Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Day 1 at Thailand, MaeSot
Ok. I can finally update on my first day at MaeSot. But before that, let's talk about the 8 hours coach ride to MaeSot. We boarded the coach at about 10.30pm and the coach left at about 10.45pm. And guess what? Bad choice.. I chose to sit with Mikka at the first 2 seats of the coach, upstairs. Thinking that there will be loads of leg room, we happily stretched out our legs throughout the journey. However, the thing came when we were nearing MaeSot, 3 hours before reaching, we were in this very curvy and dark road where the coach driver kept flashing the powerful lights that were just in front of us. And this resulted in me not able to sleep well. Throughout the bus journey, I only slept for like 2-3 hours? The rest of the 4-5 hours I was trying to sleep?When we reached MaeSot, I was simply super duper tired. We reached a brand new interchange, one that was different from what we went to last year. When we loaded down our lugguage, Junming realised that his backpack was heavier. Guess what? Someone mistakened his lugguage for Junming's and took it away and that guy was a Caucasian that I witnessed taking a backpack and went on with a Thai guy riding a bike (supposedly paid transport I guess..). Thankfully, the Caucasian realised that the backpack wasn't his and he asked the Thai guy to send him back to swop the bags. That's when we all saved a big load of trouble, thank God.
We waited for quite a while for the Ajarn Wajana and Wee. The girls went on to the ladies at the interchange to wash up and I chose to wait to go to the church then wash up. The wait was not too long I guess. After 10-15 minutes of wait, I finally saw Ajarn Wajana, Ajarn Nuy and Sister Wee. The moment I saw them, I was just so so glad... and I hugged Sister Wee and Ajarn Nuy!! So happy to have met them again!! Ajarn Wajana was still the same... very shy Pastor. I can see that he is very happy to see me and Desmond. Haha... I missed them so much for the past one year!
Ajarn Nuy drove all of us back to the church... and it was already 5.40am. When we reached the place, we saw the team of people waiting for us at the entrance of the church...and this time, the location has changed to a bigger place than before!! Can I describe it to be like 8 times bigger than the previous one? :p The first few that I managed to recognise were Oat, Noon, Jui and Bas.. The rest I can't really remember their names le. Hee...
You know the moment they saw me and I saw them, we all know one thing in common that we share... which is we have all put on weight!! haha... Noon and myself have grown rounder I supposed! Oat also seemed to be rounder this time round. haha.. no doubt that everyone's progressing well.. haha... Oat was very nice to draw the faces of us on the whiteboard and everyone took a picture with it. (pics to come soon..)
After we have settled down, we met the MaeSot leadership team for a time of prayer and worship. They were singing in Thai and I was trying hard to figure out the songs in English, and I did try to lead our team to sing some of the songs. But guess that the songs were too 'new' (old) for them, thus, not many of them know the songs. haha... After that, we had a time of prayer and worship on our own. It was a refreshing touch from God. Many of us were refreshed by the Holy Spirit. I guess that by spending time with God, it will always be a brand new start.
At about 10am+, we went to the Ruam Thai church with some of our barang barang... the girls were trying hard to bring as little things as possible. However, I think we failed. haha, especially for me... for a night's stay at the village, I brought like one small backpack and one big bag. alamak.. I can't cut down my packing for nuts... fyi, I packed like 3 bags for this trip lor... crazy right? haha...
Back to the Ruam Thai church... I was so excited cos it was the second time for me there. When I reached the village, I was all smile... cos I met familiar church members the moment I alighted! Some kids really grew and some others had new members to their families... and the babies there were so numerous.. wished that I can play with them more.
This was the first picture that I took when I alighted from the car. They have been Christians for almost 10 years or more. Look at the little girl, her hair is naturally brown and 'highlighted'.. nice right? So maybe I can stay there for a while so that my hair can be like that?? haha...
now u know what I meant? The kids are just so adorable!!
We had a time of Praise.. woah... It was so cool to see the church members praising God and dancing together... guess what? Villagers dance better than us siah..
