Troyers in Thailand

A Day in the Life

2012-02-13T22:42:00.000-08:00

Hey Gang. We hope all is well. We continue to learn language and try to figure this place out. We are starting to make some friends. Some are thai, some farang (westerners). Every day, Monday through Friday I (Joe) go to school from 8am to 12pm. Lynn and I meet somewhere and switch with Brennan because she goes to school from 1-4. Although she has fewer study hours I think she speaks better Thai. Don't tell her I told you that.

Recently we had to make our 1st visa run. Although our visa is good for a year we still have to leave the country every 90 day. We traveled to Cambodia. I thought you guys would like to see some pictures. Enjoy. I will try to keep this updated more often. The newsletter will be out soon. Keep your eyes peeled. Find me on Facebook if you haven't already.

(On our way on the Skytrain to meet the bus)

(Cruising in style!)

(The Border. Immediate difference between Thailand and Cambodia)

(Brennan made a Japanese buddy on the trip)

(Suay. Beautiful).

Christmas in Thailand

2011-12-30T17:57:00.000-08:00

The Holidays here are really quite something. It is interesting watching Thai people try to figure out what to do with Christmas. The Thai's I think have become completely colonized by our Christmas traditions. They got giant pine Christmas trees out front of their malls with fake snow and songs about sleigh rides. They even decorate with Frosty the Snowman. It is odd to say the least. It is unfortunate that they were not able to have their own Christmas traditions. Then again, in Thailand the Christmas tradition has little to nothing to do with the Christ Child and hope to the World. I have not seen one Christmas display about Christ or His birth, then again how can they tell a Story that they don't know?

Like in the US, Christmas (while in its beginning stages) is all about presents and stuff and consumerism. Christmas Day here looks like any other day when you go out. Not all the Thai's even celebrate Christmas. Next year, when my thai is better, it will hopefully lead to some great opportunities to talk about Christmas and the story of Jesus. So for now, Christmas is just another excuse to spend money and have a party, except for a small few.

See this Christmas in Thailand reminded me of what it might have possibly been like a couple thousand years ago when Christ was born. People went on about their lives never knowing that their Savior, King and the Rescuer of the World had come in flesh... except for a few. Jesus was made known to the lowly and to those who were looking for Him or knew to be looking. In Thailand the Body of Christ is small and they are few, but they anticipated and celebrated this day while the rest of the country went on with their daily pursuits. They don't even realize that God is calling to them, to rescue them and sweep them into this Grand Story that we are a part of. It reminds of the words of O Holy Night:

O holy night, the stars are brightly shining,
It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth;
Long lay the world in sin and error pining,
Till He appeared and the soul felt its worth.

6 Days to Launch

2011-11-09T06:48:00.001-08:00

What a whirlwind! We are coming down to the wire. We aren't even nervous anymore, just excited. There is so much happening lately. One thing I couldn't believe is how many trips to the dentist we had to make. If God calls you overseas, beware, lots of dentist visits! But let me tell you what has been happening.

We have done a lot of visiting of churches lately. It has been great to share with other faith communities about what our hopes and dreams are for Thailand. It has been great to feel so much support and love from not only our own faith community but from the larger community as well. We have been catching up with some family and old friends too. There is a lot of anticipation and readiness.

Our friend Tom in Bangkok has worked hard to secure us an apartment in Bangkok. I will include pictures in this post. We were looking for a lively neighborhood close to the Skytrain (elevated train) so that we have easy access to language school, but not inundated with farangs (westerners). We think we found a great place that meets those needs. We will need to furnish it when we get there but that is part of making a home a home right? The apartment is small, but so are most of the apartments. It is par for the course. We are very grateful for my folks letting us stay with them. It has been a real blessing. At the same time, I think with any family in transition, settling in and having a place to call yours is very important, especially for Brennan.

Many of you may know about the flooding in Thailand. 1/3 of the country is or was under water. The water is pressing up against Bangkok right now. While in any disaster, there is a lot of confusion and mistakes made at times, they have been keeping as much water as they can out of the city. But people have been suffering and the country lost a lot through this time. We should stay dry, the rainy season is over and our apartment is out of the line of fire, but the damage is done and there will still be more damage to homes and businesses. Pray for them.

So in conclusion, I will leave you with a few pictures of our apartment and neighborhood. There were people still living in it when the pictures were taken and few of the furnishings will be there. Once we get over there and settled we will send more pictures of our home and neighborhood.

Buddhism 101

2011-09-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay everyone. We have been swamped with transitions. I promised I would talk a little about Buddhism. Let me first say that I am not an expert on the religion and also, just like Chistianity and all other religions, there are nuances and strange perversions but my goal is to cover the basics so you have a general idea of what it is all about, in Thailand at least.

There are over 200, 000 monks and 30,000 Buddhist temples in Thailand. They say to be Thai is to be Buddhist. It is not just their religion but it is their identity as a nation and as individuals. Most young men go through a period of being a monk. It is sort of a rite of passage. But that rite of passage could be a day, a few weeks, a few months, years or the rest of their lives. For many it is just a tradition and for a few it is a way of life. We'll talk more about monks in another post.

There is the Triple Gem of Buddhism. This is what we will cover in this post. The Triple Gem is: Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha.

