Tokyo Train Station at the end of Rush Hour(s)

Exploring Japan...

Konnichiwa!

Here's some pics of the time in Japan... I'll just tell you about them to give you an idea of what we did.

This is Chris in the station where we picked up the train into Tokyo.

Claire LOVED being on the trains. She said riding the trains was her favorite part of the whole trip!

Here we are in the courtyard of the palace gardens. (You can't go into the palace itself, but you can go into the gardens.) Chris was quite the photographer.

Claire absolutely LOVED these flowers. She really wanted me to take her picture with them on this bridge. Isn't this a great picture?!

After the Palace Garden we went to a buddhist temple. It was pretty crazy. I'll post a little video I took there later on. Kinda crazy to see the people so blindly following emptyness. Pray for Japan!

After our little trip around Tokyo, we headed to the a Calvary Chapel on the other side of the city from the Deans where we visited the John and Holly Hance. John and Holly are also GO! Missionaries serving here in Thailand. We had a great visit with them, and then an adventurous trip home. We were on like the very last trains of the day. We had it all figured out (we thought) that we'd make it home.... and we did in fact catch all the trains that should have gotten us home. What we hadn't taken into account was the fact that the STATIONS close! We ended up taking a taxi the last 10 miles or so! It was definately an adventure to remember!

The next day was Gina's birthday! We went to El Torito (Yes... the real El Torito... same franchise as in the states!) and enjoyed really good mexican food!

Claire ordered a Quesedilla!

Behold the comida!

The next day, we spent a little time in Ushiku. (the city where Josh and Gina live) Josh and Gina dropped me and Suzie off at a mall to have starbucks and hang out together. It was great! After they came and picked us up we went to this really amazing noodle place and had dinner. Then we came back to their pad and we were blessed to participate in their very first Bible study! Chris and I led worship. They invited a couple people, but it was just us. Pray that as they continue to be faithful to do what God has called them to do that He will bring people to hear the Word!

Here's Josh sharing the Word with us!

Tomorrow I get on a plane to head home. I have really mixed emotions about that because I'm really tired out and ready to enjoy my own bed, but I'll really miss my friends and my girlfriend!

I'll probably put up some recap/lessons learned entries after I get home, so don't write off my blog yet! If I do a slideshow at church I'll post the information here too. I'm also plainning on blogging through VBS and Mission Training School!

Well, God bless you all for praying for me and following along on this really exciting trip! I hope that you've had a good time reading along! See you all when I get home!

Sayounara!

Backtracking a bit...

Konbanwa!

Chris and I are now safe and sound in Japan with the Deans. I was pretty happy to get here... and see my good friends the Deans and the beautiful Suzanne Rizzi!

Josh took a picture of us as we were leaving the airport.

To my great joy, my feet did not swell this time! Instead, I got ridiculously congested and feel like I have a cold. Ugh... Stupid allergies! I was more than a little paranoid that they would think I was sick and lock me up in a sterile room for the duration of my stay to make sure that I don't have swine flu! I put all my strength in to not sneezing or sniffling, and safely made it through the quarantine station. After that I was home free!

There were cool obentos waiting for us in the car. We enjoyed them on the drive back. The Deans' apartment is really cool! Japan is much different than I expected. It really has a far more western feel than I though. Maybe it's just from the contrast of just having left Thailand!

Dinner was AMAZING! We went to this restaurant where you order a meal with uncooked meat and then you cook it yourself at the grill on your table. It took a little while to get the cooking/sauce combination just right, but after that it was AWESOME!

I did want to take a moment and backtrack because I never had a chance to blog about the time we spent with Susan. I think the Epic of the Cankles (thank you Becca for correcting my spelling!) distracted me a bit.

Susan showing us the girls home.

Susan works a childrens home that helps out children in bad family situations or who's families are too poor to send them to school. My feet kept me from being able to do much on Wednesday, but on Thursday we were really able to spend some cool time with everyone.

We started it off by taking all their staff out to lunch. I think it was a real encouragement to them, and huge blessing to me.

Eating dinner together with the staff

This was one of the dishes that one of the staff ordered...
As gross as this is, it was cool to see how much they loved eating it.

Later, we took Susan out to the Mexican place in town. It's her favorite. I was impressed that it actually tastes like Mexican food!

Yes... Mexican food in Thailand! It was actually good!

After that we walked down to the dock on the river where we could look across and see Laos. We spent some time there praying for the Hmong people who are suffering in Laos and the Hmong in Thailand and for Susan and the Childrens' Home.

The view across the river to Laos.

After that we went back to the Children's Home and had a worship service together with the kids! They spent some time in worship and then I shared a Bible study. It was a great time.

Chris at the worship service.

Chris took a group picture after the service.

Anyway... only a few days left! Keep prayin!

In Christ,
Brian

A Tour of the Guest House @ TKBI

Hey gang...

Here's a little tour of the place we stayed Saturday night when we visited our Karen friends at the Thai-Karen Bible Institute in Pala-U villiage! Enjoy!

--B

Sitting in the Van...

