AsgerP's Blog

As I traveled today to Maesai - border-area to Myanmar - I saw a sign with the name The Friendship Bridge. Apparantly pointing to the bridge between Thailand and Myanmar. It kind of stroke me, is that now what it is all about ? Friendship, bridge........... is that not what all life is about, beginning with God ?
You must say that God is the ultimative BRIDGE-BUILDER, as He Himself, the God-head three-in-one stepped down, became a human and lived here on earth, joined Heavens and Earth in just 33 years. Serving as a carpenter and meanwhile serving people, effecting the Earth. It was like something HAD TO CHANGE (now that is the big number 1 word in the presidential campaign as well.........everybody wants change huh....). There was a war going on......heavens and earth represented in one body, the Son of God. The human Jesus Christ, God in flesh! When the Earth meet the Son it was not the Heaven that changed, it was the Earth - He got not sick when He met the sickness, the contagious sickness, NO - the sickness got cured! Because what was in Him was stronger than the things meeting Him.....same with us, we are a part of it. When we meet with God, something have to change as well, not Him - but us....... He did build the bridge, God took the initiative to the friendship when He joined THE WHOLE WORLD in Christ, God joined us in the great dance of life, the river of life!!
So.....here I was, sitting in a bus, on the way to the border, getting stroked by God and looking at all the people and wondering, do they know? Do they know that they truly belongs to God - that they are His ?
Anyway....I got to the border, got MY LAST VISA-STAMP.....22. MAY THIS YEAR.....have to leave this country that I love and has become a part of..........UNLESS.....
1) God provide 40.000 baht (1500/2000 US DOLLARS) before that date, so I can go to Australia and get a VISA.....only solution now for VISA.....
2) Some foundation in Thailand can provide me with a VISA......
3) God speaks VERY CLEAR and not possible to misunderstand for me, where He wants me/us to go now AS WELL as providing the money for it.........if you knew how much (or little) we have left by now, I believe you would be laughing.....;-) Anyway, it is not that important, is it........
Now I better move on to producing a newsletter on my family to friends here in Thailand, asking for prayer and support...... Blessings to all of you out there, and remember - YOU BELONG TO GOD !! :-)

Ah, a nice today, monday - remembering how I used to hate mondays (like Garfield) and I guess I have been struggling with these days long time now! Anyway, it is good to be back at the school, even it is very quiet and only very few people. The students are on outreach - left wednesday, 1 staff left for America yesterday (Seattle), 1 student just came back from Singapore and now joined the outreach-team and 2 other staff went to visit a "ex-staff" who moved to other part of Thailand.
Then now we are only 4 people at the school........but then today, without we heard before, we find out that tonight would come a group of young people from America, Montana YWAM (Youth With A Mission) so they are here now and they will be staying until saturday. It IS like a train-station sometimes here hehe.........
Today I have mainly been doing some graphic on my computer (inspired by The Great Dance series.....) and it is a idea I am working on.......have been doing that for days now....I get inspiration slowly I guess hehe......
Then I have been writing Immigration Bureau in Bangkok/Thailand on how un-fair it is regarding my VISA-situation and then we went to the local market to buy some food. My wife has started a fasting though, so it is has for sure been some trial for her to stand in the middle of all that food and of course beeing hungry - but she learn a lot of discipline I guess.......
This night we watched a movie called "EIGHT BELOW" (Paul Walker & Jason Biggs) and it IS recommendable! It is a Disney movie based on a true story about 8 sledge-dogs and a expedition in Antarctis..........very very good movie!!! A point stroke me about passion, we see a man, Jerry, who passion for dogs is indeed strong and when we have to leave without them, the passion and the missing of them is SO strong that he do everything he can to go back there....finally, it success 6 months later.
What hit me was how passionate he is, his stubbornness, endureness and never-given-up even when others thing he is crazy and out of his mind - "it is just dogs"....but no, he follow his heart, his passion and does not give up, he wants to know what happened with the dogs...... and that is just admirable!! Like Noah and the arch, he endured 40 years, people laughing at him also.......... Sometimes we must endure people dont understand us, laughing at us and think we are crazy and just "go for that 1 thing".......go for our mission, our passion, our dream, our desire..........that is part of The Great Dance as well, that keeps us alive and feeling the pulse of life!!
Sometimes we must FOLLOW A HIGHER CALLING, INSIDE OURSELVES OR OUTSIDE OURSELVES....to take the risk and GO FOR IT.......despite other peoples reactions, they are not living our lives anyway, we are.............. :-)

