Andrew's Rantings: African Americans in Appalachia

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This may seem like a rather odd post, but there is a reason here. One of the classes I teach here at Surindat Rajabhat University is "Socio-Cultural Backgrounds of English Speaking Countries". The scope and purpose of the course is to expose the students to the culture of nationalities they will encounter in the English speaking world. I mainly focused in on the UK, US and Australia. Anyway, at the end we studied art and music. As I researched how to explain American folk music, I began to realize something that I knew but never took the time to consider. See, much of American folk music came from the United Kingdom, England, Scotland and Wales. If you study any of the Appalachian songs from those mountains, you will notice a recurring theme of lovers gone to sea, or people sailing across the ocean. If you think for a moment, there were not too many people in Appalachia joining the navy or taking leisure or business trips across the Atlantic. Not THAT often anyway. The reason for all of these songs is that they came from the United Kingdom, where such travel was much more common. Most of the songs and ballads found in the Appalachian mountains and American folk music in general descended from the British Isles. But American folk music sounds much different than the folk music in the UK, it's very distinct. So I asked myself, "What makes American folk music so unique?"

Ah, now we're getting somewhere. As ghastly and terrible a thing as slavery was, the impact that the African people had as they entered American culture changed everything. Like it or not, America would not be what it is today were it not for the huge influence of African Americans on our society. And this applies even to American folk music. More than most people realize. What is the most American instrument? Perhaps the banjo? Well, honestly that's not an American born instrument, it came from the banjar, an African instrument consisting of a gourd, stick, catgut strings and skin stretched over the gourd. Look at early pictures of the instrument and you'll see that's exactly what early banjos were. Things as "American" as bluegrass and Appalachian mountain music would not sound the way they do had they not been influenced by the rhythm and instrumentation of the African Americans. Don't believe me? Listen to a few banjo licks and you'll hear a rhythm that surely did not come from the British Isles, there's definitely something else going on.

I thought this was an interesting point, because most people would never associate something like Bluegrass or Appalachian mountain music with the African American communities. But when you stop and think about it, there's a lot of association there. These people went through some horrible times at the hands of America (not that they are alone, consider the American Indian nations as well), but they persevered and have in turn influenced America for what it is today. So the next time you hear a banjo and think, "Wow, that sounds really good" (If that is in fact what you think), thank the people who worked hard to make a place for themselves in this country.

The Worldwide Banjo

Andrew playing banjo in Buutsagaan, Mongolia (2003) [Note the Mongolian Mandolin]

Well, it's official... the banjo is the new worldwide instrument of this century. Amazing that while I cannot speak a lot of Thai, I can speak perfect Thai with a banjo, whether playing their songs or songs I grew up with, when I play, the message is plain. In any language. This banjo has been all over the place... Apache reservations in Arizona, the steppes of Mongolia, and now the jungles of Thailand. Now just so you don't get worried about my sanity, there is a point to this.

We had the opportunity to have a unique guest over this past week. His name is Michael, and he is a fellow teacher here at SRU. But he doesn't teach English, he teaches science. Oh, and he's not American, English or Australian. He's Israeli. He spends half the year in Surin teaching, then spends the other half in Tel Aviv teaching. So he is fluent in Hebrew, Thai and English (perhaps others, but that's what I know). Oh yeah, and he is a big fan of bluegrass. If that doesn't make your head spin, I don't know what will.

Since we had met him a month or so ago, and he found out we played bluegrass and such, he has been practically stalking us itching to get into a picking session. So after being hunted down at a fair, we set up a lunch with him at our place. So last week, I picked him up guitar in tow and took him to our house. We played this and that, most I knew, some I didn't. At the end he played and sang a Jewish song from the Bible, but he didn't know where. He is not a believer in Jesus Christ, but I was glad that God gave us this opportunity to be a light and to build a relationship with him. I am praying that God gives us another opportunity to speak more directly with him about spiritual things. He was quite a talker actually, but really wanted to talk mostly about which bluegrass festivals he had been to in the US. After about 20 festivals, we desperately tried to get the conversation elsewhere! We thank God for each opportunity He gives here in Thailand. We are learning the value of relationships. Here, it is extremely easy to build a relationship, at least on a surface level. People are generally open and accepting unless you give them a really good reason not to like you. Keep praying that God will use us in whatever way He sees fit!

Interesting Article

I wanted to share with everyone the nature of some things here in Thailand. While in America, the issue may be homosexuality and the nature of marriage, etc... in Thailand, it is a whole different ballgame. The article says it all. I had to piece-meal it together, so forgive me if it's a bit awkward.

