Thailand: A Day in the Life
We officially began our ministry in Thailand on October 9th. It is all-squad month, so we are sharing a ministry with another team. It’s a lot of fun and it’s great to have the support of another team.
Day 1:
7:30am – Run
9:00am – Breakfast
10am-12pm: Monk chat
1:00pm: Lunch
2:00-7:00pm: Make your own ministry and supper
7:30pm: Squad worship
11:00pm: Bed
Day 2:
7:30am – Run
9:00am – Breakfast
10am-12pm: Personal time
1:00pm: Lunch
2:00-4:00pm: Monk chat
4:00-7:00pm: Slum ministry
7:30pm: Squad worship
11:00pm: Bed
*This is the 2-day rotation of my team. Every second day we are in the slums.
Monk Chat: Monks in Thailand are very interested in learning English and discussing their beleifs, Thai culture, and world religions. They basically like talking about anything! During the weekdays, there is a location set up in many temples around Chiang Mai for people (locals or tourists) to come and chat with monks. It is very informal. We go to build relationships with the monks, learn about Thai culture and buddhism, and to show them the truth. We have gone to monk chat once and it was more relaxed than anticipated. I am excited to continue building relationships with them.
Squad Worship: All 42 of us meet together in our hostel to worship together before other teams go out for night bar ministry at 8:30pm. It’s awesome. We worship in so many different ways other than the typical musical worship. We dance, pray, prophecise, read scripture, tell stories, paint, you name it it’s all worship to God.
Slum Ministry: This ministry has no structure. My team and I walk to the slums about 20 minutes away with a ball to see what will happen. We go to show the love of Jesus through our actions. It’s tough to do, especially with the language barrier. We are trying to get more structured and prepare more and more each time we head out to the slums. We may sing songs, teach a craft, host a group game, bring a snack a few times, act out a Bible story, etc.
Make Your Own Ministry: Because we are sharing ministry with another each team has the whole afternoon “off” every second day. It’s our plan to make ministry and ask ourselves and God: “how do You want to use us?” We may do prayer walks, ask the Lord prayers, playing volleyball with local university students, go out to the bars, or even take some time for ourselves and build relationships within our team.
Pray that we talk to the monks the Holy Spirit prepared ahead of time to talk to us. Pray for structure and connection with the children and parents in the slums. Pray for direction when we “make our own ministry”. Thank you for your support! Keep it coming!
Happy Thanksgiving!
