As I was reserving an airline ticket online, I came to the page to enter my details. The “prefix” options were: MR MS MRS MONK In all my seven years of reserving airline tickets online in Thailand, I hadn’t encountered this option before. Buddhist monks have specific restrictions as part of their religious beliefs and activities (or non-activities, as the case may be). One requirement […]
Run Forward
Sometimes people ask me for advice as they want to start running. The best advice I received when I started running is what I pass along to others: Run forward. Of course people usually run forward, as it takes a lot of concentration and different muscles to run backward. But the point is to put all your effort into moving forward. Too many runners run […]
Which Street Dog in Thailand Are You?
In Thailand, street dogs are common. For the most part they don’t have owners or collars, and some don’t have much fur either. Thai people believe they can earn merit towards good karma by feeding the dogs, so for the most part street dogs do have food, and in the winter they mysteriously end up with a shirt on, to bear the brutal Thai winter […]
Brain Connections — Random or Not?
Have you ever seen a certain thing and immediately thought of something else? I’m sure you have. Our brains make connections and associate one thing with others from our memories, knowledge, and experiences. Sometimes the sudden thought makes sense to us — I see a cake for sale and remember that my mom’s birthday is coming up. Sometimes the association is absurd and I wonder […]
Thanks, No Thanks Google Maps
I use Google Maps frequently. Maybe every day. But here in Thailand—is it this way in America?—I have to take Google Maps with a grain of salt. What looks like a road on Google might not be a road in real life. A restaurant or shop might be on the other side of the street, or a block down, or across town. Once on a […]
Meet my running club!
We had a race last Sunday – the Mae Moh Half Marathon and 10k. My friend Jocelyn, who’s in Thailand for a month helping in Lampang and Chiang Mai, came back to run with us. I hang out with my running club 3 or 4 times a week. More on that later. They are great friends and have taught me so much about life and […]
Window on Thailand
Bits of culture that may or may not surprise you. Back to Normal After spending eight months in America for itineration/support raising, coming back to Thailand was like coming back to “normal” … in some ways. (You can read about my re-entry observations and surprises about America in my “What is ‘normal’?” series.) Here is a list of what “normal” looks like in Thailand: “Back to […]
Newsletters
I haven’t posted links here for awhile for my newsletters. You can find links to pdf newsletters here! Happy New Year, everyone.
May Newsletter Posted
Find a pdf version of my latest newsletter here, or an email version here. Remember, to receive the email version in your inbox every other month, you can subscribe using this handy form. Thanks for your prayers, encouragement, and support to reach Thai people for Christ!
Back to “Normal”
Normal is overrated. But we still like to think we are normal, our lives are normal, the world is (mostly) normal… I posted my “What is ‘normal’?” series about American culture a few months ago, so I decided to post my “Back to normal” series from my return to Thailand over on the Window on Thailand page. Hope you will enjoy the list (that is […]