Listen to His voice calling out to you...

sick!

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 :)

3rd week in Thailand

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 :)

2 days of kids

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 :)

พรุ่งนี้ tomorrow

Monday, 17 August 2009

it has been a week since i came to Ban Chang. i won't say i have gotten used to life here yet, but everything is fine for now. in the span of one week, and by God's grace, i managed to make friends with the Thais here, including children, youth, adults in church, and teachers at the childcare centre. they have really helped me to feel comfortable and ease into the Thai way of life. maybe it's the culture, but i have not received any criticisms of any sort for now. not that i receive a lot in Singapore (!), but i guess i got used to having constructive comments coming my way before coming to Thailand. it's true that generally Thais have a "mai pen rai" (never mind) attitude, especially towards people from other countries, but as Christians we cannot say mai pen rai to everything. whenever there's an opportunity to share Christ, we take it. and we thank God for everything that comes our way, good or bad.

yesterday i played acoustic guitar for service! of course it has always been a privilege and honour to serve God through music, but i felt really moved whenever i worship, especially yesterday when we sang my favourite Thai worship song: Phrung Nii (Tomorrow). the song talks about not being able to predict what will happen tomorrow, but we don't have to worry or be afraid, because we can place our hopes in Christ. this song is special to me because it reminds me of my Khon Kaen days 2 years ago, when we learnt and sang this song for the students before we left. it also reminds me of the time when Terence Koh and i sang this song for our Thai teachers after our Thai 3 oral exam in NUS. never did i dream of singing this song on stage in church as a worship song. by the way i'll be playing acoustic guitar for the next few weeks, because apparently there isn't a free acoustic guitarist at the moment, and my pro roommate Man has to play keyboard and electric guitar.

also, i ran today! my 1st training for 42km this Dec. the facts are that i ran for 1 hour, and many times during the run, i wanted to stop, but in the end i didn't, so thank God for sustaining me haha... what i don't know is how far i actually ran. if i calculate by worst case scenario, assuming i ran 2.4km in 15-20mins on average, the total distance for 1 hour would be about 7-9km. i ran towards the Phala beach but turned back at a point about 3km away, so that should mean that the beach is about 7-8km away. and if i want to achieve my target of running to the beach and back, it means that i have to run about 16km. hmm... oh ya, at some points of my run i got barked at and chased by dogs. thank God they were all bark and no bite, because i don't think i'd be able to outrun the dogs haha...

please pray for me as i try to share with a group of Thai workers who come to the church to do some construction work every day. some of them can speak Mandarin because they worked in Taiwan before, but some of the things which they say to me are not so nice, eg, 来，我带你去找女人 (come, i bring you to find women). the fact that they learn these phrases means to me that probably they did those things when in Taiwan, and maybe here in Thailand too. by God's grace i can get them to come for service this Sunday, or even better, come for an evangelistic rally on 1-2 Sept. by the way, the speaker for the event is none other than Pastor Lawrence Seow!

pray also that as i start my 1st proper week in ministry (last week was orientation week), i'll be able to transit from the "trying to get used to things" attitude to the "take initiative to do things" attitude. until now i still have the 1st attitude, doing what i'm told to do, speaking only when spoken to etc, which is fine for a while. to be an effective servant i must adopt the 2nd attitude, being able to help others, rather than wait for others to help me. of course this also means having a close walk with God, feeding on His Word so that i can in turn feed others.

thanks for your prayers thus far! God has indeed been gracious and faithful :) i trust that God will use me to bless the people here, even as i am blessed by them already.

giving thanks at 18:21 :)

what time is it?

