My Name is Nam Pheang...

This weekend, we all went on homestays in a small village about 15 km outside of Chiang Mai. A high percentage of the village (and all the ones we interacted with) were Christians and members of the church in their community.

It was funny, seeing what the assumed about us and how that affected our stay there. Mostly --- they're Americans, so they must be Christian, right? They must want to sing songs about our love for Jesus! And they'll probably have songs about their faith to share with us! Great!

This assumption, mixed with a group of liberally-minded, predominately non-practicing students on a comparative religion program which encourages studying about religions other than Christianity produces a lot of awkward silences in which one side does not know how to react and the other does not know why their guests are beings so quiet.

At one point, we were all asked to come up to the front of the church and profess the great things that God had done for us in the past week. After an awkward moment, a friend (whose father is a pastor) stood up and told the congregation the great things that He had done for all of us by leading us to such a welcoming community for the weekend. The rest of us sighed with relief.

Personally, I eased the awkward tension I felt inwardly by singing the words that I knew to the familiar tunes. The frequently sung doxology here is a favorite ("For all that dwell below the skies / Let songs of hope and faith arise ...) and some others have their UU counterparts as well. Replacing "God", "Lord" and "Savior" with "spirit" and the like also eased some inward struggles.

With that said, we had a wonderful weekend surrounded by people with love pouring out of their hearts. I was graciously accepted into a home, cooked for, entertained, and integrated more into Thai culture all in wonderful company. We learned how to plant mushrooms and make northern Thai desserts which consisted of bananas, sticky rice, and beans wrapped in palm leaves then steamed until solid.

I made a Thai father here named Chang ("elephant" in Thai) who nicknamed me Nam Pheang ("honey" in Thai) because I introduced myself as Bee. Yesterday, he showed up to one of our community gatherings with a liter of honey he had bought for us at the market because of the name he had given me. Later, he got us all mango-wood bracelets and gave me a special one with an elephant on it to remember him by. He gave the sermon today (he's an elder in the church) and talked about Lazarus from Bethany. I talked with him after and told him that that was my real name and he was very surprised at the coincidence!

Blessed,
B(ee)