Mid Year Conferences

We were in Thailand for almost two weeks for conferences and development classes. I was blessed to get to take part in two conferences... one was for our first and second year interns and the other was for all staff from our country.

Intern Conference

The intern conference was a time of refreshing for me. I always enjoy getting to be around the interns. Most of them are fresh out of college, and their excitement and enthusiasm, as I have mentioned in previous posts and letters, is contagious. This was a smaller conference, and it was good to hear personal stories about how the Lord has been at work in the lives of these interns and in the lives of students on the campuses where they serve. It has truly been a blessing for me to serve with these young men and women this year.

All Staff Conference

This conference was also a time of being refreshed, but in a different way. The blessings from this conference came in several areas:

1. Worshipping Openly: For some of us, this is the only time of the year that we can freely gather and worship together. A band from the Philippines led worship for the conference. I was constantly amazed to look around me and see all of these people worshipping together.



2. Connecting with old friends: The theme of the conference this year was “One Family”, and it really does feel like a family here. This conference gave us the opportunity to connect with some people whom we don’t see very often, but have come to love very much.

One of my favorite connections this year was with a Korean who was on my campus my first year here. I had not seen him since that year, and this year I got to reconnect with him and meet his wife. For those of you who have been around since the beginning (’02), you might remember me writing about this guy…well, I think I remember writing about him. I didn’t know for sure that he was working with us for the first month we were in class together because Koreans were on a separate team (they didn’t speak English). For the first month of class, neither one of us spoke the language here either. I knew he was a believer because he would hold his Bible under his desk and read it during class breaks. For that month, we could basically only communicate using charades and laughter. We laughed A LOT. Now we both communicate much more easily in the language here, so it was especially cool to get to understand each other almost fully when we saw each other this year.

3. Getting the Big Picture: It’s often difficult to see how things are going down in the trenches. This was a time to get a bird’s eye view from our leadership of how things have been going, and also to hear in person the direction that those leaders believe the Lord is leading us in as a ministry

Development Class





I served as the Teaching Assistant for a class called Transforming Cities. The class was taught by Dr. Eric Swanson (co-author of The Externally Focused Church and Living a Life on Loan). I REALLY liked this class, but I won’t go into too many details here. If the class title interests you, you can find out more information from the following links:

Eric’s blog: www.ericswanson.blogspot.com

The Externally Focused Church

Externally Focused Church Conference ‘08

Second Half of the Semester, Part I

Catching up

Friend, I hope that you had a good Christmas season. I pray that the Savior’s birth was REAL to you, and central to your celebration. He continues to bless me so richly with His goodness and mercy, and I hope that you are experiencing His blessings as well.

Most of you probably know how good intentions work. I’ve had good intentions to update this blog for well over a month now. The month before Christmas is usually one of the busiest times of the year. It is such a great window of time to get to share the true story of Who Christ really is through Christmas parties and outreach events. After Thanksgiving, we hosted a vision trip from the US (you can read more about that below) and then jumped right in to the Christmas season. With those events winding down and students starting to get ready for exams, I’ve had a little extra time over the past couple of days and want to fill you in on all that has been happening here. I have included a lot of pictures to try to make it a little more interesting.

I would like for you to meet...

One of the best things that has happened to me personally this semester is my relationship with Wendy. We met for the first time I came here in March 2002, and we were on the same team my first year here. We have been dating since the beginning of September ‘07. She is a very special young woman and you will probably hear a lot more about her in future updates, so I wanted to take a moment to introduce you to her. Wendy graduated from UNC Chapel Hill in 2001, and she came here right after she graduated (so she has been here one year longer than me). She is originally from the small town of Hildebran, NC, which is near Hickory.

Brian and Wendy, Christmas 2007

Around Town

A few days ago, Wendy and I took a stroll around our little area of town and took some pictures along the way. It seems like everything is under construction around here! Many of the roads have recently been changed to “one way” to try to help with traffic congestion, which has gotten exponentially worse every year that I have been here. Our city is also a pretty popular tourist destination with the natives of this country, so the city is always constructing new parks etc. to try to make the city look more “green”. Here are a few pictures from our little adventure.

