Hello from the US state of Florida!
I just wanted to say hello and let you know we made it back to the US on Sunday morning July 22nd. It was a wild trip, but an easy trip with no problems at all.
July 21st was the longest day of my life. 39 hours. We took off from Taipai at 2:05 pm on the 21st and landed in LA at 2:05 pm on the 21st. It was a weird feeling to cross the international dateline.
OK, well you can expect some updates and things when we finish up with debrief on Friday.
Talk to you soon! Thanks for your prayers!
Later guys,
Matt
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
The Flight from South East Asia
Well, we're off on our trip back to the US. Here's the basics.
We take off tonight from Chiang Mai, Thailand at 9 PM Thai time (that's 9 AM Central Standard Time) and land Sunday morning in Orlando, FL at 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time (that's 9:30 AM Central Standard Time). If you're good at math, you know that that is 48 hours and 30 minutes of traveling, or 2 days and 30 minutes. And of course, that doesn't include the hour drive ot the airport and the waiting at the airport through check-in and then baggage claim at the end in Orlando and the drive away from the airport. We'll hit 7 different cities/airports on what looks to be one of the longest flight paths in the world. I mean literally.
So, the moral of the story is, please pray for us. We love to travel, especially as a team, and we look forward to the excitment of navigating international airports. But we also know how exhausting this type of travel can be. Pray for our health and unity and baggage and flight transfers and anything else you can imagine. Thanks! We love you!
Talk to you soon!
Later guys,
Matt
We take off tonight from Chiang Mai, Thailand at 9 PM Thai time (that's 9 AM Central Standard Time) and land Sunday morning in Orlando, FL at 10:30 AM Eastern Standard Time (that's 9:30 AM Central Standard Time). If you're good at math, you know that that is 48 hours and 30 minutes of traveling, or 2 days and 30 minutes. And of course, that doesn't include the hour drive ot the airport and the waiting at the airport through check-in and then baggage claim at the end in Orlando and the drive away from the airport. We'll hit 7 different cities/airports on what looks to be one of the longest flight paths in the world. I mean literally.
So, the moral of the story is, please pray for us. We love to travel, especially as a team, and we look forward to the excitment of navigating international airports. But we also know how exhausting this type of travel can be. Pray for our health and unity and baggage and flight transfers and anything else you can imagine. Thanks! We love you!
Talk to you soon!
Later guys,
Matt
Sunday, July 15, 2007
White people in Asia
Wow, only about 5 days left in Asia, then we start our long trip back to the States.
We've had the opportunity to do some pretty cool things this summer, and we've had the opportunity to see how the Body is growing in other parts of the world. It really gets me excited to get to see first-hand how the Good News is affecting change in other parts of our very diverse world.
Thailand has been a bit of a culture shock for us, I think. I know when we got on the plane from Yangon and landed in Thailand, it felt like a different planet in many ways. So much more advertising, more pavement, nicer cars, newer clothes. It felt like we stepped back into the West.
Not that the other country was what I expected either. I expected much less development than I saw. I expected less urban-looking areas in Yangon. I expected less developed housing and more grass and bamboo huts. Actually, we lived in a hotel in "undeveloped" SE Asia and in a bamboo hut in Thailand.
And it has been great to live in a bamboo hut. If it never got cold in the US, I think I would want to live in a bamboo hut there too. So cool.
But the most shocking thing about being in Thailand, when we go into Chiang Mai anyway, is all the white people. They're everywhere. Everywhere you look, you see white people. One of our team even ran into a couple of people that she goes to school with. This is just such a common tourist destination. After being in the last country, that was a surprise. There, we probably in the whole month saw 10 white people, at most. Maybe only 3 Americans. When you walk down the street or in the market or hail a taxi, you stand out much more. Everyone sees you and stares, because it's not often that they see white people. Not many tourists make their way into that country.
And I didn't really mind it either, because we white people think we own the world. We go into a place and we try to make it like home. We expect service and we expect quality and we expect to be treated better than others. Maybe I am generalizing a little too much...
