Missive 4 – 2015

Life changes a bit when the building team go home – Malcolm, Peter and the Brisbane people all left over a week ago now.  I was left with a fistful of notes from Malcolm about what to do next.  I was left as the expert on where to put the purlins and how to put the valleys in the roof – fortunately Malcolm explained it all clearly and the Thai boys have pretty good idea of what to do, although I had to ask Deo to do one of the valleys again.  We had another church team from Brisbane turn up and one bloke in particular is keen to pitch in with the building so he has helped me set up the boxing to build a retaining wall on which we will pour the verandah.

We poured the concrete for the retaining walls and the verandah support posts late last week.  I was saved an embarrassing mistake that day when I calculated the amount of concrete.  I measured all the holes and boxing, and one 6 metre length of the walls was 300m wide and 300mm deep.  On my scrap of paper I wrote down .3 x .3 = .9 (I wouldn’t be happy if my Year 6 Maths kids made that mistake!).  That made 5.5 cubic metres of concrete rather than about .5 – a truckful!  When we were nearing the end of the second truck load and the job was nearly finished, I was starting to panic and wonder what we would do with all that concrete (about $300 worth).  We were fortunately able to cancel the third truck and avoid an expensive disaster. I couldn’t work out how my estimate could be so far out and a couple of days later I found the scrap of paper - and the mistake.

I need to introduce you to some international members of the building tam.  For a number of years a group of Dutch peoplehave joined us.  They are usually reasonably elderly but that is no reflection on their doggedness in working out in the sun and doing some of the less glamorous building jobs like washing and painting the steel, weaving the mesh for the floor, painting the welds and so on.  This year there were only two, Adelbert Hesseling and Annette Doorn.  Adelbert had had a pacemaker put in last year so he wasn’t in peak condition but he did a great job.  They have raised large amounts of euro in the Netherlands by doing all sorts of fundraising activities including cracking the ice off the river in their town and being sponsored for going swimming (I would have thought that would do the job of a pacemaker!).  They left a couple of days ago and they went away with the challenge of raising 20,000 or so euros to renovate the big girls’ house and put on a second storey.  That may be our job in 2016 – book your holidays now!

It’s this time of the year when I usually pack away my building clothes, resort to shorts and a t-shirt and work in the office on some admin stuff.  That’s not going to happen completely although I have some things I am doing for Rob that I am fitting in between building jobs.  He is being awarded an honorary degree from Phetchabun University for his contribution to Thailand and this province in particular.  I have been putting together an acceptance speech supported by photographs of his and House of Mercy’s impact on the area.  And the Rotary Club at Khon Kaen is keen to support us to develop a TAFE-like skills training centre here and at KK so another job will be helping to prepare a proposal to present to the Rotary Club in a couple of weeks.

On top of that I have preached at worship here for the last 2 weeks so a bit of time has gone into preparing for that.  I usually try to use something visual and today I talked about branding cattle in Australia to show ownership.  I had Boonsilit weld me a branding iron with JC on it to illustrate, and then I explained that Jesus doesn’t use a branding iron but we have the “mark of a Christian” on us to show that we belong to Jesus – fruits of the Spirit, loving one another (John 5:34, 35) and loving our enemies (Matt 5:44).  After that I conducted communion and that was a special time.

Last week I was invited to a meal at Mum Whun’s grandma’s house.  Grandma is 84 and hasn’t been well for a while so that day she had been to the doctor.  She had a few tablets and was told to drink and eat more.  Probably good advice as she is such a tiny sparrow of a lady.  I have shared in past missives of the rather idyllic, quintessentially Thai backdrop at her house.  When we got there and Whun went off to help with the meal, I was assigned to talk to Grandma who firstly wanted to know where Colleen was.  We then conversed for a while, her in fluent Thai and me in fluent English but I think we agreed on most things.  Whun’s Dad eventually came home from work on his all-purpose tractor/cultivator/pump/family transport and set about preparing the meal along with Whun’s brother (a truck driver).  A few aunties turned up as well to make a goodly number for the meal.  We had laap, finely chopped meat with herbs and spices, sticky rice and a plate of herbs and weeds on the side.  The meat was pig intestines and pig liver.  The sticky rice was cooked outside in a well-used basket over a boiling pot of water on a fire.  A couple of chicks, appreciating the extra warmth (not sure why, it was pretty warm any way) were snuggling in a hole under the stones holding the fire.  We ate of course on the floor (there are no chairs in the house) and I was rather ashamed of my inability to sit crosslegged through the meal and then be able to stand straight up afterwards.  The meal was delicious although there was plenty of pizzaz from the chili.

