Thursday was all about orientation and preparation.
On Thursday, after our amazing showers and delicious breakfast, we met with Kris and Silk at the coffee shop by the hotel to talk about the Christmas programs we would be doing in schools. It was super helpful to have more of an understanding of how the programs would work. We will have the opportunity to share in 8 different schools while we are here! This is the first time many of these children will be hearing about the true meaning of Christmas or their first time of hearing about Jesus.
Our team did some preparation in sharing our personal testimonies prior to coming to Thailand. Sharing your story, your journey with Jesus, can be so powerful. It has been so cool to see (even already!) how this team was handpicked by God to come to Thailand. So many of our stories connect with many of the house church members. It is such a blessing to be such an encouragement to others. We will be sharing our testimonies in the school programs as well as in house churches. We spent time planning Friday through Sunday.
After the initial planning session, we walked down the street to a local restaurant for lunch. It was a small restaurant owned by a lovely couple. They were so excited to serve us. The food was amazing! Our table ordered four different dishes so we could all taste four different things. The couple then served us a complimentary rice pudding dessert-- little rice dough balls in coconut milk. It was pretty tasty.
After lunch we went to our local team's office to learn more about the radio/media ministry with The Tide. We had the opportunity to meet some additional team members -- Geng and Nit. Geng does the multimedia work for us in Thailand . The radio ministry started in 2018 and Nit was the voice on the radio. There are so many stories of people hearing the message on the radio and calling in and making the choice to follow Jesus. One current member of one of our house churches was a Tuk-Tuk driver at the time. He found the program on the radio and listened to it every day. He came to know Jesus through the radio ministry and then he always played the program as he drove his Tuk-Tuk so any passengers would also hear about Jesus. We got to meet him and see the "infamous" tuk-tuk on Friday when we were at the NT and SR house church visit. (picture shown later in this post)
We prayed for the team and then spent some time gathering supplies and prepping for the Christmas programs. Once we finished that, we came back to the hotel for dinner--family style.
Friday morning was my first opportunity to get in any exercise. Those of you who know me, know this is something that is important for me and my mental health. It felt great to get out to the park nearby and do some sprint repeats. The weather was comfortable in the 70's when I went out.
(yep, this was my entrance to the park)
Kris, Silk and Pawn (another team member) picked us up at the hotel around 8:30 to travel to the NT and SR house church gatherings, about an hour away. We are traveling in an "open-air truck" which is great in that you can see a lot more of the countryside and enjoy the breeze, but not so great in that by the end of the day you are covered in grit and dust.
When we arrived at the house church, they had music playing to greet us and they were so happy to see us. This visit was combining two house churches -- NT and SR. There were a total of 7 people between the two churches. After spending time for introductions and worship, Chris was the first of our group to share his testimony. Part of Chris' testimony is how Jesus has freed him from any addiction to alcohol. One of the local church members has also struggled with that. Chris' testimony spoke specifically to him, and Chris was able to pray over him. Lucy then shared her testimony. Part of her testimony is how Jesus helped her through grief after losing her first husband. Another local church member's wife just passed away two months ago, and her testimony spoke specifically to him, so Lucy then prayed over him as well.
We joined the church members for lunch. Check out this photo! We had a true Issan meal. And, it did not disappoint.
After lunch, we went to our first school to share the Christmas program. We went to the Kut Ya Luan School. There were 85 students, from grades 1-6, waiting in the auditorium when we arrived. We were to start the program at 2:30, and arrived there at 2:10 to set up. All of the students and teachers were already in the room and had been waiting for 20 minutes!? They were excited for us to come.
I'll share more specifics about the school programs later (since we have 7 more to talk about with you). But here are some photos to enjoy. We are sharing the Christmas story with them, teaching vocabulary words (using some of the words from the story) and then the students act out the story. Someone from our team shares their testimony - today Jadyn shared hers. The gospel is shared in Thai and then we sing some songs. At the end, we give them some gifts to take home (the Bible story, cookies, candy canes, stickers and a coloring page). I have to say our team did a great job. For not having done this before and not really understanding the flow of the program, we all managed pretty well. In fact, the teachers said they loved it so much that they already want us to come back again next year!
Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be visiting three more house churches.
It is incredibly powerful to meet fellow believers who live and worship so differently from us, but who serve the same Jesus that we serve. God's family is so widespread and diverse! It is such a gift for us to meet and encourage each other. Our team is eager to interact with more churches and schools and see that the name of Jesus is proclaimed loudly in every place!
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