My Nan rocks!

If I’ve spoken to you recently you’re probably aware that I’ve taken up residence in one of my grandparents’ spare bedrooms in Glenbrook as of about six weeks ago. They’re in their early 90’s, and still living in their own home, which I think is thoroughly impressive! Sadly, Grandad is suffering badly from dementia and is really not the man he used to be. For the first month, he looked slightly surprised and confused (although not displeased) every time I came out of my bedroom. He seems to have got used to having me around now, but I’m pretty sure he still doesn’t know who I am. This would be very sad, if not for the fact that he is a believer, so I'm just looking forward to the day when he is restored to his former self in his resurrection body!

Nan, on the other hand, is still sharp as a tack! Not only is she still very interested in what’s going on in the world and the lives of her grandchildren (she’s generally recognised to be the hub of family gossip), I’ve been reminded in recent weeks of how very cool she is, for a lady of 91. For example:-

• She still calls me “mate”.
• She still gets quite excited over a good game of rugby, and warns people that she can’t be held responsible for her language when she’s watching football (she’s been known to say “damn” and “bloody”!!).
• She can still hit me hard enough to hurt (this happened most recently when she got quite excited over a good game of rugby).
• I can talk to her about sex.
• She still eats burritos, and enjoys a glass of wine or two with dinner.
• She doesn’t take herself too seriously – when I busted her walking around the house with no trousers on because she didn’t realise I’d come home, she laughed and said, “Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my marbles, I’m not Grandad!”
• She takes an interest in technology – she was very curious about how it is that I talk to my friend Steve using my computer (i.e. Skype), and was thoroughly impressed when I showed her how my webcam works (as you can see in the picture above, taken on said webcam).
• She can still cook a mean lamb roast, and wonderful corned beef.
• She still, on occasion, wears denim.
• Last year, a month shy of her 90th birthday, she danced with me at my uncle’s wedding - to “The Love Shack”!

Yep, my Nan rocks. I hope I grow up to be like her!

Strong women

“When you’ve got two strong women agreeing with each other, it doesn’t matter how wrong their information is, you’ve got no chance”.

(My Auntie Chris, herself a strong woman, commenting on a conversation where my Mum and their friend Gail were vigorously refuting a fact which Chris knew without a doubt to be true.)

Some people REALLY need to get a life

Are you one of those people who call back missed calls on your phone when you don't recognise the number, and demand to know who you're speaking to? Well if you are, PLEASE DON'T! Really - apart from the fact that it sounds very rude and aggressive, if you don't recognise the number and they didn't leave a message, chances are it was a wrong number. If it wasn't a wrong number, and it was important, they'll call back!

What precipitated this post was somebody doing that to me, except that somehow they got the number wrong when they called back. The conversation went something like this:-

Me: Hello?
Caller: Who's that?
Me: Err... Debbie.
Caller: Debbie who?
Me: Uh... YOU called ME! Who's this??
Caller: There was a missed call on my phone, I wanted to know who called.
Me: Okay... who are you?
Caller: Mabel Smith.
Me: I didn't call you. I don't know who you are.
Caller: Well, the number on my phone was **** 737 ***
Me: My number is **** 739 ***
Caller: *jovially* Oh! I got the number wrong!
Me: Yes. *click*


Well, there's 45 seconds of my life that I'll never get back!

R.I.P. Lady

A very sad thing happened last week... I had to send my beloved, battered old 1985 Corolla away to live on a farm.

I've always felt that it's important for old cars to have names. That way, when they break down you're more likely to stroke their bonnet and murmur soothingly rather than hitting them with a large stick and yelling, "You stupid pile of #@*%!!!" So I named my car as soon as I bought her. Her rego plates were NUD148 and so after some thought I named her Lady, short for Lady Godiva. I was surprised at how many people I had to explain that to over the past 4 years!

She may not have been much of a car, but she was the first car I bought all on my own and she got me from A to B reasonably reliably (all things considered) for 4 years. My old flatmate Les and I even managed to move a modular lounge in her, piece by piece, when we moved flats! So I had a pretty emotional attachment to her, and tears were shed on more than one occasion before we parted. Apart from the emotional attachment, my student's budget didn't allow for spending several hundred dollars on repairs OR for purchasing a new car, so I was loath to let her go until I was absolutely sure that we had done all we could.

