Songkran festival and others

Songkran is finally over. Mae Sai celebrated the water festival longer than Bangkok or Chiang Mai. It was an ingenious way to beat the oppressive summer heat. It was a lot of fun indeed. My family really enjoyed this Thai New Year celebration every year. However, Songkran is not only about having fun. Although I guess, most of the younger generations think that this is what it all about. Nonetheless, the sense of community is stronger during the festival. The religious significance had been obscured.

Songkran Festival is the traditional Thai New Year. This is the time for Thais to pay homage to Buddha images, clean their houses, and sprinkle water on their elders in a show of respect. Anyone who ventures out on the streets is likely to get a thorough dousing of water, all in good fun, but also quite welcome at the peak of the hot season.

And the others:

It has been tough to be left alone to take care of four children, one dog. In addition, I have to look after three houses and lately a duplex.

A team from Chiang Mai consists of four people (Indonesian, Korean and Danish couple) arrived last Monday. They are in Thailand for three-month training with Vineyard. They went to Burma for ministry exposure. Moreover, they decided to help us in improving the children’s home. They had been cleaning and painting the house. I supervised them with the project. And since they are leaving tomorrow, I will continue the job tomorrow with my children. It will be fun.

Furthermore, our Pastor asked me (on a short notice) to teach in our summer Bible camp for two days for three hours. Because of the Songkran Festival, most of our members found themselves with nothing to do for the more than a week. Thus our Pastor decided to go on with the summer Bible camp for church members. This camp is a tradition that we started last year and I hope it will continue.

I find it strange that some people enjoy teaching or talking for long hours. I find long talk exhausting. One hour of teaching is good enough for me. I am very tired and my throat is painful. I am glad that it is over and I am going to have a break tomorrow (at least from talking).

My younger sister is coming this Saturday with two short-term missionaries. She is the coordinator for the Asia Vision Short Term Mission in the Philippines. And we are part of the ministry that will host missionaries every year. They will work with us for a month in the nursery and will help us teach English in the community.

Narlin is coming back soon on April 25. It is just a few days of waiting but it seems forever. Life is doubly difficult when your other half is missing.

Holy Week and Songkran Festival

We had a wonderful Palm Sunday worship service yesterday. It was a good occasion to start the observance of the Holy week which begins today. I’m surprise that the holy week comes early this year. I always thought that lent happens at the same time as Songkran Festival here in Thailand. This is the first instance in four years that as far as I know (and it is not that far) that these celebrations happen on different dates. There is weird feeling when Christian and Buddhist religious festivals occur on the same date. As a Christian, I ask myself, if it is okay to join the festival. I mean, I don’t have much choice, do I? As a part of a community I can’t refuse a person much more stop them from splashing icy cold water all over me. Nor I can refuse someone who does it within the bound of reason and decency. They are the ones who stop people and ask permission to pour water on your head and shoulders as he personally blesses you. This is more of a community ritual with religious overtone. Songkran Festival is just around the corner. My children are looking forward to it. Where they can play with out neighbors squirting a state of the art water gun to them and got high pressured water jetting out from the hose. It will be a lot of fun. A celebration of a close knitted big community. Where total strangers speak to each other and treat one another as friends. I guess even enemies become lovers.

But for a while, we will be observing the Holy Week. We will be commemorating the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We will try to reimagine our Lord's triumphal entry, the Last Supper with his disciples, the drama of his arrest, his crucifixion, his death, and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. We will have a nightly worship service in the church starting tonight until Saturday and it will conclude in the celebration of resurrection as we will hold the Easter Sunrise Service on Sunday Morning at 5:00 AM. Our prayer is that our reflection would remind us of God's great love for us.

Unlike Songkran, this celebration of lent and Easter will go unnoticed by majority of people. But for us here, a handful of Christians who believe that Jesus is the Lord of lords and he is the King of kings, we make the holy week really holy and we will celebrate Easter Sunday with the anticipation of the actual coming again of our King to liberate us from all kinds of poverty and oppression.