Hmmmmm

I'm making a random post here just because I'm weirded out by the fact that if I didn't post again tonight, I'd have had 21 posts in a month for the 4th time in 6 months this year.

So, hi!

I'll also use this space to note that, despite my better than weeklong absence from this actual blog while I was in Thailand in the middle of the month, this has been by far (at least 25%) the busiest month for traffic on this blog. I'm glad people seem to be finding something worthwhile here.

And to all you lurkers out there, I don't bite, so you can feel free to comment from time to time!

A bizarre game of chicken

So, I've been playing a very bizarre game of chicken with Columbia House for the last year or so.

Here's the background: Several years ago, probably within the first year after I graduated from college, I joined Columbia House's DVD club and got the promotional deal at the outset - something like 5 DVDs for a buck, or whatever. Don't really remember, isn't really important. Anyhow, as I'm sure you all know, after that, you then have so much time (like a year) to fulfill your membership commitment by purchasing more DVDs (I think it was 3 in this case, again, not important) at full price. Full price, of course, being dramatically more expensive than said DVDs would be at your average Wal-Mart, Circuit City, etc. Anyhow, at some point I fulfilled my membership commitment, at which point you no longer are on the hook to buy anything, but you keep getting their promo stuff, and you still have the "Director's Selection", which is the DVD they will send you every month if you don't tell them not to.

Over the first couple years after fulfilling the membership commitment, I probably forgot to decline the Director's Selection 3-4 times. No problem - they charge my credit card and ship it to me, I take it out of the mailbox, write "Refused: Return to Sender" on the box, and put it back in the mailbox, getting a credit back to my card. No harm, no foul. Anyhow, last year, I went through a spell where I forgot about 3 director's selection declines in about 6 months. After this, I got a letter reminding me that I can actually decline these DVDs, and that excessive returns is a cause for membership cancellation. It also went on to explain how the process of them sending me DVDs and me returning them costs them (true) and me (false) money.

So, I thought "Great, go ahead and cancel my membership." I'd prefer to have it cancelled anyhow, but it's not costing me any money, and there's nothing I hate more than calling to cancel something like this. I know for a fact that, despite the reality that my membership has actually cost them money over the last 3-4 years, I'll have to endure a sales pitch and probably multiple people trying to convince me to stay. So, while I'm not being ignorant and just letting every Director's selection come to me, I haven't made any special efforts to make sure I decline them either. Well, we're about a year, and probably 6 returns later, and I'm still a Columbia House member. I just got my second Director's Selection in a row today (the one from last month that I returned was just credited back to my account a few days ago). Perhaps 2 in a row will be the straw that broke the camel's back. I can only hope.

It begins...

Okay, not that I have any real need for confirmation of my status as a sports junkie, but if I did, it would clearly come every 4th summer (and once every 4 winters, to a slightly lesser degree, as well) with the arrival of the Olympics. I don't get all caught up in the nationalistic/patriotic stuff anymore, in fact, I really don't buy into it at all anymore. The "ideals" of the Olympics have long since been replaced, at least in my view, by the standard US/Western ideals of consumerism, marketing, and cash. It's a shame in my opinion, but I still love the event, because I simply love sports, of virtually any kind. This is the part of the entry where I acknowledge that during the '06 Winter Games I was repeatedly glued to the TV watching curling matches that I had DVR'd during the day. That's right: curling. I'm sure some of you, even some who are relatively tuned into sports, don't have a clue what that is. But I do, and in fact, I can probably give you a fairly complete run down of all the rules, as well as some rather fundamental strategy.

You see, the one thing I've always had on most people who claim to be sports junkies is the sheer breadth of my knowledge of various sports. If a sport has ever seen some sort of feature time on TV, or on a major sports media outlet, there's an excellent chance that I can talk at least somewhat intelligently about it, even if only for 5 minutes. Additionally, unlike a lot of American sports fans, I generally keep tabs on the "major" Olympic sports (gymnastics, swimming, track,etc) throughout the 4 years between Olympics. Not at anything resembling an expert level, but I've generally got a clue what to expect, at least from the American athletes, in these sports prior to the beginning of the Olympics.

And, of course, NBC is doing everything in it's power to indulge my Olympic addiction. In addition to offering an absolutely ridiculous 1400 hours of coverage of the 16 day event across 6 TV channels (I think I might only get 4 of these on my current cable package), the network is going to stream 2200 hours of live coverage across it's website. How freaking crazy is that? To put this amount of coverage into perspective (if that's even possible), it's worth noting that the 1400 hours of TV coverage by itself represents more TV coverage than has been given to every other previous Olmypics combined. Should I choose to, I should be able to watch any event I want. Insane. I may have to waive my "no TV before 8" rule for 2 weeks in August. So, if I disappear in mid-August, you all will know why.

And really, I don't have to wait until August to get started, because the US track and swimming trials are going on right now, and are getting pretty significant online and TV coverage as well.

Anyhow, here's a few tips and updates for those who will be tuning into sports in August that they haven't watched in 4 years:

Gymnastics: Pursuit of the perfect 10 is now a thing of the past. When the new code of points was introduced for this Olympic cycle, the scoring system was completely redone, and 10 is no longer the gold standard. Gymnasts get graded on the difficulty of their routine, as well as their execution (where 10 is still the perfect score), and those scores are added together. So goodbye to 9s and 10s, from now on you'll be seeing 15s, 16s, and 17s. The US women are the heavy favorites to win gold, led by the last 2 world all-around champions - Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson. On the men's side, reigning Olympic all-around champion Paul Hamm is back after taking 2 1/2 years off, but his comeback efforts have been hampered by injury. He should still be on the team assuming all goes well with his rehab.

Swimming: This is going to seem like a repeat, because the story of the '04 games is the story of the '08 games - the USA's Michael Phelps. At age 19 in 2004, Phelps fell just short of his quest to match or eclipse Mark Spitz's 7 gold medal performance in 1972, winning 6 golds and 2 bronzes. At age 23 in 2008, he's at it again, and is presently trying to qualify for the Beijing team in 6 individual events, which coupled with the likelihood that he will appear on 3 relays would give him a shot at 9 golds. Whether he tops Spitz's single Games performance or not, it seems almost a foregone conclusion that Phelps will win enough gold to become the most decorated athlete in Summer Games history, with the current record sitting at 9 gold medals.