Saturday, 15 August 2009

yesterday i was too tired to update my blog after coming back from cell. so today i shall update for 2 days. yesterday morning i helped out at the childcare centre, it was so funny because i was asked to dance in front of the kids along with the other teachers, but i didn't know how to dance! i had to keep glancing to my right and left to follow the other teachers. pastor even recorded the scene on her camera! i hope no one sees it haha... anyway taking care of the kids was fun! i was asked to help out with the pre-school kids, and they were so cute!! they would come to me and ask me to play with them. they would climb all over me if i sit down, and would hug my legs if i was standing. some of them would talk to me non-stop, whether i understood or not. taking care of children is hard work, but when you see them being happy, enjoying themselves, learning things etc, i think it is worth it. just ask any parent :)

after lunch i had english lesson with Nep, before continuing to help out at the childcare centre. i sat with the kids as they watched a Mickey Mouse cartoon while waiting for their parents to fetch them home. 2 of the kids came to me, and sat on my lap watching the cartoon. one of them is named Guitar! i told her that she must learn how to play guitar, because her name is guitar haha... anyway the cartoon was very entertaining, not because i like Mickey Mouse cartoons, but because Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy were speaking in Thai! can you imagine that?? i found it so amusing that i laughed, much to the astonishment of the teachers and kids haha...

this morning we had our 1st English Club! we had games to help the primary school kids to learn english in a fun way, and taught an english song too: This Is the Day. there were about 14 kids in total, and the theme of the day was about time, hence the title of this blog entry. i had to teach the kids in the Caucasian way, eg quarter past six, half past nine, quarter to eleven. it was something which i had to get used to as well, because we don't speak like this in singapore :) i was supposed to speak only english for the whole lesson, but i kept forgetting and spoke thai very often haha... it has become natural for me to speak thai already, to the extent that i have to keep reminding myself to speak english during lesson.

i had lunch outside church with Man (my roommate who came back from seminary school in Bangkok), and went shopping for clothes! because i need to wear polo tee when helping out at the childcare centre, but i only brought 2 from singapore. after that we had coffee at Black Canyon before going back to church. i spent an hour helping P' Iw (the principal of the childcare centre) with her english, before going for band prac! i played acoustic guitar, and really enjoyed myself, worshipping while playing. i guess i miss playing for worship :) of course it helps when some of the songs are translated from english, like today's 1st 2 songs: Come On and Celebrate, and My Life Is In You. tomorrow is Sunday! :)

please pray for the bricklaying at the church backyard, because the quality of the bricks is not good, they break too easily. pastor Anong has contacted the contractor who supplied the bricks, but they do not want to take responsibility for it. the church is not rich, and pastor Anong had to pay quite a big sum for the bricks, so please pray for God to make a way, in terms of providing replacement cost.

giving thanks at 22:46 :)

body ache day

Thursday, 13 August 2009

thank God for rest! throughout today my body has been aching all over (as predicted), so i did not do much. wanted to start my running today but decided not to in the end. taught English to a youth Nep in the afternoon, and went for cell group in the evening. thank God that this time i was not too nervous, and managed to participate in the discussion for a bit, though everything was in Thai.

tomorrow is my first day joining in the childcare centre! will be taking care of the kids, though i don't know what i'll be doing exactly. will try to take some photos :) also, on Sat there will be an English Club for the kids, where i'll be teaching English in fun and interactive ways. so i pray for innovative ideas and for me to be able to excite the children haha... i don't interact with kids much so it will be something new for me. but as God has been helping me with my Thai and my testimony, i'm sure He will help me with this too! that's the thing about doing God's work in the mission field, you will surely have to rely on Him!

giving thanks at 23:36 :)

bricklaying day

Wednesday, 12 August 2009

(my room, complete with guitar, bed, laptop, coke, Bible, 2 pillows, fan, and fridge! see if you can spot them all)

