Learning Thai

The next few weeks will see us away from home more often than not. Early tomorrow morning Candice and I are leaving for a visa-renewal/vacation trip to Hong Kong. Since the kids don’t need to keep their visas updated we’re going to take advantage of the great babysitters on the REACH team and enjoy this rare chance to travel by ourselves. We’ve done a little research and made hotel reservations, but we really don’t know much about Hong Kong and we’re looking forward to exploring someplace totally new.

We’ll get back from Hong Kong late Wednesday night, have a few days to recover and re-pack, and then our whole family will head to Chiang Mai on Sunday morning. We’ll be participating in a ten-day retreat for workers in Asia organized by the Heartsteam Ministry. At the end of that time we’re adding on a quick trip to Chiang Rai to continue working on the potential coffee business that we’d like to see started here.

We’re looking forward to this change of pace and I think that all of these trips should be refreshing and enjoyable in their own way. But of course we would also appreciate your prayers for safety and sanity during this busy time!

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We thought our kid blog readers might like to see the Thai version of the alphabet song. Our kids love it and can watch it over and over on Youtube.

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 12:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Saturday we had a fun "family date" in the city. We've mostly stayed out of Bangkok as a family since Silas was born- first of all because Silas was too little for a big adventure, then we were in the States, and after that there was so much violence and unrest in that area, that we stayed away for safety. Now that Silas is older and things are calm again, we are looking forward to doing more exploring of the city as a family. Our first field trip/adventure was to the Bangkok Art and Culture Museum- a free modern art museum in the downtown area. Silas loved riding the skytrain down there. He kept saying "Up here! Up here!"

Here's a little photo tour for you...

We really liked this series on ordinary home life in Thailand.

Trying for a new perspective.

Painting of a typical BKK bus.

Claire and Eliza were very serious about posing for their sketch portrait.

Silas's portrait drawing attracted a crowd. This guy was really talented!

Mesmerizing

In a window (Baiyoke tower and skytrain tracks in background).

We ended our family date at Duke's Express, our new favorite hamburger place.

-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 01:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Amazing Dad Award. In recognition of ....

1) Hours of reading Chronicles of Narnia, Farmer Boy, etc.

2) Sunday afternoons at the playground.

3) Countless games of horsie, doggie, adoption agency, etc!

4) Running errands on the motorcycle...and taking a kid along.

5) Teaching Silas words from his animal flashcards like peacock and firefly.

6) Helping the girls learn Science and Thai.

7) Being a great partner in parenting.

8) "Daddy, thank you for taking me for breakfasts at the Noodle Shop. When I'm alone with you, it makes me feel special, you know? I like going out on dates with you." - Claire

9) "Daddy, thank you for playing babies with us. I like when you feed us good stuff like gummy bears and you tell us it's our food. I like when you give us pretend spankings. It's funny and it makes me happy." - Eliza

10) And a 100 other things we could name, like providing for us and taking us on family adventures..... ♥ Our kids are incredibly blessed to have a dad like you.

Awesome Dad Award. In recognition of...

1) Motorcycle rides

2) Coloring in coloring books with me.

3) Getting us calves.

4) Building a playhouse and painting the roof purple.

5) Reading the books I read as a teenager and talking about them.

6) Teaching me to drive in the Weavers parking lot.

7) Trips to PA- eating at Hardees and McGuffy readers.

8) Teaching us to garden- ie: how to tell the difference between a carrot top and a weed/ how to stake a tomato.

9) Dinner table discussions and family devotions.

10) Walking me down the aisle.

I love you Dad! Candice

Terrific Dad Award. In recognition of...

1) Bringing home candy fireballs.

2) Taking me fishing at Abbot's Mill Pond.

3) Taking me out for one-on-one breakfasts.

4) Family reading- Chronicles of Narnia, Old Yeller, Uncle Tom's Cabin

5) Working as a family in the pepper patch and the phrase "look at the big picture" when we complained. Leading to the rewards of work....

6) Basketball court and trip out West.

7)Teaching me to shoot with a bb gun.

8)Teaching me how to drive stick shift.

9) Taking us hunting and camping.

10) Your example of practical service to others.