We acquired two more children tonight in rather heartrending circumstances.  The father of 3 of our children by a variety of wives had a Cambodian lady as his next wife.  She has twin boys about 4 years old.  The father died in a motorcycle accident last year and the Cambodian wife is not wanted by the rest of the family and has no citizenship papers.  She brought the twins to us tonight and she will either return to Cambodia (with a consequent problem for the children) or get “lost” in Thailand to try and survive (with the consequent problem of looking after the children).  It was heartwrenchingto see her hand them over, she was in tears and remained in that state while Mum Whun drove her back to her village.  One of the boys is particularly upset and I could hear him crying inconsolably in his house later this evening.  Your prayers for these two kids would be appreciated.

Speaking of accidents we have had stories of some near misses in recent days.  There seems to be no requisite for a brain when they give out licences to drive a tuk-tuk here. On the weekend Rob and Jean drove around a blind corner to find a tuk-tuk parked in the middle of the road.  A four wheel lock up stop had them finishing centimetres from the vehicle.  Last week Glom narrowly missed an unlit tuk-tuk at night on the nearby Ban Klang road.  It too was stopped in the middle of the road.  A 20 year old uni student returning home was not so lucky.  Blinded by oncoming headlights he ran into it and was killed.  The funeral procession passed Ban Meata yesterday on the way to the burning house at the local temple.

Less than two weeks to go and plenty still to do.  Your ongoing prayers are really much appreciated.  Please pray for Colleen too who has to endure these long stays of mine and is struggling with considerable back pain at the moment.

God bless

Ron

Missive 3 – 2015

I don’t want to rub it in, but the weather here has been magnificent for the last three weeks. While Adelaide sweltered in an over 40 degree heatwave we enjoyed days of sub-30 degrees and nights that were down in the teens. The mornings have been so cold that the Thais are getting around in parkas and coming up for hugs just to keep warm. To fill you with envy let me describe morning tea on the building site. Two of the Thai women come to the site bearing plates of watermelon, sliced pineapple so sweet you eat it last so all the other stuff tastes OK by comparison, cubes of papaya and refreshing pomelo. Jugs of cordial and iced water complete the table. As the girls appear the cry of “smoko!” goes up across the site and we all sit under the trees, enjoying the refreshments and the cool breeze which has prevailed during our stay. This is then repeated in the middle of the afternoon. At 12 noon “khin khow” is shouted (lunch, or literally, “eat rice”) and we all troop off to the dining room where we sit down to a beautiful range of Thai food each day, deliberately “mai phet” (not spicy) to suit the tastes of the “ferengues” (foreigners). Now that should make our building team bigger in 2016!! The work is going ahead quickly and well. As I begin to write this we have topped the walls around the outside and the trusses go up this week. Over 3,500 blocks have been laid in this time. After 7 days of block-laying I have lost the fingerprints on my left hand (I’ve taken to wearing a glove on my right) and the cement dries out the skin to the point of cracking. I asked Ben (see Missive 2) jokingly if he knew anything about safe-cracking that he could teach me now I didn’t have fingerprints. He said that would be no problem, he’d done a few in his time!! Isn’t the grace of God good?!! And now to introduce another couple of team members. Marty Kuhlevein comes from Queensland and owns a large fleet of school buses, a fleet of skip collecting trucks, and a fleet of liquid waste trucks. He is a bit over 30, became a Christian a few short years ago, celebrated by having “RIGHTEOUS” tattooed across his chest, and has taken up boxing in the middleweight division to keep fit. Becoming a Christian didn’t go down well with his second wife and he is praying for a restoration in that relationship. David Hill is an older bloke from Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. He came out of the army as an alcoholic and with two broken marriages behind him. Becoming a Christian healed him of his addiction and he is rejoicing in what God has done in his life, including meeting his third wife at church. He is an electrician and has been put to good use preparing for the wiring through the house and this week will install switchboards and wiring. He has worked mainly with Ben and it has been great to see the mentoring that is happening. He offered Ben 1000baht if he didn’t swear for a whole day – and then said if you can choose to do it for one day, you can do it for the rest of your life. I spent some time with Ben today explaining the freedom that comes from choosing righteousness. It’s great to see God’s grace at work! Whun rang the other night to say she has bought her motorbike and had quite an adventure on the first day she rode it into work. She leaves Ban Meata about 8am and has to ride about 25km into the city of Phrae. She doesn’t finish work until about 7pm so she has to ride home in the dark. On that first day she found that her headlight wasn’t working so with some ingenuity she put the light on her mobile phone at the front and rode home very slowly. Sharon and John (Managers at Ban Meata Phrae) told her where to get it fixed the next day so she duly took it in for repair. To her great embarrassment she discovered that it works perfectly but she hadn’t turned it on!! A couple of Sundays ago a few of us went up into the mountains near Ban Meata to a place called Khao Kho where there is a new Buddhist temple with the most amazing and extravagant mosaic decorations and where their signature statues of Buddha are made up of five Buddhas sitting in decreasing size in front of another. The complex, including its surrounding gardens is spectacular so we went to visit. It was the coldest day we have experienced in Thailand and the mountain on which the temple sits was in dense cloud – we were able to see the mosaics but couldn’t see the top of the temple and couldn’t see the 40 metre high Buddhas. A bit disappointing for those who hadn’t seen it and fits into the “next time” category. All of this is to a god made of stone and I was reminded of the asherah poles and the Baal worship on the high places in Israel mentioned so often in Kings and Chronicles. And reminded also that South Australia is now the proud owner of a Buddhist temple on one of the high places south of Adelaide, with a giant Buddha due to be constructed! As I write there are 3 days of work before the building team leaves – the trusses are up on top of the walls (much heavy lifting), the ceiling joists are being welded underneath the trusses (more heavy lifting because they are welded into 24 metre lengths) and I am currently laying the last row of blocks so the walls reach the ceiling. That’s it for this week – until next time ……….. God bless Ron

