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.

Bangkok Temple Tour

Yesterday was a great day for seeing some of the temples of Bangkok. It was also an excellent day to experience the many forms of public transport that Bangkok has to offer. Overall we used 6 methods of transport to get around from temple to temple: Walking, bus, sky train, river express boat, canal boat and my personal favourite Tuk-Tuk.

 

 

But the transport was just a side note. The temples were our main focus of today. Thailand is a Buddhist country, with about 94% of Thai people saying that they are Buddhist. The religion has shaped much of Thailand's culture, which can also be seen in the countries literature, sculpture and architecture. We saw plenty of sculpture and architecture on our travels. 

Learning about the culture has been interesting. Tip of the day- don't run don't accidently touch a Monk if you are a female. They have to go through two weeks of cleansing if you do. Another small tip- don't show the soles of your feet to someone - it's the same as us flipping someone the bird.

Have you ever...

- eaten a grasshopper

- got grasshopper leg stuck in your teeth

- been stared at by the face of an eyeless pig

- nearly stepped on a cat in the middle of a market

- eaten unidentifiable delicious fruit

- had a train seat dropped on your barefoot

- flushed an eel down the toilet

- lost your MP3 player on a train somewhere between Butterworth, Malaysia and Bangkok, Thailand

-been given an MP3 player to replace the one you lost (thanks James)

- seen railway tracks flash beneath you while using a squatty potty

- had a group lesson on the correct way to use a squatty potty

- drunk amazing tasting Iced Thai tea

- eaten amazing Thai food for less than $2 (you can’t get that at Jasmine Thai)

- had fried caterpillar for dessert

These are just some of the things that I have experienced so far, on what is the start of the Thailand leg of outreach. Totally pumped to for more adventures.

Thank You Penang

Well, our time in in Penang is drawing to a close. We leave here tomorrow and return to Bangkok on the 24 hour train. We will spend New Years in Bangkok, and then bus up to Northern Thailand to Elisha Children's Home, where we will be serving for a month.

It's hard to believe that three weeks of outreach has passed so quickly. In that time we have all seen God do so much either for us or through us for other people. A highlight for me was when a small group of us visited a local hospital here in Penang. We me the chaplain of the hospital and told her that we would like to pray for people. She was really nice and put together a list of patients who would like to be prayed for. My friend and I prayed for an Indian man and his wife. While I was praying, I could really feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in the room. I had goosebumps as I held her hand and prayed for her health and the needs of her family. As I came out of the room, I was like, what on earth just happened. I have never prayed with so much confidence before. I was pumped because I knew that it wasn't me but God through me and He was there with us to show us amazing things. And something amazing is what we saw.

What I am about to share with you may sound totally nuts and I have no idea what your thoughts are or how you feel about what I'm about to say .. but I would like to share my experience of  seeing someone being healed through the power of prayer and the Holy Spirit. I have always heard stories of people being healed through prayer, but it always seemed to be a far off unbelievable thing. Growing up, it was never really something that was talked about at church, or if it was I never heard anything. Healings always happened through medicine, and yes, I believe that God uses medicine and doctors, but healing without 'the middle man' ie doctors, has always intrigued me.

So at the hospital after I prayed for the Indian lady, Chloe and I came out of her room to find the other half of our group talking to another lady. She was telling them that she had had a fall and couldn't lift her arm up very high because she had torn ligaments and it was very painful. One of our team had offered to pray for her, and even though she was a Hindu lady she accepted. We layed hands on her and waited. After one of the team prayed for her, she said it felt warm. So we prayed again. This time she said that if the pain had been a 10 it had now reduced to a 6. The four of us looked at each other and were like, well lets pray again. This time after we finished praying she lifted her arm from her lap and raised it to shoulder level. She told us that it didn't hurt any more and it felt so much better. We stood looking at each other just going WHOA. We were so pumped that God had done that through us and it spurred us on for the rest of the day. Each time we prayed, I felt goosebumps, and just had this sense that the Holy Spirit was there working. God was listening and answering our prayers right in front of our eyes.

So many amazing things are happening here, and it makes me totally excited to see what else God has in store as we continue our journey. I shared in our team time the other day that I want to see God do the big stuff and I want to be apart of that with Him. So scary or not I'm stepping up in a big way and letting God do His thing through me. It's not easy, and I'm not always willing, God doesn't mind. I know that He is there supporting me and loving what I am doing to further His kingdom. I am His child, and with me He is well pleased.