Sunday I had a day of rest, well mostly resting. I spent hours tidying up my WhatsApp account deleting all the old photos and links I’d sent people or they had sent me over the years. Oh so many! I had nearly finished when my account went down and I had to refresh it. Praise the Lord I didn’t lose it! Then just as it came back up I saw the community garden was having an online chat which I’d never seen before so I joined in. At first they didn’t know who it was, although I think they were just pulling my leg as I was enjoying the warmth of Thailand while they froze in Perth. I had been having trouble logging into our website to make a few changes so asked if they were able to and yes they were. It then occurred to me that it was probably the VPN, which because it says Thailand, I have been locked out of several sights which are based in Australia, including the community garden site. This is to prevent scammers, but it also prevents people like myself who are overseas trying to keep up with work in Australia or elsewhere. Somehow I stumbled over how to get a free VPN for a certain amount of gigabytes per month through my Firefox account. What a blessing! Once I had figured out how to get it working I linked the VPN to Australia and Voila, I was able to log into the community garden site and make the changes I needed. Thank you Jesus!
I’ve just finished an interesting and helpful book about the silent language of Thai and in particular the ranking of different levels of society, some of which I knew, some I didn’t. For example, when to wai (hands together in a prayer gesture), to whom do you wai, how high you wai or not, when to bow your head or just smile. It is all very complicated to a non-Thai but to a Thai it is very important and shows your status in the community. High ranking people are the wealthy, diplomats, military, government officials, with the King as the highest member of the society. Then there’s the business bosses, professors, doctors, etc and below them are the everyday workers, then the manual labourers and bottom of the rung are, unfortunately, the ethnic tribal people. Then into this mix is age. The older you are compared to the one you are interacting with, the more respect you get, even if you do not carry any other social ranking. Thank you Lord my age is now working for me.
Another thing I could connect with is their informal visitations. To the Thais, making an appointment to visit a good friend is unfriendly and cold; good friends should be able to drop in to visit their friends at any time. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told I’m very Asian because of just dropping in on friends when I’m in the neighbourhood. Still I can see non-Thai’s reasoning as I’ve had friends just drop in at inappropriate times when I’m in the middle of something.
Being in a different culture and environment than that of home often brings out those things that need change in our lives. One of these challenges I face is the question “Is there a difference between groaning and grumbling?” The Bible tells us we groan under trials that come our way, this is a part of life. (Rom 8:23 “we ourselves groan…. waiting eagerly our adoption as sons”. But grumbling and complaining is different, it’s not Biblical to grumble. The prophet Jeremiah had cause to complain but he states in Lamentation 3:39 “Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in the view of his sins?” Murmuring against circumstances out of our control is in fact complaining against God who had brought us into this situation in the first place. God is sympathetic to our moaning but not our murmuring. “Now the people complained about their hardships in the hearing of the Lord, and when He heard them His anger was aroused. Then fire from the Lord burned amongst them….” Numbers 11:1. And Romans 9:20-21 “But who indeed are you, a human being, to argue with God? Will what is moulded say to the Potter’s Hands one who moulds it, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay…….?” In every trial there are spiritual lessons to be learned, lessons that will help us to be conformed to the image and likeness of Christ. I want to develop an attitude of gratitude rather than of complaint. I Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.” Each new challenge is a stepping stone which brings me into a closer relationship with Christ. It is He who enables us as we look to Him for our strength. Change is not bad when we are holding onto the one who has brought us this far and will continue to lead us home.
Saying this I must confess I have been complaining about our house cleaner. I won’t go into it in detail but suffice to say it brought up my concern about complaining. Having lived on my own for so many years I appreciate my privacy and alone time and with someone coming twice a week to clean a not-so-dirty house I felt was a bit of an invasion of my privacy. I spoke to Liz the previous owner and with Carolyn, who I asked to speak with the house keeper and we all prayed that she wouldn’t be offended. I had suggested that she comes once a week to clean and once a week to do the gardening. A delicate situation. Praise the Lord she took it well saying that Liz sometimes asked her not to clean but just do the garden instead. When I saw her next she was quite jovial although she didn’t mention anything.
This week in our village there was a funeral and one night after I’d gone to sleep there were some extremely loud gun shots. I woke with a start thinking ‘where am I?’ till slowly it dawned on me these were the parting shots for the deceased. For nearly a week a neighbouring home was decorating their front yard where they had erected a huge edifice bearing a photo of the deceased woman. Across the road in a vacant block a canopy was set up with tables and chairs to entertain the guests. There were coloured lights slung up on the street’s electric wires (which shocked me) and road signs put up the day before to warn the traffic of potential obstruction plus an announcement over the usual very early loudspeakers announcing whatever was happening in the village that day.