Missive 2 – 2015

The building work continues apace.  We are working on the walls and hoped to have them nearly topped by the time this is posted.  I have turned my hand to block laying and am finding it a satisfying job.  We are building in hebel blocks which are fairly light and of uniform shape even though they are 600mm x 200mm x 75mm.  We use a cement based glue rather than mortar.  I was doing really well up to a certain height and then my skills and dodgy spirit level let me down.  Malcolm checked one of my walls and it was 20mm off vertical at the top, so he pulled it down – much mirth about strong winds overnight and I set about rebuilding.  It took about half a day to get back to where I was the night before but now it’s a great wall – professional standard!!

Let me introduce some of our team.  After Malcolm there is Peter Lawrie, his brother, who is also a friend of ours from Lucindale days.  Then there is Richard Wray, from Bracken Ridge Baptist in Brisbane, who has been on the team for several years now.  He brought with him a young man, Ben, who was converted at his church several weeks ago.  His is an amazing testimony.  He comes from a family of alcoholics which at times was abusive and he learned to use violence as a solution to a problem.  He was also seriously misusing drugs and alcohol.  He had a son from a relationship with a girl who shared his drug and alcohol problem.  A couple of years ago his ex-girlfriend had an accident while drunk and the little boy was killed.  Ben went around to her place and in his own drunken rage beat up and severely injured her boyfriend.  He spent some time in gaol over that incident.  Armed robbery put him in there again and aggravated violence a third time.  Anyway, the saving grace of Jesus has turned his life around.  Richard practically demanded that he come to Thailand and Ben says it’s been the best thing for him.  Pray for him as the Spirit makes changes to his temper and his addictions and other aspects of his life that need to come under the Lordship of Christ. 

Whun and Why have both returned to Phrae and Khon Kaenrespectively.  Whun has started her new job in the city of Phrae and is still resolved to do it for 2 months.  She was encouraged back at the orphanage by the children she was teaching saying that they wanted her back.  Keep praying for her – in fact redouble prayer for her!  The day she went back she was on the back of a motor-bike driven by her friend Waen who didn’t heed warnings to slow down so off they came.  Whun hopped off at the last minute but Waen lost a fair bit of skin on hands, arms and leg.  Then on Saturday she was going in to her job  in Phrae on the back of a bike which another friend, Far, was driving.  A tuk-tuk turned unexpectedly in front of them and off they came.  This time Far was unhurt but Whun hurt her knee and hand, thankfully not seriously.  She rang me with this news and said that she will drive from now on because she drives slower and more carefully.  Pray that this is so!

STOP PRESS: Whun rang to say that a relative of the lady in the office there has a motor-bike for sale and Whun is very keen to buy it.  It is 10,000baht (about $400).  A mixed blessing!

FINAL BUILDING REPORT for this missive – most of the walls are up to the tops of the windows and we have begun to put up the concrete lintels.  We have made the lintels on-site and they weigh about 200kgs each.  We winch them up with an endless chain suspended from 6m ladders.

Apologies for the lack of photos but I can’t upload them onto my email website and I haven’t got Outlook working yet.

