Missive 2 August 2008

Late again with this missive but my excuse is trips to Phuket and Chiang Mai – it’s a hard life! Our trip to Phuket was to attend a conference for all the mission work that the AOG is doing in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and China. Mercy International is not part of this but because of Rob’s links to the AOG movement we are permanent invitees to this annual event.

The speakers were excellent with some great Bible teaching and the reports from the different countries were amazing, inspiring and encouraging. The stories of one single bloke working in remote Laos villages amongst the most appalling poverty and conditions made him our number one hero for the week. A young girl in Cambodia who is also a pop singer is doing great work in media, has produced many CD’s, and has just released a major film. Cambodia has a communist government and it is government policy that Christians are not allowed to have public meetings, but they have developed a reputation for their media work and their welfare work amongst young people so when they wanted to hire a theatre for their film launch, they were greeted with, “Oh, you are the Christians, of course you can!”

We struck up a friendship with a lady who works in Thailand but near the Myanmar (Burma) border. She would be over 60 but makes regular trips into Myanmar helping and ministering to people in the hilltribe villages – not entirely legally because the government doesn’t allow it. We are aware of their attitude of course because of their response to international aid after the cyclone. We spoke last week with a pastor in Chiang Mai who has a bloke going into Myanmar planting churches in villages. He is a personae non gratia with the government so when they had talks with the Thai government in recent weeks, the Thai government arrested this bloke and his wife and put them in gaol. This saved face with everybody (except the bloke in gaol!) and when the Myanmar delegation went back the Thais released them. Stories like this abounded at the conference and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

And what of Phuket itself? Our final judgment was that it is over-rated. We stayed in a wonderful new hotel at Pattong Beach, right where the tsunami swept through in 2004. The hotel where the conference was held had its ground floor flooded and its outbuildings swept away. They are all back now and the palms and swimming pools are in place and there is not a lot of evidence of the tsunami except for signs showing which way to run if it happens again. Our hotel room only cost $30 a night but that was the only cheap thing there. Prices reflect the tourists who are there to pay them.

The streets were crowded and you have to fend off the people selling clothes, eateries, massages, taxis and so on. The beach itself is OK but not the pristine beauty of the postcards. There is a good deal of rubbish lying around and the smells wafting up from the drains under the street aren’t conducive to an appetite. We did however enjoy our time there and spent the equal of a neighbouring country’s GDP in Starbucks where I developed a deep and abiding love for mocha frappes.

We took a day off the conference and booked a boat tour amongst the islands off Phuket. Phi Phi island is the most famous of these but there are hundreds of others including James Bond Island which he blew up while destroying a base from which one of his baddies was planning world domination. Despite his efforts the island is still in remarkably good condition. Our tour took us to some islands where we disembarked into rubber canoes and were paddled into caves so low that we had to lie on our backs to get through. It was worth it though because we emerged into lagoons in the centre of the island which were stunningly beautiful. They had sheer sides up 40 to 50 metres covered with tropical vegetation. They served a superb Thai lunch on the boat and gave us the traditional green coconut with the top chopped out and a couple of straws to drink the very refreshing juice.

We drove to and from Phuket, which is about 900km from Bangkok, so we spent a fair bit of time on the road. Bangkok is an unbelievable place to drive in and unbelievably easy to get lost in even when you have a street directory in hand. The elevated freeway system is an absolute maze and after sweeping around all the entries and exits you don’t know which way is up let alone where true north is. And you guessed it, we got bushed coming into Bangkok on Friday night when all 20 million of them are going out for a meal. I was driving and Rob was “navigating” by trying to see a skyscraper in the distance that he recognised. He did and we found the entry to a freeway and we finally arrived back at his unit. Another crucial bit of information about the freeways in Bangkok – there are no toilet stops!

We were only in Phetchabun for a few days before heading north to Phrae for the opening of their new buildings, and then on to Chiang Mai. This time we were with Rob, Pawinee, and a young volunteer couple, Alvin and Linda. We again stayed in a hotel, not as new as that in Phuket but comfortable and with a magnificent foyer done in rich Thai timber. Rob had arranged to meet a couple of people to gain some advice about the agricultural projects and some other issues. We met with an expert in aquaculture and spent a fruitful couple of hours in the world of phytoplankton, optimum harvesting cycles and principles of aeration. We then met with another pastor (mentioned earlier) who told us remarkable stories of God’s provision in the growth of his ministry there. He also told us of his meeting with local government authorities where they explained the exponential growth in the Muslim community there. Muslims have told the Thai authorities that if they didn’t curb the activities of the Christians in the area they would move in with strategies (mainly economic) to increase influence and control. That is now happening.