I love you Dad, Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

For a while last year we hosted a weekly time of prayer and Bible study at our house. The attendance fluctuated erratically but for a while we seemed to have some momentum. However some people moved away, others lost interest and we eventually discontinued the meetings, figuring that we’d try again after our three months in the States. Well, we’ve been slow in restarting these but have lately felt like it was time to do that. At our first meeting only our family showed up, so we prayed and read the Bible with the kids. But last night, at our second meeting, our landlord, Lung Seri, joined us. He was one of the original members of the Bible study but had excused himself after a number of months because of trouble he was having with his eye. We weren’t sure what he was thinking about God during this interval, but last night he seemed to come back to the Bible with the same level of interest. We read part of Psalm 16 and talked about how God’s presence is always with us, how He is the provider of all good things in our lives, how He prompts our conscience to convict us of sin.

Studying the Bible with Lung Seri in Thai is always interesting. Unfortunately there is no recent Thai translation of the Thai Old Testament – and some of the language is unnecessarily difficult. Lung Seri cares a lot about the way sentences sound. When a simple truth is well-written it really connects with him and he appreciates the wisdom and beauty of those. Other times he is confused by the wording or tells me that it would sound a lot better to Thai people if it were written slightly differently. So last night we went through Psalm 16 a couple of times with Lung Seri making suggestions for improvement along the way and checking to make sure I thought that these revisions of scripture were appropriate.

It was very encouraging to us to read and pray with him. He is still on the path towards Jesus and we’re glad for every opportunity we have to share that journey with him. We are also grateful for his friendship to us and our children. He’s our “Thai Grandpa” and does a great job of paying special attention to the kids. Last night he sat on the floor with Silas and played with his animal flashcards. And just like a real grandparent he was very impressed with how many animals Silas could name and kept congratulating him on being so smart.
Thanks for joining us in praying for Lung Seri and for our Monday evening prayer times. If any you want to pray at the same time we do that would be great. For most of you that ill be every Monday at 8:00 a.m. (Eastern Daylight Savings Time.)

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Recently there has been a minor uproar in the Thai news over the government's plan to widen a road leading into one of the country's most important national parks. This was being done in the name of public safety and necessitated the removal of a number of large trees. When the trees started to fall a movement sprang up to protest the damage to the environment and landscape. It's a typical conflict that I'm sure exists world-wide - the interests of business and development versus the desire to protect natural resources and beauty. But in this Buddhist country the green groups have an added force on their side - tree ordination.

A ceremony has been developed that allows trees to be "ordained' in much the same way that Buddhist monks are. This invests the tree with special status and will protect it from the chainsaws. According to an article in the Thai version of Wikipedia the ordained tree is also believed to protect the surrounding trees and to help ensure that their will be rainfall according to the season.

I asked one of my English students about this and he confirmed that it is a legitimate ceremony that can effectively halt tree removal. But he also pointed out that it's not completely foolproof since there is also a ceremony for un-ordaining trees!

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:11 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

When we started homeschooling Claire full time, we made it a goal to try to find her some outside classes in music, art, and dance so that she can learn some things that we can't teach and also meet Thai kids her age. She recently started the first class, an art class on the weekends here in Thippawan. She seems to be really enjoying the new drawing and painting technique that she is learning and also spending time with some new kids. Pray that she can make connections and friends in her class. She's also been taking a weekly art class with Reacher Dani and loves that. She always asks about when Dani is coming again.

A creation from her first class.

Learning about the color wheel with Dani.

The "art line" where we hang up her art efforts.

Next up, a field trip to the Bangkok Art and Culture Center.

-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of my birthday wishes for my 34th birthday on Monday was a fish massage. I have been wanting to try one for a long time as I keep seeing signs around town and couldn't imagine what a fish massage would be like! :) We found a place here in our neighborhood that has a little spa area in the upstairs of their house (now mostly defunct. They appeared to be more or less out of business, but still kindly let us use the fish tank). The Thai name for the fish is gala (google says they are small carp??) and they nibble the dry/dead skin from your feet. The fish were maybe two inches long and there were hundreds of them in the stone tank. They swarmed to Tom, so apparently he has the most dry skin on his feet. :) I would say the sensation is like when your foot falls asleep and then wakes up prickly- it's very ticklish- a bit like a mild electrical shock too. It took a little getting used to but them felt pretty relaxing.

We also got to meet the family's pet parrot and Claire made good friends with him (Eliza was terrified after her run-in with our neighbor's parrot!).

Thanks for all the birthday notes and mail! It was a great one!
-love, Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)