Transformation

Hello! Yes, I do still exist, even though it's been more than a year since my last post! I guess I'm just never going to be one of those people who blogs regularly. But it's here for me when I need it, which is nice.

Recently, I attended my organization's annual conference in Chiang Mai. It's always good to see friends whom I rarely/never see outside of that conference. I also always look forward to the times of worship and the spiritual retreat that happens at the beginning of the week. This year, during the spiritual retreat, we were given the option of using our imagination to meditate on a particular passage of Scripture: Matthew 17's recounting of the Transfiguration. After being encouraged by the friend leading the session (thanks, Karen!) to consider what it would be like to have been there - what would you have seen? Felt? Heard? - I was inspired to write this. I thought I would share it, in case it helped anyone else see that story in a new light.

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Transformation

What would it be like, to go up a mountain with Jesus and just a few of your closest friends? To know Jesus had a special purpose for this particular hike - but that purpose is beyond anything you could have imagined.

You see your Teacher and Friend transfigured in front of you. He shines so brilliantly that you can't see his face (which was so familiar) behind the radiance. You realize this radiance has to come from heaven itself.

Then two figures out of the distant past appear, and they talk with your Teacher like he knows them already. You look at your friends, eyes wide. How do you even respond to this?

And then, as if you weren't already awed, amazed, and fearful enough - there's more. God Himself sends a cloud (like He did to guide His people out of slavery; somewhere in the back of your mind you make that connection, even as your fear grows) to envelop you, the two great prophets, and your Teacher. You hear a thundering voice, which can only be the Lord Himself. He proclaims your Teacher as His own dearly loved Son. What can you do but worship - worship, and wish you had realized this truth sooner? You have been living, eating, walking with, and learning from the very Son of God. How did you not know?

But then the cloud melts away, and your Friend touches you where you lie trembling in the dust. "Get up," He says. "Don't be afraid." You still recognize His voice, His touch. You still know Him, though you also know now how much more you need to know Him.

And He knows you. He isn't angry or disappointed. He brought you this far, and He isn't going anywhere.

 

Beautiful Things

Wow, it's been a long time since my last post! I realized I might be (unintentionally) leaving more than a few loose ends in the story of my young friend F., so I figured it was time for an update.

I posted my entry about F. having become a victim of trafficking on November 9 of last year. On November 22, my sister and I received a series of messages from our friend A., the one who first told us about her situation: she was out of the sweatshop, and on her way out of Thailand back to her home country! A. had gone down to Bangkok and found her again, and managed to get her out. She sent us wonderful pictures of F. smiling and happy, hopeful for the first time in months. She still had a stressful road ahead of her at that point: since she was in the country illegally, they had to figure out the best way to get her back out without her ending up in a detention center. But before then, we were able to talk to both F. and A. briefly on the phone, and rejoice with them.

Over the next two days, we followed their progress by phone and email. A. was in contact with anti-trafficking organizations during this whole time. These wonderful people helped them decide which border crossing was best, as well as warning them what to expect from immigration officials. It was not a smooth ride. But finally they made it across, and they were safe in Pakse on the other side of the border by November 24 (coincidentally, Mackenzie's and my birthday!). And within a short time after she arrived back home, F. was enrolled in school again - a different one than she used to attend before all this happened to her, but A. reported that she was excited to go back.

And now? Even though she's a year behind where she should be, because she missed the year-end exams last year, F. is happy and doing well. We have reconnected with her via WhatsApp, as well, and we're looking forward to continuing to encourage her and just talk with her.

Thank you, again, to all of you who prayed for this situation, for F., and for A. If you feel so inclined, you can certainly still pray for F.'s mother's financial situation, as well as the whole family's growth in their faith.

Here is he is, happy and safe at home.

The LORD is my light and my salvation...

Back when I was in university, before I had decided to listen to God's calling in my life, I went to InterVarsity's Urbana conference in 2006. A lot of really cool things happened there, including me finally deciding that if God wanted me to be a Bible translator, maybe I didn't have to find that such a scary idea. But I also remember listening to many extremely inspiring speakers in the large group sessions.