Track: Along with baseball and cycling, track and field has been the sport most impacted by the recent crackdown/revelations regarding performance enhancing drugs, and US athletes have been at the center of the controversy. Former stars such as Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones, and Justin Gatlin have all fallen from grace since 2004, and it will be up to the current crop of talent, led by names such as Tyson Gay, Allyson Felix, and Sanya Richards to demonstrate that those days are, in fact, past. Athletes will be subject to a much higher level of scrutiny in the 2008 Games, including, for the first time, blood tests during the Games.

So, there's your primer. Chances are I won't actually disappear in August, and will instead be right here to give commentary after commentary. I'm sure at some point I'll find time for work, food, and sleep as well.

Back to sports...

So, it's obviously been quite a while since I hit on a sports topic. A major part of that is the fact that I was in Thailand, and then writing lots about Thailand once I returned. However, it's also a result of the fact that it's been a while since I had my interest really attracted by a particular sports story. That's probably partly a result of not being able to get AM radio at work, and thus not being as tuned in to stories that aren't necessarily the top couple going on.

But anyhow, this article and the story that it sums up pretty well has attracted my attention. The article contains NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, the chosen representative of NFL ownership stating how "ridiculous" the kind of contracts that are currently being handing out to NFL rookies in the draft are. The main point of the argument is the comparison of what high draft picks, who have never played a down in the NFL, like this year's #1 Jake Long, are making relative to the star veterans who have been producing for years. The NFL owners recently opted out of the league's collective bargaining agreement, and it seems clear that one of the key items in negotiating for a new deal will be some sort of restraint on rookie contracts, perhaps a rookie salary scale similar to what the NBA has.

On it's face, the argument makes sense, and I really agree. It doesn't make a ton of sense to be paying these draft picks like they are stars, particularly given the number of high draft picks that never really live up to their draft status. Jake Long is getting paid more than just about every player in the NFL at his tackle position, and will be guaranteed 30 million dollars no matter what his career turns out to be. That's crazy. And yet, I totally understand the point of view from the players, and why they continue to fight (including holding out) for these kind of deals. Unlike the other major sports leagues, NFL contracts are not guaranteed from year to year, so even if a guy signs a 5 year deal, there's nothing to keep a team from dropping him after year one and not owing any more of his yearly salaries. When you add in the fragility of NFL careers relative to other sports, I totally understand and support NFL players trying to get everything they can (with as many guarantees as possible) at any opportunity.

What catches my eye about Goodell's comments, however, is this simple fact - the owners whom he represents are not having a gun held to their head forcing them to shell out these big contracts. Last time I checked, they controlled the finances here. And this isn't like major league baseball, where teams have no firm restraints on what they are allowed to spend. Furthermore, these are draftees, so they aren't negotiating with them in a free market. The only choice a drafted player has is to sign a contract with the team that drafted him, or sit out an entire year, go back into the draft, and basically start the whole process over. That's just not a great play.

Let me be clear - if the owners and players are able to come to some agreement on rookie salaries and want to implement it, I'm perfectly fine with that, that's how the system works. And the reality is that it shouldn't be that difficult to come to some agreement, because cutting back on rookie contracts would leave more money for veteran players, who obviously comprise the majority of the players union membership at any given fine. However, it's hard for me to work up too much sympathy for owners who are, in essence, complaining about the results of their own collective lack of restraint.

On my car

So, after an unprecedented run (for this blog, anyhow) of 13 posts over 11 straight days, I thought you all might be taking me for granted, so I decided to be quiet for a couple days.

Heh, no, not really, it just kind of worked out that way, but I am sort of glad the streak broke naturally before it got so long that it was putting pressure on me to maintain it.

Anyhow, I just got my car back tonight. I had the thing serviced at Jiffy Lube last Saturday, and a couple days later I noticed smoke coming from the engine as I drove, and shortly after I would stop. The first thing I did, naturally, was stop and top off the radiator. It was a little low, but nothing to be overly concerned about, and I noticed from that point on that the car was not even close to overheating. So I kept on driving it, until Tuesday night, when I was going to a softball game and the thing really started to smoke. I opened up the hood when I got to the game, but I really just couldn't figure out what was going on. Got it back home after the game, at which point I realized the thing was leaking oil. It was leaking out onto the engine manifold and burning off as the engine heated up, which explained not only the smoke, but a rather bad smell that accompanied it.

So, I generally still get my car worked on at the shop in the town where I grew up, about 45 minutes away. Our family has a very good relationship with the service department there, they treat us very well, and I've just never had an opportunity to look for a good mechanic around here. I arranged through my folks to borrow my aunt and uncle's extra car, and to meet my Dad with it about halfway between here and there. And of course, as I got started that night, the thing started to smoke noticiably. I, of course, was aware there was no immediate problem, but clearly the one guy I drove by on 581 was not aware. He pulled up beside me and was desperately signaling me, as if I couldn't see the smoke coming from the back of my own. I tried doing my best to single him back that I knew and it was okay, but he just didn't get the message and stayed with me, even as I slowed down to try to let him go past. When that didn't work, I sped up and went back by him, at which point he pulled over behind me and continued his signaling. So slowed down again, and once again, he pulled up around me with this panicked look on his face, still frantically signaling, with me once again trying to signal him. I sped up again, and this time I think he finally got the message or gave up. I'm just thankful everyone on my 25 mile drive down 581 and 81 wasn't quite as "helpful" as this guy. Everyone else pretty much ignored me, except for the guy who passed me with his windows wide open who clearly had a issue with the smell.

Anyhow, got the thing into the shop, and it turns out that the new oil filter that Jiffy Lube had put on the car was busted in someway. Needless to say, we'll be having a conversation about that at some point in the next several days. There was also something of a shimmy in my car, which I had looked at while it was in, turns out all 4 wheels were out of alignment. That would cause a shimmy, I suppose. So, I'm looking forward to a not too friendly repair bill here. Fortunately, I lucked out, because the shop's billing cycle runs on the 25th, and I got the work done starting on the 26th, which means they won't bill me until July 25th, and then I'll have another month to pay.

This is the second time in the last 3 months the car has been in the shop for something to do with the engine, but I really just love the car. The first time in the shop it was struggling because it needed a tune up, and obviously this recent engine difficulty wasn't a result of the engine breaking down. I bought the car (a 1997 Dodge Intrepid) in 2003, it now has over 110,000 miles on it, and these are the first two times it's ever been in the shop because of engine issues. So all in all, I've been quite blessed with this machine, and here's hoping that continues for a while longer.

An alternate missing bus theory...

I think I still have another Thailand post or two in me, but I had to convey today's latest development in the case of the missing bus.