today was a tiring day! it was good that i could sleep in, so i only woke up at 9am. there were no kids to wake me, because today is mothers' day in Thailand, which is a holiday. anyway after breakfast we started work on laying bricks at the church backyard. first we put sand on the ground to level it, and then spray water onto the sand to firm it up. this took us until lunchtime. after that we started to put the bricks on the ground, knocking each brick on its sides so that it fits nicely with the others. there were more than a thousand bricks, so it took us until dinnertime, but alas there were not enough to finish the whole backyard. so there is still a quarter more to go, which will require about 500 bricks i think. a couple of church ladies also helped us out, including a total of 8-9 guys including me, so some of us could take a break if we wanted. we were served very well too, with regular serving of soft drinks, fruit and even iced coffee! it felt very good holding the cup of ice coffee in one hand, and a brick in the other. the ladies even stood above us with big umbrellas during the heat of the afternoon, though in the end i still got burnt. anyway it was a good workout for me, my 1st exercise for some time. i hope i don't wake up tomorrow feeling sore all over!

thank God for leading 1 of the youths to salvation! her name is Ploi, and her mom and grandma are Christians, but she was not. however, according to pastor Anong, she always comes to church to help out with the childcare centre and attends church service. the pastor has always asked her to accept Christ but she would refuse. but yesterday, when pastor Anong casually asked Ploi if she was ready to accept Christ as her personal Lord and Saviour, she said yes! i was very happy for her too because she's one of the youths whom i got to spend more time with. she helped me when i went shopping for some stuff at Tesco-Lotus, and i went to her place with pastor Anong before. she's also learning Chinese so it's very interesting to try to talk to her in Mandarin. i have been speaking Thai almost all the time, so it's refreshing to be able to speak in English or Mandarin. i really hope that by the end of the 2 months, i'll be able to have a good grasp of Thai, because as of now i still don't understand everything. only when simple words are used, and when spoken slowly, then i can understand fully.

tomorrow is another rest day for me! but at night i'll be going for another cell group, where i will have to share my thai testimony again! even though i'll be reading exactly the same thing as before, i think i'll be nervous again, so i pray for God to strengthen me.

giving thanks at 21:55 :)

what do you see?

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

(the beautiful hills behind the church)

in the spirit of National Day... what do you see... what do you see?

i see opportunities and potential for Christ Church Ban Chang. as i took my focus away from my own selfish needs to what God is doing in the church, i can really thank God along with the pastor here. this morning i went with pastor and another church lady to nearby Rayong (industrial town) for a mother's day ceremony and religious seminar. representatives from Buddhism, Islam and Christianity (that's us) were there, and a rep from each religion was asked to sit in front and talk about their own religion. so pastor Anong got the chance to talk about the things that are essential to the Christian faith. though the seminar was based on the understanding that all religions are equally good and similar, i hope and pray that at least pastor Anong set some of the listeners wondering and curious to find out more about Jesus Christ.

in the evening we went to give out flyers at a nearby housing estate inviting primary school kids to an English Club, where i will teach english in a fun way (this is the hard part). please pray for me as i prepare the lessons, as i cannot imagine myself as someone who can teach interestingly haha... you can give me ideas too, like quiz, flash cards, some english game (Scrabble? haha...) etc. after dinner we went to a cell group in the same estate, and i managed to share my testimony in thai. it took me 2 days to prepare, so i thank God for being with me throughout. you should have seen how nervous i was as i stammered and stuttered my way through haha... anyway, 1 down, 2 more to go!

tomorrow i'll be doing something interesting: retiling the canteen floor! there will be 6 soldiers from the Royal Thai Army helping me (or rather, i'll be helping them), so it will be interesting! at last i will sweat and work out haha...

giving thanks at 22:40 :)

day 4

Monday, 10 August 2009

(my breakfast)

today is my first free day! free days can be quite eventful haha. i woke up at 9am, though was tossing and turning since 7am because of the kids downstairs! they are so cute haha... there's a childcare centre in the church on weekdays, so i think i'll be helping them with english later this week. anyway it was nice hearing all the kids counting (shouting) from one to ten in thai and in english. my breakfast was sticky rice with satay (of course they don't call it satay here), mini "you tiao" and soya bean drink with tao hui and red bean at the bottom. it was my fullest breakfast in a while haha... not to mention aroi (thai for delicious)!

