Day 3 - May 3

Today was a very full day.  And I couldn't sleep more than 5 hours last night.  So I was up at 5:30am and laying in bed til 8:30.  I got on Facebook around 7 and did my devotions because I had nothing better to do.  Officially got up a little after 8, washed my hair (which I've realized I need to do both morning and night), shaved, and then ate some frosted flakes down in the kitchen where Chiab (i think that's how you spell it, that's how I say it) was making some oriental breakfast that i was very happy I was NOT having.  I came back upstairs, got dressed in Sunday morning attire, prayed with Gabe for a few minutes and did some more devotions, and then we left and walked to the Johnson's apartment complex, where we jumped in the car and drove to church.

We had a fun car ride on the way to church, and I learned a lot about the culture and the do's/don'ts of the culture, some of which I'm not allowed to write about on here.  But it was good.  We were visiting a church split off of another church, and Alan was preaching the message and just checking up on it to make sure everything was good.  It was very hyper-pentecostal, and they sang some songs I only knew from Rohler's A/G - Glory to His Name, Blessed Be The Name (old school version), What A Mighty God We Serve.  At the beginning of the service, though, we did some songs with motions that reminded me a lot of the motions I make our fifth graders do at Kidstuf, and I felt like an idiot doing them.  We were flying at some parts and marching at others, and when in doubt, we just waved our arms in the air (traditional motion when you don't know what else to do).  I found that to be very ironic.  I don't understand Thai, but I thought it was a pretty good service.  After the service, they had a meal we stayed for.  I'm not sure what the meat was; I didn't ask.  It was over rice and there was vegetables - carrots, green beans in their little green bean holder pod things.  And then we got some fried egg at the end - I was so happy for that.  I was thanking God because it tasted so good!  After that, we got this dish of deserts, and what appeared to be rice krispie treats that were half white and half pink.  We were wrong.  They weren't bad, they were just hard as bricks.  THEN, the pastor brings this other dish out that has five small flower shaped yellow things in it.  It was a present from one of the ladies in the kitchen.  Gabe and I get that a lot.  They're always asking us if we want to take a Thai wife.  It's a big deal for them to marry American men.  I ate one of them - probably one of  the most processed high-fructose corn syruppy things I've ever eaten.  But, this is missions people.  I downed it with a smile.

We soon left after that and drove back home.  We took this special bridge that Alan has been wanting to go on for like a year, and it stretches out over Bangkok so you can see almost all of the city.  That was pretty cool.  We saw this gigantic elephant statue thing that I took a picture of on the way back.  That was pretty cool.  When we got back, I was jet lagging a little bit, so I took a nap at Alan and Lynette's apartment for about an hour.  Then Alan woke me up and we went to teach English in a slum.

This slum apparently is better off than some of the other ones.  We went to work in a community center outside the Mosque, and there's a small library there.  But when I say community center, I mean that it was probably the size of a small shed or kiosk.  We went with two missionaries, Jeremy & Ashley, who work with Book of Hope, now called OneHope.  After we got there, we split the kids into two groups, ones who could basically speak English, and ones who had no clue.  After they were split, Jeremy went over colors and clothing with the older ones, and Ashley took the younger ones and went over the alphabet.  I also worked with that group, and had them come back individually to write their alphabet for me, and if they didn't know it, I would write it for them to copy after me.  The kids are a lot of fun to work with.  We worked with them for about an hour, and then kept another group, where Alan, Jeremy, Ashley and I worked with them on English conversation skills, such as giving directions and simple conversation that they would have with Americans.  We worked with them for another hour before we headed back to the apartments where they all live.  We dropped off Jeremy and Ashley and then headed for a taxi.  We picked up Gabe and another missionary named Clark who serves in...somewhere that I can't think of right now, and probably shouldn't post to the net if I did think about it.  Anyway, we headed into a slum to just share some life with the people and grab some dinner.  We stopped at the place where they usually do outreaches and stuff and Gabe and I got some fried rice (very cucumber tasting).

Anyway, CATCH THIS - so we're just sitting there eating dinner, talking to some of the people, just sharing life with them, and this motor-taxi driver comes up and plops down next to me on the ground (by the way - a motor-taxi is like a motorcycle that functions as a taxi).  Anyway, he interrupts our conversation by giving all this praise to the missionary - how he's transformed the community and how if he could, he would get on the internet and tell everyone about what he's done.  Now, this guy is also drunk, and speaking in Thai, so we're getting the translation, but the tears are streaming down his face.  So the missionary gets down and sits in front of him Indian style, listens to him, and then prays with him after he's done his whole speech.  It blew me away - this is what Jesus did.  He just sat with people and shared life with them and met them where they are, even in the slums.  It was awesome.  We found out later that this guy has NEVER ONCE spoken with the missionary, he's just observed him from afar all these years.  From simple projects like cleaning their drainage system when none of their own men would do it, or teaching their children English - it's having an impact, and maybe this guy getting drunk gave him the opportunity to express how much it's meant to them.  It totally blew me away.  This is missions - this is what Jesus did.

Ah, I can't get over it.  He sat on the ground with this guy and prayed with him in this slum he's been working there for years.  Good stuff.

We came back to Alan and Lynette's apartment afterwards and unwinded with a few games of Settlers of Caban.  I almost won round 2, but lost at the last minute.  It was a lot of fun - man oh man do they have all these good strategy games.  Apparently they're German (Germans make the best strategy games I've been told).  As we were walking back, we met one of Alan's converts, his first convert actually (which took him 7 years to do).  I really can't believe it took that long, but Asia Pacific is a hard area to work in.  We prayed for his shoulder tonight.  We came back to the house, showered up, and did some blogging/Jesus time before bed.  That's about it.

I'm having so many good conversations with Alan about missions and stuff, and it's just amazing that what the Lord has called me to do is so awesome!  More good things to come!  Thanks for the prayers!