During some of my quiet days I have continued to work on notes for the Community Garden website, helping out with understanding their payment window, looking for benching for our new amphitheatre project. I also started reading two more books. This time one on Buddhism in Burma and how to contextualise the Gospel which I’m finding helpful for my time here too.
I read another one on Israel. Although I’m pro-Israel in some things, I’m not pro their politics, especially when they keep bringing up the Abrahamic Covenant and their claim on the land. Many in power are non-orthodox Jews and don’t even believe in the Torah; neither do many nominal Jews. Worst off, they keep referring to the Abrahamic Covenant and forget that the Mosaic Covenant came after the Abrahamic Covenant and has specific guidelines for inheriting the land. In Exodus 19, God gives a new covenant to Israel which is conditional and comes with both blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. (Deut 28). All through the books of the Old Testament we see Israel fails to keep the covenant and in the end God expels them from the Promised Land. Israel is still not keeping God’s promises and remains under the curses till they repent and turn to God. The other thing that annoys me is the constant mention of all the destruction by the terrorists of national heritage and monuments. Yes, I agree it is terrible, but it’s not as if God doesn’t know about it, or care about what has happened. We should not make monuments of ancient sights into idols! It is good to remind ourselves that God doesn’t bring about things without a purpose. We are to trust His long-term plan for the future of Israel as well as our own lives.
There are several views on this topic; I definitely take the Conditional View: According to the Torah and the Bible, the right to live in the homeland is conditional on practicing justice and protecting the vulnerable. This has not been upheld by the politicians of modern Israel and therefore the occupation of the homeland during this time is not the final fulfilment of the Abrahamic Covenant.
The Ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) View, which is held by some non-Zionist Ultra-Orthodox groups, argues that a legitimate Jewish state cannot be formed by human political means, but must wait for the Messiah to perfectly restore the covenant of Sinai. I also favour this view.
Political Zionists (the Secular Zionists) view the Exodus narrative as a cultural myth that motivated the historical desire to return to the land, rather than a literal legal deed.
The Modern religious Zionists see the current State of Israel as the physical manifestation of the Abrahamic Covenant. They view the land as an unconditional, eternal inheritance. I believe this is yet to come to pass, but will not until the fulfilment of the Mosaic Covenant, which can only be fulfilled when the Messiah, Jesus, returns.
I do totally agree that the International Law should have been upheld, which it hasn’t to this day. After World War I, Palestine was established as the national home land for the Jewish people and the whole land of Biblical Israel was given to the Jewish people, including the eastern bank of the Dead Sea. This treaty has never been upheld; in fact the Eastern bank was given to Jordan and many Arabs have since been relocated to many of the Israeli towns including Gaza, Judea and Samaria, which of course has increased the tensions.
Well, there you are, a bit of a peek into my theology of the Promised Land. This book has certainly challenged my views. I agree that if there was a peaceful agreement and a resettling of displaced groups to either Jordan or Israel and the end of terrorism in this part of the world, we would all be better off. We should all pray for the peace of Jerusalem and Israel, pray that they will come to know their Messiah.
Photos: 1. Hainan oil-fruit tree – Elaeocarpus hiananesis 2. Temjai, me and Pi Nee – restaurant owner where I practice my Thai 3. Coming back from market – If you look closely you can see the lights hanging from the power lines. 4.Tussock Moth caterpillar –stinging hairs causing burning rash, itchy welts and blisters 5. Pink Pomelo
Prayer & Praise Points:
Pray for Israel and the peace of the Middle East.
Please continue to pray that I will continue to learn from His Word and be conformed to His image, that others will be drawn to Him through my words and actions. Please pray that He will complete the work He has started in me.
Praise the Lord for the opportunities He has brought my way, His provision, protection and open doors to serve Him.
I continue to be grateful for the opportunity to practice speaking Thai with the locals although I’m still struggling to remember the Thai characters. Please pray that this will improve and I will remember more, both the spoken and written Thai.
Please continue to pray for the Karen families not only here in Thailand but also left in Myanmar. Persecution continues as churches are not only bombed but landmines are placed within their grounds.
Pray for families who have applied for visas and permanent residency with their families abroad, especially Matt’s family in Mae Sot. Pray that they will be united with family soon. Pray also that, while they wait, their situation in Thailand will improve and that they will be able to provide for their families.
Continue to pray for world peace and countries dealing with major disasters, wars and the unbelievable hardships they cause. Pray for all those caught up in the suffering these events have caused. Pray that God’s peace may be known by all people especially for those who live with despair, that they will find hope in Christ Jesus.
Please keep my sisters, Tricia, Jen and Kat, in your prayers. Pray that they will come to know the love of Jesus.