A lot of times on the Race, we are with a Christian church or organization and we do things with them. Then there are months like the one we had in Thailand, where are ministry contact simply dropped us off at a Buddhist school and left us there. Each member of team Kairos had their own classroom and we tought English and played games. I had second grade, however, the ages of the kids in my class ranged from around 7-11. There are older kids because a lot of them are refugees from Myanmar/Burma. They pray to Buddha every morning and before lunch. I sat in on one of my second graders’ classes in which they learned about meditating. There was a Buddhist temple right next door to our school and we were here for it’s big grand opening party. We visited many temples during our time in Thailand. We went for walks in the neighborhood behind our school and there were little, bird house sized temples in all of the yards. There is also string that is tied from the little temples to the house and it continues to the next house and to all the houses down the street. This string is for prosparity and blessings. The principal of our school was the most generous and happy person I have ever met. It was hard to see how we might show someone like that why they need Jesus. One of the hardest things about being Christians in this Buddhist culture is that our students and teachers didn’t speak much English and we didn’t speak Thai, so we couldn’t really have meaningful conversations. However, they did know that we were Christians and I know that we made a difference being there.
I did some listening prayer at the beginning of the month, asking God what this month should look like. I felt like He said to just love them. Even though we can’t speak their language, love never fails, love needs no translation, and God is love (1 Cor. 13:8, 1 John 4:8). We also prayed over the place a lot. During a 40 minute Buddhist prayer at the temple’s grand opening, there were 8 Christians there praying over it to Jesus. We prayed in each temple we visited and we prayed during a Buhddist service for all the teachers in the area on teachers day. Also, thankfully it doesn’t take a lot of hard English words to get the most basic points across to start planting seeds. My students would say to me in English, “I love you” so I knew that these were words they knew. In my english class, I tought them the months of the year, so one of my last days I told them where I’ve been each month and where I’m going. I had a map and would say, “July (point to the word on the board), I go (point to myself) to Bolivia (point to the map).” I then showed them all my pictures from the different places I’ve been. They saw pictures of us walking with the orphans in their wheelchairs back in Ecuador. They saw picures of Adri and I praying over and crying with one of our host moms in Japan. They were amazed and would let out a big “WHOA!” for each of the pictures. After I showed them my pictures, I wrote Jesus on the board and drew a cross. My teammate, Adrienne, had said that some of her students asked who was on her necklace. When she told them it was Jesus, they drew a cross, so I think a lot of the kids have at least heard of Jesus. Some of my students nodded in understanding when I said “Jesus” and pointed to the cross. I then tried to explain to them that I went to Bolivia, Peru, Malaysia, etc. becuase of Jesus. I came to Thailand becuase of Jesus. “Jesus loves me, Jesus loves you, and so I love you.” There were a couple who I feel like they understood what I was saying, some may not have understood. Who knows what God could do with that, though. Maybe some day later in their life, they’ll hear about Jesus and they’ll think, “that’s what that english teacher from America was talking about, I remember she was really nice.” Also, our principal, the one I wondered if we could make a difference for him at all, on our last day with them, he asked us to pray for his daughter. We had become good friends with his daughter as she spoke decent english. She has, I think, severe sculiosis and some tumors in different parts of her body. She is having surgery soon and so they asked us to pray over that. We also laid hands on her and prayed for her there.
There were times that it was difficult to see what we were doing for the Kingdom, but I know God placed us there at this specific time for a reason and I know that He used our willingness to just serve and love for His purpose.
