Welcome to Thailand

It’s officially been one week since our team packed into a van, left the Mark Centre and headed to YVR to catch a flight that would take us around the world. Travel itself was an adventure! We had a thirteen hour flight to Taipei and then a seven hour layover there, and then another three and a half hours to Bangkok. After a brief meeting with two of our host missionaries Dave and Louise, our team was loaded into another van and sent off to find the OMF home in Bangkok- alone. Fortunately Dave had given the driver good directions, because we definitely could not communicate very effectively. After a few wrong turns, stopping for directions a few times, backing up on the highway and a couple of U-turns we finally arrived! Here we met Andy Owen, another one of our missionary hosts who helped get our very jet-lagged team and all our luggage up to our room! Let me tell you, I was certainly thankful to see my bed that night.

The next three days we spent at the OMF home with Andy’s wife Carmen and their two boys, having a bit of orientation. They gave us lots of time to sleep and rest, to get used to the heat and humidity and 13 hour difference in time. We also had team time and bible study, as well as some fun trips out to the hair dresser and for Thai massage. Carmen encouraged us to explore the area, and view the culture, and keep a journal about the differences that we noticed.

Let me tell you a little bit about what I noticed. First of all, everybody in Thailand loves and respects their king, they hold him in such high reverence that they don’t even talk about him! They have monuments and life size pictures (like the one on the right), and buildings painted with him on almost every block. Twice a day in public places the king’s song is played- and people stop what they are doing in respect. Another thing that I saw was that in every shop there is a spirit house, where people invite the spirits to bless their business, and they offer it food and drink every day. We also see Buddhist monks all over the place, and we learned that every Thai male at some point is supposed to become a monk for a short period of time to secure his parents “salvation.” The spiritual deception here is incredible. Please join me in praying for this nation, that they will see the truth that is found only in Jesus!

After our time at OMF we loaded up into another van and headed to Bang Saen, our final location for the next seven months. We finally saw TLC church and got to meet some of the people we will be working with. It’s been exhausting meeting everybody, there are so many names and faces to remember. We haven’t started the ministries that we will be working in yet, but we are starting to get a feel for what life will be like here.

On Thursday we visited the Abundant Life Home, and went with Karen (another of our missionary hosts- there are six in total) to pick up the children from school. In total there are six boys in the boys home and three girls in the girls home. We will likely go to these homes on Friday and Saturday nights to give the house moms time off. After that P’ Ganiga, the house mom in the boys home took us for a tour of Ang Sila, a fishing village where two of our team members, Michelle and Diana will be living (the picture on the left is in Ang Sila). Please pray for them as life there will be difficult, it is a poorer community and they lack a lot of the comforts that we are used to, and are definitely relinquishing many rights to live there. Pray that God will honour that, and help them form many relationships, and will give them safety.

On Friday I had the opportunity to go to the Bang Saen hospital with another short-term worker here named Nitra, and sit in on an English class that she teaches, which our team will take over when she leaves in December. I loved it. The format of the class that she uses, is she goes over an English worksheet with them, or teaches them a new grammatical tool, or set of vocabulary, and then they read through a section of the Purpose Driven Life together in English, and she sends home the same section in Thai for them to read during the week. I really see now how English teaching will be a way for building relationship with people, since you spend the whole time talking. Please pray for me as I step into these sort of roles, that I will be able to effectively build relationships that go beyond just teaching a language.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to our first church event- the TLC high school and college group. They met at Andy and Carmen’s, where they sang (in Thai), played games (explained in Thai), shared testimonies (in Thai) and studied the bible (in Thai). In case you didn’t get it in the last sentence there was definitely a language barrier, but somehow with our nit-noy (little bit) of Thai, and many people’s ability to speak some English we got by and had a great time, I’m looking forward to connecting with this group of young people. Later that day we had the opportunity to attend the English service at TLC, another neat community I’m looking forward to connecting with.

Well, it’s Sunday now, and I’m babysitting in a little bit, and then should get ready for service (which doesn’t start until 4:00). I miss you all, and can’t tell you how much I appreciate your prayers and emails of encouragement. Please continue to pray for my team as we really start to jump into ministry in this next week, as well as begin some language study!