10 Great Things about Driving a Motorcycle in Thailand

1. Stop Lights.  Bikes go to the immediate front of all lines. And you all KNOW it was your favorite day of kindergarten when you got to be the line leader.

2. Cool Factor.  All the cool kids do it! Duh! And you know how I said all the bikes go to the front of the line.... so when I'm up at the front revving my lil engine with like a dozen other bikers it's kind of like I'm in a motorcycle gang!!!  Except the other night, I was up front all by myself and I start to hear this roar of engines behind me, like REAL engines. I thought it was a big truck, nope it was a REAL Harley Davidson motorcycle gang, with Pure Thailand bedazzled on the back of leather vests, before I knew it I was surrounded.  It would've made a great photo for Highlights, "One of these things is not like the others" section.

3.  Lanes do not apply to me - at all! Left lane AND Right lane moving slow, well down the middle I go! No room? No problem! Outside that yellow line was created with me in mind!

4.  Great AC at 50kph and above.

5.  Parking! I fit almost anywhere!

6. Gas mileage or is it kiloage?  It takes $3 bucks to fill up my tank ($4 if I forget a few days past red) and I can go for weeks!

7.  Stop light convos.  Pull up next to your friend at each stoplight and ask how their day is going or if you have bugs in your teeth or high five them for running over that cat back there!

8.  All lights are relatively green. For instance,  the light is red because cars are turning from the intersection, but I'm driving outside the yellow line anyway, therefore the light is relatively green and I need not stop.

9.  The Asia Pacific sun, the beautiful mountains, the wind in your hair, and the adrenaline that comes from knowing death could happen at any moment if the car in front of you stops short or the beer truck beside you loses a case causing you to skid into oncoming traffic, or if you resist the turn and end up under the bike instead of on it! It's all very exhilarating!

10. If you forget you're in a nation that drives on the left instead of the right, bobbing and weaving is much easier on a bike than in car! (A friend told me this!)

Standing for the King

I recently had an afternoon off here in Thailand. I was a bit stir crazy and a bit homesick so I thought I'd have an American day. I headed off to the mall to have some quiet time with Jesus & my new Bethel worship CD at Starbucks and also to see the new JOBS movie.

Just a few nights before I had gone to the Walking Street Market with some friends to find some post cards to send Thank You notes to all you wonderful supporters back home.  I was twirling the display looking at the cards when my friend touched my arm and shook her head and motioned for me to be quiet.

Walking Street is loud and bustling except for these two minutes.  I remember being fascinated by it my first trip last fall, EVERYONE stops in place, EVERYONE is silent, and respectful.  It's unbelievable really.  Over the loud speakers their national song a tribute to their king is playing.

The mall is loud and bustling too, thank God for headphones.  JOBS was playing in English so I figured as an all things apple user I should check it out.  Ashton does an EXCELLENT job, my disappointment in the movie was not his fault by any means. Don't get me wrong it was worth the $5.50 I paid to see it.  It's just... well... I don't know how to say this, it was somewhat depressing.  Sure it was fascinating to see how five guys in a garage ultimately changed the world, I mean I passed a sweet MAC store on my way to the theater & I'm in Chiang Mai.  I can iMessage and Face Time for FREE anyone in the WORLD who has an iPhone! Here's where I should start singing, "I love technology!" With an added verse of thanks to Steve Jobs and all those at Apple Inc! I'm not a Steve Jobs hater, but his biography made me sad. It appears he was a very Godless man, focused, brilliant, and self centered, a man who betrayed all those guys who labored with him in his parent's garage, a man who left an amazing mark on this world and changed the way we communicate, learn, listen to music, and so much more, but forgot where he came from or worse yet I'm not sure he ever knew Where he came from.  JOBS is part of our American, well, WORLD history,  but I left sad.

But before the movie started, before ANY movie starts in Thailand, there's another two minute moment of awe.  A video tribute to the king of Thailand is played.  Everyone puts down their pop corn, stops their chatter, and stands and quietly pays tribute and shows respect to their beloved king.

