If there's one thing that's been drilled into my mind about the World Race, it has been getting rid of expectations.
This month in Thailand, I had no idea what to expect in terms of ministry.
We had not discussed what our ministry contact would be before leaving Bangkok.
I ended up staying back an extra day in Bangkok with my team mate Jaime, who was supposed to have a dentist appointment the following day after the rest of the team had left.
Talk about no expectations:
– the dentist got into a car accident a few hours before Jaime's scheduled appointment
-I was told that we had a ministry contact change the day the team left for the bus station
-I asked to stay with Jaime to travel with her less that 30 minutes before I thought we were leaving for the bus station
– I didn't know anything about where our new contact was or what we were doing…
And it was ok.
[with Jaime on our bus]
And here I am in Nakhon Phanom, about 12 hours away from Bangkok and a 10 minute walk to the Mekong River where we can see Laos.
Team Siloam has partnered in with Pastor Sam at his home/church.
[Back in the day, Pastor Sam -> awesome Thai kickboxer ]
Now he's a Pastor & part-time masseuse.
He said it has been almost 10 years since he has had a YWAM team sent to his church, and was very excited to host the 7 of us, plus our translator Yod.
Our month consisted of visiting people around the community, many of which Pastor Sam had not been able to visit, or visit regularly in the last few months, or in some cases years.
One example of a Thai home we visited a few times.
We called her Grandma Thailand. We visited her and her family underneath the house pictured above. They were making baskets. We invited Grandma Thailand to church and saw her next week!
Most home visits looked like this. Sitting in on the floor and sharing parts of our lives and getting to know the people that Pastor took us to see. Many times it felt difficult to build relationships in such a short amount of time and it was hard to feel like I was making a difference. But, if we came to Pastor Sam and were sent to him to encourage him and rekindle his existing relationships with people in small villages, then I'd say we made an impact; even if it doesn't always feel like it. Sometimes you have to look at the big picture and learn to be thankful and present wherever God has you.
We would share the Gospel with groups of people and about the adventure God has sent us on.
This group happened to be in the middle of some festivities…
On multiple occasions we were brought places and randomly asked to take pictures. This was in the middle of Children's Day. These are some teachers on the school board here; they even wanted us to sign a guestbook. We played with just a few kids and were treated special – that mean's they gave us ice cream.
We did a little drama/skit in the middle of the night market in front of this sign, just off the Mekong River. That's Laos on the other side. This was definitely a new experience for me.
We visited this woman several times. She used to sing and dance at Pastor Sam's church, but runs an internet cafe and is unable to go to church anymore. We brought church to her one day and spoke life into her. We are praying for her daughter's vision because it is blurred and she can't see very well.
I enjoyed re-visiting places. This is the same house where we met Grandma Thailand. We called this guy Grandpa Thailand (no relation to Grandma Thailand). He seemed to enjoy out antics and presence as he showed us how to make our own chopsticks as he worked on framework for the bamboo sticky rice steamers. Pastor Sam talked to some of the women in the village
as the Siloam wolf pack played shop class.
Thai people are so sweet. We went on a boat ride on the Mekong with this woman's son and grandson.
I like to hold strangers babies.
They're so cute.
SOOO cute.
This is Dollar. His younger brother is in the picture above. We made friends with his parents, mostly their dad. It took a few encounters before he really seemed to open up a little bit more. By the end of the month, he would drop by with the boys to visit and eventually say goodbye.
This is how he showed up to the house. Unsafe? But it's pretty normal here.
This little girl reminded me of my sister when she was little.
We made friends with a girl named Haley who works with World Teach, teaching english. She let us infiltrate her classes. I led a song with the days of the week. Many thanks to my little niece who unknowingly helped equip me with a song.
Can you find me?
One of the boys in one of the classes was very surprised with the brown American. We played hangman. My message was "Dan's parents are from the Philippines." Then they all made the "Ahhhhhhhh… now I get it" face.
Haley introduced us to her teacher friends at the school.
There's a teacher at a different school who leads worship at Pastor's church. He introduced us to some of his students.
On our last day of ministry we played Big Booty and Ninja with them. After the games, we sat in a circle and talked with them for a little bit.
I took the opportunity to share a condensed version of my testimony with them and the impact Christ made in my life. I hope to hear from them even after we leave. They were so shy at first, but warmed up to us and even sad to see us go so soon.
This month has been another month that enforced the value of building relationships. As many visits as we did, as a team we felt that there was a heavy emphasis of doing our best to try and pour into, and encourage, Pastor Sam and his family. Although there is freedom of religion here (which cannot be said for some other countries nearby), there are still very few Christians in this nation. It is our hope that Pastor would be able to have people speak life into him on a regular basis and encourage him as well – even pastors need it too.
It's been a blessing to be so welcomed into Pastor's family. The month has flown by so quickly. As I write this at 1:24am, we are leaving at 3:30am, aka 2 hours from now; heading for our translator Yod's home town to visit his sister and family for a day before heading to Bangkok for 2 days. Then it's off to Cambodia.
I don't know what to expect on the World Race,
– only that God would reveal more and more of who He is in my life,
and use me for his Kingdom purposes.
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This one's for you daddy!
[Gotta enjoy all the good food here. And I mean ALL of it!]
Stay tuned.
Peace & Blessings
I love you all!
