Armed Conflict in Thailand (and other celebrations)

March and April were months of celebrations. It seems like we were celebrating some holiday or another from the time we returned from India until now!

Milo's birthday

We got back from India in early March and had just enough time to celebrate Milo's birthday before he left. We celebrated rather sporadically over several days. We did a variety of things such as eating green curry from Mr. Yim's (a little road-side stand that makes the best green curry in the city), watching the X-files movie, and drinking fresh coconut milk. It was all rather random and laid-back: a bit like Milo, oddly enough. :)

Leona's birthday

Eleven days later (after sending Milo back home), we celebrated my birthday—and then kept celebrating it for several weeks!

I didn't plan ahead enough to have anything planned for the actual ides of March (big surprise, I know!), but I still had a great evening hanging out with friends. After church we ate and talked and swam and ate and talked and ate some more. We even tried ordering McDelivery (I know, I'm not much of a fast food person but it's nice occasionally, and besides I'd never been able to order in McDonald's before)!

However, as much fun as the actual day was, I had wanted to do something extreme to commemorate my 30th, so, as previously mentioned, Amanda and I extended the celebration, and headed to the beach the next week, where, during our few days there, we tried parasailing.

It was fun—but it was also just a little bit too...

...safe.

Really! There was no real adrenaline rush. I'm very happy to have tried it, but now I think I really must try skydiving! Or maybe bungee jumping. Or maybe both...

Easter

Once March was over, Easter planning was fully underway. The central holiday of the two months, and undeniably the most important! I have mentioned we're working in children's ministry, right? Well, as part of that we helped with a children's camp on the Friday and Saturday of Easter weekend and then we also helped with the service Sunday morning.

The holiday camp was great fun! It was for kids aged 3-12, and we had 21 kids on Friday and 30 on Saturday. The UK Crosslinks team that I mentioned before did most of the work, so Amanda and I just got to show up and play with the kids—it was fun! As I've told several people here, I miss my nieces, nephews, and cousins from home so it's nice to have a whole church of substitutes—for a little while at least.

Sunday morning was a bit more work for us. The kids sang a song, prepared some memory verses, and helped act out the Easter morning story from Mark. We supervised them and said a few words as well. It made for a busy couple of weeks—but it was good to spend so much time thinking and talking about the Easter story. And it's also wonderful that the message of Easter is both amazing enough to be beyond our human understanding, but still simple enough for a three-year-old to grasp. One of our young holiday camp attendees reminded us all of this simple message by sharing his group's memory verse with the church on Sunday morning: “Jesus is alive!”

Songkran

****NEWS FLASH****

Armed conflict in Thailand!!

...and we took part.

Really!

Okay, so it's not quite what you were thinking— especially if you've been watching world news recently, but this "armed conflict" was what 99% of Thailand was up to on April 12-14th—not protesting in a red shirt as the media would like you to believe!

Songkran is the Thai New Year and it's celebrated with water. It's a nation-wide week-long water fight! Sounds fun, doesn't it? It was! The original meaning of the holiday is about giving thanks and receiving blessings and cleansing and renewal. However, this family/religious ceremony has long since turned into a full-scale water fight for many (most?) Thais. It's about having fun and taking time off and piling into the street with friends and spraying each other with water and smearing each other with paste. And of course we joined right in, did you really think we'd pass up an opportunity like this?! :)

Our Songkran took place a few hours from Bangkok in the area around Ban Chan. A friend of ours, Faye, lives down there, so Amanda and I and Matt and Cathy went down for some R&R. Another friend, Angela, joined us for a day as well (that's her in the first picture). The first day we went out with Angela and walked the streets with our water guns. We even managed to hop on a few pick-ups and ride the strip while attacking those who were passing! The next day we hadn't planned on being involved. We'd actually spent the day at the beach on a nearby island (Koh Samet), but when we returned to the mainland we found the celebration in full-swing! We couldn't have moved our car if we had wanted to as the street had turned into a parking lot of people in pick-ups throwing water at each other! Since we couldn't leave, we joined in! With no water guns all we could do was cheerfully accept the paste and water and wish people "Happy Songkran!"

ANZAC Day

A week after Songkran, we celebrated in April was ANZAC Day. ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Armed Corp) Day is April 25th and commemorates those who lost their lives at Gallipoli (WW1) and in all subsequent battles and wars. Kanchanaburi, two hours from Bangkok, is the site of Hellfire Pass—an area where many Australian's lost their lives working on the Death Railway as Japanese POW's. In the nearby town of Kanchanaburi, is a large Allied War Cemetery. Pete (the vicar at Christ Church) had asked us some time ago if we'd help out by starting the songs at the services he would be leading in Hellfire Pass (a dawn service at 5:30 am) and in Kanchanaburi (at 11:00 am). Unknowingly, we agreed.

Then we found out we would be miked in front of a thousand or so people.

Then we found out we may be televised for national T.V.

Then, on the day of, it turned out that no one really knew the hymn (there was only one) and we were basically soloists!

It was fine, of course ...and really interesting! The dawn service at Hellfire Pass was particularly moving. We walked down from the museum at 4:30 am with just the flickering lights from the bamboo candles lighting our way. The flickering light against the rock faces gave attendees just a bit of an idea of what it might have been like to be forced to work here. At the memorial site, hundreds of people were gathered, sitting or standing quietly waiting for the service to commence. Despite the early hour, the press of the people and the candle flames, made the already warm and humid climate even warmer. Just before the short service started, the birds began to sing—an incongruous sound considering the suffering we had come to remember. The sky slowly lightened as dawn approached and as it lightened we remembered the One who came to give light to all the world. We committed the memories of those who died to Him and asked that he would guide us and lead us and use us to bring peace to a world still plagued by events similar to those we came to remember.

South African National Day

Finally, on April 27th, we got invited to the South African National Day celebration! This is the event the South African embassy puts on for the other dignitaries in Bangkok. (Dress attire: lounge suit or national costume...man, if we keep attending these events, I'm really going to need to scale up my backpacking wardrobe!) There were a short couple of speeches, some great entertainers, and delicious South African food (and wine)! We didn't see the Canadian ambassador there (we have met him though)—we were hoping to see him 'cause if the Canadians do something similar for Canada Day, we're hoping for invites. :) I tell you though—we've gone from hanging with backpackers to hobnobbing with ambassadors in just a few months—not bad!

Well, we are currently into planning for summer kids programs and we're also finalizing details for our trip to Russia in June. Until next time....