"When I first saw you, I knew we would be friends" - Minnie
That's Minnie and Snow singing one of my favorite songs that Jordan taught to them. It was a really special and one of my favorite moments of the trip! Minnie is a girl who became my little buddy immediately, it's kind of like we sought each other out and became buddies.
<--There's her and I during class time.
Me and 25 of my team members set out for our adventure to Thailand, with a population of .6% Christians. (yes, point six percent!) It started when we all met at Liberty University on July 4th-- after getting to know each other and quickly becoming close brothers and sisters in Christ and after a bit of training, we left for Thailand a few days later. Our first flight from Washington, D.C to Seoul, Korea took 15 hours. It was definitely intense, especially the fact that our connecting flight was suppose to take off 30 minutes after our landing- 26 people running through the airport to catch our next flight was not fun, but thank God we made it. After the 6 hour flight from S. Korea to Bangkok, Thailand we were finally there!
We stayed in a house/apartments on the Global English School's (G.E.S) property. The Ektrakul's own the school and their sons have all either gone to or graduated from
Liberty University. Pretty much all the kids at G.E.S knew h
ow to speak english, and since our reason for going to Thailand was to present the gospel through teaching english, we didn't work a whole lot in the class rooms with the kids from G.E.S. Since we were living on campus we did get to play wit
h the kids there everyday, and a few of the days we helped the teachers out with teaching the kids science, reading, ect. G.E.S is a Christian school, but still about 98% of the students and their families are still buddhists. Most of the days we worked with kid from the temple schools. Over to the right is a picture of me and a few girls from the first school we taught. my group taught them parts of the body. They were incredible sweet and respectful kids.
Over to the right is a picture of me and a few girls from the first school we taught. My group taught them different parts of the body. They were incredibly sweet and respectful kids. It was an english day camp for them, and one of the translators said the kids did not want us to leave.
We also worked with schools that would be like a technical, or community college here in the U.S. That was a bit more challenging, but definitely just as rewarding. The last school we worked with was a university. It was really neat to be able to work with people out own age. Some of them have added me as a fri
end on Face book, which gives me the ability to keep in contact with them!
Here is a picture of BJ, Me and Crystal with the students from the University.
One of my favorite experiences on this trip, was when we took the G.E.S students to a camp in Thailand. I thought I was going to be put with middle schoolers, but got there and found out I was put with high schoolers. All I could think was, "Dear Gracious, I hope you know what you're doing God" When Christian and I (he was my co-counselor with our group of high schoolers) met with our group, we were told to come up with a team name and a team cheer and play some ice breakers. The ice breakers failed, and even though we all tried to remember each other's name it was still hard. We ended up breaking out of our meeting without a team name or cheer... Which was definitely discouraging on my part. I felt like I hadn't done a good job and that none of these high schoolers liked me. The next day there were a bunch of different activities and our group split up-- we played a lot of low ropes, which the girls were not fond of and decided not to participate. At that point, I just felt like the worse counselor ever. Kasidet, (or his english name is Tony) one of the guys in my group told me later that I was doing fine, and that it's basically just the Thai culture to be more quiet. After bonding more with everyone, I knew God had put my right where He wanted me. I was able to share my faith with a few of them and now connect with them on face book as well.
These are just a few pictures from the low ropes at the Thai camp.
One of the most beneficial days to me, was when our group went to volunteer at a school for children with special needs. Not just mental, but physical ones as well. In Thailand, when a child has a mental or physical need-- it is considered a curse, or karma. The children are normally taken out of the house to be kept away. The kids we worked with lived at the school. To be able to watch my teammates literally pour Christ's love into these children who don't even get loved by their own parents was crazy surreal for me. I heard God say "Aly, this is why I brought you here- pour out my love to the nation of Thailand" my heart was filled with overwhelming joy! I am incredibly blessed for that day, and that moment and I can only hope I was able to bless those children a fraction of how I came out of that day, and those weeks in Thailand blessed.
Now that I've went into excruciating details of what we did there- I will share a little but of what I learned from being in Thailand.
God transformed my heart to love the Thai people like I didn't know was possible. I didn't choose to go to Thailand. I didn't even know anything about Thailand to be honest. I knew it was in Asia and that was about it! I always thought of international missions in Africa, and that's where I always saw myself going... because they need Jesus... in Africa. My naive mind could never have comprehended the need for our Lord and savior in an Asian culture without experiencing it first hand. For that, I am immensely thankful for God choosing to use me this way. I didn't know one place could be so broken and lost. I asked God to let me, and my team see the Thai people the way He does and it broke my heart.
One of the most difficult obstacles in sharing the gospel, is that buddhist are generally told to love, accept, and even believe other religions are real and true. After presenting the gospel, some Thai people will believe what you say, and think it's true but when you ask them if they want to follow Jesus they say no because you've just told them about sin and that sex, drugs, and alcohol can be considered a sin in God's eyes. Why would they want to follow a God who doesn't allow them to do the things they like? They have a good point. They don't think the same way we do- their minds are more abstract than ours, so any points of the gospel that would make sense to someone in the states, would be confusing to someone in Thailand, even if they did speak english.
There was a moment while we were at the Thai camp, that me and a few of my team members looked up to the midnight sky and just stared at the beautiful stars. They were twinkling! I had never seen stars twinkle. It made me feel so small, so insignificant. I realized at that moment just how much I didn't deserve to be used by God in this way, that what I deserved was to be shackled, and broken. Jesus reminded me that He broke those chains, He died on the cross to fix my broken life, and when He rose again He chose ME to tell the world about it! And how grateful, and overwhelmed I was to know that the creator of the universe who went through extreme pain to save my life, wanted me to tell the world! Even those in Thailand.
There is nothing greater than knowing He has a plan for you. It took me till the end of the trip to KNOW that God placed ME in Thailand for a REASON. I mean, I knew I would never be there without Him-- but I looked at the struggle of what it took to get me to Thailand, through my doubt and the struggle of raising the funds to be able to go. He basically had to scream to me that though it was painful trying to get to Thailand, and though I doubted His will-- There is healing in that. He blessed me beyond anything I could have ever deserved!
Now, I know a lot of you are wondering-- would I go back to Thailand? The answer is YES. The moment God says go, that is all it will take. My heart, my soul, my life is in His hands.
