Thailand update - July 8th

Hello again from Thailand,

Megan is here with me again this evening, and wants me to revise yesterday's update. SHE took a nap too, and is not an old person.

Now we can move on.

Today was an interesting day. We ventured out even further from the hotel than ever (by foot). We've gotten really good at crossing the road. Some of us are still having trouble walking without stepping in holes and falling down. The locals have found us to be quite entertaining some times.

Anyway, we walked to a little cafe and had a Thai version of a continental breakfast. We continue to experience language barriers. There's no telling what meal you will get. For anyone planning on travelling to Thailand, listen carefully and don't be too quick to say yes. E.g. A team member ordered the continental breakfast and asked "Do you have bacon too?". The little waiter guy said "Bacon, yes?". "Yes" replied our member. That team member's breakfast was... bacon. Yes?

We met up with the pastor of the slum ministries this morning. We first went to the Big-C (Thai version of Wal-Mart) and purchased 10 bags of rice, packages of cooking oil, cookies for the kids, Ramen noodles, and water.

Our first stop was at an orphanage. Those kids were adorable! We didn't spend nearly enough time with those little squirts.

Second stop was a slum with around 80 people. The pastor lead the people in some songs. Then he asked us to sing some songs. It was sad... but they seemed to enjoy our singing.

John, Paul, Megan, and I gave our testimonies. Angel was there to do our translating. She is awesome! After that we distributed one packet of food to each adult person there, and handed cookies to the little squirts running around.

Here's the really cool part. The pastor asked all the people to raise their hands if they needed to be prayed for. We individually went to these people and prayed for them. The pastor explained to them that they wouldn't be able to understand us as we pray, but that God would translate it and lay our prayers on their heart. They were grateful. It was very touching.

From there we went back to the Big-C to eat lunch. Pretty much the entire team ate American food (KFC, Pizza, etc.). The LTV's (long term volunteers) and Paul ate Thai.

The last stop was another slum area with about 30 people. It was the same routine as the first slum, except our visit was cut short due to a fast moving rain storm that rained us out. We were able to distribute the food. Briana, Mandy, and Adrian (LTV) gave their testimonies. We (everyone but me) sang more traditional hymns. I was busy playing with the kids. They like to tickle. They also learned how to say howdy. I was scolded by one of the moms for being a little disruptive. Sorry mom, I couldn't help myself.

Again, we returned to the hotel for naps and quiet time in preparation for pier distribution.

Then, 5:30 at the pier for our last night of distribution. As we were waiting for the Chinese, Jessia took Mandy, Megan, Karen, Allison, John, Wendy, Briana, and Corey (the other LTV) over to the pearl lady's house to buy pearls. The rest of us hung around prayer walking, and meeting with the missionaries.

The first wave of people came at around 7:45pm. We successfully distributed over 50 packets. The problem then came with one particular pier official. He took it upon himself to shut us down. The missionary did all he could to resolve the problem, but then decided to just call it a night. He describes this as a very minor inconvenience. No worries.

Please continue to pray for the missionaries, and their efforts here.

Tomorrow morning is the praise/worship time at UCM. This will be a wonderful end to a wonderful trip. To be able to praise and worship God with missionaries from all around the world. I can't wait.

Disorientation (the opposite of orientation) with Dave is early in the afternoon. Then, we pack up and travel back to Bangkok. I will try to do one last update from there. Our first leg of travel home leaves at 7:30am Thursday.

YBIC,

Jim