Valentines Day

This is Leah:
Perhaps I should start by saying Happy Valentines day to you all! I look back a year ago today and I am amazed at all that has happened.
I have been asked what I need prayer for at times by friends and family. Often people want to pray for the souls and for the ministry we are working with. These things are all wonderful and good. But prayer for our hearts sometimes is more important. There are times here in Thailand I have experienced an almost overwhelming loneliness and loss. I will be honest and open even if there are some who do not want to think of their missionaries in such a light. There have been days I could not get up, for f feeling the deep want for my family. When you leave behind your friends you leave behind a part of your heart. It was like morning for the loss of a loved one. I could not just hop back on a plane or get in a car ride to see them. On evenings when the phones would not work or the internet would fail I would want to curl up in my bed and not get out. Drew can tell you the many times he had to pull me up and read to me God's promises to encourage me. Did I stop living? Did I stop reaching out? No. I have never stopped.
Before I left for Thailand I was discouraged by a friend who I had put deep trust in. I was told I was not good enough and that we were cowards and that we would fail. In my heart I had a steady calm. A knowing that we needed to go. I have not regreated that choice for one day. It has not been the picture perfect experience. Hundreads of souls have not gotten saved. Churchs have not been planted. But are we still doing God's work? Every time I get up. Are we honoring God? As best we can! Are we missionaries? Yes. I have never stopped knowing that from the beginning. It does not matter what man may say about it. I know I am following God, loneliness and all. And I know he is bringing us through.
Around a year ago Drew and I went through a very hard struggle. I will not go into all the details, but it was a very hard day. This year as it rolled around I almost did not want to celebrate Valentines day remembering the hurts caused by others. But God told me in my heart I needed to focuse on him and not on my pain. That would only bring bitterness. However, we were invited out to a family from our church. Their son had been in the hospital for over two weeks and was finally home! They were so welcoming and happy we all could come. We had an outside barbecue with reed mats and fires and got to talk about the Lord. It may not be a romantic candle light meal for just the two of us, but it was wonderful to build relationships with these sweet friends. When Drew and I returned home we both said it was one of the best Valentines days. Gods Love is so great. I have learned this year that I can forgive past hurts. That I can move on from loneliness and put my heart and focus back on God were it belongs.
When you pray for your missionaries, yes, pray for souls and pray for ministry. But Pray for your missionaries hearts and struggles. They get lonely, they have hard days, and they cry just like you do. Its just in a different country. Pray for those things because they are just as important for God's work.
Leah Marie Kilcup

This Journey we are On

Wow, what a time. I cannot believe the semester is actually coming to an end. I still remember first coming to Thailand and thinking, "Wow, we're going to be here for a long time!" And here we are at the half way mark of sorts! It's certainly been the hardest thing we have ever endeavored to do, and yet we have seen how that God is teaching us and doing things in us that could be done perhaps nowhere else. Perhaps this is the only way God could show us what He is showing us. But that is probably another post, which we'll work on next!

This semester has been wonderful. God has allowed me to see some wonderful things happen here during this school term. I had the opportunity to share Christ with at least 60 of my students in a direct way in my class on cultures of English Speaking Countries. Then around Christmas time, we had the opportunity of introducing many of the students to the church when we helped them learn Christmas carols. We have been given many opportunities to build relationships with the students by involving ourselves in their lives via extracurricular activities. They always seem to ask for Archan Andrew and Leah's help. Incidentally, it is really something that they are on a first name basis with Leah. God has taught us the value of relationships even for sharing Christ. In this culture, it is absolutely crucial to effective evangelism, and so we are excited to see God doing this. As Surin Baptist Church looks to build (and possibly close to this university), we are hoping that any way that God has used us might help and strengthen the future of the church here in Surin. We are thankful for how God has cared for us and taken us through these 6 plus months. We are thankful to the Hayes for being there and doing a Bible study with us on Monday nights. That has given us a sounding board to get our frustrations out where we can deal with them. And we are thankful for all of our Thai friends. While we have left our families in the US, we have gained other families here in Thailand. And so we are very thankful people.

