TBMF Newsletter

December 2005

TBMF Newsletter

Greetings to all! We hope you had a great Christmas and that the New Year will bring fulfillment and growth in the Lord for you and all you do. Newsletters have been few and far between this year, so I wanted to squeeze one more in before the year ended. But since it is so close to the New Year, let's mention a few new things first:

New Definitions: Starbucks, along with new coffee mixes has coined some new words: Decafalon – The grueling event of getting through the day with no caffeine.

Inoculatte – The cure for the decafalon . Inoculatte is taking your coffee intravenously so you can have your caffeine in the go.

New CCT Building

The CCT had been working on their new office building for about the past year. Finally, on September 24 the official opening was held and shortly after, the various offices of the CCT began relocating to the new site. Everything is spic and span and state of the art with lots of room for everyone and lots of meeting rooms. There is a great view from the roof and the cross sitting atop the new building can be seen from many places around the city. The new address is 348 Payatai Rd , Ratchatewee , Bangkok 10400. The phone number is: 02 214 – 6000 – 9. To get there from the Sky Train (BTS), go one stop beyond Siam toward Mo Chit and get off at the Ratcahatewee station. Then walk back toward Mah Boong Krang or Siam Square just a few doors and you should see the entrance to the Student Christian Center and the new CCT building.

Union Language School is also re-locating to the new CCT Building and will be taking over the 7 th floor. They are making their last improvements now and should start the new year at the new location.

New Point to Ponder: We know the speed of light. What is the speed of dark?

New Arrival

BMS missionaries in Bangkok , Pete and Lizz Maycock announced the birth of their daughter, Abigail Esther Maycock, born on November 2 nd . Pete & Lizz have been toiling at Union Language School in Bangkok and are now wrapping things up there in preparation to move north to Chiang Mai. They have already been house hunting and will begin working with the Karen Baptist Convention ( Phaks 10 & 19) after they move at the beginning of the new year . So they get to start the New Year with a new baby, a new location, new work, among new people. They'll even get exposed to a new language or two along with new variations of Thai.

Other New Arrivals

Per Larsson from the Swedish Baptist Youth Federation arrived, took some Thai lessons and is out and about working with the Pwo Karen in Chiang Mai. With Per, there are now a total of 4 Swedish volunteers working in several locations among the Karen people.

Grahame Walker has arrived from the UK and is teaching English at the Mahachai Christian School , about 45 minutes west of Bangkok . Grahame will be teaching for a year or two.

Emma Blackman, Hannah Scott, Francesca Redvers -Jones, & Hannah Bayes are the current BMS Action team. They barely got off the plane before we whisked them to the Wang Tarn Resort where they helped with the children's and youth program of the CCT Ecumenical Retreat in October. Since then, they have had some language training and have been enjoying the views from the mission house in Mae Sariang (when not teaching English at local schools and hostels).

Paul Patton has arrived from the US and will be helping at the Kwai River Christian Hospital for the coming year.

Darlene Neily can't really be called a new arrival, but she returned to Sammuk Christian Academy after taking a term off back in Canada .

Oyvind and Phetsamai Hadland arrived from Norway , found a place to live and already have a couple months of language study completed. Phetsamai had a head start, having spent her childhood years in Thailand before moving to Denmark . So she got to jump straight to module 3 to learn reading and writing. But Oyvind is coming along and will start reading and writing himself next month. After language study, they will work with the Lahu Baptist Convention ( Phak 18).

Dick & Marlene Mann have also made their annual migration here to Thailand and are enjoying the cool mountain air at Baw Gaew .

We also had some short visits by former Volunteer and Tour Coordinators Ian & Del Pattemore and David & Jen Burdett. Former TBMF missionary and current pastor in Sweden , Helena Facchini was also in Thailand for a visit.

Work Advice: From the latest work efficiency guru comes this advice: The sooner you fall behind, the more time you have to catch up.

Newly Departed

Paul & Cathy Gravitas have packed their bags and headed south to Australia . They have finished their first term here in Thailand and are starting a period of home assignment. They should be back in Thailand around the mid 2006.

Another Point to Ponder: If Barbie is so popular why do you have to buy her friends?

News Flash

A couple months ago, former TBMF missionary, Edy McCarty was in a car accident while on a speaking tour of Indiana in the US . The car she was riding in was hit in the side as they crossed through an intersection. Edy suffered hairline fractures in the pelvis and below the knee. She had to use a walker for a time but wrote that all was well as her mother could take care of her!

Tough Year for TBMF Parents

When my brother and sisters get together we sometimes compare notes on how we have aged. If our mother overhears this conversation she has been known to say, “What are you complaining about? I have children your age!” While Thailand is the land of perpetual youth and I've not noticed any TBMF members aging, it seems that time has caught up with some of our parents. My apologies if I have missed someone, but in the past year or so Jacqui Wells, Kim Brown , Jeff Dieselberg, LaMon Brown , John Rees, Larry Martin, Jit Yawan and Alex Rodgers have either lost a parent or step parent or had a parent suffer a severe illness. Our sympathies go out to the families.

Car Repair: I took my car in for repair. The mechanic told me “I couldn't fix your brakes, so I made your horn louder”. My travel time around Chiang Mai has been greatly reduced.

The Curse of Spam & Spam Filters

Maybe non-Americans don't know that the original spam was a processed, canned meat product composed largely of fat and a greasy, jelled substance that glued non-descript chunks of meat (from what kind and what part of an animal was a well guarded secret) together. I'm not sure if anyone actually ate it, but we would take it on Boy Scout camp outs where we would quickly drop it in the fire or trample it into the ground so we could move on to our real dinner – the melted chocolate bars and ground up potato chips we had put in our back packs. But now-a-days, spam means unwanted e-mails that fill our inboxes by the dozens per day. Software companies have now blessed us with spam filters that generally filter out the good mail and leave us only the spam. Even my dear mother's e-mails are sometimes determined to be spam and filtered out.

At the TBMF office, we have problems sending out our mail. Especially with group lists, we generally get many messages back saying our mail was not delivered for one reason or another. We can and do use several SMTP settings for different addresses but this defeats the purpose of group lists and the results are not consistent. Right now, it seems we can not send e-mail to people with Yahoo addresses for example. All this is to say that if you are not receiving the messages you expect from TBMF , first check your spam filter to see if we are being filtered out. Some filters allow you to select addresses to bypass the filter. Second, let us know if you haven't gotten an expected message. E-mail is our main communication link and we try to reply to all.

Speaking of Spam: Please practice safe eating. Always use condiments.

TBMF Consultation

Missionaries and Board members should already have received information regarding the upcoming TBMF Consultation to be held the week of February 20 – 24, 2006 . Missionary meetings will be the afternoon of February 20 in Bangkok and February 24 in Chiang Mai. The Baptist Union of Norway and the Nagaland Baptist Council of Churches have requested membership in TBMF . With the Bi nkleys looking to return to Karen work, there will also be discussion on the selection of a new TBMF General Secretary (any volunteers?). Check the schedule for other topics that will be discussed and be sure to let us know if there is anything you would like the Board Representatives to consider.

Did You know? A local area network in Australia is called the LAN down under.

Dates & Meetings

January 2 & 3 - TBMF Office closed for New Year's holiday

January 16 - Coordinating Committee Meeting at TBMF

January 19-20 - 12 th Phak Annual Meeting at Christiam Mission Cottages

February 20-24 - TBMF Consultation