They take moments in the hustle and bustle of their shopping and before they indulge in entertainment to stand for the king. It is not controversial or only practiced by some. It's refreshing. It's moving. It's inspiring. Their diligence, their respect, the way they honor him, his picture is hung all over, and nothing is to be hung higher than his image.  Each piece of paper currency has his picture on it, therefore you do not wad your money up.  The way they speak of and honor voluntarily, the way they are protective of his image and his name, a Thai person would take great offense if anyone were to speak ill of, complain about, or question the king. The way they present him and speak of him and honor him, makes me want to know him, makes me want to stand for the king as well. I can't help, but relate all these things to my own King and hope that the way I speak of Him, honor Him, and present Him, makes others want to know Him and stand for Him too.  Thank you Thai people for sharing your king and making me want to stand for him, I hope you will one day want to stand for my King too.

One day.... every knee will bow and every tongue confess.

Here's a tribute video they were showing earlier this year.  The one they're showing currently is excellent though, so I'll try and snag it next time I take an American day!

Lessons Learned From the Field: #3 The Church is NOT a building. : El Salvador

One of my favorite churches in the Philippines.

I'm sure your pastor has said it from the pulpit in some way, form, or fashion, that the church is NOT a building.  And I'm sure you've nodded your head in agreement or said, Amen to the notion. And although I think this is a point we could all theologically agree on, the church is NOT a building, I think it might be something we say more than something we really believe deep down.

"We can't take out the pews and put in movie theater seats! Gasp!" (If God is particular about what we sit in then we definitely need to let our brothers and sisters overseas know this because they've got some raggedy wooden benches with no seat backs, plastic chairs that don't even match, and there have been times when I had to sit on the ground or stand the whole service!) 

"Cake Walk to install more stained glass windows!" Never EVER try to remove the stained glass windows from the church, they're sacred don't you know?  The Holy Spirit wafts thru those easier than regular ones! (Again, someone really needs to let Latin America, Asia, and Africa know about this requirement, I'm not sure I've ever been to a church with window panes at all, I'm thinking they've got it figured out that the Holy Spirit wafts in through an OPEN window best of all!)

"No food or drink in the sanctuary!" I knew God was particular about the COLOR of his carpet by how upset His people get when it's changed, but He's evidently a neat freak too! (This isn't so much of an issue for the dirt floors of Merille churches!) 

"We're in church boy! You can't say that in church!" Please save all crass, inappropriate, and malicious talk for once you've exited the church building. 

I won't even talk about the use of smoke machines, secular music, several electric guitar players, a caged drummer, and skinny jeans on the platform! In church, Gasp! All perfectly okay for the concert the night before, but not. in. church!  (These are often not issues for our international brothers and sisters because of the lack of electricity!) 

Sometimes, like in the cases above, we get a little confused and think that church IS a building! But sometimes we get REALLY confused and think the church is only OUR building! Like we'll help out those from OUR building, we'll have events for those from OUR building, if someone comes from another building, what on earth are they doing here? I'll bet they're spies! As a youth pastor I used to get so upset when I would find out that my students had gone to another church just to visit and really bent out of shape if they'd decided to go there permanently! I laugh now at the ridiculousness, I mean, I was literally upset that a teenager was worshipping God in another building!!!! Opens up a seat for the kid who isn't in church anywhere!!! 

All our Western silliness is not what this is about.  I really do think we can all agree on the fact that the church is NOT a building! And I honestly didn't learn this because of sitting on a dirt floor in Africa, or the rain blowing in in Latin America, or the plastic or wood splinters in my seat from my seat in any number of places around the world. Those are just buildings like our buildings anyway! For richer or poorer!

I learned that the church is not a building on the outside of a building all together in the streets of El Salvador in 1997.  It was our first day of street ministry.  It was hot.  Half the team was to do the ministry the other half was to pray out of sight somewhere. We needed electricity for our small sound system so a homeowner let us plug into theirs.  As the people began to gather from homes and the kids began to enjoy the program, my half of the team shuffled in the alley between two homes to pray. We leaned up against the concrete sides and began to pray for the people. After a few moments I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was an older lady with a glass of water and a plastic chair which she extended to me. I gratefully took both and continued to pray.  I assumed because she had let us use her electricity and gone to the trouble of bringing out chairs from her home for all of us in the alley that she was from our church. I was wrong. Would you believe she wasn't from OUR church at all, but from the Baptist church just down the street?  I couldn't believe that a Baptist was helping ME an Assembly of God to minister in her neighborhood! Weird I tell you! Even weirder, in the end when we gathered to pray for the needs of those who gathered, she and others in the community were moved to tears and even joined us in prayer from their door stoops! Ministry happened right there in the middle of the street in the hot sun that day with people from different buildings!  

