We started off this past week in Pak Chong, Thailand doing some planting around the church grounds. The main project is trying to plant hundreds of little shrubs that will grow into the existing fence to provide a better look and a bit more privacy. We would usually wake up pretty early in the morning and try to get most of this work done before the extreme heat of midday set in. This is Thailand’s hottest month during the year and with it comes something called Songkran. This is a tradition that always happens during April to provide some entertainment and relief from the heat. It is basically a giant water fight. Two days this week we finished up our work at the church and then headed out to participate in this unique tradition.
Here’s how it works: All eight of us guys (and sometime a bunch more), pile into the back of a pickup truck. We grab all of the squirt guns, water pails, and at least one large trash can or bin we have previously purchased. Make sure everything is loaded with water and then head out to the middle of town. First thing you do once you’ve made it in town is stop by a person who is selling large chunks of ice and proceed to buy at least two. Stir the large can or bin that contains the water and ice and then drive slowly down the main strip squirting, throwing water, and jumping in and out of the bed of the pickup. The street is so congested that the vehicles just crawl along while people are throwing water everywhere and laughing. All along the way there are stations where people are filling back up on water and buying ice. The Thai people also like to come up to you and gently smear a mixture of flower and food coloring (and sometimes incense oil) on your face. After a few hours of this you get pretty tired, but it has been quite the experience and a lot of fun.
Amongst all of this, we also planned for a youth workshop that we had on Thursday and Friday. In the culture here, many of the youth live at home off mom and dad until they are in their 30’s. It is a different lifestyle here, but a lot of it is unhealthy and just laziness on the parents disciplining and children’s motivation. We thought it would be good to focus on them and make sure they know that God had a plan for them and try to equip them with some necessary tools to start running in that direction. We did a bunch of different sessions including topics like: Not waisting our lives, the discipleship process, financial planning, spiritual disciplines, healing, and a few others. We also played a bunch of games and tried to give as many practical examples and activities as we could. They said they really enjoyed the time and learned a lot of things they want to start practicing.
Classroom time. Application time.
The culmination of the week came yesterday, when the youth cam back after dinner and we went out to one of the local villages. One of the members in the church asked if we could come and encourage and share God’s love with the people that lived by her. We couldn’t think of a better idea than to go and bring the youth that we had just poured into for two days. It was a great time of praying over people and getting people out of their comfort zones. Today we had a few new people in church because they wanted to come after we visited them.