Junming and myself shared testimony about God's goodness in our lives. The funny part is that when I was sharing, it started raining. Then, I started sharing that God rains for a reason, and the reason is that we need rain, so that our harvest will be good. God stops the rain for another reason too, bcos He doesn't want the fields to be flooded.. haha.. I shared this with them bcos God wants them to know that everything happens for a reason. His plans are perfect and all we got to do is to trust in His timing. Well, I think this is avery timely message for myself as well, isn't it? :)
after the Word and sharing, we went on to prepare lunch and guess what? Everyone's hungry... And the members of the church really went through a lot of trouble cooking for us, especially when it was raining on and off...
So, when they were all busy cooking and preparing for the lunch, this little girl was doing..??
Haha... gotcha!! She was busy eating up the ingredient!! A cucumber... haha... My fav pic of all.. She is so adorable... easily satisfied with cucumber whereas kids in Singapore will look for?? Fastfood?? hmm...Meanwhile, some of us were not slacking too.. we were busy learning to cook out in the rain... with the big charcoal stove, wok... It was an unforgettable scene... haha... indeed, it is still so fun when I thought of the situation.
Then, I saw this granny with her grandchild. I met this granny before last year... hee...
You will be surprised at how friendly they are. In fact, one of the member still remembers my name and when she saw me, she kept pulling my hand and calling out my name, "Yan Yan"... I was so touched when she called for me. I felt so so loved... :)Here is Jui and Boss. Yup, Boss is the small boy... He is actually the son of Bas.
Haha... This little boy is so michievious... And he dun like to play with us... but guess what?? I managed to take a picture with him... this pic is like so precious lor... hehe...
The lady in the picture is Sister Wee, our translator. She is a woman that loves God and people. Always so loving aand patient. I miss her so much...After the whole sharing, we went from house to house to do visitations. We visited like almost 8-10 families. Visit till blur liaoz... Here's a pic of how rainy the weather is. I was in the truck while the rest were at the back.. took some pics of them...
And we didn't visit them to chit chat only.. but the main thing is to minister and pray for them. Throughout the trip, some of us were drenched due to the rain, and some feet were all muddy le. But did anyone complain? Hmm, come to think of it, dun have la.. but some of us were tired n sleepy haha...
Walking towards the next destination...
A girl walking in the rain, just finished school I guess...
And... ta dar!!! our most lovely and loving couple of the century... Pastor Wajana and Pastor Nuy... So envious of them... hehehe...This is one of the families that we visited... we took a grp photo at their house!!
But thank God for His protection, no one fell ill. Praise God! At one of the last few families we went to, I prayed for this lady's family. She shared that her husband backslided bcos of his fear for evil spirit and her dad is also somehow believing in that. I was all filled with faith to pray for them. She was a woman that loved the Word and she treasures it when I read her a verse from the book of Timothy. I shared that God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline. Thank God for the sharp word that gave her and us strength and power. :) The night was great! We went to the church for dinner and after that we had P&W followed by God's Word. But before the mini service started, the Pastor saboed me once again!! He suddenly asked me if I have any special song for them... I was so lost!! And my team kept teasing me lor... haha... So I went up and took over the guitar... Nope, no Hillsong... I sang my own composed song... I was quite awed by the song even.. cos they were all listening to me so intensely. The translator managed to translate the lyrics at the end of the presentation. I was all shivering man.. *stressed* Hope that no such saboe again!! hahaha...
During the praise, I pulled the girls over to dance along with me, just like what I did last year. Haha.. they were all bitten by mosquitoes and I gave them Mopiko to apply... and that was much better!! After the Word, 2 girls put on their traditional costumes and they began to dance for us! Cool.. so talented they are!!
After the Word was preached by Desmond, we had an altar call and time of ministering. We went around praying for the people. Hope that they were very much encouraged by the Holy Spirit. And lastly, we took a group photo as a church. It was a very memorable night!
The first day at MaeSot and Mong Village was filled with many mixed feelings.. maybe because everyone's tired, especially after the overnight travelling, when we didn't even sleep much. But It was a fruitful day indeed!! Thank God for all that has happened!
Labels: missions
by Tricia at 9:37 PM |
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