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For pics of our Thailand trip, check out my Facebook site.
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Day Twelve - July 28, 2007
Up to this point, I think it’s safe to say for the group, we’ve done a lot and we’re pretty tired. The English Camp ended well and all that we had done up until this point was an amazing learning experience; one I’ll never forget. However, I feel like that our first purpose for why we came has just begun. Today was the first day of our Vacation Bible School and it was a great day of getting to know the children and teaching them about a loving God.
Our theme for the VBS is “Cowboy Camp.” As you can guess, we’re using the Harry Potter theme to our camp… Okay, that was a lame one, but it’s pretty obvious that we’re using a western theme that followed the “Avalanche Ranch” theme our church FKPC/Covenant Chapel used back at the end of June.
Our VBS will go on for three days and today’s message was “God is Real” or in Thai, “Phra-jao Mi Jing.” It was important for us to start off with this message, not just because that the material told us to, but because for many of the Shan, Ahka, and Northern Thai children, they see many gods and many beliefs. To them, God isn’t singular, but there are gods and their belief is that they can believe in Jesus and still be a Buddhist.
A lot of this thinking doesn’t come from poor biblical teaching, but the children’s respect for their parents. Many of the parents here will let the children believe in Jesus or go to a camp to hear about Jesus Christ (or Yesu Krit), but it’s important that they follow the parents to the temple a hand full of times throughout the year to give prayers and offerings to Buddha.
So, to begin with “God is Real,” through our skit (based on Rahab and the spies), and even in our Arts/Crafts and Games, we tried to share and explain that there is only one God, and He is the one True God.
Here’s a rundown of what our responsibilities as VBS leaders are:
Aram – Arts & Crafts
Michelle – Worship
Min – Games
Dan – Bible Exploration
Robin – Eat Snacks and make a fool out of himself. Okay for real, do you really want to know what I did today? I held the signs for the worship songs. Okay, I did do a little more then that, but I won’t bore you with details.
We had about 50 children today and aren’t too sure how many will come over the next couple of days. The Thai schools (if the children’s parents can even afford to send the children to school) run year round and there aren’t many opportunities for children to come to a 3-day camp. But this weekend happens to be an important religious time. It’s “Buddha Weekend.” Alright, I’ll stop. That’s not the official slogan that the Buddhists use, but it’s the most important time of year for Buddhists to make pilgrimages to their hometowns and go to the temple and bring offerings. The “holiday” starts today and ends Tuesday.
Missionary Neel and Sam decided that this would be a good time and opportunity to have a VBS. When relatives come from other parts of Thailand into the villages, for most of the time, the adults drink alcohol, sometimes abuse the children, and often times neglect them. So the children are left to entertain and do things for themselves. Why not use this time to reach lonely, hurt children with the love of Christ.
We have a lot ahead of us with two more days remaining, but I feel strengthened by the Holy Spirit, because I know that God is going to do great things in the lives of these children. And I know that God is going to change us as a team and individually as He draws us closer and closer to Him.
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Day Ten & Eleven - July 26 & 27, 2007
As you can see, I’m combining this entry for the sake of too many comments and eprops (that was a shameless plug for more eprops). But the real reason I’m combining these two entries is because for the most part, the two days were identical.
Each day began with us going to the Suan Luang Elementary School where we taught basic English to the children. We decided that by teaching them basic conversation and repeating it was the best way to go. We found out that we were the first program like this to teach the village children English. No other short-term mission team had come to teach English, so each night we were coming up with curriculum and worksheets that the children could read and learn off of.
Yesterday’s blog I wrote that English is a difficult language to learn. What made it more difficult to teach was that many of the children didn’t know how to read and write in Thai either. We were trying to teach them the phonetic pronunciation of each word so that they could read it more easily. Even this was testing because each word we taught took minutes to write in the Thai phonetic.
As challenging as this was, it was amazing to see the eagerness of the children to learn English. It was even more fruitful then I could have imagined because we were able to interact with many of the children who weren’t even Christians. At the end of the last day before we were leaving, I was able to share with all the students, Thai teachers, and the school principal what a blessing it was to be there to teach the children and to share our love with them.