Ha luh ghay!

Whatup everyone? Just wanted to put a brief note up. I got my phone unlocked and am on the internet in the van getting ready to head back to Bangkok from Hua Hin (near Pala-U). I was asked yesterday afternoon to teach for church this morning. It was awesome... I had no time to perpare AT ALL! But... no worries, I thought. God's faithful and He honors his word. I had an outline still from Thursday PM in Kings 20 I was still diggin on.

In the morning, I discovered that I was actually suppsoed to share twice! A 30 minute study, then a sermon of whatever length I choose! It all worked out well though. We went throught the highlights of I Kings 20 for the study, and then looked in depth at the truth that God is greater than spirits or demons for the sermon. It worked well since the idea of the Syrians that their "gods" would be able to cause them to win on their turf and God's beating them royally show He was greater made one flow right into the other.

Anyway... I gotta go before my phone battery dies! God bless you all.

-B

The Promised Map

Here it is in all it's glory and majesty! Behold the wonder of Google Maps! Here's the key of what is what:

A) Bangkok.
Massive (really... it's huge) city where we shared at Immanuel Baptist Church.




B)Dan Khun Tot.
Home of Jerry and Duang Frary. Cool smaller town.




C) Chiangrai.
Where the long bus ride ended and where the Epic of the Kankles really began in earnest.



D) Chiang Khong.
Dwelling place of Susan Staples. A really cool little town right on the Laos border (hint: don't pronounce the "s"). They would love a mission team to come and share there... (hint, hint!)



E) Chaing Mai.
Cool (well... not literally... but cooler than Bangkok.) city where we visited Jim Arnold and his family. It has a moat. Need I say more?



F) Pala U.
Next stop. We will visit the Bible School we visited on our first two trips and meet up with some old friends.




After Pala U it's back to Bangkok for a day and then on to Japan! I'll post some more about our experiences in Chiang Khong and Chiang Mai (hopefully) soon!

Keep prayin and be blessed! Oh... and tell a friend about the blog here. Hopefully it's pretty fun reading. And it will make me feel like I have tormented poor Chris with having to sit and wait while I use the internet for some good reason. (Not that I really need a reason to torment Chris... I owe him more "affectionate affliction" then I could ever repay!)

Anyway... hope you all are blessed! I sure am! I can't wait to get home and show you all more pictures and tell you more about all that we've done and seen!

Later,
Brian

The epic of the Kankles...

Behold the kankles! I had some swelling in my feet when I got off the plane. It actually usually happens if I don't remember to walk around a lot and annoy all the people trying to sleep peacefully on a 747. (Which is a vain pursuit anyway unless you are tired to the point of hallucinating.) It was a little annoying, but went away by the end of the next day. I thought I was home free... no worries at all. No problems at the Frary home. Completely normal looking feet. With real ankles.

And then there was the grueling overnight bus trip from the Frarys to Chiangrai. Twelve hours on a bus. GRANTED it was the most AMAZING BUS EVER! Really... you've never experienced anything like it! More leg room and nicer seats than any plane flight I've ever been on! BUT... 12 hours of sitting. We did have like 2 pit stop breaks... one of them longer so that we could get some food. At the end of it all, Susan Staples picked us up from a really cool coffee shop by the bus station.

My feet were a little swollen after getting off the bus. Okay... they were considerably swollen. I was a little freaked out. We walked around a Hmong villiage on the way to Chiang Khong where Susan lives and works. They swelled more. It was gross. Truly frightening.

I didn't want to spoil everyone's day by going to the doctor. Especially since here you don't just go to the doctor. You go to the hospital. In my mind a hospital is for people who are facing death, not people who are facing ballon-feet. So I declined Susan's offer to go to the nice hospital in Chiangrai right off the bus. Stupid me.

Well... in Chiang Khong they got worse. Truly monsterous. It was really getting uncomfortable (not painful mind you...) to walk. It was really freakin me out. And we were within walking distance of the hospital. So finally at like 8 PM I decide to go. I know... I'm an idiot. But at least I went.

The hosoital was a lot of fun. I was sort of a novelty. The doctor had me do every test conceivable. If I'd known they were gonna draw blood and make me pee in a (VERY small and easy to miss) cup I would have skipped the whole thing!

Susan came to check on us after an hour and a half or so (She'd been teaching her English class). It was so comforting to hear how the very hospital I was in had misdiagnosed a patient with appendicitis and tried to talk him into letting them do an appendectamy only to have the much better hospital in Chiangrai prove that he didn't have appendicitis. And then they told a woman who's appendix was bursting that she was making it all up! The good hospital in Chianrai scolded her because she'd nearly been dead!

At the end of the day, the doctor had no idea what was wrong, but gave me a couple meds to help reduce the swelling. I slept with my feet propped up and started the meds in the morning as instructed. Slowly, the swelling reduced. After the second night with my feet propped up, I had real ankles again!

Thanks so much to all you who prayed! I feel like Larry the Cucumber, except that instead of "I love my lips," I'm saying, "I love my feet."