The Roberts in Thailand: March 2014

After three months of learning a new language and getting used to new surroundings we planned to meet the lovely Ty and Tarah in Bangkok and fly to Krabi together for 5 nights before they came back to Phayao.

Krabi is beautiful and its not hard to take a postcard picture with such scenery around you, we all agreed we have never been anywhere like it, nor did we think we would ever be able to.

We visited a few islands and one stunning lagoon and sailed on a Siamese junk ship, which was 100 years old, for a day. We did some snorkeling, rock climbing and a cliff jump into what was quite a choppy sea! It is great to go somewhere and not see phone wires or electric poles, buildings, shops etc etc just creation. That is what the lagoon was like, apart from the boat we arrived on.

We found a hotel called Phu Pha resort which was amazing. It was at the foot of the white mountains that surround Krabi and consisted of Wooden lodges raised up on wooden legs to the level of the trees.

Here are some pictures ....

We have come back to the memorial campaign which means learning a new presentation in Thai but its quite simple. The Thai people here are all happy to take one and normally ask extra questions to confirm the date, time and location.

Its getting very hot here so we often feel a mess all sweaty but we still have a great time. We are starting to understand what people are saying back to us on the ministry instead of totally relying on who we are working with, which is really nice to feel its more of a two way conversation. However, we still have a long way to go. We're looking forward to seeing how many turn up to the memorial now! (Memorial is a special day for Jehovah's witnesses once a year we meet to commemorate what Jesus death means for us and what his sacrifice means for the future but annually we also invite the public and it happens all around the world all witnesses doing the same invitation work and then the memorial. So if you want to attend there will be one at your local kingdom hall which you can find on the website jw.org) Although two of our good friends arrive that day to visit so we know there will definitely be at least two new faces at the memorial in Phayao!

I have just had my first bible reading in Thai which I wrote out by recording a Brother and Sister read it and listened to it and wrote out the sounds on some notes which I stuck inside the bible. I read it to someone in the congregation to make sure they understood it and all went well. Everyone in the hall understood so I was very happy.

The watchtower on the weekend about people in the 50/60's was really good because in are hall we have three people from Japan who have come to serve where the need is great. one couple are heading towards 70 and still provide me and Melissa with an example we strive towards ..... even energy wise.

The 17 year old in are hall called Waneda (I have mentioned her before) is auxillary pioneering this month. She has started an internship so works during the days (obviously for experience so doesnt get paid), to earn money she works in the market in the evenings past midnight Friday, Saturday and Sunday (quite often there is special events so she will work in the week to) and despite this she fits in ministry around it on the evenings she has free ...... a great example AND despite being tired she has already put her form in for April to.

We have are CO this week and apparently he gives out the outline in English so we will understand. Me and Mel were asked if we would like to work with him and his wife on Tuesday which is nice because he speaks good English. The CO's here go to Australia for the school and have to learn English first.

Are next visitors are Sue and Steve Roberts who are here in two weeks which we are very much looking forward to!!!

This weekend we had the circuit assembly in Chiang Rai University, which was a great experience.

Firstly we had the pioneer meeting on Friday. I was slightly nervous about it as we were the new arrivals and we wouldn't understand what was being said at the meeting but there was nothing to worry about as everyone was really welcoming and made us feel at ease. There were pioneers from Japan, Korea, Australia, America, Norway, Canada and I am sure I have forgotten more. People all had different experiences about how they have found learning the language, the ministry, the food and the flies! It was really nice to get to speak to people that have been here a few months more than us or up to 7 years and have had the same ups and downs. Making friends in a similar situation to us was so nice. At the end of the day we sang see yourself when all is new .... it was so loud!

It also made us relax knowing that the next day during the assembly there would be others in the audience struggling to understand. We really had to concentrate to hear scriptures and listen out for odd words we recognised. Also other foreigners like us were missing cheese to and gave us tips on where they'd managed to get some and lots of other tricks to make us feel more settled.

A brother in our congregation booked our accommodation an arranged our lift for us which was really sweet but we had no idea where we were staying! But it was a simple clean room that more importantly had coffee in the morning and was a 2 minute drive from the university.
As the assembly was held at a university everyone is free to use the canteen which was so cheap .... 50p for breakfast and the same for lunch. There is no having to worry about a packed lunch and a cool bag etc. So practical and quite fun trying everyday student food. Also ice cream at an assembly? BRILLIANT!

On the Saturday was the baptism and they used an inflatable paddling pool which made us really appreciate our beautiful Bristol Assembly hall. We wondered how they would even baptize people but ingeniously they sit cross legged in the water and then lean back, simple! It was nice to see how happy everyone was to see our new brothers and sisters and lots gathered round the small pool.

We were tired by the end of each day but both nights went out for food and one of the brothers was originally from Chiang Rai so knew the markets to go to etc. We went to the biggest market we've ever been to which was really buzzing and so much yummy food around that it was really difficult to choose. I decided in the end fried tofu and noodles plus this peanut satay dip with dipping sheets of noodle and we also had sesame thin rolls and samosas yum and Simon found a chicken kebab much to his delight (it was no A38 man).

Last day of the assembly our friends bible study insisted we wear special Thai dress, which I later found out was from her tribe called Mong tribe. I had no idea these past few months that shes bilingual and when speaking to her family and children speaks Mong, because I don't understand much I assumed it was Thai but it made me laugh when I realised my ignorance. The clothes were so bright and beautifully made and the Thai brothers and sisters loved that my Korean friend and I we were wearing it. So many photos were taken. However most excitingly there is a small group of witnesses learning Mong to help teach people about the bible in their mother tongue, so Paa (bible study) was able to talk easily to them and make friends plus get literature for her and her children which she said was a lot easier for her to read and understand. So that made her happy.

In another room with live translation were about 50 people who spoke the Lahu language. They had a video camera set up and displayed in the room and a brother would translate for them. Simon was happy to be asked to do some of the filming as a break from the intense concentration on the assembly.

We were also impressed by the sign language group as they not only translated all of the talks and songs each day for the deaf but they also had slideshows of photos and pictures that related to the subject of each talk to help explain better so much work must have gone into that it was so nice to see about sixty signing the songs together. It also helped us because if we missed the scripture then it was on the deaf board so we could use our new thai reading skills to decipher which book of the bible etc.

The atmosphere and friendliness was something we will remember. Brothers and sisters would talk to everyone and anyone!! All the pioneers from other countries agreed that we could learn from the example set at that assembly. In fact at one point a 19 year old came up a pioneer couple from Australia and just introduced himself, before they knew it they were outside sat on the grass sampling the families traditional food. That's just the way people are here, they give and give and give even when they have nothing to give they find something.

Everyone asks for more pictures so here is a few from the last month.