Since I got back from Thailand, I think I've taken the 3:25 bus every day, and it has, without fail, been there at or shortly after 3:30. So, today, I'm standing there waiting. By now, I pretty much know the order in which I will see buses from the time arrive at the stop. My bus (A) comes behind bus 18, unless something weird happens. So, today, I saw bus 18, and then a few minutes later a bus turned the corner. I expected it was mine, so I was about to start walking to the curb, when I looked at the display board on it, and did not see the standard display for Route A, but rather, "Garage Coach". So I stepped back away from the curb. However, the bus slowed down and stopped in front of me anyhow, and I saw that the bus driver was the woman who usually drives my bus. So I hopped on, and was about to confirm that this was the right bus, when she reached up to change the message display.

So, now I'm wondering if what happened those couple days that my bus "never showed up" is that it did show up, but was mislabeled. At that first time, I had taken the late bus several times voluntarily, and so I hadn't established myself as a "regular" who the bus driver recognized. Today, had I not been such a person, she almost certainly would have driven by and not realized her display was wrong. But she knew who I was and knew I was waiting for her. I've been trying to flashback in my mind and think if I saw any buses go by that day that I haven't seen on other days, but it's really too long ago for me to remember. Regardless, I'm 6 for 6 on getting the early bus (yesterday I missed the bus in the morning and drove to work) since returning from Thailand, so life is good in that area.

On expectations and experience

My Friday in Thailand taught me a number of lessons, but perhaps none bigger than the connection between my level of expectation and the extent to which I experience God working in my life.

I mentioned that I received what I believe to be a word from God regarding what is going on with Lynn, and in the village. In the past, when I would share a word like that, I would almost always preface it with something to the effect of "I'm not really someone who claims to hear from God very often." I believe I may have actually used that kind of language when sharing with our team in devotions that morning, and then as I was preparing to share with the larger group, I was about ready to say the exact same thing, when I stopped and reflected. As I did, a reality became very clear - I was living out a self-fulfilling prophecy in this area. I didn't seek God and expect to hear from Him very often, and therefore, I didn't hear from Him very often.

As I reflected further, I went back to the recent times in my life where I believed I had heard from God. All came after a period of time or an instance where I had been fairly earnestly seeking Him. Friday morning was no exception. I had set aside some time on Thursday morning to pray and reflect prior to meeting the team for breakfast. Near the end of that time, which was one of the most significant times of personally seeking God I'd had in quite a while, I felt the nudge to fast breakfast and continue as I was, so I did, and God really spoke to me in that time, and that continued Thursday night and Friday morning.

As if that experience wasn't enough, God really drove the point home with me as I went to the village that afternoon. One of the aspects of supporting this team that I struggle with the most is prayer support. Prayer, and particularly intercessory prayer has never come easy for me. When Lynn started sending out more detailed information about what was going on to a group he called his core intercessors several weeks before the trip, it made me rather uncomfortable to be thought of as such. Here again, I was telling myself "I'm not really an intercessor". Well, I'm sure there were probably other reasons why I supposed to go along to the village that afternoon, but one of them was clearly to demonstrate what a load of crap I was selling myself on that topic. As I mentioned, I never got out of the truck during the encounter with Paw Wang, but I don't think I could have felt much more connected and tuned in with what was going on had I been right in the middle of it. And spiritually, I believe that I was right in the middle of it as I prayed and interceded. I'm still not sure that intercessory prayer is one of my top areas of gifting, but I'm definitely not buying into the idea that I'm not an intercessor again. It was true before, because that's what I believed and expected. On Sunday, I asked for an opportunity to personally and specifically bless each member of the team in our last ministry time. That would not have happened about 72 hours earlier. But I really felt like I heard from God and was able to speak blessings from Him into the lives of the team that morning, because I expected to hear from Him, and I expected Him to use me for that purpose.

If you followed along on our team blog, you may have seen the challenge that I took personally and laid out to our supporters shortly before we left: Do we (do I) really believe in a God who is able do immeasurably more than all that we ask or imagine? And are we (am I) willing to pray that way? I feel like for the most part, I do. However, this trip really drove home for me a piece of that passage that I often gloss over. It says that God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us. Do you catch that? It's His power, not ours, but it's working in us. God is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, and He wants to do it through us, and more personally, through me, and through you. I think it's usually fairly easy for me to believe that God can do what He says he can do. It's often been a lot harder to believe that He can us me to do it.

If I had to choose only one lesson to carry with me from this experience and never let go, it would be this one: that I can be used by God for great things, and it's time I started living in that truth, and with that expectation.

On future hope and present hurt

Now that I've put all the events of our Friday in Thailand out there, I can go back and give some more personal details and reflections.

I'll start with Friday morning. I didn't go into a ton of detail about what happened in our team devotions and with me personally after our devotions, because it didn't advance the overall story, but the time was very significant for me. The word God had for me really crystallized in my mind as we were talking, sharing, and processing together in our team devotion, and as I was sharing and then praying to close our time, I really began to struggle to keep my composure. I managed to do so, though with clear emotion in my voice, until the end of our time, but we had about 20-25 minutes between when our devotional time wrapped up and when we were going to head over to Lynn's house to meet with the team, and so I headed back to my room for a bit. When I got into my room, I pretty much let it go.

Now, I'm a relatively emotional guy, so having this sort of experience in general isn't really all that noteworthy. However, this was one of the most bizarre set of tears I'd ever cried. I was clearly overwhelmed with joy at receiving God's word regarding this situation, but there was also pain coming out. It's really hard to describe how that felt, to have two very opposing emotions flowing out of me virtually simultaneously. As I said, the source of the joy was pretty obvious, but it wasn't readily apparent to me where the pain was coming from, until I reflected for a few moments.

I'll have to go back and give a little more background here. Lynn first let me and a number of his core supporters know he was likely looking at an ALS diagnosis back in mid-August of last year. If you've been around this blog for a while, you know I'm a Yancey guy, and you might also know that Yancey's worldview, which I very much resonate with, certainly allows for God to work through miraculous healing, but readily acknowledges the reality that that's very often not the way He chooses to work in these situations. So, while I had every confidence from day 1 that God was going to work this situation out for His honor and glory, to be honest, I'd pretty much conceded Lynn's loss in his upcoming battle with ALS. Then Lynn shared with my his belief that God had told him this illness would not lead to death, and about a month and a half later I believe God confirmed that to me independently.

