Muse:
This update was supposed to have posted when I first wrote it almost a month ago, but with a combination of it being deleted before I could save it (twice), my frustration that followed, the busyness of other things in life being added, the multitude of ducks I had to get in a row before this week...and a little procrastination on my part, it is finally now being posted...again.
So hit the rewind button on your memory and go back to the second week of October:
Set:
-back when time was a little slower, rains were still coming regularly, and the morning mists were only JUST enough to make you second guess your decision to attempt a day without taking a second shirt with you (at least in this part of the world).
-most of the girls from BHJ were back in the villages visiting remaining relatives during their school break.
-I was ending teaching English to the staff for a little while to prepare for time spent elsewhere.
-a team from America had just arrived....
Scene 1
The team came mostly from the mountains of Colorado and my native city of Woodland Park with a ministry called E3/SportReach. After spending a few days in ChiangMai, getting acquainted with the city, the culture, and the heat; we headed out to BHJ and did a small work project, only to be interrupted by monsoonal torrent that turned most of our efforts into a soggy sandbox - much to the enjoyment of the girls who were only too eager to start burying each other and building sand castles like they were at the beach.
The following day we packed up from ChiangMai and headed North. Winding through the mountains on curves that still make me more than a little car sick thinking about it, past military checkpoints intent on halting the traffic of opium from the hidden plantations to the cities until we reached the small municipality of ChiangDao; a central location to the multitudes of smaller villages surrounding it, each with their own people group residing in it.
Scene 2
Sunday through Wednesday we split the team of 8 recently arrived Americans into 3 groups adding myself, the Jessen family and several locals, each going off to different villages that we were going to be working in. I led a team of 4 into a Lisu village called HuaNaLin, where I knew the pastor already and where four of the BHJ girls had come from. We spent the afternoon on Sunday prayer walking through the village and inviting anybody we met to come to the church that evening to a special program we were going to have where I gave a small teaching on the mission that God has called every Christ-follower to; not just pastors or "great white missionaries."
Our main goal was to be an encouragement to the already established church and help motivate them to reach the remaining families in the surrounding area and not remain stagnant and legalistic in their faith. We spent time with pastor John Bee and the elders of the church asking where their needs for prayer were and where we might be of service. The next few days we spent the mornings playing with the kids of the village who were too young to work in the fields, and then during lunch going out into the fields where the majority of the villagers were working the harvest.
We would meet with them in their homes or their fields sharing with them about the Good News and explaining the gospel to them, praying with them and discipling those who God had created cultivated hearts. Then in the afternoons having sports camps for the youth and then in the evenings holding small bible study groups at the church or returning to the houses of people we met that invited us to come back and meet with their entire families.
It's hard to explain the spectrum of people we would meet when going out with the pastor or other church members; but these three examples give an idea of what we encountered:
1. Cultivated heart - I went with one other American, a Thai translator and a local church member and met a young man of about 21 who when we asked if we could share with him about the Bible, he was immediately excited and asked us to come in! We sat down and shared with him the story of the Bible from Creation through to Jesus' death, highlighting the points of our original design to be with God, our fall and separation and the effects of that, and the master plan God had already put into effect with Jesus. After hearing, he was already eager to pray and commit his life to Jesus. We spent nearly an hour or so with him and left him a Bible and invited him to join us at church that evening, to which he came. Later that week I went back with the local church member and visited with him again to encourage him and his walk.
2. Open, but non convicted - We met with a family of 3, the father, mother and their daughter who all listened very intently to what we were sharing and then after asking very motivated questions the father ultimately said that they were still deciding what was the best way to act, but when we asked what we could pray for them for, he said, "please pray for us that we may be able to discern what is the true path and way to live life."
3. Closed - An elderly woman we met with was sitting on her porch outside of her home, working on weaving a basket when we asked if we could spend some time with her, she was very polite and listened to what we were saying. But after sharing with her, she told us that Buddha already took care of her sin and the pendant around her neck was what kept evil spirits away and brought her good fortune. Despite the fact that she said that the Bible was true and how it says that God's biggest commandment is worshipping him alone, meaning believing in Jesus, she said that it was more logical to believe in many things.
After spending most of the week with a similar routine, and having the opportunity spend some real one-on-one time with John Bee and one of the elders, Daniel - spending several hours just hanging out in his house and communicating between my Thai and his English we were able to have a very fruitful time surfacing things from both of our lives and what God was doing in both of them. Daniel, who was about 28, was chosen to be an elder 2 years previous on the premise that he was one of the few men in the village who "knew how to pray."
We regrouped with the rest of the team in the evenings to eat dinner around 8:30 or 9pm, debrief, pray and go to bed.
Scene 3
Once Thursday rolled around we all regrouped and went to a different village that our friend and pastor Kamsen had been involved with over the past several years - this village, consisting of Karen, Shan and Northern Thai peoples, had only 3 professing Christians and only 1 young couple actively attempting to spread the Good News to their neighbors. We spent the entire day with all of the team going out to the families and inviting them to a youth soccer game in the afternoon and then a church meeting in the evening.
The soccer game was a great hit (as always is when Soccer is involved), we played with a group of about 20 youth from the village and we were able to share with them and I spent some time with a few of the guys and hanging out with them. Then in the evening, the church was packed out with people from all over the area to hear the message that Kamsen taught and to see a video geared towards helping explain the Gospel to those of their background. It was awesome to see God bring a full crowd to a village that God had been working on in the previous years.
Final Scene:
The next day we packed up and came back to ChiangMai where I spent most of the next day saying goodbye to my girlfriend as she was leaving for the States after her 2 year commitment in SE Asia, and then met back up with the team afterward for debriefing and helping them get onto their plane the next day to go back to the snow and cold of Colorado (and Washington).
Sequel:
One week later, after the team had gone, I went back with Pastor Kamsen to the same village for the dedication of their church building and saw many of the same people we had met the previous week, including several of the guys I had played soccer with. I'm already excited to see them again in the months to come!
Coming attractions:
-My mom visits me in Thailand for her maiden voyage across foreign soil. (Single day trips into Canada and Mexico don't count).
-I visit friends and family in the USA to cultivate relationships, spend the holidays and do some fund-raising.
Location:ChiangDao, nearby villages, Thailand
