Day 6: Church and R&R – May 16th, 2010

This morning we woke up later and got ready for church. We went to the church that the FCF is a branch off of. Great service. Time spoke on Genesis and creation. He spoke mainly about how we are created in his image – Imago Dei. It’s lovely. He spoke about how a lot of people hold all creation at the same level as humans, that the animals in the rainforest are just as important as us humans, and Tim rebuked that and said it was not true. The Lord God has made us in His image! The Lord’s image is not equal to the cows and mountain lions. His image is special and beautiful and only placed in us. He said that we are the inheritants of the earth, and so we should be good stewards, but we cannot deny that because the Lord has given us certain characteristics that are from and of his image we cannot ignore that we are different and special. It was a great sermon indeed.
After church we went to central mall for lunch and window shopped. All (nearly/all that I have seen) the food courts in Thailand require you to buy coupons and then use them to buy the food. After you get the food, you can return left over coupons for Baht. Because it is so fantastic, I decided to have chicken fried rice again. It was delicious, as always :o) When we finished eating we went around and window shopped. In the process, Crissy and I stumbled upon some amazing massage chairs. They were free and gave fantastic full body massages. We decided to stay for the fifteen minute cycle and we had a chance to talk. It was a great bonding afternoon for us. We walked (and got lost) in the rest of the mall. Vogue Avenue was uber fun. There was a strip of stores that had boutique esk clothes. Crissy and I decided to try on a couple of outfits. They were a little expensive… around $30 usd, so we didn’t buy them but took pictures and enjoyed the experience. After we left the mall, we came back to Thong house and were planning on going to the Sunday night market but TADA! It rained – for a long while. It was the first time it’s rained thus far so Trayce and I went and got drenched dancing in it. Because the rain continued, Nate decided it would be best if we stayed in. In Thailand, McDonald’s delivers! So we ordered in. It took Nate like 40 minutes to order and then another hour after that for the delivery to get here. Haha But when it did, it was quite the experience. We had a killer awesome bonding time – watching silly YouTube videos, and Linda braiding my, Eli, and Shannon’s hair. We just had a great time with each other. Kels, Jess, Stacey, and I did 8 minute abs – what a work out! Phew! It was indeed a great Sabbath! :o)

Day 5: Kham Sri and Gam Phaeng Ngam - May 15th, 2010

Oh my gosh! I know now why the Lord has sent me here – their names are Kham Sri and Gam Phaeng Ngam. Day 5, which no one considers to be day 5 but me, was amazing. We woke up and ate breakfast. I forgot to write! When I took a shower a couple days ago, there was a gecko chillin in my towel, so when I took it and put it on, it fell out – I was traumatized and screaming! It was so sketch! Back to day 5, we all got into the songthaew and went to Kham Sri. There we met Stefan and Tina Michel. Stefan is German and Tina is Chinese/Mongolian. They have one biological son named Tobius – amazing kid. His dad only speaks German to him and his mom only speaks English to him so he speaks English, German, and Thai (which he learns from his friends and everyone around him in society). Trilingual at age 7…crazy. We had an amazing time at Kham Sri (Meaning Word of Glory). Their philosophy on ministry is to love kids. They’ve observed that a number (huge) of kids are neglected by their parents and never are hugged or touched. So we went to go play and help! It was great! I met the sweetest girl. Her name is Nat. She is 9 but looks about 5. All the Thai kids are so small! She loved taking pictures with everyone’s camera, which is great – everyone needs a hobby. We decided to have a water fight since Tina had water balloons. We decided to tell the David and Goliath story and simulate the stones as being the water balloons. It was a hit. I was absolutely soaked before I had to teach the lesson, but it’s all good because it dried off while we ate an amazing mean. It was rice and a carrot/peanut sauce. I loved it. It wasn’t uber spicy or anything. Just delicious. After we left Kham Sri, we went to the FCF and debriefed with Nate and then Brennen came and told us about his new ministry proposal. He wants to make a skate park/music venue where youth can come and ministries can use that for getting a hold of kids. It’s a great idea. It would cost about $300,000 usd and a bunch of prayer and support from the Thai government. It would open in the next two years and would be a.mazing. I think it’s exactly what Chiang Mai needs. A venue for ministry to be made from community and relationships. After the FCF, we went to Gam Phaeng Ngam, which are basically the slums. It’s so sad to see that there are people living like that when I live in a nice house. I have a shower, I have a bed, and I have a living room that roosters are not constantly roaming in. I am so grateful for what I do have; I thank God for the abundance of blessings that I have experienced. At Gam Phaeng Ngam (which means Pretty Dirt Wall) we did a craft with the little kids. There was the sweetest little girls named Jeeb Joy and she attached to me. Oh my gosh these little girls are pulling on my heart strings. With the older kids (ages 13-16) we played a game that Somcahi (director of Gam Phaeng Ngam ministry) made up. Basically the object of the game is to capture or be captured. There are two teams of equal size and you send one person over at a time. You have to say deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and hold that or else you have to go to jail. You try to tag the other team members without being captured and put into jail. Such a fun game! We left there and went to the night Bizarre. Another amazing experience. There were so many vendors. Everywhere you turned, someone was trying to sell you something. I ended up buying 5 movies (for 500B), a pair of pants (140B), and a dress (200B). Super cute. We ate dinner in a food court – yum. Chicken fried rice is definitely delicious. With it they gave me chicken broth soup. Also delish. I think I found a favorite non-spicy dish. :o) Yum
So Day 5 was marked with great food and great ministry. I am uber excited to see what the rest of the time here has for me and my team.