So, I had this hope for future restoration that was guiding me, and yet it still hurt very deeply to see what my friend was having to suffer. In the first few weeks after I got the news, I'd allowed myself to let that pain out. However, once I had received this confirmation from God, I associated the pain I was still feeling with the defeat I had felt at the outset. And so, I felt like that pain was somehow an expression of doubt, and I bottled it up. The pain hadn't gone anywhere, but it had been a good 6 months or more since I'd allowed myself to really let it out.

And so those were the tears of pain that were mixed with my joy. It was as if as God spoke to me and strengthened my hope, he also spoke to me and released me to express the pain I was feeling on behalf of my friend. It wasn't an expression of doubt or defeat, anymore than the hurt we all naturally feel when a believing loved one passes is an expression of doubt that we'll see them again someday. The belief in future restoration doesn't make the pain of the moment less real, or somehow wrong. And furthermore, even if what I was feeling was somehow wrong, bottling it up didn't make it go away, it just made me feel bad.

One of the things that I "know" but don't necessarily always "believe" (you act on what you believe, not what you know) is that it's pointless to try and pretend that certain feelings aren't there, regardless of whether those feelings are good or bad. God knows that they are there, so it's not like there are "Good Christian" points for keeping them hidden. Hopefully that lesson will finally sink in this time, because carrying around pain unnecessarily for 6-7 months kinda sucks.

The story of Friday, conclusion

Okay, this will hopefully wrap up my story of my Friday in Thailand, and then tomorrow I can move on to my personal reflections about the events.

Anyhow, we headed out to the village in the truck, praying and preparing our hearts as we went. I felt particularly led to pray against any bitterness or resentment we might have against the man, given what he had "done" to Lynn, in order that we could come in a true spirit of love and blessing.

It had turned out that the team had a pre-existing connection with the spirit doctor's son, and so the original intent was to connect with the son, in order to have him introduce us to his father. However, our first stop in the village led us to believe that might not be the best idea. In our search for the son, we connected with another friend, who let us know that the father/son relationship was not the best, that the son didn't spend much time around his home. So, rather than seek out the son, we found out where the spirit doctor lived and went in search of him.

He was not at home, but out in the fields, and someone else from the village went to tell him he had visitors. Lynn, Amy, and Silk waited outside for him to return, while Randy and I stayed in the truck, praying. While we were waiting for him to come, a woman with whom the team had a prior connection came up to the house. It turned out that she was the spirit doctor's wife. There was a connection there already that we didn't know about.

Anyhow, the man we were looking for finally arrived. I don't know what you think about when I use the term "spirit doctor", but I'm guessing (as it was for me), you picture someone a bitter more menacing that this guy. This was just your average, ordinary, little Issan man, and he was all smiles as he came up to the house and saw his visitors. I wish we had been able to get a picture of this guy (it was one of our goals, but it didn't happen) so I could post it for you, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Now of course, you'll remember that I was in the truck for all this, so some of the finer details are coming second hand, since I couldn't hear anything, but the conversation went very well initially. Lynn said things went quite well, up until the point where he stated their purpose in coming - to bless him in the name of Jesus. That got him very uncomfortable, and as Silk started to share with him about God's love, he resisted and said he didn't want anything to do with that. Eventually he got up and left. Even from the truck, it was clear that he was very agitated and was running away. After getting an update from Amy, we were praying for him to come back and give us just 5 minutes, and an opportunity to get a picture, but that never materialized, he was clearly running. So, Silk and Lynn blessed the property, we left behind some fruit we had brought with a note, and left. On the way out of the village, we saw him walking towards us. That is, of course, until he saw us, at which point he turned around and headed towards another house where there were people outside. Again, we just blessed him and prayed against his fear.

In addition to what we learned about the brokenness of the father/son relationship, we also learned from our conversation that this man clearly has some sort of difficulty seeing. On the way out of the village, Amy suddenly was having trouble seeing out of her left eye. We took this as a word of knowledge and prayed for physical, emotional, and spiritual healing for this man. Amy was soon able to see clearly again, but still felt a kind of shadow or presence by her eye, so we prayed again binding whatever spirits might be at work in this man's life. Amy's eyesight was completely cleared up by the time we got home.

So, while we didn't have the particular outcomes we were hoping for, we really believe that some significant things happened that day in spiritual terms, and we're just waiting to see the results in the physical world. I'll be reflecting in more detail over the next couple days, but one thing God clearly showed me through the seat I had for this encounter was that this man is not the enemy. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, after all. My heart was just broken for him, as I sensed an intense loneliness stemming from this broken relationship with his son, along with the physical brokenness he seems to be experiencing with his eyes. I don't see him as some evil menacing "spirit doctor", but as a lost and hurting child, who is a prisoner to something he doesn't even understand. And I believe wholeheartedly that in this encounter, the man was curious and interested, but the spirits he's given his life over to had to run. I believe there will come a day when the spirits will run again, but this time they will have to leave the man behind, and then he will run towards the team, much in the same way he ran away from us last Friday. If you're so inclined, I encourage you to pray to that end as you have opportunity. (The man's name is Paw Wang)

So, while this "concludes" my story, it's really only the beginning of a much larger story, which I can't wait to have the opportunity to tell.

The story of Friday, part 1

So, with all the background out of the way, it's time to move on to the events of Friday.

Actually, for me, the events of Friday started on Thursday night. If you were following along with the team on the blog, you know that Thursday night was "Date night in Ubon", as our team provided childcare for the two sets of parents and let them have a night out for a change. I was stationed at Lynn and Amy's house, and things were relatively calm, so I had a chance to catch up on some e-mails. One of the e-mails I read, oddly enough, was an e-mail that Lynn had sent out to his intercessors asking for prayer regarding the meeting with the spirit doctor that would happen the following day. The e-mail included a word he had received from one of his intercessors, saying to that the curse could be reversed by going in the opposite spirit, which would be a spirit of blessing. Lynn's e-mail indicated that this had really resonated with him, and so that was to be the purpose of this meeting.

Well, it resonated with me as well, and as I processed the words that night and the following morning, suddenly things clicked for me. I had been trusting God for Lynn's healing for several months at this point, and also believing that God would use this whole situation for His glory among the Issan people, but I really couldn't make sense of what God's actual plan was. That's not to say that I have to understand what God is up to in order to trust Him, but I was really desiring to see His hand in the situation more clearly. And as this all came together, I saw it. I believe at this point that God told me that we were at the "end of the beginning" of His work among the Issan, and that all of this was going to be His catalyst for something so much greater in the village of Dongaul. As Lynn and team approached this man with such a spirit of love and blessing, and then Lynn was eventually healed, demonstrating that God was more powerful than the spirits he worshipped, that the barriers the team has been encountering in taking their ministry in Dongaul further would come down.