Preaching: The story of Esther

I will not spend as much time talking about the story of Esther as I did with Achan. Esther is much too long. For my second shot at storytelling God's word to Surin Baptist, I focused in on the story of Esther. Here's an interesting one though. You could tell the story and use the phrases "by chance" or "it just so happened that..." numerous times throughout the story. Of course, the point is that nothing happened by chance, but rather by an all-powerful God who was working throughout the story. I zeroed in on the idea that God is working even when we do not see it or understand it. The story of Esther is that way. You will not find God's name mentioned once. That causes some consternation to some, but to any believer in Jesus Christ, the presence of God will be all to obvious in the events. And you cannot just say it is the cleverness of the people in the story. If it were all credited to them, the Jews in Shushan would have been wiped out. Think about some of the elements of the story...

• Is it coincidence that Mordecai is related to King Saul (Kish) while Haman is an Agagite (Agag, the king that Saul spared)?
• It is just by chance that Esther is picked out of all the women in the kingdom to be the next queen?
• Mordecai refused to bow to Haman, not necessarily for religious reasons. Bowing to an official was (and is in places like Thailand) a question of honoring the office. So was Mordecai being holy or disrespectful?
• Was it coincidence that the king removed his queen in a drunken fit of rage, a moment? What king does that?
• How did Mordecai happen to overhear the plot against the king? And how was something like that just "forgotten"?
• Why did the king accept Esther twice after not speaking to her for over a month?
• Was it coincidence that the king couldn't sleep the same night Haman wanted to ask about his gallows idea?
• Was it coincidence that the king wanted to exalt Mordecai when Haman wanted to execute him?
• Was it chance that Haman was the one commanded to exalt Mordecai?
• Was it just coincidence that Haman was hung on his own gallows?

All of these things should make anybody stop and wonder, "what's going on"? The answer is clear: God is working. And how many times do we wonder in our own lives, "Where is God right now?" God is always working, He never rests or sleeps, He is constantly caring and watching over our lives.

Preaching: The story of Achan

I had the opportunity to preach while Jim and Kathi were away, Jim in the US teaching a course on missions, and Kathi in Poland visiting her daughter. At any rate, I was very nervous about the opportunity and wrestled with what to do. As my Thai is not quite up to par (at all), I had to use a translator. Jim and I have talked much about using the form of storytelling to communicate the message of God's Word to Thais. There's much to say about that. Namely, the fact that most of the Bible is written in story format should clue us in to perhaps using a story format to communicate those messages. Perhaps taking a story in the Bible and dissecting it into 3 points and a poem does just that. It dissects it. And dissected things are usually dead. Anyway, this isn't a polemic for narrative preaching. The truth is that I have been learning the power of a story, even in proclaiming God's word. Is it any curiosity that Jesus Himself used stories so many times to help people understand the sometimes confusing and seemingly paradoxical messages He brought to them? How would YOU explain something like the New Covenant to Jews in that day? To them, it seemed like a hostile attack on the law. So Jesus taught in stories.

All that to say, I gave a shot at it on January 20th, preaching out of Joshua 7 on the story of Achan. If I had to give the sermon a title, it would be "When you cannot rewind." Funny thing about the story of Achan, there's something that few people seem to have noticed. Of course, many know the story. Israel defeats Jericho and is so excited about God giving them victory, they just want to keep going. So Ai is next, at which 36 soldiers end up dead. A bit of a shock, as it indicates that God is not with them, leaving many asking "What is going on?" Including Joshua. He's on his face complaining to God that they were better off on the east side of Jordan, that now God's name is going to be run through the mud, and Israel looks abandoned. God's answer is classic and simple. "Get up". The fact was, nothing was being done about the problem, so God reveals that somebody took something from Jericho when it was supposed to be offered as a complete sacrifice to Him. Enter Achan. Apparently, he knew better than God and decided the expensive Babylonian coat and gold was better off in his tent than in the fire. So now 36 people are dead, 36 families are fatherless and husbandless. To put it frankly, Achan is looking like quite the selfish jerk here. And that is quite the truth! He's really the one responsible for all of this. So God tells Joshua to divide the people up by tribe, clan, and family, down to the heads of each individual family. It all funnels down to Achan. As Joshua stands in front of Achan though, he says something odd. He doesn't say, "You're in for it now" or "What were you thinking?" No, he says, "My son, give glory to the Lord, the God of Israel, and make confession to Him." Hmmm, maybe not what I would have said. Here's the kicker, Achan does what Joshua says. And we know the rest of the story, it's not really a "happy ending". Achan confesses, they find the stuff, and burn it and himself as a punishment. By the way, in case that sounds overly harsh, think about it this way. The stuff that he stole was committed to be a sacrifice to the Lord, literally a burnt offering. When Achan stole that, he also took the fate of the items. He wanted connection to the goods? He got it, but he also got its destiny. Anyway, he is executed and Israel goes on to defeat Ai. So Achan's the bad guy, right? Yes. No.