One of them was from International Justice Mission, or IJM. I don't remember every detail of what she said, but I do remember her telling the story of a young girl in a brothel, who in defiance of her circumstances and the evil of the people who were holding her prisoner there, wrote the opening words of Psalm 27 on the wall of her tiny room.

That's this psalm:

¹ The Lord is my light and my salvation—
    so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
    so why should I tremble?
² When evil people come to devour me,
    when my enemies and foes attack me,
    they will stumble and fall.
³ Though a mighty army surrounds me,
    my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
    I will remain confident.

⁴ The one thing I ask of the Lord—
    the thing I seek most—
is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
    delighting in the Lord’s perfections
    and meditating in his Temple.
⁵ For he will conceal me there when troubles come;
    he will hide me in his sanctuary.
    He will place me out of reach on a high rock.
⁶ Then I will hold my head high
    above my enemies who surround me.
At his sanctuary I will offer sacrifices with shouts of joy,
    singing and praising the Lord with music.

⁷ Hear me as I pray, O Lord.
    Be merciful and answer me!
⁸ My heart has heard you say, “Come and talk with me.”
    And my heart responds, “Lord, I am coming.”
⁹ Do not turn your back on me.
    Do not reject your servant in anger.
    You have always been my helper.
Don’t leave me now; don’t abandon me,
    O God of my salvation!
¹⁰ Even if my father and mother abandon me,
    the Lord will hold me close.

¹¹ Teach me how to live, O Lord.
    Lead me along the right path,
    for my enemies are waiting for me.
¹² Do not let me fall into their hands.
    For they accuse me of things I’ve never done;
    with every breath they threaten me with violence.
¹³ Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness
    while I am here in the land of the living.

¹⁴ Wait patiently for the Lord.
    Be brave and courageous.
    Yes, wait patiently for the Lord.

I don't think there was a dry eye in the auditorium after this story. (I believe the girl was rescued, in a joint IJM-police operation.) My eyes certainly weren't. Can you imagine?

Fast-forward several years to 2013. My sister and I were invited to disciple some young teenage girls who lived with a friend in Vientiane. We loved having this privilege. The girls were shy but very sweet, and they loved to sing worship songs with us. We were very sorry to have to say goodbye when we left to move to Mukdahan, but we didn't forget them and hoped that they wouldn't forget what we taught them.

That's me, N., my sister Mackenzie, F. (in blue), and our friend R. who helped us teach N. and F., in 2013 at R.'s house. We had just finished watching an animated movie of the story of Joseph, which the girls enjoyed.

Now as you may have heard on Facebook, our friend in Vientiane at whose house F. and N. lived told us last week that F. had been tricked into leaving home for a "job opportunity" in Bangkok. Her mother is apparently heavily in debt, so F.'s mother and an older cousin brought her to a sweat shop where she is now working all day every day, sending almost her entire (meager) paycheck to her mother every month. At the current rate, she would need to work there basically her whole life to pay off her mother's debt and the debt she incurred for being transported there. She is isolated, afraid, and wants to go back home and finish school, according to our friend who was able to find her and visit her. But the pressure from her relatives to work to help her mother is too great for her to feel able to leave. She's also afraid that she'll be arrested if she tries to leave, because her older cousin keeps telling her that's what would happen since she doesn't have proper documentation.

Praise God that our friend from Vientiane was able to find F., spend some time with her, and give her a Bible in her language and also a phone. At least the people who own the sweat shop aren't so controlling that they don't allow her these things. Praise God that F. still remembers some of what she's learned about God, although our friend said unsurprisingly that she was losing hope. Praise God that our friend has been in contact with anti-trafficking organizations (like IJM), and that she's not giving up on helping F. get out of this terrible situation.

We are also so glad that we are able to message with F. now, since she asked for her number to be passed onto us via our friend. Our friend suggested we send her Bible passages. I sent her Psalm 27. And cried at verse 10.

Please keep praying for her.

It's the little things (okay, and the big things)

Faster than seems possible, it's approaching the day when Mackenzie and I will be saying goodbye to one home temporarily so that we can go back to our other home. For the first time in two and a half years, we'll be going back to the US!