Our team devotions for the trip were in Ephesians, and on Thursday morning we had been in a section where Paul refers to himself as "less than the least among God's people". Paul doesn't explain that statement there, but if you read elsewhere, it's clear that the reason he refers to himself as such is because of the fact that he had persecuted the church prior to coming to Christ. I believe that one of the reasons Paul was such an amazing vessel for the gospel is because he had such acute awareness of what he was before coming to Christ. I don't know that this was a direct word from God, but I could just see this spirit doctor finding Christ and becoming such an incredible testimony to his own people. I shared that with our team in our devotion time on Friday morning.

Friday morning was the first time that the whole long term team was together on our trip, as Jon and Becky, and Silk arrived on the morning train from Bangkok. So, we all met at Lynn's house. Lynn talked to myself and John about the plans for the afternoon, that himself, Amy, Randy, and Silk were going to be going out to the village to meet and bless this man. The rest of us would stay behind and be in prayer. He also told us to be praying about if any of our team needed to go along. I'll be flatly honest, I wanted to go along from the get go, but I was pretty sure that was just me talking, so I let it go.

We had a time of sharing and connecting with the team, and then moved into a time of sharing and prayer regarding the afternoon's plans. I shared with the entire team the word that I believed I had from God on all of this, and others shared similar words. Then we began to pray for Lynn. As we were praying, I got the sense that I was supposed to go along to the village, but because I knew it was something I really wanted, I asked God to tell someone else if I was supposed to go, just as a confirmation. We moved into a time where Lynn was praying for and blessing the others who were supposed to go to the village, and after a short time, he put his hand on my head and began praying for me, saying that he believed I needed to go too, and so it was decided. We had some more extended prayer time, and each of us that were going were anointed with oil, and then without much further delay, we hopped into the truck and headed out to the village.

Okay, I know Amanda's going to hate me for this, but I'm gonna break here again. I've got to leave to go to church very shortly, this makes for a nice breaking point, and on the odd chance that someone wanders by in the time I'm gone at church, I figure it's better to have part of the story up than make you wait for the whole story at once later tonight. I will finish the story tonight before I turn in.

Back to Thailand...

As promised, I'm back with some more reflections/recollections. Incidentally, I think this might be the first time in the history of my blog that I've posted 7 days in a row. Monday's contribution was rather inconsequential, but it counts! Besides, tonight's post is going to necessitate one tomorrow, so I'll get it anyway you slice it :-)

Anyhow, the whole trip was memorable and significant, but the events on and around Friday were very much the defining ones of the trip from my perspective. In order to avoid a ridiculously massive post, I'm going to summarize the events tonight (in more detail than was posted on our team blog, and more of my personal experiences), and then do a more reflective post about them tomorrow.

First of all, you're going to need some background that I don't think you'll all have, even if you followed along with the team on the blog. Lynn, who in addition to being the leader of the team working long term in Thailand, has been a dear friend of mine for many years, was diagnosed with ALS (perhaps better known as Lou Gehrig's disease) last summer while he and his family were back in the States for 6 months of home ministry. ALS is a disease that attacks and breaks down the nervous system. It is fatal, and there is no cure. Lynn's return to Thailand was delayed by almost 6 months. He currently exhibits a number of symptoms, the most noticeable being his slurred speech.

We expect Lynn to be healed of this disease at a future point. Lynn believed God revealed this to him almost immediately, and many others (including myself) believe we have had this confirmed independently from God. My story of how God spoke to me on this has been shared with Lynn and a number of others close to myself and/or him, and I hope one day to make it public. For now, however, Lynn is back in Thailand and his situation is being wisely and appropriately monitored.

Shortly before our team arrived in Thailand, Lynn sent out an e-mail to a number of his core supporters/intercessors, telling us that he was devoting a week to prayer and fasting about his healing, and inviting us to do so as well, and to share any words we had for him. My understanding now, though Lynn didn't state this at the time, was that this was brought on by the fact that his condition had deteriorated enough so as to be getting close to the point where a decision might have to be made to bring him back to the States. Anyhow, what came out of this week was that Lynn was given the opportunity to spend a week in Lakeland, Florida, attending the healing revival going on there.

Two things came out of that experience. The first one is that, while Lynn was not healed, he did experience some improvement in his symptoms. I was told by some of the team in Thailand that it was fairly significant. It's hard for me to tell, because I don't know how bad he had gotten, but I will say that I found his condition, particularly his speech, to be very similar to the last time I had spoken with him prior to his return to Thailand, which was about 4 months prior to our team being there. So, I have to believe there was some improvement, because the disease is much more progressive than that, and Lynn had been reporting noticeable advancement in his symptoms. The 2nd was a word from God regarding a "spirit doctor" in Dongaul, the village where the team has had their most significant ministry to date, who had placed a curse on Lynn, which was causing Lynn to experience the symptoms of ALS.

Upon Lynn's return to Thailand, the next time the team went to Dongaul, they found out everything they could about this "spirit doctor" and made plans to meet him in the near future, in order to discern next steps. Plans were made for a group to go out to the village and meet him on the Friday afternoon our team was there.

Okay, so that pretty much wraps up the background information, and looking at the post, it's already really long. So, I'm going to change my original plans. I'm going to let this stand as a background post. Tomorrow I shall post about the actual events of Friday, and then I will post my reflections and what I learned from the events of Friday by sometime Monday evening.

An interlude...

I'm going to have to interrupt my series of Thailand reflections tonight. I just got home from a prayer gathering (incidentally enough, for the Thai team), and being that I'm not totally over the time difference yet, I'm starting to drag. So, rather than another meaningful look into what I learned from my time in Thailand, you're about to get a relatively light and glib couple of observations about country music. Don't worry though, I've got all kinds of nothing planned for tomorrow (I was very intentional about keeping this first Saturday back clear of responsibilities), so you should get some more reflection tomorrow.

Anyhow, two quick things that struck me while I was listening to the radio at work the last couple days:

#1 - What kind of bizarre individual sets up a playlist that has this song immediately followed by this song, without even so much as a commercial break in between? You've got a song that, to me anyway, represents just about everything that's right about country music, and you follow it up with one that well... doesn't represent everything that's right about country music.

