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Ok, so I have been in Si Sa Ket, Thailand now for just a few days now. SI Sa Ket is the province and we are in a village called Nongkamk. The temperature is so high that people in this village only do things in the early morning and in the evening right before the sun sets. So what do you so with the many hours in between? For the most part we sleep, read, and anything else that takes the least amount of energy.

Our mornings consist of team worship and prayer intercession for the village. This area is entirely Bhuddist and so there is not very much openness to hearing the Gospel. There are only three Christians in this village (our hosts) and a random few here and there in the surrounding villages.

The younger children also come by so we spend time playing games with them. Relationship building is the main thing we will be doing here. Getting the people to be open and accepting to us first before we start sharing the Gospel. Our Thai hosts (a.k.a. Mom and Dad) have only been saved a few years and so their testimony is the main thing as they visit friends they haven’t seen since their transformation. It’s so encouraging to see people respond and want to listen so well just after seeing how they have changed their lives. Mom and Dad are excited because their “friends” haven’t been very supportive of their decision, but are beginning to change after seeing how so many foreigners (us) have traveled so far just to support them.
 
 
 
 
 
 

I’m excited to see how God is going to move this month here in Nondcupca. Even though I can barely say three words in their native dialect of Thai (Isaan) it’s amazing how far a smile and a hug can go. Just showing God’s love through our lives here is what He has called us to do. So whether I am playing baseball (Thai style), visiting soccer tournaments, going to parades, or teaching English classes*, all I am asked to do is SHINE His light.

*Check upcoming blogs for stories of these activities.

Below is a glance at life here in a world so different from the one we’re used to.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF MOM:

Every meal is quite a task. We do our best to help Mom in her kitchen (the outside platform in the picture) but I think we are so slow that it’s actually a hindrance….yet we keep her entertained with our American ways. She spends so much of her day preparing meals. You won’t see cans of anything…you want coconut milk to sweeten the rice, then go grab a coconut and the machete. Of course, then comes the shaving of the meat so you can squeeeeeeze it (by hand of course) to get all the juice. Onions, garlic and anything else that needs fine chopping just goes into the mortar and pestle. Cooking dinner over an open flame for each meal is quite the chore. No ovens or microwaves, this is it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Oh, let’s not forget the dining room table. It’s is the floor of the bamboo hut that Mom and Dad live in.

WHEN IT RAINS, THEY COME:

We are here the month that the rainy season is getting ready to start. Just like humans don’t like to sleep in the rain neither do the bugs, so they come in to keep us company. These, however are now ordinary bugs. Night one, welcome to Nongkamka, there’s a centipede in your bathroom! That’s ok, we’ll pin it down with a mop stick and use a kitchen knife to chop its head off. There, problem solved. Maybe not, night 3 its brother came in to find his missing sibling, so we sent him to the same place.

Night 5 it poured very hard for most of the night. Enter, Mr. Scorpion. It wasn’t so easy to chop his head off, so instead (mom, this is for you) we called him names and hit him on the head. We smashed him and then flushed him. Of course, when you flush the toilet with a bucket, things down go down very easily…but eventually he joined the two centipedes.

Take your pick, very hot without the rain, or much cooler with rain….and friends? I’ll get back to you on my decision. For now, my ice melts really fast and rain sounds nice. Perhaps I’ll just go dump a bucket of water over my head to cool off.

Keep reading my blogs for more adventures in Thailand!