 

Missive 1 - 2015

Missive 1 – 2015 We’ve been doing this every year since 2005 (bit different last year because of health issues) but it never seems to get old. The same enthusiastic welcome, the same hundred hugs a day, the same gratefulness for what we come to do. Our flights went well and our plan for the parts of the team from Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth to meet at a preordained spot at Suvarabhumi airport nearly went well. Eric, an older bloke (87 – doesn’t do any work on the jackhammer but has been very generous to House of Mercy) from Perth got his wires crossed and after searching all three levels of the airport amongst about a million people we finally found him waiting outside. We had a mini-bus waiting for us and set off on the 5 hour journey to Phetchabun with just a couple of comfort stops and to stock up on Coke and other health foods. We arrived at 2.30am and that’s where a minor problem began for me. Our house, creatively called “Ron’s Place”, is used spasmodically when Colleen and I aren’t here so we suggested it might be a good to use it for girls who are attending university and need to develop independence by not living under the direct control of one of the “Mums”. To make this possible and still be available for our use they have been working hard for a couple of months modifying the house with an extra room and making the bathroom facilities suitable for joint use. I knew all this, but not what the modifications looked like. We received a text message the evening before saying which rooms the other blokes were sleeping in in the guest house, and that my door would be left unlocked. So I dragged my luggage down to “Ron’s Place” (gravel path), tried the door and found it locked, and noted that there were girls’ shoes on the front verandah. Unperturbed I took out the key which I carry with me and went in. Presuming our room was still our room I went in and turned the light on – two of the girls were sleeping there! More cautious this time, I looked into our second bedroom and found the third girl sleeping there. So I went out the back and found a new room, finally found the door – and it was locked! So I dragged all my luggage back to the guest house, found a bed a grabbed a few hours’ sleep. I was let in the next morning and the room really is lovely with a new bathroom independent of the rest of the house. All credit to Chris Stolte, an old building team member who is now married to one of the Thai girls. Our body clocks had us up reasonably early and although the plan for day one was to take it easy we were on site, and I was on the jackhammer, by 10am. Our task this year is to build another accommodation building on a slab that has been unused for 12-15 years because of a mistake that made one end 200mm higher than the other. In the ensuing days we have jackhammered through the concrete to put in the plumbing, completed the plumbing, boxed up around the slab 250mm out, barrowed in 20 cubic metres of sand to save concrete on one end, dug a trench 80m long and 600mm deep for the power, woven 10m by 10m squares of mesh for reinforcing the floor, and washed and painted the steel for the trusses and door frames. It is the New Year school break at the moment so Glom (manager) has been very keen to have the kids come out and help us. For some of the above jobs that has been very helpful. I had a group of the older girls and some of the boys to do the weaving. We lay out 10m lengths of 6mm steel rod 200mm apart, then weave other 10m lengths through it – much coordination and teamwork required. We then shift the resultant square of mesh onto the slab – a great sight with about 40 kids and workers holding it above their heads carrying it to the slab. On New Year’s Eve we had a big party on the quadrangle with each house set up with their bucket barbecues and a supply of charcoal. We were just about to get started when we got a phone call from Why who had bussed across from Khon Kaen. I went into Lomsak to get her and to enjoy a warm reunion. When we were driving out of the bus station Why received a call from an upset Whun who had gone into the Phrae bus station to try and get down to see me but all the buses were full. She had to get back to Ban Meata (Phrae) and try again the next day – this time she was successful and another great reunion occurred the next evening. It was so good to see her again. Why is doing much better at her studies this year although I want to talk to her about good study habits before she goes back after the New Year break. Please keep praying for her, that her dedication will see her begin to excel again. Whun is not in a good place. She is finding it very hard doing the teaching that is required of her as well as the other duties that go along with teaching 3 year olds as well as some 2 year olds – this includes changing nappies and toilet training. “Why can’t they sit and listen like they do in Gemma’s class?” she asked. When in Australia she spent a day observing a JP class at St Michael’s where our grandchildren go. I have spent some hours with her talking through a few problems and re-setting some goals. She has become so disenchanted she has gotten a job in Phrae (25kms away) selling phones. The road in and out is notorious for drug deals by the roadside so please pray for her protection and for her future. She has agreed to do this job for 2 months and then go back for a fresh start and enrol at Uni for some study. As expected Glom asked if I could preach on the first Sunday we were here. Thanks to Ps Mark Schulz for his idea of wrapped gifts to explain the gifts that come with Christmas – love (a heart), the Cross (a Cross!) and new life (egg). It was well received in Thailand as well as at Glenunga UC! A final building update – the slab has been repoured, the boxing has come off, the walls have been marked out on the slab, the corner blocks have been laid, and half the door frames are standing in place. More news next week.