Thailand update - July 7th

Hello from Thailand again.

Yes, another incredible day. And an incredibly busy day. The team is exhausted. We returned to our hotel home around 10:00 pm and all the little team members have gone to bed. I'm close behind.

We began our day again with team time. It's interesting how our team time goes in the morning. We gather in the lobby right out in the middle of everyone. There's a street that runs right beside the hotel on the lobby side. As we're talking about the previous day's events, or about how each member is felling, or laughing about visiting Helga, the place is rather quiet. AS SOON AS we start talking about the work we will be doing for God this place becomes a zoo. Traffic picks up on the street with loud trucks and buses, the lobby fills up with loud tourists, the TV in the sitting area gets turned on really loud. We end up having to raise our voices quite a bit just to be able to listen to each other.

At the end of our team time we pray. We're in the middle of all the commotion praying aloud. Everyone is watching and wondering what we're all about. It takes us somewhere around 20 minutes until our prayer time is over. Once we're done the noise stops. You will NEVER be able to convince me that it's just coincidental. Evil forces are at work in this world. How awesome is it that our God is so much more powerful.

We worked at the sweat shop from 9:30 am until 3:30 pm. We boxed somewhere around 400 boxes of packets for future teams. There was plenty of sweat in that shop. Whew!!! Today seemed particularly humid. The fans helped as long as you were in front, or under one. My Thai buddy Baan was basically the man in charge today. He did a great job keeping everyone busy. We were a well oiled machine. AND, we tought Baan how to day "Howdy y'all".

When we returned to the hotel, the old people went to their rooms to take a nap. The kids and I went to the pool for a quick swim. We received a lesson on culture differences. You see, after about 15 minutes of Paul and me swimming, and the girls sitting at the edge of the pool with their feet in the water, one of the hotel security guards came over. He was trying to tell me that the girls needed to be in their bikini's and get in the pool. He left after I told him I didn't understand about 10 times.

Then, a second security guard showed up. He starting telling me I needed to take off my swimming trunks. Or, at least that's what I thought. Again, he left after I told him I didn't understand. I got out of the pool, dried off, and went to the front desk to inquire about the pool rules. I was pretty certain we weren't supposed to skinny dip. Especially with all the Chinese people swimming at the other end of the pool.

I asked the manager if my swim suite was OK and he said "Yes, suite OK". I asked him if bikini's were OK. He looked at me funny and said "Yes... bikini OK". Then I said the girls were sitting at the edge of the pool with their feet in the water, is that OK? He responded "Oh, no, no, no. Chinese in pool. They tink you washing feet in pool. Must swim or no swim. Chinese offended".
And, there ya go! No skinny dipping and no washing your feet in the pool. I'm thinking you shouldn't brush your teeth in the pool either.

We left for the pier at 5:30 pm. Some of us did some quick prayer walking, and the rest starting setting up. There were three waves of Chinese. Wave #1 took 4 boxes. Wave #2 took 2 boxes. And, wave #3 took 1 box. That adds up to over 175 packets distributed. PTL !!!!

We ordered burgers after the first wave. The little delivery guy delivered the food and we stopped to eat. We expected the second wave to come at around 8:00. Most of us were only half way through eating when I looked up and saw the second wave coming. It was a drop everything scramble to get positioned to receive them. All but maybe 5 people in that group took packets. Whew!

After this second wave we noticed the pier police were there. Wendy (Paul's mom) and Megan were on the peer as prayer warriors. One police officer was standing right by them watching their every move. The officer responsible for stopping the distribution two weeks ago was standing right behind where we were handing out packets. All the officers were positioned around us, watching very carefully. Dave was feeling uneasy about the situation and proposed we stop early. He didn't want there to be any cause for aggravating the officers just yet. We walked over to Casey (long term volunteer) and discussed it with him. As we were talking to him about the police and their truck, Casey said "You mean the truck that was parked right there? The one that just drove off?".

As it turned out, the police ran off the cult members that were lurking in the shadows (seven of them to be exact). The police never said a thing to us. The just left. PTL !!!

We finished the last wave no differently that the first two, and were done for the evening. So, the count now stands at 325 packets handed out since we arrived. Not bad, huh?

Tomorrow we travel to the slums in the morning, and back to the peer one last time in the evening. Today was hard work, and very rewarding.

Prayer needs:

1 - Continued prayer for the missionary leaders here.

2 - Continued prayer for the continued health and energy of the team.

3 - Continued prayer that this team will stay focused. Tomorrow is another hard day.

4 - That these biting gnats will leave alone long enough to finish this post. Dang gnats!!!

Know that we pray for all of you every day during our team time, and periodically throughout the day.

YBIC,

Jim