#2 - One of the hottest acts in country music right now is Taylor Swift. Taylor just turned 18 back in December. Her first single was released in the summer of 2006, and her debut album a few months later, when she was 16. Taylor wrote or co-wrote every song on her album, and I believe all of her 5 singles to date have been songs that were basically all her. I've questioned before how a 16 year old could possibly have had enough life experience to write a whole country album, and her single releases to date have only intensified that question.

Here's the lyrics for 4 of them:
Tim McGraw
Teardrops on My Guitar
Picture To Burn
Should've Said No

I've heard/read interviews that indicate that 3 of the 4 songs definitely came out of Taylor's life, and I'm almost positive I remember seeing something about the 4th being the same. What's up with this girl that she ran into all these "love gone wrong" type incidents by age 16? And what are all these random guys thinking about their decision making now?

On the Thai church

Well, I promised you deeper insights from my Thailand trip later in the week, and I try to be a man of my word as much as possible.

I'm not sure that it's really possible to spend any amount of time engaging a different culture in a real way without gaining some new insight and perspective on your own culture just by the natural comparison/contrasting that occurs. As you encounter differences, it's only natural to ponder why things are different, which then brings you to a greater understanding of your own culture. My trips to Thailand have been no exception to that rule, especially as it relates to the church cultures.

I think the greatest factor that shapes the differences in church culture between Thailand and the US is the fact that in Thailand, the "battle lines" are more clearly drawn and the alternatives more distinctly laid out. Thailand is about 1% Christian by the most generous estimates. The country is dominated by folk Buddhism, which mixes traditional Buddhist philosophy with an animism that has a keen awareness of a spiritual realm and a spiritual hierarchy. When you're in the cities, property after property is adorned with a "spirit house", which is a shrine to the spirit of the property. There's a hierarchy involved, and there are shrines to spirits of the village, town, city, region, and even a shrine to the spirit of Thailand in Bangkok. There is clear and overt opposition to the message of Christ around every corner. Here in the States, the opposition certainly exists, but it is much more subtle and more easy to ignore.

That shift leads to what I find to be two fairly fundamental differences between the Thai church and the US church.

#1 - Denominations certainly exist in Thailand, but for the most part, Thai believers don't really care that much about them.

One of the biggest knocks on the church in the US is the amount of backbiting and infighting among denominations. This is just not an issue in Thailand (if you exclude the various Western mission organizations coming in from outside and bringing their rivalries with them), and it really makes a lot of sense. Because in the States, the "enemy" is much more subtle and not as clearly visible, it's much easier to mistake friends for enemies. The Church (note the big C) in America struggles with unity because, at present, there's nothing in place to challenge it and cause us all to focus on our similarities, rather than our differences. Let's be realistic here, while I certainly have theological differences with a number of mainline denominations, how many of them revolve around issues that are even close to foundational. And yet, because we lack a clear and obvious opposing force, it's very easy for us to quibble about who has the "right" brand of the truth. We don't take particular note of the arrows being shot at us by our real enemy, and so our little squabbles take precedent.

#2 - There's really no such thing as a casual Christian among Thai believers.

I made the statement while I was on the trip that, once you've accepted Christ, it's easier to make the decision to go "all-in" with that path, because again, there's the clear and present opposing force. In Thailand, if you step into the ranks of the spiritual battle, it's obvious that you have to be prepared to fight, or you're going to go down in flames. In the States, we have the capacity to just "get by", because again, we don't take note of the arrows coming our way. We feel like we can just kind of hang back and chill, as the case may be. We, in general, don't have to worry about being disowned by our family and friends, or coming under constant cultural pressure to be different, because of our choice to follow Christ. You just don't take the name of Christ lightly in Thailand. Unfortunately, we often do in these parts.

And just to make it absolutely clear, I'm not saying it's easier to follow Christ in Thailand. I just think the overt opposition makes it easier to make the daily decision to give Him everything you have. The overt opposition also makes the consequences of making that decision more severe, if that logic makes any sense at all.

On Thai food

So, like I said, I'm working my way up to the deeper insights from the trip.

There are many reasons that I'm glad God decided to call me to support the team in Thailand, as opposed to in other areas of the world. One of the more superficial, and yet still noteworthy, reasons is one I am thankful for everytime I sit up to the dinner table while in Thailand, and that is Thai food. I've been overseas in a cross-cultural/missions setting in 3 different locations in my lifetime - Haiti, Zambia, and Thailand. For the Haiti trip, we were with a big group stationed at a mission complex, so we didn't have a ton of local fare, but what we did have, I did NOT enjoy, with the exception of the fresh fruit. Zambian fare was okay, but it lacked variety. However, I absolutely love Thai food, in terms of both overall taste and variety. I suppose if you weren't a fan of spicy food, as was the case for members of my team on both trips thus far, that it might be problematic for you, but I have no such problem. I just love it - all kinds of meat (beef, pork, chicken, fish), solid complimentary veggies, and oh man, the fresh fruit. I don't even really like the pineapple I get around here, but it's just ridiculous getting some fresh in Thailand, and you haven't lived until you've had fresh mango and sticky rice in coconut milk for dessert. Out of this world! And as much as I like "standard" Thai food, the Issan fare we run into up in the Northeast might be even better. They do this barbecued chicken that is just crazy good.

Anyhow, despite the extent to which I'm raving about Thai food here, I rarely eat it when I'm in the States. In fact, I'm fairly certain the only 2 times I've had Thai food outside of Thailand in the last 2 years were the times we went out for it as a team in preparation for each of my trips to Thailand. You might wonder why that is, and whether you wondered it or not, I'm going to tell you. My reasons are essentially two-fold. First, and probably most significantly is the simple fact that I very rarely go out for a sit down meal of any kind. However, in those rare moments when I am pondering going out, the second reason often kicks in: I look at the menu for the Thai restaurant that is posted on my fridge, and I see the prices. It offends my sensibilities to pay their asking price when I know what I would be paying for that kind of food if I was actually in Thailand. I've found that, in general, prices in Thailand tend to trend lower than you'd pay for similar items in the States, but the food comparison is ridiculous, especially if you compare it to what you'd pay for Thai food here.