Workers fixing the road and sidewalk near a new foot bridge

Different view of the foot bridge construction area

The newly installed lane barrier isn't working so well for pedestrian traffic

This sign means "Pay attention to safety"


This guy, working approximately 200 feet from the above safety sign, did not give me the impression that he was paying attention to safety (I think that is cardboard that he is using to shield his face as he welds the pole)


New park being constructed a few blocks from my apartment


Bikes (and electric bikes, right) are still probably the most popular form of transportation


Parents waiting to pick their kids up from a nearby middle school


A sod truck rolls down one of the main streets and workers hop off to plant the grass in the median


The one way streets are not completely solving the congestion problem
(It really is one way, far left is the bus lane)


Another new foot bridge near my apartment. Very badly needed as you can see.

* * * Christmas * * *

Christmas was really fun this year! I celebrated Christmas with Wendy’s team, which was smaller than usual because the director and his wife were back in Canada expecting their first child (who was actually born on Christmas day). On Christmas Eve, the five of us ate turkey, green bean casserole (one of my favorite dishes), broccoli, and mashed potatoes. One of the girls made a caramel iced pound cake for dessert. After dinner, we read the Christmas story, made a funny video of ourselves and watched “Elf”. We opened presents together at my apartment on Christmas morning and then had a big breakfast together. That afternoon, the crew watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” while Wendy and I worked on Christmas dinner. We had invited another team in the city to eat dinner with us, and we made chili and twice baked potatoes.

Wendy's team: (Left to right) Wendy, Leeann, Ashley, and Lance in the back

Lance, Wendy and Ashley making breakfast

Lance, holding or wearing all of his Christmas presents. The water gun is from me. Hope I don't regret that later :)


Me with the presents. THANKS SO MUCH to everyone who sent presents and packages!!!!!!


Leeann, Lance and Ashley (sleepily) watching "It's a Wonderful Life" on Christmas afternoon

The Christmas night crowd

Anita (mom) and "Callie Noel", born December 25, 2007
(Edmonton, Alberta)

Second Half of the Semester, Part II

Vision Trip

We hosted a vision trip of staff from the US the week after Thanksgiving. Organizing these types of trips on our side is part of my new job. I think the group had a pretty good time seeing and experiencing life here. It was the first time in this country for most of the group, and the first time out of the US for a couple of them. One of the highlights of the time with the group was an outreach party on one of the campuses here. The group arrived late Tuesday night, spent Wednesday and Thursday touring and meeting students to invite the party. That might not sound too hard, but they also had to find students who spoke English pretty well, since none of them speak the language of this country. By Friday night, there was a party with over twenty students. After hearing a short introduction to the gospel, the majority of the students were interested in hearing more and are still being followed up by members of the team on that campus.

Group picture at the outreach party

We played a game of 'Win, Lose or Draw' for the ice breaker

Thanksgiving

At Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to go and celebrate with my friends Graham and Ashlei. They are leading a team in a new city that just opened this fall, so it was fun for me to get to see the new place for the first time too. I was there less than two full days, but had a great time hanging out with Graham and Ashlei and their team.

This was our first experience with cooking turkey (do I really want to do this again??) but it turned out to be pretty tasty. Turkey cooking tip #1: Always take the neck out. Turkey cooking tip #2: The seller/processor of frozen turkeys may have hidden the neck inside the turkey. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it is not there. I hope that our trial by fire turkey cooking tips will benefit those of you who do not have turkey cooking experience in the future.

Thanksgiving Group Picture


Trying to figure out what to do with the turkey

Pandas

In mid-November, I was in another city for a meeting over a long weekend, and I had the opportunity to visit a panda research facility. In spite of the fact that I have been here over five years now, this was my first trip to see the “beautiful panders” or “pander bears” as they are called by the English speakers around here. It was a neat experience to get to see these rare creatures roaming around the park like environment that had been created for them.

As I walked around, I couldn’t help but be saddened that this country seems to take much better care of these animals than some of the people who live here. Please continue to pray for the people here, so many of whom really are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.

Trying out the Panda look...

It was pretty cool to be able to get this close

This is where they live.

Bangkok

In October, several of us had to go to Bangkok to renew our visas. Here are some pictures from that weekend trip.

Wendy and I both really like Starbucks coffee.  We do not have Starbucks where we live, but Bangkok has 100 Starbucks shops
(they were celebrating the 100th store opening on the weekend we were there).

Picture from the river taxi

Another picture from the river taxi

Night traffic in downtown Bangkok