How Then Should We Then Live in...a Buddhist Country

The refinery is having a safety celebration next week after reaching the one year mark with no reportable injuries. The festivities have all been planned by the Public Affairs department and will be on the same order as previous celebrations in the refinery. Mark was told that as the Refinery Manager he would be setting on stage with the monks and be asked to light candles and pray with the monks. Mark felt uncomfortable but wasn't quite sure what the best way to handle this situation would be. We are living in a 98% Buddhist country full of many traditions and cultural differences and are grateful for this experience but never want to compromise our Christian convictions and beliefs. Mark had brought his concern before his men's Bible study and we had prayed as a family for wisdom in dealing with this situation. I want to share with you the e-mail correspondence between Mark and his PA manager, with Mark's permission of course.

From Mark:
Khun Pairoch-I've thought about next week's plans a good bit more. Bottom-line, as a Christian, I am not comfortable participating in any active way during the Buddhist ceremony, but at the same time, I want to show proper respect to everyone attending the ceremony. Therefore, I will be happy to sit with the lead delegation and observe the ceremony, but if you need someone to participate by lighting candles or similar activities, then I suggest you have Khun Adisak provide that service. Please stop by to discuss this so that we jointly agree on the proper plan and thus insure that neither of us are caught by surprise next week. Thanks.

From Khun Pairoch:
Khun Mark-Your note has taken the worry out of me as it kept me thinking of how to properly manage this since I had informed you to light the candle and the joss sticks and know that it could be viewed that you are worshipping the Buddha. The other thing is it will be a torture for you(even myself) to sit on floor with crossing leg or squat position for an extended period.

I will ask ADJ to represent RLT on the lightings and rearrange the seating so everyone will be put on the right spot and feel comfortable. Will stop by your office to brief you on the ceremony but for the time being, let me try to give you a summary of the ceremony as follows:

*Arrival of 9 monks at around 10:00 a.m. The monks will be invited into the room to the monk-seat (higher than the level of the audience)

*All staff go into the room (those who sit on the floor will take off their shoes infront of the room)

*RLT (Refinery Leadership Team) members will sit on the couch and no need to take off shoes.

*Representative of the RLT (ADJ) to light the candles and the joss (incense) sticks and pay obeisance 3 times to the Buddha image (by putting both hands together to the forehead and bending forward with the hands until they rest on the floor).

*Representative of the audience (SOA) will lead the promising to follow the commandments pronounced by a monk (The monk will lead the praying and SOA as well as the audience will repeat the praying). This will take about 5 minutes.

*The 9 monks will begin the praying for about 20-30 minutes. The audience will listen/meditate in silence with both hands on the chest. (You may sit without putting both hands on the chest and observe. Chatting in a low voice is not prohibited).

*At around 11:30 a.m., the audience will serve lunch for the monks (meals after lunch time or 12:00 is prohibited for the monk). You will see a number of audience participating in serving lunch to the monks (as it is the belief that offering food/drink/clothing/medicine etc. to the holy monk will receive highest merit due to purity of those under monkhood. It is like planting a tree on good ground. The tree will grow better than on the poor ground).

*After lunch the monk will move to the monk seat, 9 representatives of the audience will present offerings to the monks (including flowers, candles, joss stick, and small donations).

*The monks will pray to bless the audience for performing the merit. You will see the audience gathering in round to perform the libation (pouring water from a small bronze jug into the small bronze bowl). The water in the bowl will be poured into the tree later so the merit will reach the destination depending on one's wishes. On this occasion, the merit should go to all the holy spirits protecting our refinery from bad things and to bring all the good things to our refinery).

*The lead monk will walk around to sprinkle the holy water on the audience and the NAB building.

*Around 12:00 p.m., the monks will leave the refinery.

Regards


A couple reasons I wanted to post this lengthy e-mail.

-several of our Christian friends here are lead country managers of their companies and there has been much discussion on how they should respond to these Buddhist ceremonies, Spirit houses on the site...this email confirmed a couple of things in our minds-as Christians we should not participate in these ceremonies, they are a religious ritual and they are bowing and praying to a Buddha image.

