Our First Thailand Day

What a day of amazing sights, sounds and tastes. I really enjoyed our first day here. We started with breakfast on the 40th floor of our hotel, our table was facing the city with a total glass front, for quite the panaromic view of Bangkok. It's a huge city, #28 on the world population list vs. Tokyo that is #1, just lots of people in both cities. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't have much smog, I had heard that it was a dirty city. I didn't find that to be true at all yesterday, we drove around and walked around quite a bit and I would say in the areas we visted that NYC was dirtier. The sidewalks are old and uneven causing one to have to really watch their step, it's older than NYC but seemed cleaner in the parts we toured. I hadn't spent much time studying up on Bangkok prior to us leaving, knowing that we would be living here,so really can't speak to everything we saw yesterday. I was just trying to take it all in. It feels different than Japan in that there are a ton of tourists, in Japan we saw very, very few Caucasian people, you could almost feel like you were the only ones walking the streets of Tokyo. We did meet a couple from PA in our hotel who were there for their son's wedding to a Japanese woman. Bangkok is so international, my goodness, a plethora of nationalities! I was surprised by the Muslim presence, lots of women in burkas. I knew that there was a strong Muslim contingency in South Thailand but not here, some M's that we met with yesterday said that is new thing they have seen in the past few years-wealthy middle Eastern Muslims here for the shopping. Shopping you might ask, in a third-world country? They have some amazing, large, modern, luxury shopping malls. I told the boys that if they ever missed the states we could come to Bangkok and go to a mall and eat at McDonald's! We've been told that McDonald's, KFC, and Wendy's are much different than in the states(even though they look they same from the outside-Ronald is waving and inviting you in here too!) but that Pizza Hut is pretty much the same as stateside. I saw lots of Starbucks and higher-end designer stores like Prada and Tiffany's. The contrasts though are still striking, a block away from the mall very likely has a debilitated,old building missing a door with trash piled inside. It's just a surprising contrast.

There are street vendors everywhere, the sidewalks are covered with people selling their wares, most of them setting up a small sidewalk cafe. The smells are overwhelming at times with all the different concoctions simmering and cooking. The chefs have all they need in their small spot on the sidewalk-the kitchen, the dining area (the curb) and the clean-up area. We do know some people that have no qualms in eating at these establishments but I would be wary after watching the women wash all their supplies in a small bowl of water situated by their location. We came home at 10ish last night and business still seemed strong, I wonder if some of these people sleep at their vendor locations, it sure didn't feel like the Sabbath, the sidewalks were busy, banks open, malls with a steady stream of people...

We finally found the Evangelical Church of Bangkok, we left 45 minutes early with directions in hand and our driver waiting patiently outside. Let me just tell you, I already see one way God is going to use this experience in my life, he is going to be cultivating patience in me. In the states, I like to drive, Mark likes me to drive, the boys like me to drive, there is just more peace in the vehicle when I'm driving and Mark is an excellent map reader. I struggled some yesterday trying to sit quietly in the back sit while Mark struggled in the front sit trying to communicate with our driver that speaks English (?). Finally, after 45 minutes I started praying for the Lord to help us find this place that we had been told was only minutes from our hotel. At one point, Nathan (if you know Nathan he has an innate sense of direction.) commented, "Hey, there's our hotel again." When I started praying I was asking God to help our driver who was starting to say, "I'm so sorry." He so wanted to get us there, he kept looking at the directions and saying, "soi 10, soi 10?" Soi means street in Thai. Finally we happened to all see a sign that said Evangelical Church of Bangkok with an arrow, a sign from above!!!! We were only a few minutes late. What a great time of worship we had, I think we only missed a couple of songs. The times that we have fellowshipped with believers in Africa, Dominican Republic and other foreign countries I have always been surprised in how much more they sing than churches do in the states. The Northcutt's love singing. We sang a favorite song from Grace-He is Holy. Afterwards talking with the music leader we commented how great it was to sing that, he has talked with Z.Jones who wrote it. Guess what? We know Z.Jones (small world!), he led music a couple of times at our church in VA and spent a little time with Dustin trying to help him with playing the piano with the worship team. God really used the service to confirm to us that He is in all of this-this move to Thailand. The music made us instantly feel right at home, the message was from Ecclesiastes 3 and he was specifically addressing God's work through your work, he also referenced what is becoming our 'theme' verse, "A man can plan his course but the Lord directs his steps."

It was a very multi-cultural mix of people, people from every tongue and nation. About 300 people in the second service. What a wonderful time of worship. The pastor encouraged us in that there is a small international church in the Pattaya area, confirming that there are always a remnant of God's people wherever you may go. We returned 5 minutes after the service to our hotel for an afternoon of swimming and rest. I'll try to post later after we return from our trip to the Embassy this morning before we head out to Southern Thailand. I can't wait to tell you about our dinner out with Chris from Va and meeting our first friends in Thailand. This is time consuming, but you all encourage me on. Thank you so much for your comments and encouragement. (Dorinda, Kristy, Janette,Sally,Heather and Lavon forgive me that I never comment on your blogs, mostly because I never seem to be able to remember my google account information, I now see how helpful it is to continue on if you think someone might be reading.)