Let me start by just giving you a quick run through of the past week or so and then I will elaborate on each.
Saturday, September 15—Flight to Bangkok, Thailand
Sunday, September 16—Arrive in Bangkok
Monday, September 17—Jet-lag recovery day
Tuesday, September 18—Temple tour
Wednesday, September 19—Race day
Thursday, September 20—Day off/Leave for ministry sites (teams were leaving at different times)
Friday, September 21—Orientation day/Planning
Saturday, September 22—Compassion Kids’ Camp
Sunday, September 23—Church
Monday, September 24—Day off
The first couple I already addressed, so I will start with Tuesday.
18th—I posted a few photos, but they can’t really depict everything accurately. We didn’t learn as much about Buddhism as I had hoped we would, but it was still a really great experience. We visited four of the major temples in Bangkok, the first being my favorite.
19th—I ended up participating in the race after all, so that made five racers on team Ignite. Not surprisingly, we won. :0) No, it was actually extremely challenging. It was basically a major photo scavenger hunt around Bangkok. I don’t think our team had that much of an advantage with as little Thai that I know, plus I am completely unfamiliar with Bangkok. It was very strenuous as we walked, ran, and took taxis, the sky train, and the subway all around the city in order to take photos in the designated areas. We ended in one of the night bazaars, and had a triumphant run through the small “temple” there. I believe we will have footage up soon. One of the most fun things we’ve done so far, in my opinion, though I was sweating way more than I care to be.
20th—I’ll spare you the mundane details, but it was basically a pack-up/catch-up day for most of us. Our team didn’t leave till 6:30 PM, while some of the teams left earlier in the day. Our bus left around 10 PM and we drove overnight. I was blessed with a leaky AC unit directly above my seat, and at points it was pooling in my lap before settling into my pants and forming large wet spots on both legs. The bus blankets did little to shield it, and eventually I just gave up and embrace it.
21st—We got to our house around 5:30 AM after Krystle’s bag was lost. It accidentally made its way off the bus with the team that got off an hour before us, but we didn’t know that until later. We were asked to be at breakfast at 9 AM, but we could sleep until then. However, at 7 AM we were awoken to the sound of Thai news literally blasting from speakers right outside our windows. That went on for an hour, ending with the Thai National Anthem at 8 AM. Though annoying, in retrospect it was rather funny. Apparently we’ll get to delight in that 5 days a week. :0) The rest of the day we spent talking with the Pastor of the church we are working with, planning out our lesson for the next day, and ending with a cell group bible study in the evening with the pastor’s family and another family.
22nd—We did a lesson for a Compassion Kids’ camp of 62 children. I didn’t count to see that they were all there, though. That was a really great experience! Our lesson was on Jesus being the light, and how we can be the light too. We spent time praying, singing kids songs, practicing a memory verse, giving a brief message, and playing games. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun, and we certainly enjoyed doing it. That was a little over an hour long, and after that we got to take smaller groups for an hour and practice English with them. I was video taping during most of that time and moved between the group of 7-8 year-olds and 13-14 year olds. The older group knew a good bit of English and it was a lot of fun talking with them. I used my broken Thai and they used their broken English and we were able to hold some great conversation. After lunch we had some time to plan for the service the following day.
23rd—Seth did the message for church and Aaron helped lead worship. I am so in awe of how worship-minded these people are. I sat in a room of around 50 believers, almost 90% Thais, and worshiped the same God in totally different tongues. We sang song like “Open the Eyes of My Heart Lord,” “Lord I Lift Your Name on High,” and “In the Secret.” It was extremely beautiful to hear both languages singing in unison. It’s still hard to get past this idea of God being a Western God. I never even realized I had this preconception, but, after all, part of this “race” is about God revealing things about ourselves. Anyway, that was a phenomenal time for me.
24th—On our day off we decided to go visit the elephant camp. We didn’t get to see the show, but we got to ride them. That was a good deal of fun. After that we tootled around the towns looking at where silk and sterling silver are made. Tonight we got the itinerary for the rest of the week. I’ll just sum it up for now, and then once we do it I’ll share more.
Next week we will be going into local schools doing lessons similar to the Compassion Kids’ camp—prayer, message, songs, memory verse, games, skits, etc.
By the time I post this, we will have already completely Tuesday’s theme of “Creation—God is so BIG!” but you can be praying for the rest of the week.