Colleen and I arranged to meet with an old friend from our Tintinara days. Jeff Rowe lives within the walls of the old Chiang Mai city in a house which was once the American consulate. We spent an enjoyable couple of hours catching up with him, reminiscing about Tinti, and picking his brain about cattle husbandry because of his experience in setting up a dairying enterprise in Thailand. We hope to have him visit us at Phetchabun in the not too distant future.

We then travelled north of Chiang Mai to meet a Chinese entrepreneur who has had great success with tree farming and advises the UN in this field. He had given us 300 macadamia trees which are now planted at the farm at Phetchabun, and it was a real eye-opener to see his macadamia plantation. His hospitality was such that we couldn’t get away and we finally left at 4pm to make the 7 hour drive back to Phetchabun.

So, after all those adventures what’s been happening back home at Phetchabun? Colleen is deep into her work with sponsorship and English conversation and I am still coming to grips with the number of tasks my name is next to. The biggest one at the moment is taking over the restructuring process of Mercy International from the bloke who has driven it so far.

Our house is soon going to recommence. There is a huge backlog of projects waiting for much needed funds at the moment so we have decided to put in the $4500 we estimate is required to complete the ground floor. Another couple from Victoria is coming as long term volunteers this week so one of the rooms in the visitor’s centre is being set up to accommodate them. On top of that our friends Peter and Liz King will be volunteering for 6 weeks starting next week. There is a great need to manage the growing work but no place to put the managers!

We were stunned the other day to see our Whun sitting talking with a strange man who turned out to be her father. He disappeared 10 years ago after abandoning Whun and Why (and their brother Wi who we have just heard about) and their mother. He had given her AIDS from which she died and it was presumed that he had died too. Since then he has apparently been in gaol, remarried, has other children, abandoned the new wife, and now turned up at Phetchabun working in the building industry for a while. Why did the wise thing and refused to talk to him, but Whun was a bit starry eyed particularly when he handed out some money. Both girls have been really upset and struggling to come to grips with a father appearing when they thought he was dead.

Subsequently Whun contacted him on someone’s phone and told him she had a birthday coming up. He turned up at the school the next day with a new mobile phone and promises of building her (them) a house and them coming to live with him. Fortunately Pawinee caught up with him, returned the mobile phone, gave him an earful and sent him on his way. Why has continued to keep her distance from him and we’re not sure whether Whun is more upset about losing the mobile phone or the father!

We have sat down with both of them and explained the dangers young girls face in this situation (taken out of school to work to support the father, sold into prostitution) and encouraged them to trust those who will keep them safe and give them a future rather than someone who has not demonstrated that he cares for them. Please pray for them as they struggle with this new complication in their lives.

The weather here remains steamy and it rains every day – sometimes not as much as hoped for to fill the new dam. Colleen is slowly acclimatizing although she still complains that it is so sticky you can’t get your clothes on or off. One technique is to stand in front of a fan to get dressed. And there is no substitute for getting someone to help you pull your shirt off!

We continue to be amazed at the greenery. All our other trips to Thailand have been in the dry winter where the countryside has the appearance of the Australian bush. Now everything is so beautifully green – the mountains, the rice paddies, the corn fields, the roadsides, the jungle. Houses and villages just about disappear into the vegetation. Grass grows so fast that in a matter of days it covers the vegetable patches and the fruit trees on our farm. Workers are full time with whipper snippers, jungle knives and slashers keeping it down.

A real blessing is that the children, including those at the school, are now eating produce from the farm. Fish appear on the table every week, and bananas, snake beans and paw paws are also on the menu. We need to employ more workers to manage all this but again we are waiting for a big influx of money to be able to do that. Rob is praying for and expecting big things to happen and we are all adding, “Soon please Lord!”

There are a few more things I was going to write about but the distractions of Phuket and Chiang Mai mean that they will have to wait until next time.

Until then,

God bless,

Ron