Birthday Mission Trip

Friday after school was out for the Christmas holidays, we met Mark at the refinery and caught the 4:O0, 45 minute, ferry over to Koh SiChang. This is the second time the boys and I have gone over to visit our church's Thai mission church on this small island. We were taking a load of Christmas presents from our International Church of Pattaya to help them celebrate Christ's birthday. They have had a 'wish' list for some time-fans, laptop, printer, keyboard...It was so great to be a part of blessing this small congregation and making some of their wishes come true. It was truly amazing to be in the congregation as many of these people heard the story of Christ's birth for the first time. This is a nation that is 97% Buddhist, one person commented that they thought Christmas was Santa's birthday! On Saturday morning as the children were learning about Jesus and his birth, they were asked if they knew who Jesus's mother was, not one child could answer. Away from the commercialism of Bangkok and Pattaya you rarely see any acknowledgement or mention of Christmas here. There are some lights and decorations up in some places but in reference to a Happy New Year.

On Friday night we attended the fellowship's Christmas service with Pastor LoongLot telling the story of Christ's birth, addressing the sinful state of man and their need of a saviour. I couldn't understand much of the service at all, Marina, our pastor's wife sat beside me and could translate some of the teaching but I did understand when he was telling them that Christ is not the God of the Farang that he came and died for each of them too. After the service we had a very nice Thai dinner. The Thai people are so generous and treat guests so special, we had a feast! A feast that was cooked entirely on a stove top, they do not have ovens and cook almost everything in a wok over an open flame. We love the spicy food here and can't let ourselves think about the sanitation. We are just grateful that God made our bodies so amazing that they fight off all kinds of assaults. There are no serving spoons, everyone uses their own spoons to dish out their soup over and over again. Most people just use their hands to get ice out of the large, community bin...At a market one time I had ordered papaya salad, which I just love, it's sooo spicy but yummy. As the woman was preparing my dish, she had to taste it a couple of times to make sure she was getting it just right, with the spoon she was stirring with!! If that happens in America, we just don't know about it! I just told myself, "She really wants this to taste just right for me!" and tried not to think about the whole germ thing.

After dinner, Daniel presented all the gifts from our English-speaking congregation. I was most excited to see them receive a laptop, LoongLot has been attending seminary for over 2 1/2 years and has had to hand write all of his assignments during that time, this will make his studying so much easier. Dustin opened the keyboard and joined the singing later on. The church has someone that is going to learn to play the keyboard. Each child received a small gift and every family 1000Baht ($30). This is a very poor island and that small amount will go a long ways.

We stayed in one of the two hotels on the island because on Saturday morning we had a 'Happy Birthday Jesus' party with the children. (The hotel is way below our Motel 6in the states, you have to flush your toilet with a bucket of water, the toilet paper is in a plastic box because you have to shower while setting on the toilet, but they have an amazing cook!) We had planned to send each child home with their very own cardboard tree with decorations and lights. Thai people love color, brightness, and lights. This was such a treat for the kids. We underestimated how many would attend, over 60 kids came. We had just enough trees to insure that at least every household would have a sparkly tree in their home. Several mothers came and I'm not sure who was more excited the moms or the kids. I'll post all the pictures of our trip. The boys were a great help, we continue to form relationships on the island and some of the kids were excited to see the boys again. Nathan has a special buddy, we call him Tiny Tim, he's this really round guy who loves Nathan, I think he's an aspiring sumo wrestler, he always wants to wrestle with Nathan. This time a little girl with Down's syndrome participated in all the events, she was quite the character and could not keep her hands off of my female appendages!! Last time we visited and prayed for a little girl who has obvious advanced, hydrocephalus, she was there. Her condition continues to worsen, as I was holding her this trip, she was having frequent seizure activity, it is a very sad situation.So many of the island people do not look healthy, they have poor nutrition and many of them look like they have some liver ailments, their eyes are yellow, including the pastor.

It was a great to be with the church of Koh SiChang again especially during this holiday season. What a privilege to be a part of so many of them hearing the gospel for the very first time, the real reason of Christmas!