I find it funny now that I was so impacted by this in 1997 as a Bible college student and that I STILL can remember it so vividly.  As THE CHURCH this should be the norm to partner with others to help out when we can help out so that worshippers can be added to the kingdom even added to the building down the street!

I had heard it lots before, but I hadn't really seen it till that day when the Baptist lady handed me the water and chair from her home. The church isn't a building. It's not just held on Sundays. It's not a denomination. It's not a western concept or an eastern spirit. It's every man, woman, boy, and girl who has acknowledged their sinful state, repented of it, and accepted Jesus as their personal savior. 

I take great comfort when I take long road trips alone knowing that it's likely that someone from THE CHURCH lives nearby all along my route in the event of troubles, it's an immediate connection on an airplane to know that the person beside is me is going to be calling on the same God of the universe in the event of a nose dive! I've heard and made many complaints about "the Church," but truth of the matter is if there's a problem with the church we need to take it up with the person who uses our tooth brush.  If we're believers in Christ, then WE are the church, if repairs need to be made then call on the fixer Himself and place wear an "Under Construction" sandwich board for a few days till He's done what needs to be done! I'm sorry the church is in such a disarray, "He's still working on me."

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#TBT

I've decided now that I know how to work my scanner and found a tub of old pictures to participate in this trend of #TBT or Throw Back Thursday.

Today I will shame, I mean feature a few of my former students from the good'ole days of youth ministry in the brick building also known as Englehood, Englewood.

First we have the class of 2006.  (Photo taken in 2001 in case you missed the neon orange date!)

Where are they now:   4 are in full time ministry.  0 are in jail! Good Job Youth Pastor!
They're parenting at least 7 ninos currently! Congrats to Jake who just had twins!  3 artsy fartsy jobs
One runs the hotel industry and gets me great deals on nice rooms, couple teachers, one plays with ammunition, and the rest need to update their youth pastor and facebooks more often.

Fond Memories: This was the straight edge group. They looked a little crazy, but they wore big black Xs on their hands to signify no drugs or alcohol.  Jeffrey always carried around a picture of Kurt Cobain's obit in his wallet, and one time carried an 8x10 framed photo of him on a trip, Lauren used to worship trees during prayer times, when Benita was a kids camper I accidently made her cry because I skipped her when putting sunscreen on the other kids, I didn't know dark skinnded people could burn! Bob's real name really isn't Bob we named him that when he was 10 and lied about his age to come to youth.  Rachel one time shaved her head and put giraffe spots on it! And Ryan used to sit in the car and cry because he hated church! The difficult ones were always favorites! ;)

Worst Memory:  They were actually a great group, but one time on a trip several of us were in the hot tub at a hotel and Jeffrey threw something out, when we looked to see what it was it was his swimming trunks! Jeffrey then found himself alone in the hot tub.  I chose NOT to address the issue in the moment! Jeffrey was obviously a favorite.

Now the class of 2002:

Where are they now:  Probably off crying somewhere because they're all about to turn 30!!! We're like the same age now cool! 3 in full time ministry.  0 in jail! Again, great job to your youth pastor! They're parenting about 10 ninos! At least 1 teacher, she was probably inspired from being my TA for a year!  There's a rock star, a politician, and a professional hockey player in the bunch. And several that need to update their FBs and their YP more often.

Fond Memories:  Celebrating Beka the entire month of October every year Octobeka.  Chris' wife,  who is not pictured, her antics in general and her crush and shrine to her secret crush Pierce Brosnon, aka Chris Rosson.  Always being able to go to this class to get things done!!!  Crusin with Crissy after she beat cancer. And Casey hating me and letting me know it for at least 2 years before falling in love with me! Trying to corral Tim and company during rehearsals.

Worst Memories:  I had the privilege (impossible task) of teaching this crew my first year of teaching, one day I came in and they had locked a kid in the file cabinet, one day my stool and stand were missing, but later fell out of the tile ceiling, one day I was trying to teach and they were playing Marco Polo.  Ryan was a drummer ALL day long!  (it was deeply appreciated in chapel and service, but the rest of the time it drove me nuts.)

Thanks for all the good times kiddos! Always remember the rules! Rule #1 No Complaining Rule #2 Shut Up!

