Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Christmas in Thailand

Great is the LORD... and greatly to be praised:


My national partners at last year's Christmas party
I now have two wonderful Thai women, K and F, who go with me weekly to build relationships in the red-light districts of Bangkok.  We have been going to do outreach for the last two weeks and have already made several new friends.  Tonight, we took two of those new friends to dinner and got to see a few other friends, and we even had some opportunities to talk about spiritual things with those women.  Praise the Lord for K and F, these obedient servants of Christ who are such wonderful answers to your prayers!

Prayer Necessities:

1.  Please be praying for me, K, and F as we do outreach in the red-light areas each Tuesday.  Also, be praying for me and some American friends as we go and do outreach each Wednesday.  Pray that He would grant us opportunities to share Christ and that we would be faithful to make the most of the opportunities.

2.  Please lift up my English student J.  We have been studying Bible stories in English for several weeks now, and I shared the Gospel in its entirety with her this past week.  At one point, she had tears in her eyes as she listened to the story.  While she is not quite ready to follow Christ, she is very interested in learning more.  Please pray that the Lord would continue to work in her heart and would draw her to salvation.

3.  Pray that I would have wisdom to know how best to spend my time, energy, and finances here.  There are so many needs and so many things in which I could be investing, but I want Him to use me in the most efficient ways possible.  Please pray that I would know what those are.

Inquiring Minds Wanna Know:

At this time of year, people often ask me if I'm going home for Christmas.  I actually get that question pretty often from Thais and foreigners alike, and I find it both amusing and odd because I really do consider Bangkok to be my home.  But I do know what they mean by it and so, when I answer no, I'm never really surprised to see their look of pity in return.  That's amusing and odd to me, too, because it certainly doesn't feel like anything that should merit anyone's pity.  I haven't been "home" for Christmas more than once in the last six years... and I wouldn't change that for the world.

My guess is that most of you have never lived in another country, and likely very few of you have even traveled to one.  This is not intended as an insult; even if some of you would like to travel, it's often prohibitively expensive to do so.  I'm well aware of the incredible opportunity I've been given to live overseas, and I assure you that I don't take it for granted.  I can't imagine anything better.  Well, most days anyway. :)

But Christmas is a much different experience in a place like Thailand from what it is back home in the US.  In some ways, that's bad but, believe it or not, in some ways, that's actually a good thing.

So, sit back, enjoy, and let me give you a little taste of Christmas... Thai style.  I'll try not to make you jealous but, let me tell you, you might just want to come to MY home for Christmas next year. :)

Weather:  Nothing says Christmas like 85-degree weather, right? :)  In Bangkok, December is cold season but, let me assure you, "cold" is a relative term.  The average temperatures in the month of December range from a low of 68 to a high of 90.  Are you dreaming of a white Christmas?  Well, forget it.  The only way a white Christmas would happen here is if you went out and bought a snow machine to put in your backyard.

But, see, that doesn't bother me one little bit.  I don't like snow.  Seriously.  Even when I was a kid, and all the other kids were all excited about a snow day out of school, I was always annoyed by it because every snow day just meant we'd have to spend an extra day in school at the end of the year when it was warm and beautiful outside.  Snow is wet and cold, and those are two things this Southern girl does not ever like to be.  I'd rather be indoors during those times of year, huddled around a fire trying to be dry and warm.

Admittedly, Bangkok does take warm weather to an extreme, but it's usually pleasant in late December.  And the palm trees in the yard are a definite improvement over snow.  Score one for a Thai Christmas.

Nativity scenes:  Thailand has 68 million people, but only 0.6% of them are evangelical believers.  Very few know anything about Jesus at all so, as you might imagine, nativity scenes are few and far-between.  The ones that I have seen are typically owned by foreigners.  I do miss them, but they're not all that Biblically accurate anyway (the shepherds and wise men probably weren't there at the same time, for example), so it's not a major loss.  But I'll still call this one a score for an American Christmas. :)

Less commercialism:  Oh, this is major for me.  I am always repulsed by the materialism that is in full-on display in the US at Christmas.  There's too much emphasis on gifts, too much Santa, and too much obligation.  Why exactly do we need to buy gifts for so many people who already have every last thing they need and much of what they could ever possibly want?  It's ridiculous, and I know most of you would agree with me.  Yet we continue to do it.  Why?  

Don't get me wrong:  I like to get gifts, and I like to give them.  I honestly like the latter more than the former, but I like to do it spontaneously.  It's such a great feeling to see something that just jumps out at you as the ideal gift for a friend or loved one and an even better feeling to see their eyes light up when they see it.  But I like to do that whenever I see the perfect gift, whether or not that's in December.  Basically, I just don't like the obligation involved at Christmas.  It's too much pressure, and I often wind up getting some meaningless gift just out of duty.  Because, really, how do you buy the ideal gift for someone who already has everything?  Yeah, that's one Christmas tradition I would just as soon do without.

