Only Real When Shared
Thursday, August 26, 2010
9:21 pm
Tonight, I watched one of my favorite movies for probably the tenth time: Into the Wild. I've been trying to abstain from forms of entertainment that keep me from spending time with others, but I've been feeling like I needed to watch this again for a few days now. Also, I have never watched this movie for pure entertainment. It's always been an important reminder of many lessons that I think our generation is in dire need of learning.
For those that haven't seen the movie, it's based on the true story of Christopher McCandless who, after graduating from Emory University in 1990, destroyed all proof of his identity and set out to live in the wild. He hitchhiked all over the United States from Mexico to Alaska where he died in 1992 (I didn't give a spoiler warning, because I think most people should know going into this film that it ends tragically).
I think this film shows beauty in living a life of absolute simplicity in a very special way. You understand completely how someone, especially with Chris's background could fall in love with life alone in the wild. There is beauty to be found everywhere, the way God intended it and whenever I watch this movie I am reminded of many things, which I will try to summarize in two main categories.
LESSON 1:
BEAUTY IN SIMPLE, UNDISTURBED NATURE
I think that the evil one has done a great job at keeping us distracted. When radios, and televisions started trickling into homes of families across the world, some people resisted, thinking they were no good and of the devil. Sometimes I don't think they were far from being wrong. I don't think radios and TVs were inspired by Satan, but I think he's found a way to keep our attention on worldly illusions and reset our priorities. Even here in Bangkok, television and video games have a strong hold on much of the city's population. Even so, with the poverty and cultural differences, life is much simpler here. I have to explain to nearly everyone I stay with that I don't really know how to cook much, because in America, most of us don't cook every meal. Sometimes, we hardly ever cook our own food. I tell them that for some reason, we are just too busy and even if we wanted to, probably wouldn't have the time. Here, most families cook every single meal. It takes some time too, but they are in no rush. The families I have stayed with rise with the sun and wait for people from the community to come for English lessons or Bible studies. Appointments are considered by many, a Western invention.
Whenever I watch Into the Wild, I am always captivated by the beautiful imagery that is taken of undisturbed nature. Even in this world of sin, that sin is not powerful enough to reach the awesome wonders of God's creation. And it's so simple; it usually goes unnoticed, right beneath our noses.
LESSON 2:
THE VALUE OF RELATIONSHIP
In the movie, Chris meets many people along the way who cannot resist falling in love with him and his spirit. They all want him to stay, but he insists he is looking for something that he can only find alone. In the movie's portrayal, as he is dying of starvation he struggles to jot down the one thing he had realized too late, "happiness [is] only real when shared". This brings a few things to my attention. If you think about it, relationship is the very reason we were created. Many search for the meaning of life. I believe we as Christians can confidently say that meaning is relationship. Consider Chris's dying statement as a fact. If it is true, then God could only have happiness if there were some other living thing other than Himself to share it with. Now, of course, there is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but they are also one. So this "One" still needs more. There are the angels and other heavenly creations that we do not know about, but as the Bible tells us, He created us with choice, so that our love could be real. This would mean that we are God's creation so together with Him we could share happiness. Here on Earth we have many people we can choose from to share happiness with, but God is the one who deserves it and has the most to share. It is still important for us to have relationships among ourselves, but God should be right there with us. It's too bad that Chris discovered this only as he was dying and it's a tragedy that so many were waiting his return, eager to share happiness with him. I think like them, God eagerly awaits our return so we can all be happy with Him for eternity. We should cherish those around us, sharing happiness everywhere we go! After all, I believe, it's what we were created for.
If you haven't seen Into the Wild, I highly recommend it. Be warned, there is a good bit of language and nudity (though none of it is in a sexual context). It's not always easy to watch, especially the end of the film, which is incredibly heartbreaking. I still think there are many strong spiritual lessons that are very important in our present state and time. Over all, I think it's one of the most morally and spiritually sound films to come out of Hollywood.
