Sunday 11 October 2009
today after lunch i had the opportunity to go to the OM ship MV Doulos! not that it was my 1st time, but it's always nice to go onto a ship that has brought probably thousands of Christians and missionaries around the globe. i can't imagine being on the ship for 3 months, as some of my friends have done. i bought a book by George Verwer, the founder of OM, while on the ship. didn't manage to see the 4 friends whom i met in August, when Doulos was at Bangkok.
thank God for leading me through my sharing during church service today! i was so nervous, everyone could tell. but in the end things were ok, and i was glad to reminisce all the happy memories. makes me miss Ban Chang again...
giving thanks at 21:22 :)
Friday 2 October 2009
i'm finally back in Singapore! looking back, it has been a fun and eventful 2 months in Thailand... i miss Ban Chang a lot! the first night will be the worst! but hopefully things will go back to normal for me... have to get used to life in Singapore again. i think the language is the hardest for me, because after speaking Thai for 2 months, it's hard to suddenly change back to English, Mandarin and Singlish seamlessly. good thing is that i can look forward to the end of this month, when some of the church leaders from Ban Chang will be coming to Singapore to attend pastor Pairoj's ordination at SAC.
i really learnt and experienced a lot during these past 2 months, and i see first hand how God is working in Thailand through the church. i hope i get the opportunity to be involved in the ministry in Thailand, though i don't know what God has in store for me with regards to Thai ministry.
giving thanks at 15:13 :)
Wednesday 16 September 2009
time flies, and before i knew it, it will be another 2 weeks before i go back to Singapore. though i miss being in Singapore and everyone there, especially my family, i will also definitely miss everyone in Ban Chang when i'm back. so i'm trying not to think about it haha...
anyway last week was good, Wai Kit and i went to a secondary school to teach English on Wed to Fri, besides the English Club at the low cost housing, and on Sat morning. also, we had visitors! Pastor Stephen, uncle Beng Hong and uncle Lester came to visit Ban Chang on Friday! though they only stayed for one night, and had to go back to Bangkok on Saturday morning, their presence, words and prayers encouraged me a lot. they could have stayed at Bangkok but they chose to come to visit me, even though it was a rush for them. it was good to hear that everything was ok back in Singapore, and thank God that uncle Beng Hong brought the latest Every Day With Jesus for me! not to mention my capo, which Simon told Michelle to ask pastor Stephen to bring (complicated right). it was immediately put to good use, when i played a couple of songs in the key of F on Sunday.
speaking of which, pastor Lawrence Seow came on Sunday! when i asked him why he wanted to come to Ban Chang again, he said that he likes the spirit of the people here, and i cannot agree more with him. anyway he was his usual self, preaching with power and authority, and with jokes in between of course. i'll never forget his classic "i checked the word 'all' in the dictionary, and all means all" phrase. pastor Anong had to stop herself from laughing before translating to Thai. but jokes aside, it was really a good time of ministry, as there were many church members who came up for prayer, and last week there were a lot of people who came for service, to the extent that there was not enough chairs for everyone. so thank God for that!
i may be playing bass for worship this Sunday! though i like playing acoustic guitar, i found that my hands were itching for bass, which affirms my passion for the lower octaves. the bass guitar that they use in church is a Squier Jazz Bass, which is exactly what i have in Singapore!
please pray for me as i will be alone in church next week for 3 days (Mon-Wed) because the school term will end, and the RCDC (Rainbowland Child Development Centre) teachers will be going for a retreat. i'm asked to take care of Mild, the 5-year-old daughter of one of the teachers, during the daytime, so please pray for protection and safety. pastor Anong's son will be around, but he goes to school during the day.
giving thanks at 22:32 :)
Monday 7 September 2009
i had a busy week! first was the outreach event on 1-2 sept. it was fantastic! after giving out the flyers, i was not sure how many people would come for the event, but thank God that He brought the people in! it was great to see the people flocking to the front for prayer after the service, and pastor Lawrence was very encouraged by the response too. all in all there are many things to thank God for!
on Saturday, Wai Kit woke up feeling acute pains in his stomach, apparently he had food poisoning. he was vomiting even though there was nothing to vomit out already, and the acute stomach pains would come once every few minutes. in the end we sent him to the hospital at Ban 10km (not the nearest hospital, but better than that at Ban Chang), and Wai Kit got a jab and rested at the hospital for half a day. i had to go back to church to conduct the English Club so i could not be with him, but pastor Anong stayed behind to take care of things. apparently she also vomited the night before, so we were thinking through about what the 2 of them ate that caused the food poisoning. in the end we concluded that it was a batch of oysters which Nep brought to church on Friday. naturally i did not eat it, so thank God i did not suffer from the food poisoning. anyway after resting for the whole day, Wai Kit and pastor Anong were quite ok on Sunday, and now they have fully recovered, so thank God for that!
giving thanks at 23:44 :)
Sunday 30 August 2009
i've been a bit sick for the past few days. it started with a little cough, and then slowly became a sore throat, and Fri-Sat was the worst, with fever and runny nose. thank God that i was brought to see a "doctor", who gave me a lot of medicine! there's one set of 2 pills which is to be taken twice a day before food, 3 pills to be taken 3 times a day after meals, and 2 pills to be taken once every 4 hours! that adds up to like 20+ pills a day! which is crazy! of course, being the forgetful person that i am, i forgot to take some of the pills, and i think it's impossible to follow everything strictly, but thank God i'm feeling much better now. the fever has gone down, and my throat is not sore anymore. what's left is a bit of runny nose and cough.
anyway my new roommate Wai Kit is here! he will be staying here for the next 2 weeks, and we will be working together for teaching English at various schools in Ban Chang and also at the English Club. he has been here for 3-4 times before, and the longest stay is 2 months, so i will definitely learn much from him!
