2019 Thailand Missions - The Old and The New
Hello from the one that consumed too many flavors of jello! (Keep reading for the deets) This past Friday we held a Worship Night at The Centre. After grabbing lunch that day, we went straight to The Centre to prepare for the event. Jonny and Mel practiced their song setlist and Nikki worked hard on fixing her testimony with Alisa along with David, one of The Centre’s teachers. Also, Darren and our Wonderful Designated Centre Hostess Elisabeth painted a sun and mountains on the walls of the classroom while I had good fellowship playing board games with the staff members and one of the students.  |
| Here's a stalker pic of Picasso Darren |
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| Nikki working seriously on her testimony with David |
After the worship duo finished preparing for the night, Jonny got the opportunity to sit down with a Korean student. Jonny taught the student how to say certain Christian terms in English and the student taught him the lyrics to a Korean Christian song. They were able to bond by playing worship music in their own native languages. Melody also got the chance to talk and interview Taengmo (nickname translating to “watermelon”), a student that was a 30-year-old nurse. Since Melody is studying to be a nurse, she got to bond with the student, learn more about Thailand’s hospitals, and found out how she could pray for Taengmo when she revealed that she actually went to church as a kid but left when she grew up.
Nikki and I were also able to participate in a class where a teacher had their students “interview us.” The girl that interviewed me was named Kae, which means chic in Thai (and yes she did have a chill chic vibe). I was really blessed by how she was asking me more questions than what she was assigned to do. She seemed genuinely interested in learning more about me and I was grateful that she was intentionally friendly with me first. We briefly bonded over our love of K-POP and I enthusiastically invited her to stay for Worship Night, to which she accepted. Later that day, we were pleasantly surprised by a few of the old students that we met last year. We had messaged them a couple days prior to let them know that we were around, but did not expect to seem them as many had graduated and moved away for work.
For Worship Night, we ordered pizza and KFC, and we made jello for dessert. When it began, I was feeling conflicted on where to sit as one of the old students that I’m close to wanted to sit with me,but I also wanted to get to know Kae more. I ended sitting at a separate table with Kae, but my fellow team members were able to spread out and talk with the new students. Nikki also got out of her comfort zone by leaving us and introducing herself to students. Meanwhile, I was able to catch up with my old friend and continue to build good rapport with her.
After dinner, Darren and Melody led the game “Superlatives” as an icebreaker. The students seemed to have a lot of fun as we had to check who could do the longest plank and who could do the loudest foot clap. For the last round, we had our FCBC team compete against one another to see who had the most double chins. My team ended up winning thanks to my 12 layers of double chin…Yay?
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| Most of them lasted for at least 3 minutes! |
Jonny and Mel did a fantastic job leading worship and teaching the students hand motions to “Jesus is a Friend” and “Oh Happy Day.” Although they’re unable to follow the English lyrics, they were able to enjoy worshipping with us by dancing along.
A few songs later, Nikki went up and spoke about how she remembered and saw God’s grace and sovereignty after going through challenges this past semester.
Melody also got the chance to speak about how she was able to remember God’s promise for us and how it gave her hope when she was drowning in stress from her nursing classes.
It was very encouraging to see them both of them be so vulnerable and open to a group of people. We were also very blessed to have such a wonderful translator who was actually a Thai student that recently became Christian. She even looked over the stories beforehand and went over them with Nikki and Melody. For the last song Melody led “Living Hope” as it held a place in her heart during this past semester. Knowing that this song had a special meaning to her, the Thai students actually tried their best to sing along to the lyrics which was very heartwarming to see.
We ended the time of worship with Darren praying over everyone, and we passed out goodie bags to all the students. I was pretty tired from the day until...we had dessert. We served mixed jello cups, which consisted of lychee, pineapple, apple, and homemade almond jello. I’m not sure if it was the sugar or the adrenaline from the anxiousness of having to talk with multiple people, but I was getting a little hyper towards the end of the night.
I was able to talk with a member of another missionary team from America sent by Pioneers, a missions organization, that joined us that night. They were half-way in of their 6-week trip and do various things every day like visiting The Centre on Mondays or other special events. One of them even knew someone from our church! What a small world! Also, I was able to catch up with an old Thai student that will be attending grad school in Florida and another student that we met last year who willingly stayed until the very end with us.
As for the jello effect, I was still quite energetic even after we returned back to our AirBnB and made very random comments. Alisa told me that she never heard me talk this much before and Darren took this opportunity to ask me personal questions. Let’s just say that I won’t be eating more jello for quite a while…
Overall, it was a blessing to see how God used each and every team member’s skills and gifts to glorify him. I couldn’t be more proud and happy to see my brothers and sisters in Christ sing, speak, and live up to Christ’s name. I was also thankful for the good fellowship we had with the Thai students and The Centre’s staff.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray that we will be able to have an opportunity to talk with the new students that we briefly met during the day and develop a deeper relationship with them before we leave.
2. Pray that more students will continue to flow in as time goes by.
3. Pray that our team members will have strength, good rest, and good health. Melody has been having small headaches and a hard time sleeping due to her 14 itchy mosquito bites! Some of us have also been having upset stomachs as well. Thank you for praying for my eczema as it has been getting better as time goes by.
1. Pray that we will be able to have an opportunity to talk with the new students that we briefly met during the day and develop a deeper relationship with them before we leave.
2. Pray that more students will continue to flow in as time goes by.
3. Pray that our team members will have strength, good rest, and good health. Melody has been having small headaches and a hard time sleeping due to her 14 itchy mosquito bites! Some of us have also been having upset stomachs as well. Thank you for praying for my eczema as it has been getting better as time goes by.
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