Mission Trip and School again

Hello! I'm sorry for the delayed update, but I was expecting to have pictures of the mission trip by now to post. However, that hasn't happened. I will follow up with a picture blog as soon as I get them.

The mission trip with my church was a lot of fun. We went to a hilltribe village about 5 hours south of Bangkok to help a church that is getting established there. We lived in the homes with the people and ate their food, which was quite interesting since they are poor. The food was not really bad, but it made me thankful for what I have. The first night I thought "Oh no. . . edible, but not too tasty". They had tiny egg plants in 3 different dishes and another dish of green vegetables and egg. I like vegetables, but I'm not a huge fan of eggplant. It was an experience. However, the food improved a little bit the next morning as we had some fish as well. Thank God that no matter what they gave us to eat, I was always able to find something I like and could honestly tell them it was delicious every time. I think all of my Thai friends who went along also had a difficult time with the food as most of them had never done anything like this before. It also rained about 4 times a day and all of the roads were dirt . . . I mean mud. We kept having to change the path to our house a little bit everyday and I've never rinsed my feet off so much haha.

Aside from the food, everyone was very nice. The family I was staying with was very sweet and I could tell really loved their children, which is honestly not too common in this area. Their daughter kind of attached herself to me as many of the other kids did as well, which surprised me and was an answer to prayer. Many times children are scared of me because I'm a foreigner. However, when I introduced myself as "Pi Fah" (my time name that means blue and sky), everyone clapped and got excited. In most of the pictures taken of me, I have 2 or 3 kids next to me. :D.

On the first day, we all walked around and saw the area we would be living in. We were next to pineapple fields so we got to eat the best pineapple in the world everyday we were there. Amazingly enough, I wasn't tired of it. That night we sang songs with the kids and The second day we seperated the older kids and the younger kids and did one day backyard Bible clubs :D. and we showed the Jesus film in Thai that evening for everyone in the village. On Sunday, I taught a little bit of English, we went to church, which was all in Thai and Galien (the tribe's native language), had a sports day, and had group time. On Monday, we spent a little more time with the kids, packed up our stuff, said goodbye to everyone, and headed home.

It was a learning experience for me. For one thing, I was reminded of how much of a difference a little love can make. I worked with the younger kids and we had one little boy who wouldn't listen to anyone. We couldn't get him to sit down or anything. The next day, I played with him a little, gave him a hug, and told him I and Jesus loved him. After that, he would listen to almost anything I asked him to do. It was the most dramatic change I've ever seen. His favorite thing to do was back up and run into my open arms which would wrap into a big hug and tickle him a little. Many of the families in this area enjoy drinking alcohol and their children suffer in many ways. Also, Thai culture is not one for showing affection or saying "I love you", so the kids are starving for it.

The other thing that I was excited to see is a Thai church going out on a mission trip. I was the only foreigner on this trip and I played a very minor role. The Thai people planned it and did everything. It was so nice to see :D. God is working through the Thai people and they are reaching out to their own people not only in Bangkok, but in other areas as well. This was a step out of their comfort zone and I think all of our eyes were opened a little bit.

Next week school starts! YEAH! Summer break is fun, but just as when I was a student, I'm ready to get back to a normal schedule and have a little more structure in my life. I'll have to remind myself of this in a couple of months hahaha. Please pray that I will build relationships with my students and teach them to the best of my ability. Also, there are 5 university students joining our church for the summer to help us build relationships with the students. I am hoping to have them in my classes to give my students a chance to talk with real foreigners and to help them meet more students. There are a lot of things planned for this summer and I pray God's hand will be on all of it. Please join me in this prayer.