This Tues and Wed is the outreach event already! please pray for all aspects: the people coming to listen, the worship team, the people preparing food and the drivers, Pastor Lawrence, Pastor Ching Wah and the team from Bangkok.
giving thanks at 22:51 :)
Tuesday 25 August 2009
it's the beginning of yet another week! i really thank God for bringing me through the past week, it has been tiring, but looking back i really enjoyed the moments. i'm having a great time with the kids, being arrowed to go up to the stage to dance in front of everyone, teaching ABC to the nursery kids, leading the kids to and from the toilet, helping to put on and take off their shoes when going out to play, feeding them during mealtime, patting them to sleep during their afternoon nap etc.
i also enjoy talking to the youth and the teachers at the childcare centre, entertaining their jokes about buying watches from Singapore, talking about things like whether Thai girls or Singapore girls are prettier, why there is no such thing as a Singapore language (but there's Singlish!), whether a civil engineering graduate can help out at the church backyard etc. as i become more comfortable with everyone, i'm slowly able to initiate conversations with them.
i'm more able to handle kids now, after helping out at nursery, teaching English to primary school students, and interacting with the church youth. though sometimes it's frustrating when Guitar (a 5-year-old girl) tries to tell me something but i do not understand at all haha... looks like i have to brush up on my efforts to improve my Thai!
a youth from St James' Church will be coming to join me this coming Sunday! his name is Wai Kit (not sure if any of you know him or not), and he came to Ban Chang for 2 months before serving the army. now he just ORDed so he will be at Ban Chang for 2 weeks i think. at last i have company (from Singapore)! Pastor Stephen, uncle Lester and uncle Beng Hong will be visiting me in Sept too! at least they will get to see what is being done here.
yesterday P'Kat brought me to eat at MK sukiyaki! not sure if there is such a restaurant in Singapore (i'm super swagu!) or not. when Man and i went to Black Canyon for coffee 2 Saturdays ago, i told him that there's no Black Canyon in Singapore. but it was then that we realised that on the Black Canyon bonus points card was written: Thai, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Burma, Dubai, Kampuchea (in Thai). so it seems that there is a Black Canyon in Singapore, but i don't know about it. what's new? haha... i must check with Matt about this.
giving thanks at 23:43 :)
Wednesday 19 August 2009
taking care of kids is tiring! for the past 2 days, i have been waking up at 6 plus, and taking care of kids until evening time, before going to teach English at the low-cost housing estate (for yesterday) and going for prayer meeting (just now). teaching English to Nep in the afternoon for 1.5 hours is considered a break for me haha... looks like i'll be sleeping earlier and earlier at night from now on, if not i'll struggle to wake up in the morning! the good thing is that the kids are cute, and they are definitely different from kids in Singapore! Nong guitar has been sticking to me for the past 2 days, so i've been teaching her how to count from one to ten in Chinese, since she knows how to count in Thai and English already :) by the way, her mom is my colleague in the childcare centre, and her dad is a friendly guy who will be leading worship this coming week! it will be his 1st time too! Pastor Pairoj will be coming for service this Sunday so he's stressed about leading worship haha... if you remember, Pastor Pairoj comes to Ban Chang fortnightly, and he has a high standard for worship and music!
i'm really thankful for Pastor Anong and her 2 "sidekicks": P' Kat and Baa Lam Yay (aunt Longan)! these 3 women of God have been helping me very much in settling in, and in filling me in whenever we go for cell groups and house visits to pray for people. Pastor Anong is very thankful to God for the 2 of them because they follow her whenever she goes for visits, and are very faithful in praying and serving God, all of which i have seen and praised God for. Even for today's prayer meeting, there were a total of 5 people: Pastor Anong, me, one of the teachers at the childcare centre, and guess who? the 2 faithful women of God! P' Kat is very funny and caring, she tries to learn the Chinese for "God bless you" (神赐福于你) but struggles with the 4th word, because there is no such sound in Thai. she also likes to buy a lot of food, making all of us fat haha! for Baa Lam Yay, she went with pastor Anong and me to the inter-religion seminar and translated for me the whole 2 hours when pastor Anong was on stage. she also has a heart of evangelism, reminding me of my mom! last night she talked to someone who apparently came to church before but not anymore, when we were at the local hospital visiting a sick church member. she encouraged the woman to come to church this week, and also for the evangelistic event on 1-2 Sept. pastor Anong couldn't remember the person when she was introduced, so it's good that Baa Lam Yay helped to befriend the woman when she came to church.
moment of the day: when the kids sang to Don Moen's Give Thanks. the combination of doing the sign language, Don Moen's classic voice, and seeing the kids sing and wave their hands was overwhelming. i had to try very hard to keep the tears from coming out (not very good to tear in front of kids haha...), but it's moments like this that i treasure. there are strangely many moments like this in Thailand... i wonder if that means my heart was so hardened that God had to bring me to Thailand to soften it, or something else...
giving thanks at 21:18 :)
david chow en yuan