Hunger, Cravings, & Rose Colored Glasses

Funny things, hunger and cravings. Our appetites and our behaviors have quite the relationship.  Some people even struggle with life-controlling / altering issues because of the physical & psychological ties of these boogers. I didn't have a clue how MANY people struggled with this type of thing until I was a youth pastor.  We went on a retreat and I had a special speaker come in, we were having a time of prayer and the speaker says he feels led to pray for people struggling with eating disorders. I definitely believe the Holy Spirit gives us insight, but deep down I thought, this guy's just hungry, ain't nobody in here going to respond! To my humbling surprise about 2 dozen students came forward requesting prayer for their struggles with eating disorders!  I'll never forget it, not because of the response, but because the guest band we had in saw fit to go into a worship song called, "Hungry," which has a chorus mostly of, "We are hungry, Oh Jesus!" while we were praying with these kids about eating disorders! The speaker was obviously led by the Holy Spirit, the band, however, was NOT!

Sigh.  I learned A LOT from youth ministry.  It lead me to studying psychology where I learned us humans have LOTS of different kinds of appetites and it's our behavioral responses to them that can make our break us! Fast forward about 10 years.

It's Monday night.  Here at the 687 you can typically find us in sweaty work out clothes camped out on the couch eating steamed vegetables, fruit and cottage cheese, or a bowl of cereal and watching The Bachelorette.  (Put your gavel down Judge Judy! Judge not lest you be judged!)  I'm not sure what's sadder our viewing choice or our meals.  No, I DO know, it's our dinners because we laugh lots AT our program! I have to admit both are pretty BLAND though.

We're definitely sitting there CRAVING relationships with more sustenance than the ones playing out on the Bachelorette and food with more sustenance than the the stuff in our bowls.  As a matter of fact, you'll hear a lot of, "Oh my gosh I want Chinese food right now!" Or whispers of "Mmm chocolate cake!"  

Hunger and cravings are two different things.  Our bland meals take care of the hunger, but they don't do anything at all for the cravings.  According to It Starts with Food,  one of many books I've read and not applied, cravings are psychological and come from conditioning (our habits). In other words, you don't crave things you've never had.  Hunger is physical, cravings are emotional.  We were actually made to crave sweets (for energy), fats (for calories), and salt (to conserve fluid).  Our brains were hardwired to naturally give us pleasure and reward signals for these three things that are vital to our nutrition.  Smart people figured all that out.  Unfortunately smart people also figured out they could manufacture these tastes with stuff like MSG, corn syrup, fancy colors & all the other stuff found in the bag of M&Ms on my night stand, to stimulate my taste buds and induce cravings in our brains that in turn line their pocket books and my waistline.  But I digress, like I said before we have appetites and cravings for lots of things other than food and those too were naturally ingrained in us, but unfortunately the world has learned to manufacture, unhealthy crap for us to feed those appetites too. And then we're held captive by the cravings!

Rewind a few 1000 years.  My devotion was about the Israelites and God had just freed them from slavery in Egypt, 470 years of slavery to be exact.  You remember the story from the History Channel right?  The Egyptians killed their baby boys. They beat them and forced them to do hard labor.  God did lots of cool miracles to get them out of this terrible situation, like send plagues of boils and frogs on their enemies, part the read sea, and send manna down from heaven daily for them.

But in Numbers 11:4 says this, "The rabble with them began to CRAVE other food!!" And again the israelites starting wailing and said, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt AT NO COST- also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, and onions, and garlic.  but now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna.

At no cost?! They beat them, stole from them, forced them into hard labor, and killed their kids, but oh how we miss those cucumbers and garlic. How ridiculous do they sound, they even contemplated going BACK! It's like when my girlfriend calls and tells me she's really missing her EX and wants to go back to him and all I can remember from this Ex relationship are the long late night phone calls trying to make out her words between her sobs!!!

Idiots, huh?  Unfortunately we all do it too!  Because cravings are deceitful in that they come with rose-colored glasses.  Between youth ministry and my short time practicing as a therapist, I've sat across the room from many craving things from a past that they fought so hard to get out of or that robbed and beat them and nearly killed them.  Drugs, affairs, gangs, horrid relationships, bondage, but they sit with rose colored cravings and contemplate going BACK!