*America that was founded on Christian principles would never allow such a religious ceremony at their workplaces, just something to think about.

-and to remind you to please pray for us as we take a stand here for Christ, not only that we do it in a loving, respectful way but that we have the courage to do it!

I read this from 2 Timothy 3:12-16

Yes, and all who desire to live goldy in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. But you must continue in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

MRISA

Last Thursday began the 3 days of volleyball competition for the 8 schools that participate in the Mekong River International School Association at our International School on the Eastern Seaboard. Remember in October when we traveled to Cambodia where the MRISA basketball games were held? In May we will travel to Laos for the MRISA 2009 soccer matches. Our school's families hosted about 300 children from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. We personally hosted 3 boys from the New International School of Cambodia or NISC. We requested to host Zeeth, Dustin and Nathan stayed with his family in Phnom Phen in October. They were excited to see Zeeth again and hopefully it brought some comfort to his mother, whom I met while visiting Cambodia earlier, knowing that we would be caring and watching after her son here in Thailand. Zeeth's family is originally from India and have been in Cambodia for over 10 years. We also hosted EJ born in the Philippines and Paulet born in Cambodia but has spent several years living in L.A. California, his father is in the Cambodian army. They arrived at 3:30 pm on Thursday afternoon to begin their tournament play early Friday morning. The matches were culminated on Saturday with a pool party and awards assembly. Dustin's team came in 4th and Nathan's came in 8th, they didn't win a single match. Nathan was disheartened but every team had one member chosen for the All-Stars team and Nathan was chosen from the ISE 'B' team. Both Nathan and Dustin were chosen as their team's captain.

Our 3 guests were very courteous and a pleasure to host. We were excited to get to learn about their cultures and lives. Nok, my housekeeper was concerned that I wasn't serving any Kao Pao or steamed rice to these Asian boys so she brought over a huge bowl of rice to make sure they survived the weekend. Paulet commented that he gets rice breakfast, lunch and dinner at his house and refrained from eating any here but he did have olives for the very first time. EJ did seem excited to have some rice to add to his eggs, bacon and cinnamon rolls! They seemed to really enjoy our pool and pond, so much so that I gave them the alternative to go to a local mall, visit the Crocodile Farm...but they all voted to just hang out here with our guys. Their flight was 7:30 out of Bangkok so I had to have them at the school at 4:20 a.m.! on Sunday. Poor Songkran, our driver, we didn't get to our bon until 10 p.m. on Saturday night after the pool party and awards assembly and Songkran still had to drive to his bon only to return at 4:00 a.m. the next morning. It is still hard to get used to depending totally on a driver and I don't know what we would have done if he didn't show up or overslept, thankfully, we haven't had to deal with that yet.

Ethan

Ethan is Seip Et! I can't believe my little guy is 11. I am so grateful for Ethan and all he means to our family. I can remember someone, who will remain nameless on the blog commenting when we were talking about having another baby, when the triplets were 3 years old, "That's all you need like a hole in the head is another baby!" It did seem daunting to think about adding another baby to the equation when we were so busy with the three but how gracious God was to give us E-man. It was such a joy to have a 'normal' pregnancy and delivery with him, even though at 8 1/2 lbs it almost didn't turn out so normal, we were close to a repeat C-section but Dr. Del Castillo was very patient and even at one point turned to Mark and said, "Let's pray that we can get him out." What a special memory, Mark, Dr. Del and me holding hands and Mark asking the Lord to help get Ethan delivered.

We were initially hoping for a girl to even things out, but Abbie declared early on that we were having a boy. She was so sure and quickly gave him the nickname of "Bob"! For 9 months Ethan was our baby Bob but he sure is glad we didn't stick with that name. With our children we always asked the ultrasound tech to seal the sex of the baby in an envelope and then Mark and I had a tradition of going to a special restaurant, praying together over the envelope and then tearing open the surprise. (The US results were wrong with the triplets as we initially thought we were having 2 girls and 1 boy but they did comment that they couldn't be sure of one of the sexes. Thankfully we had 2 boy names picked out just in case!) We felt much peace in finding out we would have another son, knowing that God was in control and knew just what we needed.