I don't think I expected white people in Thailand. I wouldn't have been in much shock when we landed in LA and saw white people. I just wasn't prepared for Thailand. White people in Thailand.
But, you know white people, you can never be prepared for white people.
We've had the opportunity to do some pretty cool things this summer, and we've had the opportunity to see how the Body is growing in other parts of the world. It really gets me excited to get to see first-hand how the Good News is affecting change in other parts of our very diverse world.
Thailand has been a bit of a culture shock for us, I think. I know when we got on the plane from Yangon and landed in Thailand, it felt like a different planet in many ways. So much more advertising, more pavement, nicer cars, newer clothes. It felt like we stepped back into the West.
Not that the other country was what I expected either. I expected much less development than I saw. I expected less urban-looking areas in Yangon. I expected less developed housing and more grass and bamboo huts. Actually, we lived in a hotel in "undeveloped" SE Asia and in a bamboo hut in Thailand.
And it has been great to live in a bamboo hut. If it never got cold in the US, I think I would want to live in a bamboo hut there too. So cool.
But the most shocking thing about being in Thailand, when we go into Chiang Mai anyway, is all the white people. They're everywhere. Everywhere you look, you see white people. One of our team even ran into a couple of people that she goes to school with. This is just such a common tourist destination. After being in the last country, that was a surprise. There, we probably in the whole month saw 10 white people, at most. Maybe only 3 Americans. When you walk down the street or in the market or hail a taxi, you stand out much more. Everyone sees you and stares, because it's not often that they see white people. Not many tourists make their way into that country.
And I didn't really mind it either, because we white people think we own the world. We go into a place and we try to make it like home. We expect service and we expect quality and we expect to be treated better than others. Maybe I am generalizing a little too much...
I don't think I expected white people in Thailand. I wouldn't have been in much shock when we landed in LA and saw white people. I just wasn't prepared for Thailand. White people in Thailand.
But, you know white people, you can never be prepared for white people.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
Freedom in Legalism
"They were telling me I was really free
They could see it by the way I used my words
But in the dark of night I could see that they weren’t right
Because speeches are to free as cages are to birds"
-Heart Attack Time Machine by Don Chaffer
I love that line of that song. Did I mention I was able to score the new record, and I love it?
OK, so what's been happening in SE Asia? We've been a little busy, you might say.
Things in our last country went by like a flash. I can't believe we've been there and left already. We loved the people. So loving and... I know it'll take me a while to find words and process all that happened there. It is such a spiritual land. You can't go anywhere without finding Buddhist monks and pagodas (places of individual worship) that are covered in gold.
Buddhism is a religion of self-reliance. I wish I understood it better, but the line of Buddhism in MM is of the Theravada line. It has stayed more true to Buddhism in its original forms than many other types in SE Asia. It has so many laws and rules that people are to follow. Many monks have dedicated themselves to trying to follow these laws so that they can achieve an existence of having no desires or pain and suffering.
It really is very similar to the law that God laid down for us in the Hebrew Scriptures. The law served to show us that we are unable to follow the law perfectly on our own, so we need help from Someone else. It points at God and reveals our need for Him.
The same is similar of Buddhism.
I think it has served as a training tool that God can use to show grace to these people. Many monks have realized that there is no way they can follow all of the rules to reach the end of suffering. When they hear of Christ and how He was able to meet the requirements of the law for us, it makes sense to them!
This is why I have such hope for MM to become a nation that follows Christ. If this nation of Buddhists in the seat of Buddhism in SE Asia were to become a Christ-following nation, what a far-reaching affect it would have across the whole of Buddhist Asia!
The Christianity in MM is very conservative and even legalistic. At first, when we hear this in the Western Church, we think bad thoughts. Legalism can be such a bad thing. But the reality is that a legalistic church in MM is a very good thing for those coming out of Buddhism, a very legalistic religion. To Buddhists in MM, Christianity looks freeing! And how freeing it must be to realize that you no longer have to be able to follow every rule to the letter! But, if Christianity in the East were like Christianity in the West, it would look like universalism or something fake, as if there were no dedication or hard work required. This would appear too scary or false for Buddhists, a people naturally bent toward hard work, to be attracted to.
