Learning Thai

In case you wondered where Eliza and Tom went on their trip...
The Reachers are out of town for a few weeks getting a little "outside of Bangkok" exposure. Tom is going along for part of the time to help them get around. They are starting out by crossing into Laos (visa run) and they will be spending a little time there learning from some EMM workers in Pakse. Then they will spend some time in Northeastern Thailand visiting more workers there as well as Piak (formerly of our church group here in Bangkok). Tom and Eliza come back on the overnight train on Wednesday while the Reachers will stay in Ubon for another 10 days to stay in host homes and learn about Isaan life and culture. Pray for safety, protection from illness, and for good learning experiences for everyone.
If you think of Claire this week, please pray for her exams. While I'm trying not to put a lot of pressure on, these tests are very important and we are working hard and studying a lot. Thanks for remembering her!
-Candice

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 03:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Claire wants you to meet her favorite birthday gift....ta..da...Mabel....

A girl and her guinea pig

Mabel ♥ carrots

Claire says we have to include Lambie too...after all, it's his 8th birthday too.

C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Claire's eighth birthday celebrations have been spread over two days this year, since Tom and Eliza had to leave on a trip the night before her birthday. Saturday was full of birthday surprises from a string leading from her bedroom door to a guinea pig cage and fulfilling one of her big dreams of riding a horse....here are a few peeps....

she's 8!

watercolor paper chains painted by the kids

it's always been her dream to ride a horse!

learning

"sit smart, look ahead far, back straight, lock your knees, kick your heels"

doing it alone

hay play

still kid enough for this!

continuing the horse theme

birthday supper....Eliza and Daddy are leaving on the train soon....

and one to grown on!

birthday, day two. rainbow pancakes

Next up: her favorite gift!

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Within the past month there have been some very exciting developments that are keeping us busy - but also causing us to praise God for what He is doing! We've gone through plenty of times here in Thailand where it feels like little is happening in the church, so it's a real blessing to encounter a time of sudden growth in our group. Here is a brief update on several lives that are being changed by God.

Our landlord, Seri, after not showing much interest for quite a while, has recently renewed his enthusiasm for studying the Bible. We met a couple of weeks ago, along with Wana, a Thai believer. At that meeting we read through the story of the prodigal son. I asked Seri if he would be willing to share that story with the larger group since he is an entertaining storyteller. He agreed and last night did just that. He told it dramatically and included a very clear proclamation that God is our father - waiting with open arms to welcome back his sinful children. He openly told the group that he has not yet decided to follow Jesus, but he said that all of us will come to that point of deciding what to do! Seri seemed to enjoy the experience and mentioned that if he keeps studying then he'll be able to tell more stories and tell them better.

I've also recently started studying the Bible with Lan. He is a childhood friend of Pon (our friend who is now studying in Vientiane). Pon recently talked with Lan about God and was surprised to learn that Lan was very open to learning more. He was having some serious marital problems and as he prayed he felt a change in his heart and outlook on life. Pon introduced Lan to our group and he has quickly begun to grow in his faith. He works as a security guard in Bangkok and has been coming to our house on Sundays to study. He is learning quickly and is experiencing God's joy. He has been sharing with another friend, Kamani, who is also having marital problems. Yesterday he brought Kamani along to our meeting and Kamani invited a third friend, Gaew. I have no idea what will happen from here - but I'm excited to find out!

Por is a young man who studies at the university with Efrain and Nixson. He was recently baptized and spends a lot of time with Efrain and Nixson - both studying the Bible and interacting with them in day-to-day life. Recently they invited me to begin a more in-depth Bible study with him. He's really wanting to learn more and they need to continue focusing on their other friends (and their studies!) Por is a good student and very hungry to learn more about God. I've been very encouraged by the way he is already exercising his faith - believing that God has a good plan for him and that his future will be secure in God.

We certainly invite you to pray for these friends. And join us in praising God for what he is doing!

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 02:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Miss Eliza all dressed up in Thai costume ready to march in the Kindergarten parade.

With other cuties from her school.

Left, right, left! (That's her teacher on the right, Kruu Nouwen).

Good job, E!

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have been so amazed at the work of God in the first two months of this year! He has really blown us away! From new Bible studies, to quickly having the foundation approved by the government, we see His hands in everything- smoothing the way and furthering his kingdom. How exciting to watch!!

The newest development is that we can finally switch from tourist visas and temporary visas which require us to leave the country often, to a work permit and business visa that only requires us to check in at the government office and doesn't require us to leave. This has been a prayer request for years now- that we could get a more permanent type of visa- so we are praising God so much for this answer! Tom received his work permit to work for the foundation, and we have our new visas in process!!

Tom shows off his brand new work permit! The suit is fake (photoshopped)- haha.