Boy, did he ever. He gave us an affectionate, sensitive little guy in Ethan Rhodes Northcutt, someone that eagerly gives hugs and kisses to those he loves. I can't tell you how many times after Abbie died that Ethan would just set in my lap in the chair in our bedroom, hugging me, allowing me to cry, with us eventually falling asleep together in that chair. God provided much balm to my soul through Ethan's hugs and kisses walking through such a sad time after losing Abbie.

For you that don't know him very well, don't think that he is a softy, he is a good mix of loving, hugging and wrestling! His older brothers have made sure that he is a tough guy too. He has always been big for his age and is a bruiser. Many times his loving comes with a elbow in the face, a painful jab in the ribs..He loves to read, he loves to be read to and he loves his movies. Life just doesn't get any better in his eyes to lounge in the bathtub with his portable DVD player and a good movie. He likes animals and is sensitive to them. I can still see him running around with the kittens in his mouth holding them by the scruff of their necks, just like their mamma.

Ethan seems to be adjusting better to living in Thailand. It's taken a while, making friends doesn't come easy for him, he is shy and can become so easily embarrassed. He wouldn't allow me to bring any cupcakes to his classroom to celebrate his birthday, he just really doesn't want to be the center of attention. I can remember the first time he sang in front of church with a little VBS choir and he looked like he was going to be sick.

We had a small party here, he only wanted to invite the Clarkson family and requested roast, mashed potatoes and gravy. He wanted a white cake with Miney's chocolate fudge icing, which he didn't even eat a piece until the day after, he has never really cared too much for sweets. It was my first time to cook a roast here using Thai beef, I usually splurge and go for the Australian beef. After only seeing malnourished, poor looking cattle around here I couldn't imagine that Thai beef would be that tasty, but it turned our well-arroye ma-delicious!

We had a stack of presents for him to open. We were so glad that Grandmamma and Pappa Joe's package made it just in time! He was so excited about the lunch box he received from Aunt Lola. I have been unable to find anything here or in Singapore that resembles a lunch box. If you're looking for a source of income, I'm thinking there has to be a demand for lunch boxes, lunch pails here. Dustin and Nathan gave him a crystal making set, he has always had an affinity for gems and sparkly things. He can't wait to get started growing some crystals, it looks complicated and I'm asking him to wait to get it all out over the weekend. Mark and I gave him a big book on the history of comic book characters, he picked it out at the book fair weeks ago and a new Star Wars X-box game. We almost didn't get the game, it was held up in customs for over a week. We've not had anything tagged by customs before but I've heard they always hold anything that looks like it might be a video game, DVD or CD? and require an import tax to be paid. We paid $30 (1000Baht) to have it released from customs and finally received it on Tuesday, his birthday. He's been contemplating what movie he will purchase with the I-tunes $ Aunt Bon gave him. He has commented several times that he had a good birthday and can't believe he's already 11 years old-me either!

Singapore

My baby is on the eve of turning 11 or seip et! I can't believe how quickly time has flown by. In celebration of his upcoming birthday we took all the boys to Singapore over the weekend. Mark was there all last week for business meetings and the boys and I joined him there Friday evening. I've been clicking along thinking on how well the boys are adjusting and then realize from several comments they made this weekend how hard this has really been for them. When we were landing in Singapore, Dustin commented longingly on how the runway reminded him of Dulles and then went on to say that he really missed his room in Virginia! I'm thinking-wow! where did that come from? Ethan in response to Dustin replied that he wishes that we could be back in Virginia. As we were navigating through the airport and later the streets of Singapore they all relished the signs in English, hearing English spoken in most places and they were all amazed on how clean Singapore is. Nathan stated, "Man, I miss the US."