I must give thanks here to my dear friend Dave, who went well beyond the call of duty by putting a fair bit of time and effort into advising me, helping me replace the front engine mount, rescuing me and my un-registered, broken-down Lady from a particularly traumatic experience involving two policemen and a potential raceday roadrage incident, offering to pay for the necessary repairs to be done professionally, and finally just letting me cry on his shoulder when it came time to remove the rego plates. He also lent me his old Mazda 1300 (whose name is Cedric) to go to the wrecker's to get some parts. I think arriving behind the wheel of Ceddy upped my credibility with the guys there no end! Although I may have put somewhat of a hole in that when they asked me if he was an R100. I didn't know what that meant. I froze like a rabbit in headlights, then panicked, stroked his bonnet and said, "Err... his name is Cedric".

R.I.P. Lady! You will be missed...

Pioneers & Pattaya

WOW - what an amazing final week to round off my trip!! I spent it at the Pioneers regional conference in Pattaya, on the Gulf of Thailand. My classmate Sarah was there too, and we shared a room so had lots of time to talk about our travels and what God's plans might be for our future - which I was really grateful for as there's been a lot on my mind!

The week in Pattaya was hectic and, frankly, awesome! I felt challenged and confronted in some unexpected ways, as well as greatly inspired and encouraged. Each morning we started with a time of worship and teaching with the whole conference group (about 450 people, most of whom are now based in Asia), and the rest of the time was divided between Area meetings (i.e. the group was split according to where people are based geographically, or in my case where I'm considering going), Mobilisation Base meetings (i.e. split according to where we're from), and a couple of "equipping workshops" and some free time. In the evenings there were "hospitality rooms" run by the American and Australian mobilisation bases, where we could go for drinks and snacks (in the Australian room it was primarily Tim Tams, Mint Slices, and crackers with Vegemite) and chat with whoever else was there. We spent quite a few hours in the hospitality rooms, finding them a great source of interesting conversation - not to mention chocolate! The speaker who preached each morning was Sunder Krishnan, who really was excellent. Going to the conference was worthwhile for his teaching alone! I also heard amazing stories about the work that God is doing in many parts of the world - often in the face of violent or systematic repression of the word.

One of the major things that I felt challenged about during the week was my impatience. It's something I've been aware of for a long time, but I've realised that since starting at college I've been so eager to get out on the mission field as soon as possible that I'm risking not making the most of college, and RPC, and my Sydney life in general, while I'm here. I've realised that there's a lot of room for improvement in my relationship with God, and I felt convicted that I should focus on that, and my own spiritual development, for the rest of this year. I also had 3 sessions with a counsellor while I was in Pattaya (she works with the Australian mobilisation base), which was one of the unexpected things that happened during the week. She helped me uncover a lot of emotional baggage that really needs to be dealt with before I go overseas long-term. Whatever God has planned for me, I've realised that it will happen in His timing and there's no need for me to try to fast-track it.

I've come home feeling absolutely on top of the world, spiritually rejuvenated, excited about life and what 2008 has in store, and generally very happy to be where I am, with the wonderful people who surround me.

I'd appreciate your continued prayers as I do my best to apply myself to my studies this year, deal with my personal demons, and seek God's will for my future.

My shiny new tooth...

Last Saturday I went with Emily to her dentist to see if I could book in for a routine check-up because dental services are so much cheaper here than in Australia, not thinking that anything major would be wrong. Dr Yugo (a lovely Japanese dentist who's married to a Thai woman) offered to have a quick check after Emily's appointment - and to my horror, after taking an x-ray he informed me that I was in need of root canal surgery and an inlay to my back molar, which I'd chipped a few years ago and it had been repaired with a major filling. I asked how much the root canal would cost and was 6000 Baht - around $AUD200, which is exactly the amount a very generous friend had deposited in my bank account the day before.