While I am very excited to go back home, see family & friends, visit all my favorite places in Washington, and eat American food, I'm also realizing that I have less than two months now to say goodbye (for six months) to the things I love so much about Thailand and Southeast Asia. Of course it helps to know that I'll be back here pretty soon; I'm sure the months in the US will fly by just as fast or faster as it seems like my first term over here has.

So what will I miss about life here? The obvious and most important answer is my friends. Our neighborhood, our office, our church, our weekly pizza night - I'll miss all the people I see at these places. (And I'll continue to miss my friends who live in Vientiane, too!) I can't count all the ways that my Mukdahan family has welcomed, loved, and helped me throughout the year I have lived here and beforehand, too.

Other than this big thing, there are other, smaller good or just everyday things that come to mind when I think of this place. I'm sure I won't think of them all, but I've been thinking about some of them.

- I think of sounds:

Tropical birdsong, in the mornings and evenings especially.* Doves cooing and murmuring. The sound of a motorbike starting up. The rumble of the gate to a house being pulled open or pushed shut on its wheeled track. Thai, Isaan, and Lao being spoken. A tuktuk going past on the main road. The little red ice cream truck. The distinctive beat of traditional-style Isaan or Lao music (though I really prefer it not accompanied by loud, drunken karaoke parties). The radio advertisements playing inside Big C and Tesco Lotus. The trucks that go by blaring their political or product advertisements. Cicadas and bullfrogs during certain seasons. House geckos chirping a warning. Tukkaes, or Tokay geckos, calling from outside. The cycling of air conditioning units. The quiet dripping of the water filter. The hiss of a gas stove. Dramatic peals of thunder and tropical downpours.

*There's one very distinctive birdcall that I will especially miss: that of the Greater Coucal. It's not a flashy, bright-colored bird, but it sounds pretty cool. If you'd like to hear a sample, this is what it sounds like (and also what the bird looks like).

- I think of scents:

Flowers that release their perfume at night. The street after a heavy rainfall.

The type of laundry soap we always use. Grilled chicken or river fish sold by the roadside. Freshly steamed sticky rice. The various kinds of Thai food being cooked for lunch at the office. The pungent, sometimes almost pleasant odor of durian for sale. Seafood and other strong-smelling foods being prepared for sale at Big C - though sometimes it's a bit too strong to be at all enjoyable. Fish sauce being used in cooking. Fresh, hot khao piak or pho (noodle soup). The way the smell of lime juice lingers on your hands after you squeeze a wedge of lime over your meal. Freshly sliced mangoes. Incense from a spirit house or a wat (Buddhist temple). The bug-killing spray we use to kill cockroaches, ants, and spiders (okay, I won't actually miss that, even though it's usually either floral or citrus scented here).

- I think of sights:

The beautiful array of plant life, including so many flowers. Colorful butterflies and dragonflies. Impressively huge moths and beetles (as long as they stay outside!). Brightly-colored Thai flags - or Lao, depending on which side of the border I'm on.

All the wares for sale at markets. Rows of brilliant, traditional wraparound skirts (sinhs) in a myriad of patterns and hues. Golden spires and rooftops of temples. Water buffaloes and cows grazing by the side of the road - or crossing it. Chickens and dogs, and the occasional cat, trotting down narrow lanes. Geckos darting up the wall. Schoolchildren in their uniforms, coming home from school in songthaews or on the back of motorbikes, sometimes three or more on a bike. Huge, brightly-painted tour buses crawling through the town. Rows of tuktuks waiting for passengers at tourist locations and bus stations. Ornate signs and designs all over, in honor of the Royal Family. The Mekong River. Seemingly endless ricefields just outside the city. Green, rolling hills and mountains once you get even further outside of the city. Busy, bustling Centralplaza shopping centers. A 7-11 at every corner. People smiling, putting their palms together, and bowing their heads in the traditional greeting - a wai or a nop, depending on the language.