Where I've Been
August 25, 2010
11:46 pm
So, it's been a while since my last post. I spent six days at the church plant in Bangkoknoi and got to hear lots of inspiring stories and met some amazing people. I'm now at the church plant in Nonthaburi. It was a bit of an awkward start again, but the people are friendly here as well and eager to make me feel at home. They have no air conditioning here either and their shower is a barrel of water with a cup. It's not always easy to get accustomed to these different accommodations (I spent a good three to five minutes trying to figure out the toilet, which was basically a porcelain tray in the ground), but it's always an adventure! It's a little intimidating, but once I have conquered each new thing, it's not bad at all. It's my first time using a mosquito net at night as well. There are a lot more people who speak English here! I will only be here until Friday and then I am supposed to finally have an apartment! However, I probably won't have this posted until I am back at TAM since my laptop is unable to connect to the internet here. It hasn't been bad roaming from house to house and I will still be visiting church plants. It will be nice, though, to have a home base so I don't have to tote all of my stuff everywhere I go.
I'm still doing well. My spirits have been a little down lately, but I think it's just because everyone is getting to Southern this week. There has been stress with the equipment and learning to adapt to the different living conditions. I'm still having fun though and God is showing me new things every day! It helps a lot to hear back from everyone, so thank you all for your comments and notes of encouragement! I wish I could more accurately give you all an idea of what it's like here. I'm going to start posting videos and will probably have the first one or two up to accompany this post. Thanks for reading and God bless!
A New (Temporary) Home
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
8:16 pm
Today was my first day at the church plant in Bangkok Noi. Pastor Doug drove me and we arrived around noon. It was a little awkward at first. I ended up taking a nap, because nothing really happens around here until nighttime. It is a very poor community and everyone is out working during the day. I'm staying with a very friendly Indian pastor named Sudhakar. He is married to a Thai named Challim. They have a two-year-old bundle of joy named Lily. A local mother brought her two daughters here tonight. She and her older daughter are going to be baptized in September. Challim told me they wanted to talk to me, but didn't know how to start. I told her I didn't either. I sat in as the mother talked to Sudhakar and eventually I became the topic of conversation. She told me in English that I had beautiful eyes. Eventually we started talking with Challim's help. They wanted to know why I was only staying for one week (I may actually only stay until Sunday). Even though I've only met a few people, they all want me to stay. I'm not used to others having so much interest in me. There is a backwards prejudice here in Thailand (and most of Asia), where white people are looked on as upper class. And it's true, my family would be in the upper class if we lived here. It's strange, because I'm not used to being automatically accepted by others just because I'm white.
We had great Indian food! Sudhakar made chapati, which is similar to naan just a little thicker. As Lily ate her dinner, about every other minute she would turn to me, shoot me a thumbs up and say, "Yummy!" Then, she would wait for me to give her a thumbs up in return and repeat "Yummy!" to her. Sudhakar tried to do it back to her and she extended her little arm, made a dismissing gesture to him, and said, "Sit down!" then looked to me to give her a thumbs up. We had a good long laugh about that.
I was nervous about coming to stay here. It is hotter inside than it is outside. They have air conditioning, but leave it off, because they are struggling to pay their bills. They do have some fans, which help, but I'm still sweating most of the time. It doesn't really bother me that much though. I used to complain at home whenever mom and dad would keep the air conditioning high to save power, but maybe that's helping me be okay with how hot it is here. It's pretty interesting to think that maybe God was training me a little for when I would come here! It's still a little awkward, but for being the first night, things are going much better than I expected! It's always the people. Everywhere I go they are so kind and friendly, and only want to make me feel comfortable. They have all really touched my heart and I can feel God's love radiating through them. I'm so thankful for this experience and the idea of staying longer doesn't seem so bad any more!
***If you want to see a picture of Challim and Lily, they were featured in my August 14 post "A Jealous God"***
A Great Day for Pics!
Sunday, August 15, 2010
8:15 pm
If there was one day worth bringing my iPhone to take pictures, today probably would have been it. Unfortunately, it was the one day I decided not to. It was raining when I woke up this morning around 7:30. Pastor Doug's front lawn was flooded. Actually, all the front lawns were flooded--a regular occurrence as I am told. The plan was that in the afternoon, I would help Shannon, the charismatic Australian who does various video projects around Bangkok, shoot an episode for his vegetarian cooking show. I was told as soon as I moseyed on down the stairs that plans had changed. He now wanted to go at 8:00 am and shoot two episodes! I did the morning routine on double speed and got in the taxi 30 minutes later.