See, what people don't realize is that Achan actually glorified God as a final act. The last thing that Achan does in his life is bring glory to God. And didn't he? Joshua asked him to do just that, and he DID. So what's the point? Even if it's the last thing you do on this earth, you can ALWAYS make a right choice, no matter how bad or how many wrong choices you have made. We are never resigned to just do wrong. This I presented as it is, a story. I asked some questions at the end and did my best to drive home the point that the story itself makes. I hope and pray it was a blessing and a challenge to the people, or even to you! No matter what you have done or might do, with the Holy Spirit indwelling us, we CAN always choose to do what is right.

SIFF: Surin International Folk Festival

These are our prestigious tags. They got us in for free. Notice: We are Thai Staff!

Here's Leah talking to her Italian distant relatives! She figured it out!

This is the performer from China. She sang very well, but VERY high and VERY loud!

Somewhere around mid-January, Surin Rajabhat University, where I work, put on an international folk festival. I was told that they would invite people from different countries, and so I expected some of what I saw, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, etc... But I did not expect to see Lithuania, Italy, China and Norway there! There really WERE people from all over the world at the festival to perform their traditional music and dances.

Honestly, the most impressive was the Philippines. They had the most animated dances, jumping and flipping, and doing things with candles and light. It really was amazing to see. And perhaps it was a little taste of heaven in this sense: In Revelation 5 it speaks of people coming to Christ from every family and nation and culture on the earth, and later singing and speaking His praise. So while these people were not necessarily praising the true God, it was interesting to see different cultures, hear their language and see their interpretation of life.

One funny thing did happen. See, the Thais were having trouble understanding what one group wanted. Could you guess it? That's right, the Italians. They were asking where the kitchen was, and the Thais could not figure out why they wanted to know where the kitchen was. So of course, they turned to their resident Italian, Leah Kilcup. She was dragged over to the Italian table where they were told, "she's Italian". As their nature would have it, they began rattling off to her in Italian. Now Leah does understand some Italian, but not at 90 mph! So she did her bes t to get them to slow down long enough for her to understand. Come to find out, they wanted to clear the table and wash the dishes, and needed to know where the kitchen was to do so. Leah explained that in Thailand, they do EVERYTHING for you. After a while, they came to terms with the way things are done here, and let the Thais clear their table. But you could tell they felt a little awkward. It was really a neat experience, I told Leah she was with "her people". We laughed about it, but the truth is that we are here to serve however we can. Even if it is interpreting in languages we don't really know. I did have another Thai student come to me and ask if I could interpret for the Israelis. I don't know Hebrew THAT well at all!

Playing Catchup: New Years in Rayong

Leah feeding a sea turtle. He's a biggie!
Leah with her braids. Pretty islandy, eh?


Andrew very cold in the back of the truck!

Whoa! Long time, no post! It's amazing how things get so out of hand. Though I do go to other blogs and see they haven't posted for six months at a time, so it somehow makes me feel justified or something in my own neglect. Not really. Well, let's get everybody up to speed on things around here. First, New Years. We went to the beach in Rayong, a nice little town about 5 hours from Surin, and two hours from Bangkok. It's kind of between the two cities but south. Anyway, we had a wonderful time with many of the people from Surin Baptist Church. The Jones were able to join us from Bangkok as well.

It was very nice to be able to spend so much time with our Thai friends. We took a boat to an island where we could enter the gulf of Thailand. I must say I've never seen water like it, apparently much like Caribbean water, blue and transparent. Not like the beautiful brown or gray water in Ocean City, Maryland! Leah stepped out on a limb and got her hair done at the beach. They did her hair all in braids, tons of them. It didn't stay long, but she was the adventurous one to try it out. We took a bouncy ride back from the island, saw some fisheries, and ate lots of wonderful Thai food. It was a nice little vacation and a great way to get to know some of the people better. We watched the New Year come with Amanda, Orawan and Ya on the beach just talking about this and that and watching some guy about 20 meters away set off fireworks. We thought we were going to get blown up. He wasn't exactly following any regulations. Coming back from Rayong, it decided to get very cold. This was only a problem because four of us were riding in the back of the truck. Brrrrr! (Thought I'd NEVER say that here in Thailand, but it happens) This was more of a personal note to let you know what life is like. We really enjoy when we can take a break and catch a change of scenery, it was very renewing in our hearts and spirits and we came back ready to go at it again!