Remembering Watthana Nakhon

My time in Southeast Asia is constantly in my thoughts and prayers day in and day out, but it has been a while since I read my journal from that period of time. For Christmas, my friend Mike bought me a beautiful journal that I decided would be my "Thailand Journal". In 9 weeks, I filled the entire thing up, and I made a conscious effort to write in it every single day. I am so glad I did!

Today I was reading about our last day at the school in Watthana Nakhon. Watthana is in eastern Thailand, which was the first place we went to. It is an unreached part of the country, and we were privileged enough to teach english for 2 weeks at the same school, with the same class, and introduce them to Jesus! Here is the journal entry that affected me so. Don't worry, it's not that long! :)

1-19-07

Yesterday was such a great day. It was so amazing to put on a program for the kids and do dramas and songs and things like that. Even though we told them over and over, I hope and pray that they really understand what we said and why we came to Thailand. I think that one of the best moments was when were standing in front of all 100 of them and sang "Jesus loves you this I know..." It is such a huge thing. Most of them don't even know who this Jesus dude is. Have I effectively shown You to them? I so desperately want them to undersatnd. And then when the pastor was praying for them, all of the kids had their eyes closed and hands folded together. I started to cry. What if that was the only time that they'd hear about You? God, don't let that be so! Please don't let that happen... send more teams here to teach them. Keep them in the church here. Please keep speaking to them. Draw them to the books we gave them! Oh Jesus, they need to know You! They need to know Your love for them! How will they ever see it? Have they seen it? I pray that they have.

I remember that day when Dave had just finished playing "Duck, Duck, Goose" with them and he said: "Jesus loves you guys, you know that?" and I mean, they really don't have any idea what he's saying, because it was the younger ones, but that doesn't mean it's not effective. It's important to speak blessings over them. I found myself doing similar things yesterday, telling the girls that they're special and beautiful, that I love them, and so does Jesus. And I know they really loved us, too.

I know that seeds have been planted... I wish I could know what's going to happen. Sure, there's hugs and tears and love and they know a few english words, but what about eternity? I want their destinies to be changed. I want them to find their identities in You. I don't want any prostitues or abusive husbands out of our students. Oh God, reveal Yourself, show them who You are...

The last I heard, about 15 students were still attending church in Watthana (including the girl I'm going to talk about). But I honestly don't know what's happening right now. Keep praying.

There was a student from my class whose nickname was "A" (pronounced like the letter!) that grew really, really attached to us, especially to my friend Darcey. On our last day at the school, she gave us each a note that she wrote herself on some beautiful stationery:



I remember being amazed at the note, because that day she had stopped wearing her Buddha necklace, and before we came, she had never even heard of Jesus! And here she is writing about Him! It's such a cool thing. Anyway, the blurred part of the note is her phone number.

After reading that entry in my journal, I was so compelled to call A. I wanted her to know that I still love her and still think of her constantly. As I was dialing the number, I was very conscious of the fact that this will be an awkward conversation (although it's happened with her before, because she kept calling us for the rest of our outreach!), but I quickly put those thoughts to rest. What is important is that she knows we still love her!

I think it was her mom that answered, so I said "Sawatdeekah! (Hello)" and then I just kept saying "A?" over and over, hoping she'd understand, and she did, and of course knew right away that I was "farang (foreigner)" which is expected of course since I don't have the Thai accents and tones down at all. :) She was yelling for A, and I could tell she was running around, and I felt bad, but was hoping A was there. And she was! I said "Sawatdeekah! Hello! This is Leah" and A goes, "Leah!!!" and she started giggling. We exchanged a lot of giggles, and I said a few times: "Kah toad kah, poot nit noy Thai" which is a very rough way of saying "I'm sorry I speak such little Thai". I told her in English and Thai that I love her, Jesus loves her, Darcey loves her, etc etc. I had goosebumps the entire time, because it just brought me back to so many times in Watthana, in class with her and her classmates, and just hanging out with her at the house we were staying at. I really miss her! Before I hung up, she said "I love you too" which absolutely melted my heart. As soon as I hung up, I started crying of course. Here's a picture of me and A (we're the colored ones):



I wish I knew more Thai so I could have said more profound things to her, but I know the bottomline was communicated: "I still think of you. I love you. Jesus loves you." And what more can I ask for, really?