After many hours and miles of travel we arrived in Chaiyaphum. After settling in and taking a trip to the nearest store (about a 30 minute drive each way) to get some detergent and toilet paper, we sat down with our host family for our first meal here. We ate a delicious welcome dinner of fried chicken, rice, mixed vegetables with chicken, and a variety of fruit in a circle on the floor of our host home. It is extremely insulting to show the bottoms of your feet (the dirtiest part of your body) in Thai culture, so we’re careful to cross our legs or squat as many locals do. We spent the remainder of our short evening getting to know one another. Ram is a 32 year old mother with a two month old baby girl named Esther. She is the only one who speaks English and, because of that, our saving grace and liaison to the rest of the family. Her husband, Nan, is a doting father and guitarist. Her two parents are both in their sixties and precious. It took me all of 5 seconds to fall in love with Ram’s father. He is a slight man of small build; a face wrinkled with a lifetime of smile lines and wisdom. He is constantly pointing at things and eager to communicate through whatever means possible.
Ram’s husband played a few songs on the guitar while her father sang us songs about Christ. Even in Thai, a language I can’t understand, I know God is smiling as he hears the sweet sound. Ram explained that her 69 year old delicate father often rides a bike around on weekends, visiting homes in her village and those surrounding, singing songs of Jesus, preaching, and praying. What an amazing missionary, changing his world one hut at a time. I’m so glad I’ll get to see this beautiful being in heaven:)