Normally this sort of work would take at least a couple of weeks, but we didn't have that long - so Dr Yugo squeezed in a second appointment for me that afternoon to get started, came in on Monday which he normally wouldn't do, and generally bent over backwards to make sure it got finished. It was looking like I might have to delay my departure for Pattaya and miss a couple of days of the conference to get it done, which I really didn't want to have to do, but getting the inlay done at Australian prices when I got home really wasn't an attractive option. It all hinged on whether or not the infection was all gone when Dr Yugo re-opened the tooth on Wednesday, so I was praying madly (and asking others to pray) that it would be OK - and it was. I had been feeling extremely stressed about it for a couple of days, so that was a great relief!

So, 5 appointments later, I got the inlay done this morning - just hours before we leave Chiang Mai! I've uploaded a couple of pics of the entrance and the foyer of the dental surgery, where I spent a significant amount of time over the past week...

Farewell to Chiang Mai

In a few hours we'll be packing up the truck and leaving for Pattaya, down on the Gulf of Thailand, for the Pioneers conference. I'm expecting this to be a week of information overload, as I learn lots more about how Pioneers operates, meet team members who are based everywhere from Africa to the South Pacific, and hear about the work they've been doing. I'm glad my classmate Sarah will be there, so I can discuss all my thoughts with her!

The past week has been very enjoyable but a little bit sad, as there have been many good-byes.

Last Saturday night we had an "Australia Party" for our students, which was great fun. We had organised activities to teach them about Australia, Rhonda did a PowerPoint presentation on the Gold Coast (where they're from), and I did one on the Blue Mountains, we taught them to make Anzac biscuits, and had a bonfire with marshmallows to toast. All of this was with Men At Work, Gangajang and Paul Kelly playing in the background.

The week followed basically the same routine as last week - English classes and Bible Storytelling group, with shopping and sight-seeing trips in between. Thursday was our last English class for this program and also a farewell for Rhonda, Talia and me. Rhonda and Talia were leaving on Friday, so we squeezed in one last trip to the Night Bazaar after class. I now have no fewer than 10 pairs of fisherman's pants to bring home with me!! You'll be glad to know they're not all for me...

I'm at the stage now where I'm quite looking forward to coming home and catching up with everybody - even though I love Chiang Mai and I'd be quite happy to stay here for a good while longer, if this is where I felt God wanted me to be. I'm hoping this coming week at the conference will be restful and informative and help give me more clarity about the future. I'll be meeting the team leader from Tashbaan and his family for the first time. It also promises to be a good time of worship and fellowship with lots of other believers.

Please pray for Ben, Jua, and May - they've all been coming to the Bible Storytelling group and showing interest in Christianity, but it's hard to know whether that interest is purely on an intellectual level. When we had our Bible-based English lesson on Tuesday we did the parable of the prodigal son, and Nuy said she didn't understand why the younger son behaved that way in the first place (i.e. taking his father's money and leaving), which was a good opening for explaining that this illustrates how a lot of people behave towards God, taking the good things He provides but not wanting a relationship with Him. But I wasn't quite bold enough to tell them that the prodigal son represents them. I can only pray that the Holy Spirit will convict them of that.

English Classes Vol II

My classmate Sarah told me before I left Sydney that Thai students are really fun (she spent several months with this same team in Chiang Mai a couple of years ago), and I can now see what she means! Having done 5 English classes and helped with one Chronological Bible Storytelling (CBS) class, I've found the Thai students to be invariably cheerful and delightful company.

I've been helping with the Advanced English class, for which we only have a few students so we only do one class per night whereas those doing Intermediate level are teaching two classes per night. I've been very hands-on with the teaching though, because the team member I'm teaching with (Heidi) is German, so she's happy for me as the native English speaker to do a lot of the stuff focusing on pronunciation, and take the larger speaking parts when we do readings. The material we use is American, so it contains a lot of words and phrases that Heidi and I would never use, so we often tell the class what the Australian and/or British equivalents as well. I realised how much Aussie English I was using the other night when we were doing a role-play exercise in pairs, pretending to make enquiries about accommodation, and Goy answered my, "I'm sorry, it doesn't have a pool", with, "Oh, not to worry". I'm pretty sure that phrase isn't found anywhere in their textbook!