Hi there..... this morning, sunday, I put my feet back on solid Chiang Rai-ground....actually it is quite redly ground here hehe...... anyway, Im happy to be back! Im not a person who is much connected to a certain place, for me, home is where I am temporary and at the moment, we actually happen to have that sense of home in at least 3 places!!
We got here early in the morning, I must say I am amazed of the standard in the VIP-person with massage in the chairs, aircooled, nice comfort seats, curtains to cover the bright, tv with movies, pillow and blanket as well as provided food and drinks - that is as good as it gets I guess :-) Praise God for some days in Bangkok, we went there tuesday and now back home, sunday!
It is a seriously hot time we are in now and the temperature-scale, celsius, is somewhere all the time close to 40 - sweating and devasting! I mean, I am born in europe after all, I cannot deny it, and even been living here and adjusting quite well for more than 2 years, I still suffer every time under the hot burning sun and you just look for somewhere to find a cooling breaze!
So what happened while we were in Bangkok? Well, first of all it always amazes me how big it is (somewhere around 15 million people living there, they say......) and LOTS of pollution, traffic and oppurtunities, not to mention EXPENSIVE - everything minute seems like a "spending-minute", I honestly dont like it - since our finances is given by God by some who work hard for it, I know that (Thanks God and thank you out there.....) so I try to be responsible and constantly aware of our spendings! The huge expense was the fee for re-new passport at the danish embassy, 6000 baht - which is, for us at least, A LOT, but no way out, we had to do since I have almost no more pages left for stamps!!!
I thank God that we was able to stay at family of my wife, her nephew, his wife and their child, who has a appartment in Bangkok - they work for YWAM Thailand (Youth With A Mission) and we slept there until saturday morning, saving money as well, thanks God.
Later we discovered, instead of having to take taxi all the time, the option of taking a city-bus in the town to a much much lower price and then we walked some as well.......we then celebrated the savings on a Burger King.....yummy....I love it.........my "foreigner-heart" was happy hehe.....
I was also thankfull that we got to visit a Christian Bookstore - which is located at Bangkok Christian Hospital - and do some investment in some good christian books (in thai) and Im now, noticing my wife reading about THE END TIMES.......in her own native language!
Some other highlights, were that we meet with my wifes sister, who have a business, hair-salon, in Bangkok and since she was quite busy we had not had that much fellowship though, but was nice to see her though!
The other person, was to meet another sister of my wife, she is working in a Bank (TMB - Thai Military Bank) in Bangkok and im pretty impressed with her english also, so that brings the relationship into a more understandable level...........they are both very nice persons, but not given into Christ (yet.....)......they are both a "prayer-issue", because they are our family also!!
Well, Bangkok is okay, but personally I enjoy something much more smaller, at least for a longer period....I can enjoy some days there, but then I get enough of all the traffic, the crowds, the business, the "no-smiling-attitude", the pollution, the smoke, the traffic, the heat among all the tall buildings, the noise etc. etc.
In all the business life of many people there, I see a lot of sadness, despair as well and people getting caught in fashion, materialism, desires and etc. and I wonder how many do know that even all the beautiful - on the outside - will soon be gone and only EVERLASTING VALUES will last? Where is Jesus in Bangkok? Where is He in our life, in my life? God in human flesh, living out His life in us, with us and through us......... and lastly, let me share 1 thought I got from a book I am reading now;

I TOOK COCA-COLA LESS THAN 100 YEARS TO GET A DRINK BE KNOWN WORLD-WIDE.......IT HAS TAKEN CHRISTIANITY MORE THAN 2000 YEARS TO TRY TO GET GOD (THE REAL ONE.....) KNOWN FOR ALL PEOPLE AND IT STILL NOT SUCCESS - WHAT IS GOING WRONG? ----------------------------------