What's the point of all this?   There's too much counterfeit, manufactured junk taking up a lot of room in our lives where God wants to give us the good stuff, the real stuff, He wants to get us out of and far away from Egypt into the promised land.  Cravings are the crap part of John 10:10, what the enemy is using to steal from us, kill us, and what he's hoping to destroy us with.  When we finally fight our way away from these things whether they're bad relationships, twinkies, unforgiveness, bitterness, or crack cocaine; whatever it is that has us so tangled up, God will fill that new space and we get to find out what the good stuff is God had waiting for us all along.

Fight the cravings! Don't go BACK! Move forward! Freedom is available!
DISCLAIMER:  All cravings are conquerable unless they are for MnMs and Coca Cola!

Tales From the Road Part II: Cell Phone Theology

Like I mentioned before, when us missionaries go out itinerating we sometimes get 2 minutes and other times we get 2 days to describe our vision, our ministry, our heart for God. So we have to have something GOOD, something CATCHY. So, of course, in my Awesomeness I DID! And it worked ... ALMOST every time! (I need an emoticon that expresses my "deer in the headlights, oh no! What have I done?" face here!)

See I have two passions, missions and helping young people find their way.  My job gets to incorporate both:  I'm the Internship Director for an organization that does International Community Development.
So I was toying around with the word Development and my mind went to the good ole days where you took your roll of film into the Kroger and it was sent off to be developed and 2 weeks later you pick them up and what you see is what you get!

It's a 5th of water mom I promise! 8/15/94 night before
the start of our senior year! 

Even the Kroger process backfired on me one time! My mama, being wonderful as she is, went to pick up my developed photos from the Kroger while I was at school, and when I came home, my mama being as wonderful as she is, had put THIS particular photo on the fridge.  This was her, wonderful as she is, way of saying, "BUSTED!" My response, (I honestly don't remember!) but here's a good one:

"Hey mom! Chill out!  That's Julie, NOT me! I know that looks a lot like our den, but you can't really be sure we were the only people with dark brown shag carpeting and plus I was holding that film and that vodka for a friend!"

Anyway, back to my wonderful SPIRITUAL sermon illustration! I thought about how sad it is that most of our photos are sitting in the digital abyss of our cellular telephones never to grace our desks at work, or be framed or given to g'ma, even the incriminating ones aren't going to make it to the fridge. And some of them NEED to be developed, I mean, that one we took together where I hyper extended my neck just right so it looks like I only have one chin, and remembered to place my hand on my hip, thumb forward, and bend my knee just right and you looked hideous making me look like the pretty friend for once... THAT needs to be developed! Of course, some need to be deleted, like the 18 selfies you took when I left my phone unlocked and the ones my mama deems fit for the refrigerator!

So whether I had 2 min or 2 days, at every church I had them take our their cellular phones and go to their photos and scroll a bit. Then I took a poll to see who had the most photos on their phones- would you believe some people have over a THOUSAND photos sitting dormant in their phones?  I'm confident some of those mama's sitting by their teenagers leaned over and said, "Oh look! Here's one when you were a baby!" It was obvious that some of those photos needed to be developed. G'ma would've done backflips to get that picture in the mail and if that skinny pic was on the fridge you'd open it less.  And of course there were a few raised eyebrows, reddened faces,  and quick covering of the screen to shield the photos that obviously needed to be DELETED from brother or sister so in so sitting next to them in the pew!

So, what's so spiritual about dormant photos needing to be developed or deleted?

I explained that my interns come in like this too, with stuff in their lives laying dormant.  And some of it needs to be developed because like those photos it could benefit others.  God created them uniquely with gifts and talents and quirks that need to shine to illuminate their creator.  And on the field, working in the hot sun, praying with a man dying of AIDS, teaching children about Jesus who were once victims of the sex trade industry, these things lay dormant no more, but are are developed and shine "bright like a diamond." And on the flip side, each and every one of them come in with things that need to be deleted! And on the field, taking cold bucket showers, worshiping with the Massai warriors, living in community, spending daily time with their Creator, it lays dormant no more, taking up the space that God wants to fill with His presence, those things get deleted!

We're no different than our telephones or those interns:  There are things laying dormant in our lives right now that need to be pulled out and developed or that need to be thrown out and deleted!

Powerful right? ALMOST every time! Except in that one little church in the country where I said pull out your smart phones and NO BODY, not even the teenagers moved!  #Humbled

Disclaimer:  Illustration only works in places where the people have smart phones with photo taking capabilities, however, fortunately the grace of power of God works in the back woods of TN all the way to the Massai desert of Kenya, Africa.