We returned to that Buddhist temple from yesterday where just outside is a whole soi of vegetarian restaurants. We had spoken to a lady at one of them the day before and she had convinced Shannon to return. She and a couple other ladies sat us down and immediately started bringing us some kind of spinach-pumpkin soup. It was very good! They also brought us some kind of drink, which I held in my one free hand. We weren't at a table, so I had to hold what I had. They also brought us a second soup to try (chunks of pumpkin in a coconut milk broth). My hands were full and as I was trying to decide how to handle this sudden flood of soups, I lost focus on the (very green) soup in my right hand. The contents of which proceeded to pour into my lap. All I could do was wait for the women to bring towels as I played the clumsy foreigner. I cleaned my shorts as best I could, but could not destroy the illusion that I had just had a diarrhea explosion. A great start for any first day on a shoot!
The rest of the day actually went quite well. We struggled through some footage at the restaurants near the temple, then, by noon took a taxi to our next location--May Kaidee's Vegetarian Restaurant. As soon as we arrived, we were given two plates of complimentary spring rolls. One plate was fried; the other was cold. They were delicious! Now, May Kaidee is a very special lady. As we told her we would need about twenty minutes to set up, she replied, "It's ok, I'm ready anytime. I'm beautiful all the time, so no hurry." She then continued to tell us how she was no stranger to the camera. Apparently we weren't the first cooking show to pay her a visit. She told us Dominic Monaghan, from The Lord of the Rings and Lost, had even paid a visit to her restaurant. We had a great time filming her. About half way through, she decided to dress the American host in a Thai getup. It consisted of a bright and shiny gold shirt, some kind of head wrap, and another piece of material he had a hard time defending as not being a skirt. May had him dancing and singing along with her. We filmed them cooking three different dishes twice each (once in English, then in Thai). After each take, we got to eat the product! All the dishes were fantastic!
It was a great day and the stains on my shorts have turned bright yellow, so now it just looks like a highlighter burst in my pocket or something. Josh was kind enough to clean all the junk from the ceiling in my office as I've been writing this! In a couple days, I will be going to the church plant in Bangkok Noi to collect and document stories, so I may or may not be online for three to four days. Thanks for reading and commenting! I miss you all!
...but I'm not gonna lie... I'm having a blast! Sorry there are no pictures this time.
A Jealous God
Saturday, August 14, 2010
6:27 pm
This weekend, we've been taking a couple Adventist Mission directors to church plants. As we were scurrying this morning to get our gear together to meet up with them, I ran inside my office to grab a hard drive when I saw that a portion of a ceiling tile had collapsed. I looked at the dirt and wood covering everything on my desk (including my laptop). To my relief, everything was dry and nothing was damaged. I only had time to move my laptop, before I had to run back out the door to get in the car.
We continued with our schedule and got to visit a couple other church plants. After lunch, we got to stop by a Buddhist temple. It was absolutely beautiful! It actually wasn't a building. Instead, it was a serene garden that felt like a small secret forest hidden in the city. In the center was a 20-foot waterfall! It was so incredibly peaceful, I felt embarrassed that we noisy Americans were intruding. I think that we as Christians, who have the secret to true peace, could learn a thing or two from the Buddhists.
After supper, I returned to my office to clean up the mess and make sure everything was okay. For some reason, I kept thinking about the part of the second commandment where God says that He is a jealous God. I thought about it for a while and realized I had skipped my devotional time yesterday. I don't think God was punishing me and had the ceiling collapse on my computer because I had skipped my devotions. In fact, on the contrary, I think He saved my computer to point something out to me. He is watching out for me here in Bangkok. I've given the next nine months to His service, but I owe Him the time that is His daily. Everyday I see Him revealed in some way and I know that He wants to speak to me. The very least I can do is listen.
The rectangular shape in front of the chair is where my laptop was
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