My 2nd week in Thailand

Hello everyone! Thank you again for all of your prayers! I am so thankful for you. I would not be here in Thailand if it wasn’t for your love and support. I am so grateful for each and every one of you!

Well, let me catch you up. Last Sunday we were in charge of the church service here in Watthana Nakohn. The ministry development team (which is Ian, Darcey, and Mike) prayed about how the service should go, and they felt like we should have worship, followed by an encouragement message from Amy, a testimony from Younsoo, the drama “Kerplink”, then a short sermon-ish thing from me about the body of Christ, followed by Ian also giving a message about the body of Christ, spiritual gifts, etc. It was a pretty exciting service! I was really nervous about preparing a message and speaking, but it went really well. It’s a little strange to pause after each sentence so that Wuut can translate, but I actually kind of like it. It gives me time to put my thoughts together, and there’s no awkward pauses. I’m really glad I had the opportunity to speak the first time we ever did a service, and God really showed me His faithfulness by giving me exactly what He wanted me to say. It was great!

That week we continued to teach English for 2 hours every day. I’m really starting to enjoy being a teacher, although it’s a bit funny for me to be considered as one! If only the Thai children saw me in America in t-shirts, jeans, and chucks 24/7… actually, on Monday we had a “play day” with them and I changed into jeans and they were all giggling. I suppose if I was in 6th grade and I saw my teacher in “casual wear”, I would think it’s funny too. :) It was a great week, though. I think Mike and I are definitely getting the hang of teaching more, and I’m getting more confident as time goes on. It’s such an amazing opportunity to really get to know these children and develop relationships with them while we’re here, but it’s also going to be heartbreaking to leave them in just a few days.

Anyway, I was finding a lot of the children to be a little frightened of me, and also Ian and Mike, because we’re bigger people. This past week, there was a “Celebration Day” which was kind of like a concert and game day, where each class had a song and dance to perform. It was so much fun to have a day off with the kids and see them dressed up, and singing, and dancing, etc! Because of this, we also had an opportunity to perform a drama, so we did Kerplink, which is kind of catered towards children. I have the main speaking role in the drama, and I prayed beforehand that because of that, some of the children would be more warmed up to me afterwards. And it happened! Now the little ones (mostly 2nd and 3rd graders, I think) are hanging all over me and I’ve grown especially attached to a little girl named Wai (pronounced like “why”). She is adorable and loves my camera… she always wants to take pictures with it!

Also this past week, we passed out a ton of Thai literature and tracts to people all over the city. I will freely admit that this isn’t my most favorite activity, but I know that God uses tracts, and please be praying that He will be faithful in this and plant seeds in peoples’ hearts.

Yesterday was a really fun day! Saturday is our day off here, so in the morning a bunch of us went on what we thought was a mountain hike. It ended up being a huuuuge rock that had stairs leading up to the top, around 375 stairs to be exact (Dave counted!). The stairs were a little rickety and incredibly steep, and it was a little scary… at least for me! But the really cool thing was that monkeys were EVERYWHERE! I have never seen so many monkeys, and it was so fun to see them in their natural habitat. The surroundings were a little jungle-ish too, which was so fun to see. But now I can say that I have fed several monkeys! It was pretty fun. After the “hike”, we went to a hotel pool which was amazing. It only cost about $1.15 US to swim for as long as you wanted, and I must have swam for at least 3 hours. It felt so nice to be in the cold water, and I really wish I could be in that pool right now! :)

Today has been a great day. We were in charge of the Sunday service again, and this time the format was: Worship, Dave giving a message, the drama “Locked”, and then Darcey giving a message. We were all set and ready to go with the service starting around 10 AM, but at 9:00 there was a huge surprise for us. A bunch of kids from our school showed up! When Dave told me, I could hardly believe it, I was so excited! I am so astounded by God’s faithfulness today, and I was so happy to see their faces in our house! There were about 7 girls from Mike and my class, and also a young boy from Ian and Darcey’s. So, at the last minute, Darcey changed up her sermon a little to really preach home the gospel. We don’t know what is happening in the hearts of these children, but please be praying for them! I am so confident that God has planted real seeds in their hearts. Please be praying that He will be faithful, just like we know He is. But it really struck me during the service this morning… this may have been the only opportunity these children will ever have to hear the gospel. Just pray that God will reach them!

The children stayed for lunch (after much persuasion!), and a few of them wanted to go into town with Darcey and I. It was a blast! We walked around a couple of markets, and they would point to things and say it in Thai, and we would do the same, but in English. I learned a lot of Thai today! :) The children are so sweet, though, they’re always hanging on us and holding our hands. We walked to the 7 Eleven and all had some slurpees. I am so thankful that the children love us so much, and just be praying that they’ll see that the goodness in us is not really us!

Oh gosh, there’s so much more that is floating around in my head… there’s just so much to say and describe, and unfortunately, so little time! I wanted to let you know that we’re actually going to be here until Saturday morning (the plans changed a little) and then we’ll be heading to Cambodia. It sounds like for the next 2 weeks starting on Saturday, that we will be in the country of Cambodia the entire time. We’ll be at an orphanage and I don’t know specifics yet about what we’re doing, but it’s supposed to be our busiest ministry time.

Keep praying for us! Last week, every member of the team was sick at one point with some sort of stomach bug. Pray for our physical health and our ability to have compassion for the Thai people. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for your prayers!!!