Hi there.....
No, I have not forgotten you out there, I guess I am just a bit quiet and occupied by other things at the moment....anyway, I am back!!! Yesterday we had heavy rain here in Chiang Rai, thunder, lightening as well so no internet connection, that is pretty common to loose that here when the weather turns out to be like that.
The conference just finished friday, the Frontier Mission Conference 2008, and even I was not participating a lot - I pretty easy to feel "full" and dont coope much good with SOOO many meetings and like to be on my own at times as well - it was a good conference though. Many nationalities, even from Jamaica, and it is interesting to hear what people is doing for God in different parts of the world and how God is leading. For me personally it became a confirming eye-opener for how wide, and big the world is, like a warning on not trying to exclude any nations or areas, if God is calling there! As well as focus on the people who do not know Christ, it is SOOO easy and comfortable all the time to just be with other Christians and then we never get to meet the "really sick" (Jesus said, it is the sick who needs a doctor, not the well..... ) - get the picture ?
This is the main impressions for me after the conference........the most interesting countries I heard about was Bhutan (somewhere around China and India), because those people was REALLY passionated about their country and what God is doing there! It is most more interesting and easy-catching to listen to people who is sharing something with passion, right.....at least, that is how I am !
The other place is Brasilia, I did not know about all those tribes at all and how they work with translating the Bible and parts of it into different tribal languages...interesting to hear (withouth thinking too much about Tarzan in the jungle hehe......).
After the conference finished friday night, some stayed there to saturday.....but many left during friday and even some of thursday, so in the beginning of the week was probably about 250 people but much less the more we go into the end of the week, understandable, because it WAS a tough conference with a LOT of speaks/seminars (too many!!).
Sa#!$ay, a groupe of Vietnamese people came here to the school and stay here until thursday, they are quite many - 18, 9 men/boys and 9 women/girls in different ages. They cook here, eat, sleep and relax....doing laundry, normal stuff.....wow, vietnamese food is actually very nice!!! If all vietnamese people is like them, man I love Vietnam then, they are SO nice, friendly, smiling and good people, I must admit I like them here, even I do not know them that well, but they are alll sisters and brothers in Christ - at least I know that and that is a good start right :-)
This week we will go to Bangkok for some days, because I need to renew my passport as it is running out of pages, I hope and pray that it will be okay and can be done before I have to leave the country, UNLESS GOD IS DOING SOMETHING ELSE AND SHOWING A WAY OUT of that (in may......) !!!
Wednesday students leave the base here and go to a short-term mission-trip (outreach, 2 weeks.....).
Now we have Songkran in Thailand.......a buddist tradition-thing.....thai new year, where they splash water everywhere on anyone for DAYS - boring, if you ask me - it is not possible to go outside withouth getting wet.........but just 2 days more, I hope!!
Anyway....blessings out there, send me a message if you visit my profile, I love to hear from people....... :-)

Many people is getting deceived on a daily basis for not knowing who they are, what their real identity is, who they are in God, in the trinity. All people is a part of God, adopted to Him, taken in to Him, included in Christ as we are all death in Christ, risen in Christ. It once becomes ârealâ for us on a personal level as soon as we see it, face it and take it into our life â in other words say âyesâ, agree with the fact. It does not change the fact, the reality that the Heavenly Kingdom and the human life is united in the Son, reconciled â that IS a fact, that IS a reality no matter how we relate to it or not. In this age it seems popular to deny the holocaust of Hitler murdering more than 6 million Jews under 2nd world war â but in the same way, it does not change the fact that it DID actually happen, even if some is trying to deny it or no! It does not change the facts, the realitysâ¦.
The powers of darkness, the Enemy goes in and whispers to our ear âyou are notâ¦.â (part of God, part of the unity, part of the Great Dance, included, Son/Daughter of âI amâ etc.) and we believe it most of the times. So what happens when we believe that lie, that deceiption?
We run around, knowing or not knowingly, looking for identity some places else, building up a idol, something we believe â being lied to â we can âhang our identity onâ. If you buy this Nike-shoe you will beâ¦â¦.. if you play golf you will beâ¦â¦ if you buy the newest Toyota you will beâ¦..if you marry this top-model you will beâ¦..if you have children you will beâ¦â¦. All based on âI am notâ-lies!! So we do that without rest, using things and even people as objects, manipulating them for our own good, our chase of finding who we are â been blinding of the fact of who we REALLY are!
This deception even goes on in church-gatherings for well-meaning men and woman of God who has been lied to, believing if you do this ministry you will beâ¦â¦(something/someone)â¦â¦if you lead worship-songs you will beâ¦â¦ if you take this course you will beâ¦â¦â¦.if you become friend of the pastor you will beâ¦â¦. So we walk around with our own little hidden agenda in desperate search of identity because we have been lied to and this can continue a whole life!!! Unless we wake up from the whole deception and see who we really are!!
The lie even makes our God-given desires â or longings - become a problem, because we start to fill up this desires with things (idols) that substitute God. Basically it is possible to simplify it into 7 different longings of the human heart : 1) The longing to be enjoyed (by God) 2) The longing for fascination 3) The longing for beauty 4) The longing for greatness 5) The longing for intimacy â without shame 6) The longing to be wholehearted 7) The longing to make a deep and lasting impact. These are a simplified definition of what drives us, our longings, hopes and desires. When we know, when we realize, who we are, we can get them all fulfilled in God and stop listening to the âyou are notâ deceiption. Jesus said the truth shall set you free, rightâ¦â¦. Let us pray for that revelation of who we truly are, so we can waken up and do things for the right reasons.
This ends the seminar, part 4, I have been listening to on The Great Dance with Baxter Kruger. It is recommendableâ¦â¦â¦