January 5, 2005

Dear Friends,

It is again break time at Chiang Mai International School. We have two weeks off for the Christmas/New Year’s stretch so I will write an update of what has been happening here during Advent and Christmas time.

On Sunday, December 5th, I went to the 9:00 a.m. worship service at First Thai Church, an open-air city church, situated on the edge of the Ping River. There were red and green banners everywhere and beautiful poinsettias across the front as well as Advent candles, pink, green, blue, red, and white, the Thai choice of colors. A table in the front was set up for Communion with a beautiful lace cloth covering the bread and juice. There was also a large picture of the King of Thailand set up in the front with a podium right in front of that. Advent is a time of anticipation and also wonderment. As the service began I wondered how it would all fit together. December 5th is the King’s birthday. A poem was read at the podium in the King’s honor. We all stood for that and afterwards sang the King’s song, page 304 in the Thai hymnal. Another standing for the Advent candle to be lit and a Bible reading to go with that.

After a few hymns and scripture readings it was time for the sermon. Half way through the sermon, 11 people entered and were ushered down front all wearing black t-shirts that had huge white letters on the backs saying FBI. These folks squeezed in in front and beside where I was sitting so I had a good view of them. They were young and all Asian. I studied the backs of those in front of me and noticed a small letter “c” with a circle around it at the top of the huge “I”. Tiny print at the bottom said “Firm Believers In Christ.” The group turned out to be a youth group from Singapore. The service continued. Communion was distributed. The benediction said but we weren’t finished yet. Announcements, about 15 minutes worth, and then roses handed out to anyone who had a December birthday. Amazing it was. Full of anticipation and good humor just as it should be.

That evening I went to Bill Yoder’s house—he’s a PC(USA) missionary—to see a DVD of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. It was quite a day.

Tsunami is a word that we all know the meaning of now. I was made aware of the power of water in 1993. I lived in Alton, Illinois, across from St. Louis, Missouri, on the bluffs of the Mississippi River. December 26 at 8:30 a.m. 600 miles north of Phuket, I was at my computer sending an email when I felt the chair shake. I thought little of it because we’ve had a lot of tremors here in the past. It was not until later in the day, when I turned on CNN, that I found out what had happened. For the first week after the Tsunami there was constant coverage on CNN and Thai channels. The devastation that has been shown over these past days is really unimaginable. As far as I know, none of our teachers or staff or families were at the beaches to the west of the country. People here in Chiang Mai are helping as they can. Banks, stores, UNICEF, Thai Red Cross, churches, and other organizations are all collecting for disaster help.

We go about our lives as usual, grateful for the world’s response and more aware and thankful for the life we have been given.

My best to you all,

Michal Dobson