Koh SiChang

Remember, the boys were out of school the entire week so we tried to squeeze as much as we could into their holiday! We gave them one day of rest at home, while they were resting I was shopping. Shopping for an upcoming mission trip to the small island of Koh SiChang. Our pastor here-Daniel and his wife Marina have been missionaries in Thailand for over 10 years to the Thai people. Koh SiChang has one of their church plants. They had a Thai church in our area for several years and out of that a Thai man felt called to the ministry and began attending seminary with our congregation's help. The church was moved from the Pattaya area and begun on Koh SiChang four years ago. It is the only Christian church on the entire island of 5000 people and currently has about 35 attendees, the congregation is 3 years old. This small church is totally supported by our small international congregation. Daniel is supported by the Dutch Reformed church of South Africa and receives no funds from our Pattaya church. I've been anxious to meet the church there and get involved with this group of believers that we have a relationship with. We planned a 2 day mission trip to the island for outreach and ministry to the church and island while our kids were all out on break. We took 12 bags of food for the church families and planned VBS activities for all the children that would come.

Koh SiChang is a 40 minute ferry ride from Sciracha. Do you remember Sciracha is where the refinery is? It's different from any other island we have visited here in that it is not touristy at all. Surrounding the small islands are many barges that are people's homes. I'll include some pictures of these interesting homes on water.

Four families from our church made the trip over. We spent the first day with the 30 children getting to know them, making crafts and playing lots of fun games. (I was in charge of games and I stress the fun because Marina who planned the trip had asked if I could plan some games, I was like, "sure" and then she said, "But please make them 'fun' games!" That just made me laugh, "No, I really want to do some unfun, sad games!!") The island children all come from very poor homes but I found them to be so patient, kind and not greedy. Our craft was a treasure box that had all these things/teachings that lead to a good life. I was coordinating the area that had all the adornments that could be placed on the outside of the box, there was no pushing, grabbing or shoving getting the decorations they wanted, like I've seen in the Dominican Republic and Africa.

A wonderful lunch was served to us of rice and some chicken and basil with a lot of crunchy, salted, small dried fish-I tried them, they were just like anchovies but they seemed to eat them like chips, just grab a handful to munch on. After lunch we played some 'fun' games. We played pictionary, musical islands, cup and marble relay, doughnut on the string race and ended with water balloons. I was proud of all of our children that participated, they were such a help and so welcoming and warm to the island children. I hope this is the beginning of a long relationship as we will be going over about every three months for activities with this church. In December we are plannning a Happy Birthday Jesus party with our two congregations, the church has a few things on their 'wish' list like fans for their church building and a computer. Currently, their pastor who is in his last year of seminary has to hand write all of his assignments and correspondance. This pastor receives $5000Baht/month from our church for his salary, that's about $150 US dollars.

That evening we visited in families homes to deliver the food packages that contained 10lbs of rice, fish sauce, oyster sauce, chili sauce, noodles and personal care items like soap and shampoo. I just love getting the opportunity to meet people in their home surroundings and see how they really live rather than visiting tourist sites. Most people had one room homes, they all had TV's but little else in comforts that we take for granted. One home we visited just had a bed and TV with barely enough room for five of us to join hands around the bed and pray together. We visited one really sad home that had a severely handicapped little girl there who was 1 1/2years old who had an obvious head deformity and was unable to setup, communicate or eat from anything but a bottle. The neighbor was the church member and she had such concern for this sweet baby, the mother is 17 and lives off the island, the child is cared for by her grandmother. It was sad that so few medical interventions were available for this child who needs so much. I look forward to seeing all these people again and praying together.

We stayed in a small hotel on the island, Ethan commented on our accomadations and was a little bothered that you couldn't flush the toilet, a bucket was provided and a container of water to wash out the toilet contents. Much different from our Chiang Mai hotel but I reminded him that of all the homes we had just visited this small hotel was like a Hilton. Let me tell you the food that was cooked in the small kitchen at this hotel was probably better than the Hilton. We really enjoyed all the Thai food that was served to us there. Most of us even had Thai food for breakfast rather than the traditional Western breakfast of eggs and toast. It all seems so 'foreign' at times. In the eating area there were two dogs running around the whole time and at one point one of them urinated on a nearby column-just something you don't see in a US eating establishment!!

We spent Saturday at a nearby small beach area, we took two little guys that just happened to be hanging out at the church on Saturday morning with us. They had hit the jackpot! On Saturday it was just my three boys with the pastor's son plus our two new adopted guys. We just threw them into the mix and they all got to ride a banana boat for 30 minutes, paddle around in canoes, swim, eat and just have lots of fun. It seems strange to me that all day these two guys were with us, I would estimate 6 and 8, and I have no idea who their parents were and their parents had no idea where they were all day! I just imagined them telling their parents that night of all the day's happenings, I was so glad that we could give them so much fun and joy for the day. It was a great trip and we look forward to our ongoing relationship with this small group of believers on Koh SiChang.