Maybe I haven't stated it too clearly, but we came away from MM feeling that the church in the country is on the cusp of an explosion. Things are about to happen, and the church there is ready to grow and challenge their Buddhist brothers and sisters to join them.
Well, there're plenty more stories to tell later, but I must be going. As for now, we're in Thailand teaching a whole lot of English nearly every day. This summer has been a challenging one, and often our team has stepped up the task of staying encouraging and working hard. It's been a great summer to lead these three girls with my wife. Thank you so much for your prayers!
We'll be back soon!
Later guys,
Matt
They could see it by the way I used my words
But in the dark of night I could see that they weren’t right
Because speeches are to free as cages are to birds"
-Heart Attack Time Machine by Don Chaffer
I love that line of that song. Did I mention I was able to score the new record, and I love it?
OK, so what's been happening in SE Asia? We've been a little busy, you might say.
Things in our last country went by like a flash. I can't believe we've been there and left already. We loved the people. So loving and... I know it'll take me a while to find words and process all that happened there. It is such a spiritual land. You can't go anywhere without finding Buddhist monks and pagodas (places of individual worship) that are covered in gold.
Buddhism is a religion of self-reliance. I wish I understood it better, but the line of Buddhism in MM is of the Theravada line. It has stayed more true to Buddhism in its original forms than many other types in SE Asia. It has so many laws and rules that people are to follow. Many monks have dedicated themselves to trying to follow these laws so that they can achieve an existence of having no desires or pain and suffering.
It really is very similar to the law that God laid down for us in the Hebrew Scriptures. The law served to show us that we are unable to follow the law perfectly on our own, so we need help from Someone else. It points at God and reveals our need for Him.
The same is similar of Buddhism.
I think it has served as a training tool that God can use to show grace to these people. Many monks have realized that there is no way they can follow all of the rules to reach the end of suffering. When they hear of Christ and how He was able to meet the requirements of the law for us, it makes sense to them!
This is why I have such hope for MM to become a nation that follows Christ. If this nation of Buddhists in the seat of Buddhism in SE Asia were to become a Christ-following nation, what a far-reaching affect it would have across the whole of Buddhist Asia!
The Christianity in MM is very conservative and even legalistic. At first, when we hear this in the Western Church, we think bad thoughts. Legalism can be such a bad thing. But the reality is that a legalistic church in MM is a very good thing for those coming out of Buddhism, a very legalistic religion. To Buddhists in MM, Christianity looks freeing! And how freeing it must be to realize that you no longer have to be able to follow every rule to the letter! But, if Christianity in the East were like Christianity in the West, it would look like universalism or something fake, as if there were no dedication or hard work required. This would appear too scary or false for Buddhists, a people naturally bent toward hard work, to be attracted to.
Maybe I haven't stated it too clearly, but we came away from MM feeling that the church in the country is on the cusp of an explosion. Things are about to happen, and the church there is ready to grow and challenge their Buddhist brothers and sisters to join them.
Well, there're plenty more stories to tell later, but I must be going. As for now, we're in Thailand teaching a whole lot of English nearly every day. This summer has been a challenging one, and often our team has stepped up the task of staying encouraging and working hard. It's been a great summer to lead these three girls with my wife. Thank you so much for your prayers!
We'll be back soon!
Later guys,
Matt
Sunday, July 01, 2007
Heart Attack Time Machine
Hey guys, I really don't have a long time, but I wanted to tell you (from Asia) that Waterdeep's new CD is now available. Get it and tell me what you think! Go here!
I'm going to try to get it from here, but we'll see how possible that is.
Love you and miss you all!
Later guys,
Matt
I'm going to try to get it from here, but we'll see how possible that is.
Love you and miss you all!
Later guys,
Matt
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