I know that this memory will never leave me because I will continue to pray for them and pray that God will continue to knock at the door of their hearts. Some of the children said that they will be coming to our VBS (Vacation Bible School) tomorrow. What an encouragement that was to hear and I hope that we can share the love of Christ to all of them and to the others coming.
Please pray for us and pray that God will be glorified through the VBS at the Nam Jam Village in Mae Sai.
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Day Nine - July 25, 2007
English has to be one of the more difficult languages to learn. Obviously I speak good Engrish, but to learn it when it not spoken and open eared on a regulur bases it is hard.
Today, we began teaching at our English Camp at an elementary school with children in grades 1 through 6. Aram and Min, along with translators and leaders Sam and Lydia, taught grades 1 to 3. And Michelle, Dan, and I, along with translators and leaders Kul and Motu, taught grades 4 to 6.
For Michelle, Dan, and I (as I’m sure Aram and Min too), we were definitely challenged in teaching these children basic English. For them to say “Hello” or “How are you?” was a daunting task because most of them couldn’t write in English except to copy what was written on their work sheets. So it only made sense for us to speak the English and have them write the phonetic equivalent in Thai. However, the problem with that is that there are different tones to the same word in Thai. So if you speak the word a certain way, they’ll write it that way and use the same intonation every time. With two days left in camp, we
The night before, we spent time in prayer. We prayed that more then teaching the children, we could exemplify the love of Christ. Even English was our reason for being at this camp, and even though we weren’t allowed to teach or preach about Christ, we wanted to use this as an opportunity to show these children that they were loved and that they mattered.
I’m hoping that most of these children can come to the VBS this coming weekend and see that we do care about them and that we want to share what Christ has done for them. This is really what we’ve been training for and preparing for. We’re trying to make use of every opportunity to reach these children for Christ.
Over the past few days, I realized that I’ve been doing things like singing, dancing, and trying to have fun with the kids that I don’t care what I look like or sound like. I remember Romans 1:16 that says, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.”
I know that God is knocking at the door of these children’s hearts and I am willing to put myself out there to show that I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ and will do what I can to share God’s love with these children. I am sure that this is also the thoughts and prayers of our team members because I see them like I’ve never seen them before. I can see the Holy Spirit working in and through them and changing their hearts and attitudes and breaking down walls.
I already know that I’m going to miss Mae Sai and Thailand. More then missing riding the motorbikes and eating great Thai food, I feel like we’re just building some great relationships with the children here and I don’t want to leave any time soon. But I know that God has a plan, and I know that His ways are higher then mine and that His Will is a good, pleasing, and perfect Will.
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Day Eight - July 24, 2007
With a long week ahead of us, we used today as a day of preparation for the English Camp and Bible Camp. The English Camp is from Wed. to Fri. and the Bible Camp is from Sat. to Mon.
With all of the prep. behind us and the camps ahead of us, I’m really feeling the weight of all that we are going to do. I know that the rest of the team is already feeling quite tired and somewhat tired of each other, but we’re persevering through the tiredness and sharpening one another in ways that we didn’t even think we could sharpen.
With Sam, Kul (pronounced Goon), and Motu helping us understand the language and customs better, our preparation went a lot better then I thought it would. However, we were at it for at least 10 hrs. today and really needed some time away from it all.
So by the end of the day, we had some dessert, took some pictures, sang some songs and enjoyed some fellowship away from prepping. Also, I can remember the sermon I gave a few weeks ago talking about the importance of solitude. It’s on mission trips like these that you really need to find some lone time and really take advantage of the little time we have apart from each other.
It’s important in general, that in life to take a step back from all that we have to do and find our pleasure and worth in Christ and to please Him. I know that each of us want to please God and bring people to Him. We just hope that we don’t in the way of ourselves or of God. Well, then again, God is God and when God works, He works. But what I’m trying to say, is that we want to be used when God works and bring glory back to Him.
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