When we landed in Thailand,
I knew something was different. I knew
that I was going to have a great month, and honestly I needed it. I was absolutely drained in India, and it
showed not only on the inside but that drowned feeling was evident on the outside
as well. I was completely done with it
all. There is a dark spirit in India I’m
convinced, and I wasn’t ready for it. I
let it consume my mind, my body, and my spirit.
I wasn’t a fun person to be around, I wasn’t the best I could be
(therefore I couldn’t be in the Army)…but when I landed in Thailand, I could
feel it all go away and joy starting to be restored.
We stayed at Koh Samet island off the coast of Thailand in the Sea
of Thailand for a couple days before
headed off to Bangkok
to catch busses to our ministry sites for the month. In the 2 days we were in Bangkok
we took a temple tour of 2 Buddhist temples in Bangkok…here’s pictures of both of those…
Our ministries for the squad this month splits our small teams up
differently, we have the girls working with human trafficking in various cities
in Thailand
(I posted a video that some of them made the other day). The guys split into two groups, I am
currently with Matt Peters and Rusty Jackson about 220 kilometers
outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand.
We got here Friday morning at around 6:00 after taking an
overnight bus from Bangkok. Our contact Ray met us at the bus station and
took us to meet his wife, Candice, and daughter, Maile, as well as Joann
(another American missionary here), and our amazing Thai hosts “Pastor” and his
wonderful wife Rapee. We stayed at an
incredible house for one night to recover from the bus trip and so they could
tell us some of what to expect culturally while we are here.
Then on Saturday we packed up and drove off into the rain and
headed to the small village
of Hui Ka Paa (side note:
village name means “Crazy Chicken on the River…seriously!). We arrived true World Race style, it was
pouring rain and the electric was out…the only light was from candles burning
in the house. We’ve completely gotten
used to that this year! It was there we
were introduced to Weelapong and his wife and children. Weelapong is Rapee’s younger brother with an
amazing testimony that I will go into on a different blog.
We joined Weelapong in his ministry during our first few days in Northern Thailand.
We started out Sunday morning going to church at a small village church
way off the beaten path. I have found
this year that these are the churches that I like the most because the people
that attend them have something different about them. It could be the way they welcome you, it
could be that they are usually closer relationally than large churches. Either way, I liked the small wooden building
on the hillside that hosted a cross on the roof.
Here are some pictures from that church….
After that we went to a Buddhist school in the afternoon to speak
truth about Jesus, here are pictures of that….
The next day we went to an elementary school and a high school,
both of which we spoke at and were truly welcomed with open arms…here are
more pic’s…
I have completely fallen in love with the personalities of the Thailand
people. They are gentle at heart and
have a sense of humor that surpasses the language barrier. You are greeted with the traditional “Y”
everywhere you go, and we have fun “Y”-ing people from the back of the truck to
see how they will greet you back from a motorbike…it’s humorous! It’s exciting to be ministering with a
different group than I’m used to working with…Matt and Rusty are great guys
to be serving with, and there’s always a laugh to be had! I have found that spreading the love of
Christ to Asian believers is rewarding and I’m loving every minute of it. The land is beautiful, the people are
beautiful, and the ministry is incredible!
for a few days and then headed to B/urma (spelled that way for searching
protection) for a short time. Be praying
for our time in those places as the spiritual atmosphere is much darker than
here. We’ve been warned about some of
the things we’ll see / experience there.
Thank you for all of your prayer & support over the past 9
months, with 2 1/2 months left this year is quickly drawing to a close…I
arrive back in the U.S.A. on November 21st, arriving back in Detroit at 1:30 in
the morning on the 22nd…just in time to recover from jet-lag and eat a yummy
thanksgiving meal!