-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Our lucky kids were the happy recipients of a special surprise box for valentine's day!! The excitement around here was off the charts. The lovely Aunt Bernie and Uncle Don and sweet cousins Melinda and Diana did a fabulous job of choosing things our kids would be crazy about!

Claire reads the card (and we all look at a picture of Uncle Don and Aunt Bernie on the computer so we make sure we know who it's from!!).

Excitedly digging in.

All together now: THANK YOU AUNT BERNIE AND FAMILY!

These sock monkeys were a huge hit- especially with Silas- he has been playing with them constantly and wants to sleep with all three every night. He named them (ALL) Bunky. So he says, "Where's Bunky? Where's Abby's Bunky." It started as a mispronunciation of monkey and stuck. :)

We've been wanting so see this movie ever since we heard of it! Sadly, it never came to the theater in Thailand! Thank you- just perfect!

We loved the candy lips!

The other great thing was that the box included treats for friends. Claire loved taking the kitten/puppy valentine's to school and giving her friends the tatoos and candy. The other girls were fascinated by the tatoos and had Claire help them put them on at the school water fountain. A big hit! Eliza also loved handing hers out at school and got some heart stickers on her shirt in return.

Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness and love for our kids! They enjoyed the box so much!!

love, Candice for all of us

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There is nothing my girls like more than pretending....so I got in on the action for Valentine's Day by surprising them with "Mommy's Diner" waiting in the living room before school. I played the part of waitress with apron and order pad.

Claire ordering from the menu. I had fun making heart shaped french toast, pink drinks, hard boiled eggs and sweet treats. Their gift was the plants on the table (we'll see if they can keep them alive!) and some cute keychains to decorate their backpacks. It was a fun way to start the day for all of us!

Tom and I had a little lunch out here in Thippawan with Silas as our date. He got REALLY into helping give us give each other gifts. :) I love my new necklace from Laos!

Later, the kids were treated to a fabulous dinner by the Reachers and got some great valentine's treats (lots of candy!) from our team mates. We are so lucky that our kids have such great grown-up friends! Meanwhile, Tom and I enjoyed a night out on the town and all the fun concerts and decorations in the city.

I love you, Tom!!!

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This year we decided to make painted "color theory" valentines for our friends. The annual tradition at our house is that Tom and I go out on a date on Valentine's Day and the Reachers come over to babysit and to make a meal for the singles on the team. We are looking forward to our night out and everyone else is looking forward to the party!
The girls made these gifts for our team-mates. How-to found here.

We'll share a few more of our Valentine's activities later. Enjoy your day! Love from us!

-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are starting to get used to this end-of-the-school-year cycle of parades and shows and dances at the girls' schools. Eliza has a parade and sports day this week and Claire's school's big show was last week. Here she is in her costume (hair by Trudi!) ready to perform.

The dances were pretty cute and in huge variety of styles including this one with ninjas. :)

And fireworks! (along with the typcial dinner of duck, chicken, fish, fried rice, soup, Chinese style).

There was a huge crowd of about 6,000 parents- and this was only one of two shows!

Claire dances. The music started early, so all the kids got a little confused, but recovered well. Claire was sad that things didn't go perfectly but cheered up after we got some lime drinks on the way home and assured her that we were very proud of her!

-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We had our first parent/teacher conference at Claire's school last week. As usual, we had little to no idea what was going on and based on the letter they sent home we got the time wrong, so missed most of the teachers. Sigh. This is starting to feel pretty typical. We are the parents who are out of it! From the weekly art supplies we are supposed to send to what she should study for her Chinese test, communication is a challenge!!

This is Claire's favorite teacher, Master Bekosh. At this conference we found out that he is actually a medical doctor from Nepal. We are feeling pretty lucky that Claire got to have him for her science teacher. He makes her laugh a lot and she knows the body systems forwards and backwards!

Claire has teachers of quite a few nationalities in addition to Thai. Mr. Ashley is British and is one of the reasons that she uses words like waste bin instead of trashcan. :)

Claire in her classroom.
Claire has been working hard in school recently. She had a Chinese test this week and now seems to be making real progress. She is getting ready for her final exams in just a few weeks. She is also practicing every day for a dance that she will participate in this Friday night. She also tells us lots of funny stories from school. One I love is about how after dance practice the teachers pour sprite into a giant bowl on the floor and give all the kids straws. Everyone kneels around the bowl to suck up their share. It's a mental image that makes me laugh every time! :)

We are thankful for Claire's school! And thankful she's a happy kid who loves her school! Now if we can just get those multiplication tables memorized by exam time!
-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 07:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

When I saw this picture of Claire laying on Eliza's lap in the taxi, it reminded me of a picture from our first year here when Claire was singing to Eliza and holding her in a taxi. Our girls are growing up!!

