WE HANDED OUT 5,582 BIBLES!!! In just three short weeks we managed to reach over 5,000 people and share the word of God with them! We mainly handed out Chinese Bibles, but there was a handful of Russian (4), English (25), and Thai (8) Bibles that we handed out as well.
Now I’m sure you’re confused as to why I went all the way to Thailand to pass out Chinese Bibles. Good question! It’s also one I had when our host told us our plans for the month. It turns out being Christian in China is ‘acceptable’, but finding Bibles is made near impossible when in country. By our last night on the pier we received the news that China had also banned the sale of the Bible in online stores (such as Amazon), which is leading to a further clap down on how the people practice their religion. So although it may seem as though citizens are free to believe what they like, being a Christian is extremely difficult due to the lack of resources. On top of minimal access to Bibles, there are only so many openly Christian churches in a country of 1.4 billion and the threat of persecution for their beliefs is on the rise each day. This ministry (which has been going on for six years now and has supplied over 500,000 Bibles) is extremely necessary on the pier in Thailand and I was able to see that in the reactions of the people every evening we were down there.
Ministry on the pier was always an exciting, yet daunting, event for us. There were nights where the tourist groups would blow by us, sometimes even knocking us around as if they hadn’t even seen us; making us feel like a nuisance, kinda like how I feel about flies…Other nights I could barely keep the Bibles in my hands as they would flock around me to take their free gifts home. Sometimes these experiences happened in the same night, sometimes they happened back to back!
I would have moments where I thought it was a ‘slow night’, but when we would do the count at the end of the night we would have passed out ~600 or more Bibles. Which just seemed (seems) totally crazy to me that we could stand out on the pier for about four hours and be able to reach that many people! I mean, come on! That’s just neat!
However, there was one night that I loved in particular. I was engulfed in a conversation with a girl who grew up in the Ukraine, but moved to NY when she was eleven with her family. She grew up in a Christian home, but didn’t really see any use in religion and simply stated that it didn’t quite jive with her. We chatted on the pier for an hour or so and by the end of our time talking she was asking if she could join us for any ministry for her last couple of days in Thailand. That’s right, she wanted to serve while she was on vacation, because she thought what we were doing was important, valued, and in her words ‘cool’! She also handed out a Bible while we talked, but that’s beside the point.
Another favorite night of mine was when I ended up speaking with a man who grew up in India, but was living in Australia. At first he and I talked about tourists things in Pattaya, then it was travel in general, then he told me all about India and I was able to learn more about Hinduism and the culture that surrounds it, then he told me about his family, and I learned more and more about this person. He only had that evening left in the city before he was going home but he was spending his last few hours there talking to me about religion. I would tell him something and then he would ask me more questions about God and what Jesus’s love really meant. Although he also did not feel strong connections to religion, despite his parents being devout Hindus, he was willing to speak with me about mine and was curious. He never told me my views were wrong, he never argued my thoughts on religion and God; he just simply wanted to learn.
I tell you all of these things to give you a glimpse into what ministry on the pier looked like. It wasn’t always the exciting moments of being hugged by a Chinese woman as she tears up while holding her cross necklace out to you and smiling a bright, thankful smile, or the deep conversations with people from all over the world. I didn’t get the signature bow of gratitude from every person who took a Bible, or didn’t take one now that I think about it. There were times that people would openly mock us for telling them that Jesus loved them or would point and laugh at s for holding signs and countless Bibles. Then there were some nights we would pick up twenty some odd Bibles from the end of the pier where people had discarded them and just feel so down on ourselves for having not made a difference to the unknown people who left them behind.
However, even in all the things that pulled the excitement away from the good moments on the pier, I was able to see such joy in the eyes and hearts of the people that did take those Bibles from my hands. I know that over 5,000 people now have a better chance at growing a deep-rooted relationship with our creator. I know that my time spent on the pier was not a waste, and that the seed has been sown.
Read below to see the dates we were on the pier and how many were given out each day! Also, a quick apology to my lack of blogging in Thailand. I wanted to hold off on this blog until we had finished the ministry in order to give a full rundown of the different experiences had and how many Bibles we had given out. I will be posting another blog about my time in Thailand working in bar outreach (very excited for to share that story with you all!) as well as a video from Awakening, maybe even two…
Total: 5,582
19 Monday – 656
-651 Chinese
-1 Thai
-4 English
20 Tuesday – 604
-602 Chinese
-1 Thai
-1 English
22 Thursday – 715
-711 Chinese
-2 Thai
-2 Russian
26 Monday – 596
-593 Chinese
-1 Thai
-2 Russian
27 Tuesday – 487
-484 Chinese
-1 Thai
-2 English
30 Friday – 856
-850 Chinese
-6 English
2 Monday – 678
-676 Chinese
-2 English
3 Tuesday – 371
-362 Chinese
-1 Thai
-8 English
6 Friday – 519
-516 Chinese
-1 Thai
-2 English
P.S. If you made it all the way down here, I’ll tell you that I learned a few Chinese phrases to say in the hopes of getting the tourists attention. Now the title I used to hopefully get your attention makes more sense! Now go and read my squad’s blogs, donate (it feels good, I promise!), and have a grand day!
