Countryside services
Monday morning we woke at 5:00 and headed to the Crossing youth center. There we met up with the a bunch of the young adults and got ready to leave on a two day mission. We headed up to a coutry school east of Chon Buri where one of the girls, Lik, had grown up.
The people there are reasonably poor and the studets there don't have alot of chances. Some of them will go on to high school and then to a secondary education but it is only a select few. If students there are not fortunate enough to go to secondary school they stay to work on the farm or go/get sent by their parents to Pattaya where they make money having sex with Europeans and military men from around the globe. It almost seemed like an incubator for prostiutes.
I don't know Lik's story but She came from this school and it has been Her dream for some time to go back and share what She has found in Christ. To do this She planned a two day retreat for the junior high aged children where She could share the message of salvation with them and invited us to help her and other Crossing members run it.
Our time there was great, we played games with the kids, the crossing team sang songs, did karaoke with the kids and our team did the performance arts presentation for them. We also preached the gospel on Monday night after the performance which went quite well. You could feel a definite spritual tension in the whole place but we pressed forward and presented what we believed. After the gospel speak at the end of it all the kids gathered around the members of the teams to inquire into the message more. A few kids sat at the back and proclaimed that God is dead but the majority seemed intent to learn more. The Thai speaking members talked with small groups to explain more about this unheard of Jesus. One child who had started crying during the speak and recieved prayer and talked with Josh and Angel, Angel was lead to give him her bible and He seemed really touched.
Following this a bunch of team members were struggling with a slight nausea and feelings of being really heavy and dark. We gathered to prayed and everyone began to feel better before we closed the evening off.
The next day went really well, there were no reprecusions for teaching what we believed the night before and everything went well. We started the day off with arobics at Six in the morning and then had the students sit blindfolded and threw baby powder and water all over them. After that all the Farang/Foriegners stood in a circle and it was their turn to get us. We showered and then continued the day with more music, games, a little skateboard demo and then some testimonies and final words of encouragment and teaching. At noon we packed it up, signed our names on the papers of all our new friends and headed out.
Unfortunantly when you don't speak the language of the kids it's kind of hard to sum up the whole outcome of the situation. We went mainly as support for the team from the crossing so apart from doing our presentation we worked mainly in the background and just showed as much love as we could to the kids. A huge hope is that if the kids are still forced/end up coming to Pattaya to make there living they will hook up with the crossing when they come and have a chance to avoid or leave a life of prostitution. From there the crossing can help them find other jobs or hook them up with the Tamar Center which trains ex-prostitutes so they can make money in other ways.
In other news, we got the new mini ramp at the crossing and it's been heavily used already, another bank should arrive any day now. This weekend is a big Thailand x gamesish skatebaord competition at the Crossing. It's pretty exciting, skateboarders from all over Thailand will be coming. The head of the extreme sports here in Thailand is also a Christian and wants someone to present the gospel so that will be good. Next weekend we'll be heading up to Angel's home town to present in schools and do some other ministry.
The people there are reasonably poor and the studets there don't have alot of chances. Some of them will go on to high school and then to a secondary education but it is only a select few. If students there are not fortunate enough to go to secondary school they stay to work on the farm or go/get sent by their parents to Pattaya where they make money having sex with Europeans and military men from around the globe. It almost seemed like an incubator for prostiutes.
I don't know Lik's story but She came from this school and it has been Her dream for some time to go back and share what She has found in Christ. To do this She planned a two day retreat for the junior high aged children where She could share the message of salvation with them and invited us to help her and other Crossing members run it.
Our time there was great, we played games with the kids, the crossing team sang songs, did karaoke with the kids and our team did the performance arts presentation for them. We also preached the gospel on Monday night after the performance which went quite well. You could feel a definite spritual tension in the whole place but we pressed forward and presented what we believed. After the gospel speak at the end of it all the kids gathered around the members of the teams to inquire into the message more. A few kids sat at the back and proclaimed that God is dead but the majority seemed intent to learn more. The Thai speaking members talked with small groups to explain more about this unheard of Jesus. One child who had started crying during the speak and recieved prayer and talked with Josh and Angel, Angel was lead to give him her bible and He seemed really touched.
Following this a bunch of team members were struggling with a slight nausea and feelings of being really heavy and dark. We gathered to prayed and everyone began to feel better before we closed the evening off.
The next day went really well, there were no reprecusions for teaching what we believed the night before and everything went well. We started the day off with arobics at Six in the morning and then had the students sit blindfolded and threw baby powder and water all over them. After that all the Farang/Foriegners stood in a circle and it was their turn to get us. We showered and then continued the day with more music, games, a little skateboard demo and then some testimonies and final words of encouragment and teaching. At noon we packed it up, signed our names on the papers of all our new friends and headed out.
Unfortunantly when you don't speak the language of the kids it's kind of hard to sum up the whole outcome of the situation. We went mainly as support for the team from the crossing so apart from doing our presentation we worked mainly in the background and just showed as much love as we could to the kids. A huge hope is that if the kids are still forced/end up coming to Pattaya to make there living they will hook up with the crossing when they come and have a chance to avoid or leave a life of prostitution. From there the crossing can help them find other jobs or hook them up with the Tamar Center which trains ex-prostitutes so they can make money in other ways.
In other news, we got the new mini ramp at the crossing and it's been heavily used already, another bank should arrive any day now. This weekend is a big Thailand x gamesish skatebaord competition at the Crossing. It's pretty exciting, skateboarders from all over Thailand will be coming. The head of the extreme sports here in Thailand is also a Christian and wants someone to present the gospel so that will be good. Next weekend we'll be heading up to Angel's home town to present in schools and do some other ministry.
posted by Dan @ 10:24 PM
1 Comments:
At 2:11 PM,
Anonymous said…
It's great to read about what is happening with you in Thailand. If you don't mind, I'm going to link to you from my journal. Be encouraged!
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