Let's set the tone for this here. I was handling the money for the team, and thus paid for every meal we had. When we were with the long-term team, we paid for their food as well. That means that there were a couple meals where there were 13 adults and 5 kids eating. The most I paid for any one meal was 2000 baht (that included a 70 baht tip). The baht was trading about 32.5 to 1 against the dollar while we were in country. So, that means we fed 14 adults and 5 kids an excellent Thai meal for about 62 dollars, including our drinks. If you only count the adults, that's about 4.80/plate, if you include the kids, it's roughly 3.50. Contrast that with the Thai restaurant whose menu adorns my fridge - the cheapest entree on it is 8 bucks by itself. Pretty crazy, really. As a further contrast, one woman who was on the team I went with last year was telling me the week before we left how the Thai restaurant in Dillsburg has an Issan meal - barbecued chicken, sticky rice, and green papaya salad - for 12 bucks. Well, last Thursday I got that same meal, along with some barbecued fish and an excellent pork dish, for 6 adults, and paid less than 20 dollars for all of us. Crazy.

I suppose I should be factoring in the cost of a plane ticket and all the lost time it would take to get to Thailand when I'm thinking through these decisions, but I seriously have a hard time bringing myself to pay American prices for Thai food.

On Thai service

Jet lag update: Went to bed around 9, woke up 2 times during the night for a combined total of about 1/2 hour, took Tylenol PM at first wakeup. Result is a better than expected night's sleep. Woke up with only minimal trouble when alarm went off, nearly missed bus due to it coming a bit early and me lolly gagging around prior to leaving. Was wide awake and alert through lunch, really started dragging in the afternoon as the time in Thailand approached and passed midnight. Doing okay right now, possibly due to the caffeine from half a 20 oz. bottle of Pepsi.

Anyhow, it's time to start posting some personal reflections from my time in Thailand. There' s a lot to talk about, so I don't know how long I'm going to stick on this topic, but we'll just see where it goes. I think I'll start with some more surface/superficial observations and then get deeper as I move on.

Coming back from Thailand, I find it a joke what we in America settle for and call "service", and what defines good service. This was my second time in Thailand, and even so, the extent to which Thai folk go out of their way to serve blew me away again.

As a for instance, today I met a friend for lunch at the cafeteria in the PA Capitol building. After finishing my meal, I was walking over to the trash can to throw away my garbage, when it struck me that this was the first time I'd done that in a week and a half, despite eating at a restaurant about 2 times every day while in Thailand. And bear in mind, these weren't all your typical sit down/be served restaurants. We ate at a KFC, stopped at coffee shops (even Starbucks), and other things like that. If you're ever in Thailand, I dare you to go into a fast food restaurant and find a trashcan sitting in a public area. You won't find one. Why? Because it's not your job to get rid of your own garbage. In fact, if you try, you'll probably find one of the employees of the establishment getting annoyed because you're in their way. It's pretty crazy. And you see the same trend at sit down type restaurants as well. Almost all of them that we went to would probably be considered overstaffed by American standards, and so we almost invariably had more than one person dedicated to our service if we had any size of a group with us. It was the same way on the plane (we flew Thai Air), a much bigger flight staff than you'd be likely to see on a similar sized American flight, and much more frequent trips being made with drinks and the like. I still remember my first run-in with Thai service on the flight out when I went last year: I had my foot sticking way out in the aisle and tripped a flight attendant, and she immediately apologized to me.

I say with great confidence that the worst service I've ever gotten in a restaurant in Thailand is better than 90% of the service I see in the States. This made the fact that I had to keep my tipping relatively minimal due to cultural considerations rather frustrating. You just don't tip a lot in Thailand, period. Why, I don't really know, but I do know that when I tipped 70 baht on a 1630 baht bill, I was actually being quite generous by Thai standards. Try finding a waiter/waitress that's legitimately grateful for a tip of less than 5% in the States, no matter how bad their service is. If I got the same service in the States, I'd probably be tipping 30%. And yet, that's just how it works in Thailand. And really, I suppose it makes sense - if the culture puts a premium on great service, it becomes an expectation, and therefore just something that's included with the meal. I would assume (and hope) that waiters/waitresses in Thailand are actually paid something resembling a living wage, and therefore aren't dependant on tips. It's just one area of culture shock that I never really saw coming.

Back!

Well, I made it back from Thailand, safe and sound. I've been back at the house for about an hour and a half, got things unpacked, got the laundry going, got a shower, and now I'm hitting up the computer. I'll begin posting some reflections on the trip tomorrow, but right now I'm not entirely coherent. Gonna spend a few hours watching the US Open playoff, catching up on some shows I DVR'd while gone, and getting reacquainted with my dog. The folks are going to stop by later to help keep me awake until a normal EST bedtime, in order to aid my recovery from the time change.

A quick hit...

I'll be brief - the only thing worse than sitting in an airplane for 17+ hours? Sitting in an airport for 7+ hours WAITING to sit on an airplane for 17+ hours.

Checking back in...

Well, it's been a while since I've checked in on this blog. At the moment, I'm in a coffee shop in the Bangkok airport. We've still got about 4 hours until we're even able to check-in for the flight home, so I thought I'd entertain you all with some reflections over here, before I get to some more team type business in a bit. I can tell you that it's likely that this blog will be fairly Thailand centric for the next several days after I return, as I share with you all more of my personal experiences, and also process them myself. I hope you will find something worthwhile.

Today I'm going to stay on the lighter side of things, however. If you've been checking in with the team blog, you saw me allude to us taking a 45 minute detour in order to avoid 20 yards of walking. Allow me to elaborate.

Public transportation in Ubon is provided by tuk-tuks, which are essentially open-air taxis, and "song thiews", (that's my best attempt at a phonetic spelling) which basically operate in a similar fashion to buses, in that they have a fixed route that they loop over and over again. Song thiews are basically pickup trucks with benchs along the sides of the truck bed, and a roof over the top. They are identified by number, and are also painted different colors. I'm guessing there's some rhyme or reason to the color choice as well (3's and 7's are pink, 2's are white, several are blue, etc), but I haven't figured it out yet. You flag one down along the side of the road, hop on, and then ride to wherever you are going, at which point you ring a bell and the driver pulls over and lets you off. There's a flat fee of 10 baht (roughly 30 cents) per person no matter how far you ride (well, that's only true to a point, as you'll soon see)

Anyhow, in the morning, we had taken the #3 on our way out to a church that we wanted to pray over, and noticed a market along the route. After we had finished our planned tasks for the day, it was about 1:30 and we didn't have to do anything else until 4:30, so we decided we'd catch the #3 again and go to the market. That we did quite successfully. On the way back, however, things got interesting. Our hotel is off the main street in Ubon, which is a 4 lane divided highway. They drive on the left in Thailand, and the street back to the hotel is on the right as you're coming back on the #3. Typically, we'd just get off across from the Lotus (basically the Ubon version of Wal-Mart), and walk across a bridge over the street. However, I was getting quite comfortable with these song thiews, and had noticed #3's coming back the other way, so I said "Let's just keep going, these things loop around here somewhere close." Well, they do loop around (sort of), but it was at no point that resembled "close".