after breakfast the pastor brought me out for a tour of Ban Chang, showing me where the local shopping centre is, the various 7-11s, and the beach! too bad i did not take photos of the beach, but anyway it was very beautiful! reminds me of my cycling trip to Desaru beach with my DG... i managed to do some shopping at Tesco-Lotus too. since i'll be running for this year's StanChart marathon, my aim is to be able to run to the beach and back to Ban Chang church by the end of my 2 months here. that will be close to 20km, if my calculations are correct.

after lunch i sat at the canteen in church and enjoyed the view of beautiful mountains in front of me as i prepared my testimony, and after that i went to help do some decorations in the sanctuary for mothers' day celebration tomorrow. i cannot be there though, as i will be following pastor to an inter-religion meeting at nearby Rayong. i'm not sure what to expect there, but i pray that it will be a fruitful time.

after dinner (which was so spicy that i took 3 glasses of cold water along with it), i went out again with pastor for some errands, and i managed to buy my long-missed Lipton Ice Tea! drinking it reminds me of my 2007 Khon Kaen trip :)

i'll be sleeping soon, because tomorrow is my first working day! i need to wake up early for devotion at 7am. i'll be giving out flyers at a nearby school to invite the students for english class, so please pray for good response. also i'll be sharing my testimony in a cell group in the evening, and i still have not finished it yet! so it seems like i cannot sleep so soon after all haha...

giving thanks at 22:54 :)

day 3

Sunday, 9 August 2009

(kids and youth washing the feet of their mothers during church service)

today is Sunday! during the church service we celebrated mother's day, because mother's day in Thailand is on 12 Aug, which is also the Queen's birthday. so the mothers were asked to go to the front to have their feet washed by their children. they were also asked to pray for their children while their feet were being washed. it was quite a touching sight as many tears were shed (mainly the mothers) and the mothers would hug the children after the washing was done. of course i thought about my mom, and how nice it would be if she was there and i could wash her feet :)

after that was a sumptuous lunch (as usual in Thailand) and a series of meetings of which i attended 2. the first was the worship team meeting, where the style of worship, technical and spiritual improvement of the band were discussed (sounds familiar?). i was introduced to the team, and was told that i would have the opportunity to play either acoustic or bass guitar in the coming weeks :) next was a youth leaders meeting, where i met with my roommate, another girl, and the pastor.

speaking of my roommate, he's a seminary student, and his college is in Bangkok, so he goes to Bangkok on Sundays and comes back on Fridays. he's 20 this year, and his guitar skills are awesome! just yesterday he showed me the Canon in D on electric guitar (ask any guitarist about it, they will know) and some other guitar pieces by a Japanese (forgot his name). he plays the electric and acoustic guitar, and he leads worship in the church in Ban Chang every week! today he played acoustic and led at the same time. he's well-liked by both adults and youth in the church, and the pastor is praying that he will come back to Ban Chang to serve after graduation :)

after that i took a nap before going for dinner, which was amazing! all the meals in thailand are fabulous! if the Huis were here they would immediately become fat! haha... the dinner today is a bimonthly church dinner, where the church members would bring some food to church to have dinner together. it was v nice, like a big family having a meal together. after that i managed to catch the last part of the NDP online. it felt very surreal watching the NDP on a computer in another country, as i would usually watch the parade on tv with either family or friends. i hope i can survive these 2 months without being too homesick haha... being alone adds on to it, because at least i would have someone to talk to and share with if i was not. in any case, i will spend more time with God, update my blog regularly, and go on Msn whenever possible :)

giving thanks at 21:14 :)

day 2

Saturday, 8 August 2009

(kids and helpers of the children's church dancing to One Way)

in the morning i went with the lady's son and the church worker from last night to Doulos! i did not know Doulos was in Bangkok, and i got the opportunity to see it! though i could not board it due to time constraints. we picked up 4 guys from the ship and then got back to the church, where the children's Saturday program was starting. guess what, the principal is the lady who opened the house the night before!

