It’s been a while since I have posted a blog so I wanted to catch you up on some of things that have happened this month. We are in Thailand. We spent about a week in Bangkok and are now in Chiang Mai – the most polluted city on the planted! My mom flew all the way out here to see me. I love that woman so much. She has sacrificed so much for my family and continues to support me however she can. If you see her tell her she’s awesome!
Bangkok
We arrived to Bangkok by train with nowhere to stay. We got word from a few other teams of a hostel in budget and we booked it for our time there. During this time Taylor, one of my teammates, got connected with a missionary from his home church who is a teacher here in Thailand. The teacher connected us to a family that he works with and through them we got a chance to do some ministry and a free place to stay. Of course we already paid for our hostel so we prayed and asked that our money would be returned in order to move to our new place. The place we stayed was a lot cheaper. It also was the building that our ministry was located in.
It was a small, two room school that the family used to minister. We also slept on the floor here on some air mattresses they provided. The ministry they have is incredible. It is technically an english learning center. But when you get there it is so much more than that. They work with Pakistani (idk if thats spelled correctly) refugees. These refugees are christians and are persecuted in Pakistan so they flee. Thailand is one of the places you don’t need any additional money or items to get into the country. The 30 day travelers visa is free. So most of them come here. As more and more come the police have set up detention centers to hold them. These places were described to me as dog cages where 150 men sleep in shifts in a room that holds about 100 people. When detained these men and women can stay here for up to 5 or 6 years waiting for asylum or for the UN to help them.
So many of the families that come here live in fear that if they leave their home they will be detained and separated form their families. Their homes include usually a one room apartment that all of the mattresses are also the dining room tables and couches. These people don’t leave these apartments for 5 or 6 months at a time. What this ministry we worked with does is they host class three times a week. It was an incredible thing to witness. The kids love learning and enjoy going to school since it gets them out of the house. They are so well behaved and it hurt to know when they leave the school at the end of the day they go home and are stuck in the room. This ministry teaches them english, punjabi (their home language), math, science, and more. The most important thing they teach is Bible.
The children spend the first hour doing bible. The teacher will come in and tell a story from one of the gospels or old testaments. They then ask the children five questions to help them remember the story, to put it in the perspective of real life, and who they can share the story with. The children then retell the story and then act it out. I have never seen kids so eager to learn these stories and be able to retain information so well. They are encouraged to go home and share the story in their home tongue. Their isn’t a bible yet in punjabi so the hope is that they can teach these children enough so that when they do go home the bible will be somewhat in their language. These kids will be missionaries and they know and love it. People like myself, my teammates, and almost everyone reading don’t fit in to that culture. It’s something that only these people can do and it’s incredible.
I got to spend some time with some of the families and hear their stories. Most of them had to flee their homes and jobs. One in particular had three houses and two cars back home. He was very wealthy he told me. But they found out he was a christian and they beat him. The stories he told about his recovery and having to flee blew me away. This wealthy man and his family had to leave everything they knew to go to a strange land because of their faith. His bank accounts are still frozen back home and he truly relies on the Lord to provide everything for him. He spoke of how he always had faith but going through this has transformed him into a true man of God. He has seen God move in many different ways and even in his situation he praises God for what he has given and revealed to him.
This is just one story. I will be posting a couple more blogs about my time here and what we got to do and see. Please join me in prayer for this family and all of the families fleeing their homes for religious persecution.