I also was very much impressed with how clean Singapore is, really amazing that an island, half the size of Bailey county and home to over 4.5 million people can be so immaculate. But they take littering very serious in Singapore, and enforce the $300 fines readily. It is still against the law to purchase gum in Singapore, you can't find it anywhere but in pharmacies. When the Federal Trade Act was passed with America they demanded that American gum be allowed to be purchased in Singapore (sounds kind of silly to me :) but what do I know?) Singapore agreed but only if it is sold in a pharmacy and can only be obtained with a physician's prescription!! I'm trying to think of any reason gum would be needed for medical reasons? Wonder if insurance covers it? Needless to say we didn't see anyone chewing gum and consequently no gum was seen under any tables or railing!! It is also against the law to spit in public. Just FYI, one other tidbit of information I learned from our taxi driver. If there was no traffic you could drive from one end of the island to the other in 30 minutes, it's that small. So you can imagine how crowded it is, so many apartment buildings and few single home dwellings because land is outrageously expensive.

Shopping is the main thing most tourists do in Singapore but this weekend was all about Ethan and his birthday so we spent our time at all the kid attractions. Mark met us at the airport and we headed to the harbour front for Chili Crab, a Singaporean signature dish. It was delicious, really messy and expensive. After living in Thailand I've become spoiled with how inexpensive most things are. We can go out to a nice restaurant down the street and enjoy a really great meal for 5 under $30. Our chili crab meal was close to $150.

We stayed at the Lion's City Hotel, a Singaporean friend here recommended it because a friend of hers owns it. Singapore means Lion's City. Singapore used to be a part of Malaysia and Singa in Malay means Lion and Pore is city. You can drive to Malaysia over a long causeway and many people speak Malay in Singapore. There is also a strong Muslim presence in the city because of the connection with Malaysia.

On Saturday we took the cable car over to Sentosa island, a tiny island right off the coast of Singapore. We spent the day at Underwater World, the 4-D show pirate show, walking on the beach and that night we attended the Songs of the Sea show on the banks of the island, a laser light musical. As soon as the show was over we drove 45 minutes to the north of Singapore to the night safari. We saw some animals for the very first time-an Asian Rhino, a bearded pig, and an Asian bear. We also watched a tribal show with some interesting fire eaters. One of the highlights for the boys may have been the Dr. Fish. I had never seen these fish before but their specialty is eating the dead flesh off of human bodies and they have some enzymes that are supposed to be beneficial for our skin. I'll put the pictures up of the boys having their feet attended to by the Dr. Fish, they seemed to be most interested in Dustin's feet probably because he is trying to get over athlete's feet-isn't that kinda gross? We finally returned to our hotel around 12:30 that night.

After sleeping in to around 10 am the next morning we headed to Wild, Wild, Wet a waterpark on the outskirts of Singapore. We had fun navigating our way around the subway and bus system, that was half the adventure! After 4 hours of fun in the water we finished up our time in Singapore shopping for new IPOD earphones, and a new X-box game. One of the stores we really enjoyed was the National Geographic store and Dustin and Nathan purchased a crystal making set for Ethan's birthday there. We had the latest flight out of Singapore and arrived home finally at 2 am! We tried to smash as much as we could into our trip to the Lion's City!

International Day

Days like today just make me love the fact that our boys are attending an International School. Once a year the school sets aside a day to celebrate all the nationalities and their cultures. There are children from 24 different countries at the boys small school. The morning began with a parade of flags with the oldest child from that country being the flag-bearer, following the flags were the children from that particular country dressed in their country's finest. It was a very beautiful and colorful procession with the tropical landscape of Thailand as the backdrop. Thailand, the host country led the parade to the outdoor gym where a stage had been set up for the performances. Most countries were represented on stage with a performance. The Americans staged a medley of patriotic songs-Yankee Doodle, Bugle Boy, ending with It's A Grand Ole Flag while a huge American flag was unfurled on stage. Then while all the kids divided into teams for international games most of the mothers finished the details of a large international buffet. I was in charge of the American table and most of the American families brought an traditional dish to share with all the students and parents. At first I thought to myself, "What is US food besides hot dogs and apple pie?" Nearly everything I could think of was Tex-Mex but everyone came up with some great ideas. We had Texas chili, Louisiana gumbo, hot dogs, potato salad, chicken nuggets, BBQ spareribs, meatloaf, cornbread, brownies, apple pie, banana pudding and chips and salsa. What an amazing assortment of delicious foods and a fun time was had by all! Now when I go home this summer I will be sure to stock up on patriotic decorations in anticipation of the next International Day.

