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We have begun our third week of ministry in Thailand. Below are several entries that have been
written while we had little access to the internet. Again, Thank you for your continue prayer for
the team.
June 19, 2007- Tuesday
[Author: Marc
Edwards]
Today was our first day of ministry
in Syrian. Yesterday was spent in
traveling by bus. It took about six
hours to get to Syrian. The only
interesting thing that occurred on the trip was that we had to change
buses. Since we were the first group of
foreigners to reserve a bus as a group, the company decided to give us a better
bus than we first started out with.
Usually people travel to Syrian over night so there is no need for air
condition in the bus. However, we had to
travel during the day in order to get to Syrian on schedule.
For our ministry, the team visited
three schools. The schedule originally
had only two schools, but yesterday during our bus trip, another school called
requesting us to visit them. The
students would be staying after school to see us. The schools we visited
consisted of two high schools and one university. At each school, there was
about 500 to 600 students. With the first two schools, we were there for about
two hours at each school. The first hour we presented our program that
consisted of two songs, two skits, and two testimonies. The second hour we broke the kids up into
four different workshops aerobics, cooking, computers, and English. At the final school, we only presented our
program.
June 17, 2007 – Sunday
[Author: Marc
Edwards]
Today the
team participated in the Sunday morning worship service at Rom Phrakhun
Baptist Center. We sang some songs in Thai with their small
congregation. Laura Lee gave her
testimony and I gave a short sermon on Matthew 14:22-27 about how Jesus is
always near us in the storms of our life even though we may not always see
Him. I have been reading a Max Lucado
book during the trip and was moved by what he written. After one final meal at the Rom Phrakhun
Baptist Center
we headed to the airport to fly back to Bangkok. Even though, our flight did not leave until
6:30 p.m. Thailand time,
Pastor Reuel had to drop us off early in order to make the bus his wife and him
were taking to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok around 8:30 and had to do laundry in
order to prepare for our trip to Syrian tomorrow. Some us went to ICS while others went to the
Ford’s and Weber’s houses. Needless to
say, it is late and we need to be up early to catch the vans which will take us
to the bus stop for our trip to Syrian.
June 16, 2007 - Saturday
[Author: Rebekah Drum]
Today was
our fun day this week – to start with, we got to sleep in! Then we headed to the beach for the day. We went to a new beach, which Pastor Reuel
and was nice because it had a lot of shade (for George and Dave), and plenty of
sand so we could “safely” play in the waves.
Safety is pretty relative J. Marc got his
chest pretty scratched up after being thrown to the shore by a wave, and
everyone was at least a little sunburnt.
Being the team member who thinks the least, I got the worst injury of
the trip so far. A few of us went to
explore some sweet looking rocks. This
was all fun and games until I slipped, broke my toe, and had to go back to
shore.
June 15, 2007 - Friday
[Author: Hannah Niday]
Today was a
very exciting day for our team! We
started off the day with elephant rides.
There were two to three on each elephant and we sat on bench-like seats
that were strapped on. There were an
elephant with a baby that was only three days old! We all rode in a line through the jungle for
about an hour. Afterward we bought
bananas and fed the elephants. It was a
really fun experience for all of us!
Our n0065t
stop was the tsunami memorial. We drove
through villages that were destroyed by the tsunami. When driving through, we saw a large boaty
that was moved about one mile when the tsunami hit and it ran into its owners
house. It was very humbling to be
standing on a beach that was “ground zero” of the tsunami’s destruction. The memorial had pictures and names of some
people who were killed. Some names had
flowers on them and some didn’t, but all were highly respected in the manner
that it was presented. I think I can
speak for everybody when I say that it was an unforgettable experience being
able to step foot on ground that was destroyed three years ago.
We
went back to the center and ate lunch and played games and got ready to go
minister to the Sea Gypsy village. When we arrived at the village, Pastor Reuel
showed us their museum and told us about their culture. These gypsies were nomads who traveled from
the mainland of China, down
south around Malaysia and
north to the coasts of Thailand
and Burma. They survived on fishing and hunting and
prided themselves in their own culture.
When the tsunami hit in 2004, the Thai government made them stay in one
place. So the Germans and eleven other
non-profit organizations helped build their village. We waited on the children to come for about
forty-five minutes and when they finally arrived, we started our program. We performed both of our skits, sang songs,
and danced the chicken dance and Laura shared her testimony. We gave snacks to the children and adults and
coloring books and markers to the children.
Please pray for the Moklen people of the Sea Gypsy village in Bang
Niang. They cling to alcohol to forget
their problems, they are living in poverty, and they do not know Jesus. Pray that relationships will be built, that seeds
will be planted, and that hearts will be changed as the Rom Phrakhun
Baptist Center
continues its ministry to the Sea Gypsies.
June 13, 2007 - Wednesday
[Author: Laura Lee]
Wednesday
was our second day at the elementary school.
We started with our songs, special claps, and “The Mask” skit. Shane explained the meaning of the skit, and
Pastor Reuel translated. After the
assembly, we split into our different grades.
Leanne and Laura had first grade, Erin
and Hannah had second, Andy and Sam had third, Diane and Stacy had fourth, Amy
and Bekah had fifth, and Marc and Shane had sixth.
In first
grade, Leanne and I reviewed greetings, colors, shapes, and body parts. The kids enjoyed being quizzed and
rewarded. For lunch, our team went to a
church member’s house. We were served
chicken and rice and fresh fruit. The
best thing about eating at their house was that the backyard had a fruit
orchard. Some of the new fruits included
mangosteen, long kong, and lychees.