One of the first things to know is that Buddhism is an ancient religion. It is older than Christianity. While some sects of Buddhists do worship Buddha, Buddha is generally not considered a God. "Buddhists believe that the Buddha discovered the truth about existance and suffering but that he achieved enlightenment and the end to all suffering. A key metaphor in Buddhist teaching is 'The Path' to enlightenment." He was born by the name Prince Siddartha. His father tried to shield him from seeing any suffering or death but when he witnessed it for himself he sought out how to remove suffering pain fom his life and the world and he would eventually become the Buddha. He was married when he was 16 and walked away from his marriage and family when he was 29. They believe he became the Buddha on his 35th birthday.

Dhamma is the teaching of the Buddha. It is sometimes referred to as 'the truth' or 'the law'. Here are the Four Noble Truths:

There is suffering

There is the origin of suffering which is attachment to desire

There is the cessation of suffering

There is the way out of suffering, the Noble Eight-fold Path

The Noble Eight-fold Path:

Right understanding

Right aspiration

Right action

Right speech

Right livelihood

Right effort

Right mindfulness

Right concentration

The aim of the Noble Eight-fold Path is the complete extinction of all desire and attachment because that is the root of all suffering. There is also their teaching called the Five Precepts:

Not killing living beings - kindness

Not taking what is not given - honesty

Not committing sexual misconduct - trustworthiness

Not using wrong speech - truthfulness

Not taking intoxicating drink or drugs - carefulness

The last of the Triple Gem is Sangha. The word means community. In Thailand it refers to the monks and the monastic order specifically. Monks are deserving of offerings and gifts. They should be respected. They conduct ceremonies and chants on behalf of people. Your offering to the monks is considered "merit" which earns you credit, so to speak.

To close for now it is important to note that everything they believe is merit based. Hopefully your good outweighs the bad. It helps with karma (what comes around, goes around) and being reincarnated. They believe they will continue to come back in another life until they reach the state of Nirvana. Most don't expect to get there, but live good enough lives to continue to have good karma in their lives to come.

I haven't even been able to touch on the influence of hinduism and folk religion on buddhism. Hopefully there will be more time to touch on this in the future.

There is too much to cover but that is a brief nutshell of what I have been learning. Hopefully this gives you some insight on how to pray for the Thai people and for us.

4 Months to Go!

2011-06-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog. I was just trying to figure out the appropriate rules for blogging within a missions agency that has people in some dangerous places around the world. So here we are again.

We are now fully into the support raising process. We have been reaching out to folks who might consider supporting us whether it be through prayer or finances. We are really hoping to build a strong prayer base because we know we need it. There is a lot of excitement in the Troyer household about moving. Brennan says Thailand is going to be hot and rainy and we both agree that is better than snow. He is deciding which toys are too big to bring and deciding what he is going to do with those.

Lynn is done with her job. She is now focused on moving us to Thailand and on Lynn Michelle Design because that is a passion of hers and we believe it will play a role in Thailand into opening doors for sharing our faith. There is continued talk of her helping at the foundation in Bangkok. She would be great at that. The foundation seems to be focused on teaching English, job skills and providing legitimate avenues for people to come over and serve.

There seem to be continued talks about me maybe getting to help out on a university campus. I also feel like God might be leading me toward the katoey or ladyboy demographic. These are young men that have decided to live their lives as females. Some just dress the part, others have had surgery to become female. They are active and engaged in every area of life. I told God that if this is what He wants, then bring a young man into our lives through our daily routines and travels. Be in prayer about this. Makes me nervous, but Jesus died for these young men that they may have hope, purpose and eternal life with God.

Ultimately, some of these things will have to wait until after our first 6 months of language school. We need to focus on language and culture. If God wants us there for 2 years or 10 years, we know it is better to do the hard work of language up front. Pray we grasp the language and culture and are able to get a handle on it.

Lastly please pray about our finances and prayer support. We know God is calling so our confidence is in that and not in our own strength. We are excited to see what God is up to in Bangkok and what role He has for us to play there.

Next Post: We'll talk Buddhism.

Greetings

2011-04-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

This is where we will be keeping you updated on our time in Thailand. At this point we are very excited to get going. We have decided to rent our house out for at least a couple years and see how it goes. Lynn is having a big sale this Saturday at the house starting at 9am. I think pretty much everything is for sale. Come check it out. I hope my chair is still there after Saturday!

It can feel overwhelming at the things that need to be done before we go, but we feel like we got everything in order. Brennan is deciding which toys are too big to put in a bag for Thailand...and I have to decide which toys I can bring too... I am so glad Lynn is organized and resourceful. She is really doing great getting our act together.

I am feeling a real sense of loss myself. Alot of last times with the youth and the church. It makes me want to withdraw and throw a pity party. Pray for me in that. I feel the lessons me and my family have learned in the last few years have really prepared us to go, but at the same time, going isn't all that easy.

Our plan is to leave in early October as long as all our finances work out. We know God is faithful. While I express sadness at the thought of leaving, know we are super excited to be going! Sorry if this first post seems vague, but I am still figuring out what is appropriate and inappropriate to share for the sake of others involved if that makes sense. Stay tuned!

Joe