The CBS class is run by Heidi every Wednesday, and continues pretty much year-round whereas the English programs are generally only run every second month or so. The idea is that if students want to continue practising their English in between the English programs, they're invited to attend CBS, which has a lot of similar elements to the English classes but is based, as the name suggests, on chronological Bible stories and has a more relaxed, social feel because it's held in Heidi's lounge room. Heidi has been telling me that it's a bit challenging to know which stories and what details to include in the series, to give a faithful telling of the message of the Bible without being too confronting to the students' Thai Buddhist worldview early on. A couple of the students who have been attending became Christians a few months ago, so God is obviously working through this group, despite the potential pitfalls.

Tomorrow night we'll be having a social gathering for the students. Initially the plan was to have a party last Saturday night and this Saturday night (this is the usual routine during the English programs), but the king's sister died recently and the king issued a general request that people refrain from festivities for 15 days out of respect for her, so the first party was cancelled and tomorrow's event has been redefined as a more subdued, educational evening to tell the students about Australia and teach them to cook Anzac biscuits. These social gatherings are a great opportunity to chat to students about things a bit more significant than how to order food in a restaurant in English.

The English classes have taken up quite a bit of our time and energy, so the only really touristy thing I've done since my last epistle is a white water rafting trip with Rhonda and Talia McNaught. It was great fun - I've been wanting to go white water rafting for YEARS! Our guide was very cheeky, and kept doing things like pretending to push us out of the raft with his paddle, ramming us nose-first into big rocks, and turning us upstream and yelling, "Forward! Faster! Go, go, go!!". The tour also included a trip to a long-neck Karen "village", which I wasn't keen on because I suspected that the practice of putting rings around girls' necks to stretch them is perpetuated partly because it brings the tourists in. I was right to be sceptical - the "village" turned out to be a dusty field with the remains of several fires in the middle, surrounded by souvenir stalls that were attended by women from the "long-neck tribe", the "big-ear tribe", and the "black-teeth tribe". It was horrible - I felt like we were treating them like circus freaks, and it was obvious that the rings cause them a fair bit of discomfort (you can see in the picture how they've tucked cloths inside the rings to stop chafing). It wouldn't have been so bad if it had been a real, functioning village where we were meeting them on their own turf and seeing how they live - but this was just an awful place, purely set up for tourists, and the women did not look happy. I was reluctant at first to take any photos but in the end I asked them if it was OK for me to take a few, because I wanted to show you the nasty side of what tourism can do in a country like Thailand.

I only have another 8 days in Chiang Mai, which is hard to believe! On Sunday week, we'll be departing for the long drive down to Pattaya for the Pioneers conference.

English classes

Hello all, I hope you had a wonderful New Year's eve! Mine was great - we had some fireworks at home with the kids, then my Thai friend Bui took me and an Australian couple who are in town at the moment to Tha Pae Gate, which is where all the action happens in Chiang Mai. It was wonderful! Paper lanterns (many of them in the form of little hot air balloons which were being launched into the sky), fireworks, music, great company and generally a very festive and friendly atmosphere.

I've had a very touristy couple of days since then, being taken on an outing to some beautiful limestone waterfalls on New Year's Day, and yesterday going on a tour (with the McNaught's, an Australian family who are now also staying with the Tilley's) to an elephant camp where we rode the elephants and watched them do tricks, drifted down the river on a bamboo raft, had a brief ride in an ox-cart, and visited an orchid farm/ butterfly enclosure on the way home.

But today the real work starts - we've just had our first proper English teacher's meeting, and the first class is tonight. I'll be involved in helping with the Advanced class (it's just conversational English, no complex grammar or anything, thank goodness!) with a German lady called Heidi. There will be 2 sets of 8 classes (i.e. two consecutive classes run on 8 separate days) over the next 2 weeks, and 2 of those classes consist of telling Bible stories and discussing them. These English classes are the team's main tool for meeting students and establishing friendships with them, so I'll also be looking for opportunities to hang out with the students between classes (which they generally love to do). I think a spot of karaoke might be in order...

If you could pray that the students will be open to hearing the gospel, and that we'll have opportunities for good conversations with them, that would be great. Also that I don't make any bad cultural blunders!