When we
returned to the school the kids were ready for more action. We started with a few more songs – the kids
loved “Head and Shoulders,” and “The Chicken Dance.” Our first game consisted of four relay teams
racing to fill their bottle with water.
You could see the joy on the children’s faces as they took turns filling
their cup and running to the bottles, dumping their cups, and running
back. In our second game the kids second
game the kids raced to dribble the ball in and out of the obstacles (us!). we took a break from the hot, Thailand
sun and sang more songs. For the last
game, we did a water balloon toss. We
left for the church after handing out snacks and saying our goodbyes.
Close to
the church, there is an open market. We
all went and walked around before dinner.
Some vendors sold junk, some sold clothes and jewelry, some snacks and
food, and others sold meat. There were
many vendors but all sold a variation of one of the four items. The most interesting would be the food. The meat row had stands of fresh fish, live
snails, and pig faces (yes – the skin off the face of a pig – I guess it is a
delicacy ?!?).
I don’t
remember dinner, but I’m sure it was amazing.
Our group had a quick meeting after dinner. For the rest of the night we played games.
June 12, 2007 - Tuesday
[Author: Andy Vitaliti]
Today, the
team went to the first ESL school of the trip.
Upon arrival, all of the kids lined up and sat down on the patio. Pastor Reuel and his wife Phebe began by
leading the kids in a number of songs.
The team then performed our program, which consisted of a mime (“The
Heart,”) as well as some of our team’s testimonies and songs. We performed “Head, Shoulders Knees and
Toes,” “The Lord’s Army,” and “Your Love is Deep.” These songs all had motions, so the kids, who
only knew a little English, could participate in them.
After our
program was finished, the kids then sp up into their respective grades. Sam, Drew (the missionary kid), and I were in
charge of third grade. Jemima, a helper
of the church, came with us as well to translate for us. We began our class by teaching the kids
different colors. At this point, the
kids didn’t really get into it. We were
off to a slow start. However, this
changed as we began to use songs to teach different parts of the body. Sam and I then taught the kids the game “Four Corners.”
Every corner had a different number, either 1, 2, 3, or 4. All of the kids ran to different corners
while a person counted to ten. After
he/she was done counting, that person would say “1”, “2”, “3”, or “4.” Whoever was in that particular corner was
out. The game continued till only one or
two kids were left in. These kids would
then get candy as a prize. The kids
really enjoyed this game. While Sam
counted, I ran to various corners with several of the kids who were attached to
me. This game continued almost till the
end of the teaching period, which lasted two hours. After that period was done, the kids all left
to have lunch, while the team went to a member of the church’s house for lunch.
This lady also had an orchard in her
back yard. After lunch, which consisted
of noodles, the team went out into the orchard to pick fresh fruit. The fruit that we got was called mangosteen,
a white juicy fruit that had a pinkish shell.
Pastor Reuel said that the native Thai call this fruit the Queen. After the team had had their fill of the
fruit, we all changed and went back to the school for the afternoon. Dave Ford and Phebe led the kids in song, and
then the kids and the team played kickball.
It was a little difficult because the kids had never been taught to
play. Also, there were many kids, so not
everyone got to participate. After the
game ended, the team gave the kids their snacks and then left for home. On the way, Pastor Reuel stopped at the naval
base to pick up some delicious homemade doughnuts. Those doughnuts didn’t last too long since
they were so good. After we got back to
the church where we were staying, the whole team went to the beach until
dinner. We then went back to the church,
ate, and ended the night playing cards.
 
June 11, 2007 - Monday
[Author: Erin Pasma]
June 11
found the MIS Thailand team in Bang
Niang, Thailand,
near Phuket. This area was hard hit by
the December 26, 2004 tsunami. Pastor
Reuel Lumilang and his ministry, Rom
Phrakhun Baptist
Center, work with the
people who live in this area. Pastor
told us that “Rom Phrakhun,” roughly translated, means “under the umbrella of
God’s grace.” He told us that it is
through God’s grace that the tsunami provided the window of opportunity he and
his team were seeking in order to serve the people of southern Thailand.
Monday was
the day we arrived in Bang Niang. We
settled ourselves in the rooms provided by Rom Phrakhun, and toured the area a
little bit. After this, Pastor Reuel and
his intern, Brother Adoo, took us to the future site of the church his team is
raising money to build. (Side note : please pray that their ministry can raise
sufficient funds for this! They are very
close, but have not yet raised enough to cover all expenses.) While here, we were allowed to “invest” in
the beginnings of this church project, as they gave us each a mango tree to
plant on the periphery of the property.
“In ten years,” Pastor said, “you
can come back here and see the trees you planted. You can show your children your tree.” We each planted a tree or two, watered them,
and surveyed the results. The trees are
small right now – but, as Pastor said, someday they will be larger, and the
church can hopefully enjoy the shade, as well as the literal and figurative
fruits of our labor. (Pun fully intended
J
). We were then shown an exotic little
beach hidden in a national preserve.
Half of the team – the female half, primarily – came away saying that
they needed to bring their significant others or family to see this country, as
words cannot do the beauty of the area justice.
We returned to a wonderful Thai supper, provided by Mae Khiat, the
center’s cook and a parishioner of Pastor Reuel’s congregation, and relaxed
with a few games for the rest of the evening.
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