How Great Thou Art

‘Then sings my soul,

My saviour, God to thee,

How great thou art,

How great thou art.’

What an awesome spine tingling hymn that is, especially when it is sung in at least 5 different languages. Today it was so powerful that you could nearly see the roof lifting off the support beams.

What a way to start our day. Today we went to the sister church of the Nonsomboon church, which is about 30 mins away from where we are staying. We have spent most of the week there doing treasure hunts in the village and running a children’s program. The church is pretty small with only about four families that attend, but boy do they have a heart for God and a passion to make Him known in their community.

It was my absolute privilege to be able to bring a word of encouragement from God to them. To encourage them in their own walks and in reaching out to the broken hearted and the lost in their communities. It was a pretty humbling experience. What right really do I have to bring them this word, when I don’t really do it myself. I guess God really used this to teach me something too.

He has shown all you people what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly, and to love mercy, 

and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8

Half over, or only half begun?

Can't believe we are half way through outreach. The time is going by so quickly.

As I mentioned in a previous post we are in Non Som Boon in Northern Thailand, at The Elishia Childrens Home, which we have made our home for the past 2 weeks, and still have 2 weeks to go here. A week here can be pretty crazy, but we have a fairly set schedule and most of the time it works.. lol.

A quick run through of a week:

Monday- Day off

Tuesday and Wednesday -up at 7, team time, some kind of manual labour- (we have been painting the buildings), sometime off in the afternoons, teaching English when the kids get home from school, dinner, activity and homework after dinner, bed by 9.

Thursday and Friday - up at 7, team time, morning off till lunch, school visits to teach English and do activities,   sometimes prayer for people in the community or a treasure hunt, activity after dinner, bed

Saturday- up at 7, team time, help run a kids program for the kids who are sponsored by compassion in the area.

Sunday - up at 7, church, lunch with the church members, youth group in the afternoon, dinner, bed.

I totally love being in bed by 9. And yeas you can tell me I am a Nanna for going to bed that early but it's better for everyone in the long run if I do. hehe.

So what else can I tell you?

Well I love our transport here. Last week a few of us on our day off went on a road trip. The pastor took us in his ute and six of us piled into the tray and headed off down the freeway at 120km/hour, with a blaket over our knees to keep us warm. It was awesome!!

 We also do a lot of travelling in a song taew. 

And something I have gotten used to? Using a squatty potty! In fact sometimes I prefer to use them. There are some important things to remember though- if you are wearing long pants-always remember to roll them up so they don't touch the ground and soak up unidentifiable yuk. Always carry a roll of toilet paper in your bag, unless you like to use the hose and come out wetter than what you went in. Do not flush the toilet paper in the potty as they will block up. Therefore before you go into the toilet, check to see where the closest rubbish bin is in the vicinity of the bathroom, because you do not want to carry around used toilet paper for longer than you have to. Especially if the whole chilli's you had for lunch earlier that day has totally stripped your insides. (not speaking from experience)

What’s it like to be a rockstar?

It’s a pretty tough gig. Fans screaming and wanting to hold your hand or your arm. Signing autographs and hi-fiving everyone. That’s what it is like when we walk into a school here in Thailand. It is pretty overwhelming. We are ordinary people just wanting to visit the school and have fun with the kids.

Yesterday was our first school visit and we were totally underprepared for what was ahead of us. We had a English lesson prepared for what we thought was going to be a class of 20. It ended up being close to 400 students of all ages! It was epic! We went with part of what we had planned and threw in a whole lot of songs for good measure. Na Na Narni and Father Abraham are at the top of my setlist.

I think it went pretty well- I don’t think you can really go wrong if you can sing a little, dance a little and are able to laugh at yourself and have a good time. If all else fails Hi-fiving every kids in sight, they never get tired of that.

How to break the language barrier….

Have fun and lots of it. The past few days has been great, yet tiring, We  are now in Non Som Boon in Northern Thailand, at The Elishia Childrens Home. The kids are great and will run around and want to be played with all day. It doesn’t matter that we can’t speak Thai, having fun is the same in any language.

 At night after dinner, before homework time we play games. Drop the blue plastic block (aka drop the tray) has already become a popular game to play here.  So simply, yet so much fun. We have all the kids playing, even the youngest boy who is only two. It’s great to see how much the other kids love him and ensure that he is included in whatever they are doing.  At the moment it’s hard to introduce a new game. Tomorrow night I am going to try for Jacob;s ladder. Hopefully that will become a favourite as well. Either way, it’s just great to hang out with the kids and see their little smiling faces.