- I think of tangible and non-tangible sensations:

The smoothness of a silk sinh (traditional wraparound skirt). The electric start button for a motorbike - or kickstarting it. The slight stickiness of a fallen dok champa (plumeria/frangipani) blossom. The near-burn that comes from grabbing a handful of fresh sticky rice right out of the basket (totally worth it). The bliss of an air-conditioned room after coming indoors. The breeze coming off the Mekong. The relative cool of a cloudy, rainy-season day. The soothing softness of my cats' fur - the two of them distinct from one another.* The cloth steering wheel cover that keeps the steering wheel from burning my hands when the car has sat in the sun for a while. The squishy hollowness of an unopened pomelo fruit. The smoothness of a mango skin. The bristliness of the outside of a rambutan.

*Yes, cats in general are not unique to SE Asia. But our cats are, and we aren't taking them back to the US with them, so we will be missing them like crazy.

- I think of flavors:

Each and every one of my favorite Thai and Lao main dishes (I won't list them all, because it would be a very long list and I'd get too hungry in the process. You can ask me sometime). Specific meals from my favorite restaurants in Vientiane. Coconut milk used in cooking. Fresh-made "Lao bread" - also known as baguettes. The wide array of tropical fruits, most of which I've already posted about: passionfruit, mangoes, mangosteens, rambutans, lychees, limes, pineapple, rose apples, dragonfruit, guava, coconut, tamarind, etc.

Frozen fruit bars in these flavors (made with real fruit juice). Homemade Lao ice cream. Mango yogurt. Passionfruit jam. Jelly desserts made of coconut milk and rice flour. The kinds of fresh green vegetables that you can't really get back home - most of which I don't even know an English name for. Potato chips with specially SE Asian flavors. Salty-sour-sweet limeade.

Thankfully, as I said, I doubt I'll have too much time to miss these things, since I fully expect to be enjoying all the people and things I have been missing in the US while we're home there. But it's good to remind myself what we'll be coming back to, at the end of these upcoming six months.

Hot Season

So here it is again: hot season. That lovely time of year (approximately March to May) when temperatures get to 100F/37-38C for most of the day, it almost never rains, and no one wants to do anything even slightly strenuous, especially during the hottest part of the day ... unless it involves being underwater or sitting in an air-conditioned room.

I have to admit that this is not at all my favorite time of year in Southeast Asia. Rainy season, even with its accompanying humidity, doesn't bother me as much. I grew up in the Pacific Northwestern US, in western Washington and Oregon specifically. I'm used to rain, though of course it's not the same kind here. (Here, it's the downpour-plus-thunderstorm kind of rain, usually.) But after two years in SE Asia, I'm still not used to hot and dry.

But, all that said, it's not like there is nothing I enjoy about hot season. In fact, to help me remember, I'm going to list them - after I list my least favorite things about it.

Top Things I Really Don't Like About Hot Season:

1. The aforementioned heat.

2. Being outside for more than a few seconds = sweating a lot.

3. Feeling even less motivation than usual for doing housework/chores, because that = sweating a lot.

4. More mosquitoes, and more bugs coming inside the house. Especially the spiders.

5. Lowered appetite from the heat.

6. Much less desire to cook or bake, since it makes the house even hotter.

7. The season seems to last forever.

I think that about sums it up. Now, onto a more optimistic list.

Top Things I Do Like About Hot Season:

1. It's also rambutan, mangosteen, and mango season! Mmmmm.

2. It's mango season at Dairy Queen and Swensen's! Mmmmm, mango ice cream.

3. It's a good excuse to eat ice cream more often (not that I really need an excuse).

4. No need to turn on the water heater when you shower - in fact, it feels so much nicer not to.

5. In cold season, you don't get to see/hear these guys:

This is a Tokay gecko, or tukkae as it's known in Thailand. I remember hearing stories about these guys from my grandma, which might be why it's such a comforting sound to me whenever I hear it. If you've never had the pleasure of hearing their distinctive call, you can find a clip of it at the Wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokay_gecko

6. In cold season, you also don't get to see these cool creatures:

These huge Atlas moths - at least as big as my face - are harmless and gorgeous. We just have to make sure they don't land on our screen door, or our cats would try to kill them.

