2019 Thailand Missions - Worship Does Not Exist?

2019 Thailand Missions - Worship Does Not Exist?

  Wednesday, June 26, 2019 at 3:00 PM    Alisa Wong

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Good morning from Chiang Mai! The motorbikes are zooming, the catfish sticks and sausage carts are calling Jonny's name, and Melody is about to lead our team devotional time on vulnerability (shoutout to Brene Brown).

A quick recap of our first full day in Thailand (Tuesday):

• orientation with the Centre, praying with staff, catching up with some students from last year, and playing board games and brushing up on ping pong skills
• dinner and dessert with a mix of new and old faces, including a drop-in by our missionary Lillian and Joy, one of my first students from 2011!

Nikki and Whitney learning how to play Splendor with the Centre staff. Caution: Nikki is a game master!

One highlight from the staff prayer meeting was pairing up each team member with one of the teachers to pray over the Centre (prayer requests: new classes/students, Worship Night on Friday, new long-term teachers). "It was encouraging just to learn about their life in Thailand and what it's like to be a long-term minister with the different responsibilities they have," Whitney said. My partner happened to be one of the oldest teachers, a South African who's been teaching at the Centre for over 20 years. As he nears the end of his calling to remain in Thailand to share the gospel and equip the believers here before returning home, he shared with me 3 stages you figure out in your life: who you are, what you will do, and what you will leave behind. This was particularly encouraging to me as I shared about the end of my time in seminary drawing near and following God's leading toward long-term missions. Post-graduation journey is about to begin, but it also means entrusting to God the mark that I will leave in order to move forward in what He has prepared ahead.

As a team, we have a time of devotions together everyday led by one of our team members. On our first full day, I shared with the team a quote that comes to mind whenever I think about the purpose of missions: "Missions exists because worship doesn't." -John Piper

The title of Piper’s book Let the Nations Be Glad! is based on Psalm 67:

God be gracious to us and bless us,
And cause His face to shine upon us—
That Your way may be known on the earth,
Your salvation among all nations.
Let the people praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy;
For You will judge the peoples with uprightness
And guide the nations on the earth.
Let the people praise You, O God;
Let all the peoples praise You.
The earth has yielded its produce;
God, our God, blesses us.
God blesses us,
That all the ends of the earth may fear Him.

As a Buddhist nation, worshipping Jesus does not exist in 99% of Thailand. As you keep our team in prayer, please join us in praying for and drawing the Thai people closer to Christ in order to bring all praise to Himself. May the God of our salvation be made known wherever we are through our character and conduct, so that every people on earth would give Him praise for the joy of salvation.


Prayer Requests

• Adjust well - even though we had a very laid back first day, we were pretty pooped from socializing and adjusting from jet leg and traveling
• Learn to be present and intentional in conversation - while engaging Centre students and supporting staff even if we're playing board games at the same time

Praise

• No incidents or allergic reactions - after dinner we went to a mango dessert cafe and the entire menu had mangos in it aka mango paradise for me but the land of no-consumption for Nikki. Also, Melody and Whitney can usually have mangos back in the States, but then they started getting a little irritation after a few bites. We are dealing with real mangos here! Many Thai dishes also have eggs and seafood-based ingredients, which means that we need to be a bit more watchful of what we order because Nikki and Whitney are also sensitive to those. Praise God that we have not needed to use Benadryl. And praise God for our Team Nurse Melody always ready to give healthcare (literally walking the streets of Chiang Mai with her first aid kit in hand).

Kup koon ka!