A Busy Weekend

One evening every 6 weeks we meet with 6 other families that are like minded for fellowship. 5 Nationalities are represented and the kids attend 3 different International schools, we have all met through various Bible studies and wanted to schedule a time of fellowship predominantly for our children to build relationships here in this new land. God has provided each of them to help make our adjustment easier, fellow co-labourers of Christ here in Thailand. I'll post pictures from our last fellowship this last Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon we attended a fellowship for the men's and women's Bible studies that meet each week through our church. The ladies just completed Beth Moore's Daniel study and will start next week on Monday mornings her Fruits of the Spirit study. The men are going through 2 Timothy on Tuesday nights.

Tonight we joined Mark in kicking off the Esso Sports Club Futsal season. Futsal is a popular form of soccer played in Thailand. It is played on a basketball court with 5 people per team. It's a fast paced, physical game. The season trophy has Mark's initials on it because Exxon pays for the event. Mark's initials are MEN but when we arrived in Thailand they started using MNO-M for Mark and NO for Northcutt-go figure? Anyway, it was funny to see that the season trophy is the MNO trophy. Mark had to make some opening comments and officially kick off the season. We enjoyed the Thai buffet provided for all participants for the most part. We all avoided the cubes of congealed blood in the curry, it looks like squares of liver but is blood. The Thai people are all amazed at how we all like spicy foods, it's like we gain respect in their eyes because we can handle their spicy food, we love it! We had a nice time watching the first 40 minute match of Futsal tonight.

Cinderella Goes to the Ball

Last night I attended my first, real ball and on Valentine's Day to boot! Some weeks ago we were invited to the American Chamber of Commerce of Bangkok's Hollywood Ball. There were dresses to be made, tuxedos to be ordered, reservations to be made...Balls are a common thing in Thailand, it may be because there is a seamstress on every block and there have to be occasions for their services to be needed? Mark's secretary directed me to the House of Jayna for my dress selection and Mark was sent to Raja's in Bangkok. I learned a lot through the process, first to be more prepared when you walk into a seamstress shop. I falsely assumed that they would have albums of previous designs they have done to choose from. I walked in and was seated with a designer and a blank sheet of paper, who asked, "What kind of dress do you want?" She wasn't very cooperative though, I asked for something that would make me look 50lbs lighter!!!! She's probably heard that before. We finally decided on a design and then I picked out the fabric before having a ton of measurements. Two weeks later I picked up my first special order ballgown. Mark's tuxedo was more complicated and took two fittings and three weeks.

We arranged to stay overnight in the hotel where the ball was being held so the boys could camp out upstairs while we were downstairs in the ballroom. It worked out great. Esso was one of the sponsors and we had front row seats to view all the beautiful gowns (I was storing up lots of ideas for next year's dress.) and to enjoy the entertainment. We were expecting some ballroom dancing, so we had the boys run us through some of the steps they learned in last year's Cotillion classes all to no avail. It was all rock&roll dancing, we didn't even get out on the dance floor. At one point Mark looked at me and sayed, "You don't want to dance do you?" (he's sooo romantic!!) and when I said, "Not really." He sighed, "Good!" It was fun watching everyone else and listening to the band. They played some really great songs-all with an American theme like, American Pie. It felt more like open Karaoke, everyone was singing along and having a great time. Of course the opening song was the King's anthem, followed by the Star Spangled Banner. The US Ambassador to Thailand was two tables over from ours. We had a wonderful meal, an auction for charity was conducted and we met lots of new people. Mark was excited, he killed two birds with one stone, fulfilled a work obligation and treated his Cinderella to a night at the ball on Valentine's Day!