Today I visited Chiang Mai Baptist. Everyone was welcoming and friendly. I met a missionary family from the Philippines. We had lunch afterward. It was great!
However... I was hoping for some kind of Acts, gift of tongues, Pentecost, etc. thing to happen. I want to speak Thai! There was an American family that had been in CM for about 5 years. The American father actually translated for the Filipino father, from English into Thai, when he explained that his family was moving to another city. It was definitely trippy to see an Asian man speak English and have a white man translate into an Asian language! The American's proficiency was an encouragement. I said a little prayer right there that learning Thai would be a fun challenge and way to grow, not a discouraging obstacle.
All the praise songs we (I mean everyone but me) were singing were in Thai, but I recognized 2 distinctly and sang the English version to myself. I say recognized distinctly because the majority of contemporary praise songs fall into limited variations of chord progressions and rhythms. Ask anyone that plays contemporary praise music- a single 3- or 4-chord progression is shared by at least half a dozen songs.
Anyway, I intend to visit again because they were friendly, I have some friends that go there, and it's near my apartment, but it might have to wait until I start to speak Thai a little.
Completely unrelated, traffic this weekend has been horrendous compared to normal, which at times can be bad. Apparently there is a major exam today in Chiang Mai for people that want to work for the government. Last night I was stuck in the rain on a scooter because traffic wouldn't let up. With the increase of traffic, I've had to turn up the aggression on my scooter driving style, taking a little more risk in maneuvering, but I'm starting to drive more like the natives... I'm somewhere between highschool girl (cautious) and young professional female (confident yet cautious). I kid. You just have to go with the flow, and luckily there are all types of speeds in this flow. Pass and be passed. It's actually a lot of fun. Not sure how I will react to traffic laws when I get back to Texas. We'll see!
I'm going to get back to my Thai tea and reading a book.
Toodles from Thailand,
Derek
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