anyway it was really touching to see the Thai kids singing and jumping to "One Way", and raising their hands while kneeling and singing "I Could Sing of Your Love Forever" in Thai. i just cannot imagine Singaporean kids doing that, and also running around until they fall down on each other, but stand up laughing. i was quite concerned for them, but the helpers did not even move, as if they are used to kids behaving that way. the 4 guys from Doulos had a few programs to keep the children occupied, with songs, skit, testimony sharing etc.

after lunch at the church (prepared by the house lady and her helpers), i had to rush off to go to Ban Chang with the pastor who was with me on the flight last night. along the 2-hour journey by car, i was entertained by the scenery and also by the Christian mp3 songs being played in the car (in English). the scenery was almost like those in Malaysia, just replace the Malay words with Thai, replace the flags with Thai ones, replace the Agong pictures to those of the Thai king. as for the songs, there was a mixture of Don Moen, Hillsong, Ron Kenoly and Jeremy Camp, but the band which was most intriguing to me was Petra. imagine the Scissors Sisters singing in the style of Linkin Park to songs with lyrics like "God made Rock and Roll for us" and "He came, He saw, He conquered" in reference to Christ! anyway i will check them out on the net when i have the chance.

the church at Ban Chang is a nice place, the tallest building in the area is 4 storeys high, and there are mountains behind the church, so the view is very interesting. however i did not get much chance to tour around the town, so i have not seen much yet. after meeting the pastor in Ban Chang, i helped the youth with repainting some of the playground swings and structures, before having dinner consisting of omelette rice again! after that, i sat in for the band practice for tomorrow's worship, and i was told that i may have opportunity to play in the band! it's really something which i must thank God for :)

i had a meeting with the pastor not too long ago, so she already has a schedule prepared for me. i will be mainly teaching English and sharing my testimony in the various cell groups for next week. i challenged myself to prepare my testimony in Thai by this Tuesday, though i could prepare in English and the pastor can translate for me. so please pray for me for that. for now, i hope to get good rest, and enjoy my first Thai church service tomorrow!

giving thanks at 22:44 :)

thailand trip day 1

(the kitchen with the chair used to climb in and out)

thanks to all who came to send me off tonight! i'm so sorry that i could not personally talk to each and every one of you, but i appreciate it a lot! thanks also to those who could not make it, but took the effort to call or sms me!

anyway after i boarded the plane, i spent an interesting 2 hours talking with the Thai pastor who went with me to Bangkok. with my half past six Thai, i managed to understand most of what he said, and he also managed to understand what i was trying to say. after alighting from the plane, we met with Ps Pairoj's wife and a church worker from Christ church bangkok who drove us almost half an hour through Bangkok to the church where the pastor took over the car and drove me to a stop at the junction of a small lane. there i was introduced to a lady who walked me along the narrow lane in between rows of old dilapidated houses, until we reached a 4-storey house with the name "Shalem House" in front. the lady then led me into the house, where i saw people lying down around the house. this intrigued me until the lady explained what the house is about.

before she did that, the lady led me to the kitchen (which we had to climb through because the kitchen actually belonged to the adjacent house!), and prepared a meal before me! it was omelette rice with cabbage soup mixed with egg tofu! though i must say i'm not a fan of cabbage, i was really touched by the hospitality of this Thai lady, and also by her heart of love as she shared with me about the house. it's actually a place for people whose family members are being treated at a nearby hospital to stay over for the night.

i almost expected to sleep on the floor beside the people whom i saw as i came up, when the lady then led me to a nice cosy room of my own! so all in all, in just a few hours after touching down in thailand, i feel very blessed already.

tomorrow i'll be going to Christ Church Bangkok to attend children's service before heading to Ban Chang after lunch. hopefully i'll be able to get a Thai SIM card by then, so i can call home etc. which means i should sleep now! thank God for His providence and blessings!

giving thanks at 01:01 :)