We ended up heading out to the outskirts of Ubon, by the bus station, and any other number of places we didn't really want to go. Finally, the thing pulled a u-turn and I figured "Great, we're going back." That was, of course, until he took a left down a side street that was definitely NOT where we wanted to go. The whole time during this ride I kept seeing #3's going back the other way, and thinking that maybe we should just get off, walk across the street, and get one coming back the other way. But I kept balancing that thought with the thought that if we did that, we'd end up doing it right before the loop back point, and end up getting the same truck and driver coming back. So I held off on that thought.

Finally, we turned off this side street and wound up in a field/lot where there were... many other pink #3 song thiews. We had found the "loop back" point, or more accurately, the start and finish of the route. We had to hop off and pay our driver, and had another driver ready to leave on his route and eager to accomodate these silly "farang" (foreigners) who clearly didn't know what they were doing. As we went back out around the last corner, I looked back as we passed this restaurant where two Issan ladies were pointing and clearly having a good laugh at our expense. I hadn't noticed them the first time, but you know they had noticed this group of 4 white people and wondered what in the world we were going.

As it turns out, we were actually very, very close to where our friends Randy and Jodi live, but since I'd never been out to their house, I didn't know that. I wish I had, because we could have paid them an unplanned visit. As it was, we just wound up with a really fun story, and probably the moment of the trip that we'll all remember the longest.

So, the lesson for all of you in this: if you're ever in Ubon, get off on the other side of road and walk the 20 yards!

Aren't you all lucky?

Well, I'm not on blogging duty for the team tonight, and I still have my internet connected computer, so you lucky readers of my blog will be blessed with a fresh post once again!

It is HOT in Bangkok. In a lot of ways, the extent to which this kind of weather is oppressive to myself and the team is a by product of the overly cool spring we've had to date. The current weather isn't really THAT much different from a typical late May, early June day in PA, but we haven't had many of those thus far, so we weren't nearly as adjusted as I figured we would be when we set the dates for the trip.

We went to a massive market in Bangkok today, with all sorts of craft, food, and other vendors around. Crazy busy, and very, very close in the parts that were under tents. Early readers of this blog may remember my grocery store rant. This market confirmed just about every theory I had related to that rant, and probably put me on the way to developing a few more. It's a total sensory overload thing.

One of the highlights of today was our trip to the top of Baiyoke Sky Tower, which is the tallest building in Thailand. There's a little more to the building, but we topped out at the 84th story and the revolving observation deck, which unfortunately wasn't revolving. We went to this place last time I was in Bangkok, but in the daytime. Tonight we were there just after sunset. Bangkok is a very impressive site to see. Unlike typical American (particularly EastCoast) cities, which mainly have grown by going up, Bangkok just sprawls. I have no idea what your actual visibility range is from 84 stories up, but the bottom line is that you can't see to the end of Bangkok on any side from the top of Baiyoke. Making tonight even more fascinating was the fact that we got to watch a storm roll in from miles off in the distance. That is, of course, until the lightning got too close for comfort, which of course was long, long before it would have been an actual threat.

Checking in...

Well, I'm awake this morning with internet access (I'm actually listening to the Phillies game right now, how cool is that?) and nothing really to do until breakfast in about 45 minutes, so I thought I'd hop over here and post some personal reflections.

#1 - The trip started off with a minor fashion mishap for me. Note to self: 4:30 am is not the best time to pick out your pants if you want to make sure you get your khaki Dockers rather than your green pair. Fortunately they are close enough that I have enough shirts along to match these as well, and it's not like I have to be overly fashionable on this trip anyhow.

#2 - Remember the days when it was cool to sit in the back of the school bus because you got to really feel the bumps? At 28, getting to really feel the bumps of the vehicle your in is much less cool. Either the church van needs some suspension help, or every road between McBIC and JFK really needs some work. I'm leaning toward the latter, actually.

#3 - You know that it has been a LONG flight when your flight attendant comes to serve you your 3rd hot meal (when was the last time any of you even got one hot meal on a plane?) and she (like the rest of crew) is now wearing a different uniform than she was the first 2 times.

#4 - Last month was motorcycle safety month in PA (if not everywhere) and a lot of the display boards along the highways had a message reminding us that "Motorcycles are everywhere". I'm here to tell you that we don't know what it means for motorcycles to be "everywhere" back in the States. Here in Bangkok, they ARE everywhere, and consistently pulling stunts that would get them killed on the streets of any US city.

About to hit the road...

Well, my goal for tonight was to have everything ready in time to be in bed by 10 pm, in advance of an alarm that should be going off at about 4:30 am tomorrw. It's about 20 minutes till 10 as I write this, and this is my last act before turning in, so it appears I will be successful. This week has indeed been busy and stressful (the stress being added to by ANOTHER disappearance of the 3:25 bus yesterday, apparently that mystery isn't totally solved yet), but everything seems to have come together very well, and I'm very excited to start our journey to Thailand tomorrow, from our church parking lot at 5:30 am.

I just posted an update over on the team blog, and as I said, from this point on, that will probably be the best place to check for information regarding what is going on with me. If internet access allows and I have something I think merits special attention on this blog, I'll post it, but I really have no idea if/when that might happen. So please, follow along with the team, pray for us, and interact with us via our blog.

If not before, I'll see you all back here in about 10 days!

Update

Okay, so here's the deal.

I depart for Thailand for 10 days this coming Friday at 5:30 am. As you might imagine, I have much to do prior to departure. Some of the stuff already surrounding that explains why I've been a little light on the posting lately, and while I'll do my best to get a post or two in when the mood strikes be between now and Thursday night, I expect that you won't see too much from me this week. That won't necessarily improve while I'm in Thailand.

However, if you're interested in following along with the exploits of me and the team I'm going with, you can mosey on over to http://thailtrip08.blogspot.com/ and check out our team blog. There's already some pre-trip info there, and once we're over there, one of us will be posting an update at least daily. Now, I may post some stuff here on personal blog on a day when I'm not blogging for the team and I have something to report, but the basic truth is that if you want to know what I'm up to from June 6 - 16th, you'll want to be on the team blog.