7. Nobody looks at you twice if you want to stay in and nap/do nothing during the hottest hours of the day. In fact it's totally normal.

8. It builds even more anticipation for the coming of the rainy season (at least for my sister and me, anyway!).

Friends who live in/have been in SE Asia, did I miss any on either list?

The joys of Thai food, tropical fruit edition

Another joy of living in Thailand is ready access to wonderful fresh tropical fruit all throughout the year. You have access to the most delicious, flavorful pineapples, bananas, and melons you could possibly desire - and also many other fruits that aren't as familiar but are just as delicious or even more so.

Right as my sister and I arrived this time, we were thrilled to discover that even though it's just getting into hot season, the relentless heat is balanced out by the fact that it's also mango season. If you've never had Asian mangoes - Thai or Philippine, or Indian - you've never had read mangoes. They are really, really, REALLY good. I've been eating them pretty much whenever I get the chance. I've already mentioned my favorite Thai dessert of mangoes with sticky rice and coconut milk: also known as pure delight. They also sell mango yogurt in supermarkets here, and you can tell it's real fresh mango chunks in there, which therefore means it's a favorite.

Another fruit that's been a revelation for me on this trip is passionfruit. I think it's just coming into season right now, too, which explains why I hadn't had the chance to eat it on previous trips. I've had passionfruit-flavored fruit drinks before, but always with other flavors mixed in, so I never knew what it tasted like on its own. It. Is. Heaven. Seriously. Tangy, sweet, a little bit sour - really, I almost want to start using the ridiculously overblown language wine tasters use to describe its flavor. I don't know if you can get it in the States at all. If you can, I bet it's really expensive and not very fresh. But it would still probably be worth a try. I found some passionfruit jam in a supermarket the other day, and let me tell you: passionfruit jam + peanut butter in a sandwich? Joy.



There are many other delicious, unusual fruits here, too: starfruit, rambutan, lychee, dragonfruit, etc. But mango and passionfruit are definitely my favorite at this point.

The joys of Thai cuisine

If you've ever eaten at a (good quality) Thai restaurant, you know that Thai food is delicious. I've loved Thai food ever since my mom came back from a trip to Thailand in the late 1990s and started cooking Thai peanut curry for us - which was also about the time that Thai restaurants starting popping up all over the place in the greater Seattle area. Some are better than others, of course.

One dish that hasn't really made it over to the US yet* is one that I was introduced to last year when my sister and I were in Chiang Mai at the end of the summer: khao soi. It is sheer amazingness. If you've ever had pho, it's similar - but it's a hundred times better, IMO. I love pho, but khao soi takes it to a whole new level.

Here's a picture of the khao soi that's served at a restaurant which has quickly become one of my sister's and my favorite places to eat in Chiang Mai ("Just Khao Soy"):

The soup has pieces of chicken and rice noodles in a light curry, with crispy rice noodles on top. Then you can choose what else you want to add to it: coconut milk (YES), pickled onions (surprisingly tasty), chili paste, shallots, fish sauce, sugar, and fresh lime. There's also a few slices of banana to help dull the spiciness, if you need them. You can add as little or as much as you want, to taste. It is absolutely wonderful. The original dish comes from Northern Thailand and Laos. It's is less fancy than this, and is apparently regarded as mere "street food" by many Thai people. But the restaurant version at least is wonderful, and I hope it does become more widely available outside of Southeast Asia!

Another item of Thai cuisine one should not miss when one is in Thailand is their version of limeade. It's like lemonade, except with lime, and a little bit of sugar and a little bit of salt. The balance of flavors is delightful - and something that Thais strive for in their cuisine. I had some with my khao soi at lunch today. Perfect. The only way to have made the meal even better would have been to finish off with mango and sticky rice for dessert. If I'd had any room left, I would have ordered some! But there'll be plenty of time for that while we're here.

*One of my favorite Thai restaurants back home, Bai Tong, does list khai soi on the menu, but I haven't had it so I can't speak to its authenticity or tastiness. I'm sure it's quite good, though, since Bai Tong is excellent!