camcorder was wiping his eyes. Their dad, by the way, is the only one of their family who is still Buddhist, but he was at church this day, videotaping everything (Eung also performed some songs during the church service).

Another interesting tidbit about that family is that they are voice actors for dubbing movies into Thai. Eung actually did the voice of Nemo in Finding Nemo when he was younger and some character in the latest Harry Potter movie.

Anyway, it was a good day with a nice family and a nice church. Considering that this was a young church in the middle of a huge city in a heavily Buddhist country on the other side of the world with a family that had only become Christians in the last year or so, the real surprise of the day was how unsurprising it was.

Prayer requests:

• I would just like to prayer for Eung and his family. Specifically that he would handle his 6 years in America well and
• that his father would come to know Jesus like the rest of the family.