DRIME Thailand Team Missions Trip (August 10th to 26th)

DRIME Thailand Team - awesomeness!!!

It was so wonderful and refreshing to have the DRIME team here in Thailand with Janna and I! A lot of these people we hadn’t even met until coming here but it truly was a team picked specifically by God. Everyone was so willing to be used by Him for His work and His glory! And it was SO FUN!!! Always singing some sort of song, usually Disney but sometimes other show tunes haha, stories galore (from the wonderful story-teller, Graham), a bagillion inside jokes “it’s okay we have a frog!”, laughs and good times galore, but also serious times and growing/challenging experiences, encouragement and building one another up in the body of Christ. Such an amazing combination and I miss the team so much! So blessed to be a part of a special team!

There are so many stories I could share with you but I’ll just share a few.

my bruise from falling down the stairs

One night near the beginning of the missions trip, I needed to do my laundry. When I went down to put my laundry in the machine it wasn’t raining but when I went to get it, it was raining. I didn’t really want to go get it because it was late but I knew I needed my DRIME clothes to be dry by the morning so I needed to go get it… Kung offered to come with me. I’m so thankful she did! I didn’t realize it was raining so I had on my flip flops that aren’t the best in the rain… I had never fallen yet but they didn’t really have much grip. I walked outside and thought in my head I probably should have worn different flip flops because it is raining so hard. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I slipped and fell down all the stairs (only 5 or 6) and landed on my butt, back and elbows. I finished getting my laundry anyways and brought it upstairs with Kung’s help. Through this incident I felt very attacked by the devil. Kung prayed for me (in Thai). A neat experience because during the prayer even though I couldn’t understand the words, I felt a difference from the beginning of the prayer to the end. My back still hurt but something had changed, I felt more of a peace or weight lifted off my body or something. Her prayer opened my eyes to the fact that our God is for everyone, no matter what language you speak or where you come from God wants everyone from every nation to be part of His family. I mean I knew that but it was cool to see that even in another language we all serve the same God. After she prayed, Kung gave me some very heartfelt and encouraging words. It’s like a good moment had come out of a not so great thing. Also even though I felt attacked, I later realized that I still felt very protected by God because it could have been worse. His angels were watching out for me. It was also cool because I refused to let the devil win! I wanted to use this experience for God’s glory because Satan felt threatened by all the work that was being done for God and he wanted to stop it, he wanted to discourage me and I wouldn’t let that happen. I knew we must be making a difference for God’s kingdom if the devil was attacking us. The next day I used falling down the stairs in a testimony during the drama set. I pray that God was glorified through it.

"Thief"

The first night of ministry was at a place called Ko San Road. I was in the drama called “Thief” and I remember at one point in the drama staring at these girls who were watching and just thinking, I need to talk to them. God wants me to talk to them. I was in another drama at the end of the set but it was one that a lot of people knew so I felt the conversation was more important than the drama (even though I LOVE performing the dramas) and so I felt bold enough to go talk to her. The group of students spoke a little English and I knew a little Thai so we started to have a conversation. But there was a point when the language barrior was too much – neither of us were understanding each other… so I asked Lillian if there was a translator around and there wasn’t. But then we noticed Grape wasn’t talking to anyone so we called her over and she helped me talk to this girl. The talk that we had with P’Matt the day before was very helpful and relevant to speaking to this girl and the look in her eyes told me she understood. I was able to share that Jesus took the punishment FOR US that WE deserve for breaking the rules – aka sin (10 Commandments- christianity or 5 Precepts- buddism). It was actually the friend of the person I thought God wanted me to talk to that really connected and was engaged in the conversation but I’m so glad God gave me the strength to be bold and jump into that conversation. THE REALLY neat part was that she had to leave at the perfect timing. Just before the last drama. I was still able to be in the last drama! God has the perfect timing. He knew that as Lillian or Michelle made up the schedule that I would need to have that amount of time to talk to this girl.

talking with my translators, Buay and a group of girls about the dramas

Another day, actually our last day of ministry, we went to CRU. Don’t ask me how to actually say the name of the university because it’s long and hard to pronounce haha. (spelt like this Chandrakasem Rajabhat University) Anyways, after performing the last drama I was in, I went into the crowd to see if I could explain the dramas to anyone. I started talking to some students and a translator just showed up out of the blue and handed the students a card to a student website. Those students didn’t stay around long but since I had met a translator, I said, “let’s go find some more people to talk to.” So that’s what we did. We found a group of girls sitting and watching the dramas… one of those girls name was Buay. I started to try and explain what was happening and just about who Jesus is and stuff but I felt myself getting stuck and not knowing what to say. So my one translator stepped in and shared her testimony and the other girl translated to English for me. It was great, I just kept praying for the conversation and all of a sudden my translator told me that Buay wanted to accept Christ. Amazing! That’s great! Although, I found out that they expected me to pray with her… in my head I was like, Ah! I’ve never done this before; I don’t know what to do! But I just was like okay God use me, give me the words to say, let’s do this. So I prayed a simple prayer to have her ask Jesus to come live with her in her heart. We were even able to give her a Bible! So great! So those girls left to go to class and I continued to talk to my translators. They asked me about how I became a Christian so I started to share my testimony with them. As I was doing so two girls came up, Apple and Gay, and they asked if they could listen to what I was talking about. They also wanted to know about the dramas and about Jesus. So I got to share my testimony with them and my translators help. And I wasn’t finished my testimony when Apple asked, “how do you pray?” which I found out meant that she wanted to pray to accept Christ. Wow, God is moving in this university! Praise the Lord! My translators talked to the girls for about 5/10 more mins just sharing more about Jesus and what it means to be a Christian… and then she was like okay she’s ready. I’m like okay I guess I’m praying again. Haha. So I did again… Not really as good this time for whatever reason, but I just hope that God used my words and that they were what the girls needed to hear. And I was able to give Apple the last bible we had. Gay had a Christian friend who had previously given her a bible to read so it worked out perfectly since we only had one bible left to give away!