Feb, 2011

Dec, 2006

-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Both girls had off for Chinese New Year this year- it was fun to have a relaxing day at home. We didn't do any big celebration but did break out some sparklers after dark which all three loved.

We also went to the Chinese New Year party at our library on Saturday. They had a story time with a New Year theme, a craft (masks), face painting and a dragon dance.

Paintings of rabbits for year of the rabbit in the art gallery.

Silas was pretty thrilled to accept an orange from the dragon's mouth!

-C

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 08:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thai Buddhism teaches about a variety of hells that await people who sin in this life. There are varying levels of hell and certain sins result in very specific punishments. Many temples have paintings or sculptures depicting these scenes of punishment. I saw this one at the Xiang Thong temple in Luang Prabang. It's the punishment for adulterers - they will be forced to climb up and down a thorny tree, pecked by birds when they get to the top and bitten by dogs if they reach the ground.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The kids model the hill tribe pajamas that I brought back from Laos.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We ended our trip to the north in Chiang Rai. We looked at more coffee sources and left with a tentative agreement to work with an existing ministry there to export a small shipment of coffee in the near future. The plan is for our foundation to be involved in a limited capacity (like a middle man to handle funds, etc.). This will give us some income, but will not divert our focus from Bangkok/Samut Prakan. Our partners in Chiang Rai will handle sourcing and quality control.

We had several good meetings with friends there and spent a lot of time discussing contextualization and development issues. We also bounced up the rough road to the top of Doi Chaang and visited a coffee farmer.

Here is the small coffee co-op that is one possible source of green coffee beans for this venture. There is a group of approximately 30 farmers that produces roughly 200,000 kilograms of coffee per year.

Our host served us coffee that was grown, processed, and roasted right there on the mountain.

He also grows macadamia nuts. Here they are still on the tree. After the nut ripens it falls off the tree and the green hull splits open. Inside is a very hard shell, with the eatable part inside of that. I understand now why they are so expensive! I bought some to bring home and the kids love them - especially since we have to pound them with a hammer!

At the top of Doi Chaang (Elephant Peak)

On our last morning there we visited a tea processing plant. We got a tea brewing/pouring demonstration and sampled a variety of teas. The ministry we're working with in Chiang Rai already grows tea and is looking for new markets, so the business group is also investigating possibilities for helping with that.

I came home tired out but excited about what we had seen. It was very encouraging to travel with this group and to see more of what is already happening in this part of the world. We certainly saw some of the challenges of combining business and ministry - but we also saw the potential.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On our way from Luang Prabang to Chiang Rai we spent a few hours in Chiang Mai to meet with our foundation's lawyer and to pick up the framed license from the Thai government! After we returned to Bangkok the business team met with the foundation board and we had a good time of brainstorming about ways for the foundation to begin interacting with our community. We have a lot of work to do now! We were all grateful for the timing of these events. That the business group could be here for the licensing and official board meeting was an answer to prayer.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Our purpose for going to Luang Prabang was to visit Saffron Coffee. We were very impressed with this operation - they plant their own coffee, give the young plants to the farmers, buy the cherries back from the farmers, process and roast the beans, then sell the coffee in their shop! And all of this is done in a way that promotes economic development for poor farmers and also promotes Kingdom values. Small groups are being started in remote mountain villages because of their influence.

Coffee sprouts.

Our friend Pon had a school break that coincided perfectly with the team's visit, so they invited him to accompany us on the trip. We enjoyed his company and it was a great chance for him to make good connections with the business group and with other believers in Laos and Thailand.

David, Saffron Coffee's founder, took us to visit a Hmong village where some of his coffee is being grown. We took a long, bumpy ride up a mountain to get there.

A number of farmers are growing small plots of coffee and as the market expands more of them will be able to convert this into a full-time job. Here a small batch of coffee is drying in the sun.

It was encouraging to see what is happening in Luang Prabang. This whole venture is still in the early stages, but they have expansion plans and hope to continue finding more markets for their coffee. We were blessed by the fellowship and by the natural beauty of God's creation in that part of the world.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Last week I went to Laos and northern Thailand with a team from the Rosedale Business Group. We were investigating possibilities for exporting coffee as one way of funding our newly-licensed foundation. This was my first trip to Luang Prabang and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A whole section of the old city has been designated as a World Heritage Site and because of that a lot of money has gone into restoring and maintaining the old buildings (from the French colonial era). It's very touristy - but still very beautiful.

Here are a few pictures....

A hairy tree on the banks of the Mekong

The Xiang Thong temple

Every morning hundreds of monks walk out to collect alms. It's become a big tourist attraction - lots of people taking picture and lots of tourists lined up to make merit by giving food to the monks.

-Tom

Posted by Tom & Candice Mast at 10:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)