In Thailand, there's so much less of that.  I won't say there's no materialism because, really, wherever there are stores, there will be materialism.  But none of my friends here EXPECT a gift, nor do I feel obligated to give them one.  Did you hear that?  That was me heaving a huge sigh of relief.  That, my friends, is the sound of freedom.  Score another one for Thailand. :)

Not a holiday:  So, believe it or not, Christmas is not a holiday here, and I mean that in the most literal sense.  Neither December 25 nor any day around it is a day off work for Thai people; it's just like any other day.  All the stores, restaurants, and businesses will be open, and they'll think you're the weird one if you expect them to be closed on that day.  I know, in our American minds, there is just something completely wrong about that, but it's true.  Thailand has begun to act like the Christmas season is a special time because they've been exposed to quite a bit of Western influence, but it's nowhere near as big a deal as the New Year that will be celebrated the following week.

I don't really mind that it's just life as usual around here on December 25.  In some ways, it makes things easier.  If I need to get a taxi to a friend's house on that day, it's just as easy to get one as any other time.  If I forgot something I need to make mashed potatoes, I can just drop into the store and get it.  And the fact that the day is special to me and not to anyone here can sometimes lead into some great spiritual conversations.  Thai people have gotten the little knowledge they have about Christmas from Western movies, which means they think it revolves around Santa Claus and gifts.  I get to use that to springboard into what really makes not just Christmas Day, but EVERY day, special for me.  I get to tell them about the Savior.  I think that might be another score for Thailand. :)

Decorations:  Christmas lights, Christmas lights everywhere!  OK, so not as many as in America, but I do love seeing Christmas lights draped over random bushes and throughout shopping centers in Bangkok.  Additionally, I love cities, and I think big trees sandwiched in among enormous buildings are among the coolest things ever.  And, let me tell you, there are some really fantastic Christmas trees here, like this one outside the Terminal 21 shopping mall:  


Christmas in Bangkok
It's also really fun to see how Thai people decorate their trees.  Thais love to have fun, and they really go all-out in adding whatever they can to a tree.  Just this evening, I went to visit a friend who was decorating the Christmas tree at her shop.  The tree had all kinds of "normal" decorations, like ornaments, lights, and a star, but it also had things I'd never seen before, like little light-up snowmen, cotton "snow," and a giant Santa head hanging from one of the branches.  It had more stuff on it than any tree I'd ever seen, but it had great character.  Just see for yourself:
Christmas tree decorated by a Thai friend

I think we'll have to call this category a toss-up. :)

Food:  I love turkey.  There is very little in life that can beat the goodness that is a freshly carved Butterball.  Thankfully, we can get turkey in Thailand.  It's expensive (predominantly because it's in the stores only to feed the Western expats' demand for their favorite holiday meat), and it's only available in the months of November and part of December, but it is available.  And just knowing that makes me happy.

Of course, because I'm half a world away, I don't spend Christmas with my family.  But I do spend it with other Westerners, most of them other missionaries with my organization.  And, to be Biblically accurate, they're just as much my family as the biological one I have, so it's wonderful to be with them.  We basically have a giant potluck, and it is amazing.  I gorged myself at Thanksgiving just like I do at home, and I plan to repeat the performance at Christmas.  There's nothing that reminds me of my grandmother's house like seeing the spread of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and pecan pie... among other things.

But, even though the food tastes just as good, I have to give this category to the US because, no matter how much it may look like my grandmother's house, it just isn't the same.  Score one for the homeland. :)

Christmas movies:  I have two movies that it's a necessity for me to watch every Christmas:  "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Story."  I have both of them on DVD, so it's no problem to watch them here.  I do, however, miss a few others from back home.  Things like "Miracle on 34th Street" and "Christmas Vacation" are classics and, while I don't have to watch them every Christmas, I'd like to have the option of flipping through some channels on a TV and being able to watch them if I want.

It's also not quite the same to say, "Squirrel!" or "I triple-dog dare ya!" here in Bangkok.  I guess it somehow loses its appeal when, instead of raucous laughter and subsequent quotes from the same movie, the response you get is blank stares instead. :)  Guess I'll have to chalk this one up to the US of A.

So, if you're keeping score at home, that's basically even.  Hopefully, you have a little better understanding of what it's like to be an expatriate living in a country that minimally celebrates what is easily the major holiday back in the United States.  It can be fun, even though there will always be moments of homesickness.  But even that is a reminder of the fact that I am an alien and a stranger on this earth... and will always be until I'm home with my Savior.

Merry Christmas to you all!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

God Bless You. My big Marine friend Jeffrey and his wife have taken their 18 month old to meet her family in Thailand. She is the tiny military wife whose son was born looking like a sumo wrestler with Asian features and chubby large baby body. 24 hour trip he said they had. I am thankful for you and the work you do. Jesus loves you. Gail Nimitz