This has never happened to me before. In most of my conversations, I may be the person who plants a seed about God or waters the seed a little bit but not the one who harvest the plant. So I’m just so shocked and amazed that God used little old me to lead these three girls to Him! Praise the Lord… all the glory goes to Him!

P'Eaw explaining the dramas to Breze

Another conversation that stood out to me was one at a place called Major Rangsit. We had been there before and the taxi drivers begged us to come back! It definitely was God’s will that we go back there because our university location that we were going to go to fell through so we went back on the Tuesday. I saw a mom and her baby watching the dramas and so I went over to her and spoke the little Thai I knew to start a conversation. I said hello and pointed at her baby and said cute and asked how she was doing, in Thai. I asked if I could hold her baby (that I don’t know how to say in Thai but she understood somehow). Then P’Eaw was nearby so I asked her to help me translate because that’s about as far as I got. I asked if she understood the dramas and who the man in the white shirt represented and the conversation went on from there. P’Eaw did most of the talking and I was glad to be a gateway, to have these two moms start talking together about Jesus. I was content to hold this precious 6 month old baby as well as pray for the conversation and for God to use P’Eaw and add little bits to the conversation as she asked. Turns out Breze, the mom, had encountered a Christian and she had prayed to Jesus to ask for a baby. I was holding her baby, Organ, in my arms so I knew that the Lord answered her prayer. The Christian she knew was actually working nearby so we went over and chatted with her for a bit. I was encouraged by the work she was doing for God. And she could tell without seeing the dramas that our music was worshiping God. I think that was encouraging to her. After talking with Breze’s Christian friend, Nun, we went back to where the dramas were taking place and P’Eaw’s husband P’Mann came over and started talking with Breze as well. P’Eaw told me she wanted to accept Christ but she had more questions. So P’Eaw was going to keep in touch with her and try to answer her questions. Even that hope that one day soon Breze would be a Christian and maybe even come to our church was so exciting; it brought a tear of happiness to my eyes. I was so amazed that God had let me be a part of this experience as well as helped my baby withdrawal by being allowed to hold this strangers baby. This missions trip was full of many blessings.

Breze and her baby, Organ, watching the dramas

me holding baby Organ

I think that even though I hurt my back when I fell down the stairs and couldn’t be in many dramas, that forced me to be in more conversations than I would have if I hadn’t fallen. So I’m kinda glad that I was able to experience those conversations. I mean I wish my back was fully healed but it’s all part of God’s plan right? And we can’t see the bigger picture. But God sees it. So one day we’ll get it. Oh! That’s why I fell down the stairs – it was to accomplish this purpose. Even if we don’t understand until we get to heaven and ask. Haha. (It’s A LOT better than when I first fell but if you could still keep it in your prayers that would be great)

One funny story: One night after ministry Janna went to leave and she could only find one flip flop. She gave up looking for it, took her shoes and went over to talk to P’Natti about something at her house. Lillian was still outside the guest house where the team was staying and I asked her if she had seen Janna’s shoe. I said it looks like this one (beige and with beads on it) except it is the right foot not the left foot. Lillian said nope I haven’t seen it; I was with you all day! Haha, I know! Anyways, she wanted to ask P’Natti a question so we got our shoes to head over to her house but funny thing was: Lillian couldn’t find HER right flip flop! It was missing as well! Weird! Lillian’s flip flops were black. (It plays into the story) She took her DRIME shoe on one foot and her flip flop on the other and we headed over to P’Natti’s house. When we got there, I SAW JANNA’S SHOE!!! And I was like, “Hey! It’s Janna’s shoe” and Lillian says in reply, “Hey! It’s MY shoe!” Both Lillian’s and Janna’s RIGHT flip flops of DIFFERENT colours and designs had ended up at P’Natti’s house!!! BAHAHAHA! How did this happen??? Who steals TWO RIGHT FLIP FLOPS of DIFFERENT colours! They said it was a Thai initiation thing but they were all laughing hysterically and as confused as us!!! Oh man… SO FUNNY!

Random Thought: During debrief in Ampawaa, Jess and I: held a snake, and held a baby tiger and rode an elephant!!! Woot! Yay FRIEND!!!

Jess and I riding an elephant!!!

There’s lots more stories but I’ll save those for another blog or you can just ask me about some of my favourite conversations J