Celebrating Christmas in Thailand

We have just finished our first week of ministry at Abba House and I already love it here! Every day is filled with lots of joy and laughter!

On most days, we are with the guys in the afternoon for Bible study, worship, and English lessons. Abbie and I are teaching the beginners class and we have two students – Sit and Lek. It’s great because we can do more one-on-one stuff and really focus in on what their needs are. So far, we’ve been learning ABC’s, counting to 100, some vocabulary, and conversational English (How are you? What is your name? Where are you from? etc). It’s awesome to see them learning and really grasping what we are teaching them. And it can also be pretty funny! Picture this scenario with me for a minute:

Me: How are you?

Lek: My name is Lek.

Me: No…how ARE you? (re-emphasizing the words and saying it slower…)

Lek: I am from Thailand.

Me: OK…repeat after me…I am fine.

Lek: I am fine.

Haha…these are frequent conversations in our class but both of our students are doing SO good at learning English! I’m amazed at their progress already! Sit often shouts out ‘Thank you, Jesus!’ when he gets something right! I love his enthusiasm!

We eat dinner with the kids almost every night and have English lessons with them in the evening. Again, Abbie and I are teaching the beginners and we have 5 students: one boy (Laa) and four girls (Sih, Patcha, Sophia, and Gift). They are ages 8 to 11 and we all have so much fun together! We do lots of songs and games with the kids and they love it! We often end up chasing them around after class because they are very playful and love to run around. They are also very affectionate and like to hold our hands and give us hugs (we like it when they do that too! J).

My first Thai Christmas was incredible! We had an amazing opportunity on Christmas Eve to go and speak at a men’s prison. We were there for about an hour and a half and we each shared part of our testimonies and about what an awesome God we know and love and serve. God is so good and it was great that we got to go there because the doors have closed now for churches to go into that prison – we were the last group that was allowed in to the prison for a while. Pray with us for the 150 men that we had the opportunity to share with about the love and grace of Jesus Christ!

Later on Christmas Eve, we all (guys, kids, and YWAM team) went Christmas caroling from 7pm til almost 1 in the morning! We squeezed in to 2 song tao’s and set off on our adventure! Our team quickly discovered that Christmas caroling here is different from caroling back in Canada and the States. We drove to the first house and all hopped out of the song tao’s. We then snuck up to the house (with lots of ‘SH’ing and whispering) and, once we were all ready, yelled ‘Merry Christmas!’ and started singing loudly and dancing around! After we finished singing a few songs, the lights came on inside the house and they opened the doors to welcome us in for snacks! We drove around to about 10 houses of people from the church and this is pretty much what happened at each house. Thai people are so welcoming and hospitable! I think that we need to start welcoming people into our homes in Canada and feeding them delicious treats when they carol for us!

Loading into the song tao on Christmas Eve (the guy on the left doing the peace sign is Sit and the guy to the right of him with the purple sweater is Lek - they are in my English class)

Caroling and dancing at the first house

Laa (one of my students) eating some soup at the last house where we went caroling

Christmas day was a full day and it was even better than Christmas Eve! Our team met together and enjoyed a little celebration that included stockings and a gift exchange. I got a beautiful purse from Catherine! In the afternoon, we played outdoor games with everyone - there were water balloons and sack races! Our Christmas dinner was a barbeque which was so cool since that’s how my family always celebrates Christmas! Because we lived in Botswana, we had summer Christmases and would have a barbeque (or ‘braai’, as we would say in Botswana) each year on Christmas day. So fun! After dinner, there was a piñata (how random is that? I never expected to see a piñata in Thailand…) and we all laughed as people took turns trying to punch it down! Later, there were Christmas skits, opening presents, and a dance party to end off an amazing Christmas day!

Playing outdoor games on Christmas

Sack race

Watching the games (the girl next to me is Sih, one of my students)

Gift (another one of my students) getting ready to throw some water balloons

Christmas BBQ!

Throwing punches at the piñata

Dance party!

Christmas in Thailand is all about being together to celebrate Jesus’ birth! It was really amazing to see how gentle and loving the guys were with the kids. They were all holding hands and joking around! These guys that used to be in prison have been totally transformed by Jesus! They are some of the most gentle and caring people that I’ve ever met!

It is such a blessing to be at Abba House and I’m looking forward to this next week of ministry! Thank you for your prayers and financial support! Merry Christmas!

We're here!!!

I’m in Thailand! We got here on Wednesday morning at 1:00am and headed over to the Nancy Ross Training Center (YWAM base in Bangkok). After spending two days there, we took an overnight bus to Chiang Mai and arrived at Abba House early on Friday morning.

Abba House is where our team will be living and serving for the next month. David and Joyce Moore are the founders of Abba House. There are about 20 girls that live here – these are girls who were at risk of being trafficked (had been sexually abused, have mothers in the sex trade, or are orphans). There are also 10 men that come here on a regular basis who were in drug rehab or prison before but are now following Jesus.

So what will our team be doing while we are here?

We will be teaching English lessons to both the men and the girls; sharing devotionals, songs, and skits; and leading some worship services. We will also be doing some prison ministry, visiting a home for disabled children, and maybe going to a village for a weekend. All of this ministry started yesterday for our team!

We had this past weekend off to settle in and see some more of Chiang Mai. On Saturday night, we had a neat experience while visiting a night market. I was exploring the market along with two other members of my team; Marissa and Gulya. While walking along and checking out the numerous stalls full of different fun things to look at and buy, we eventually ended up at a Buddhist temple. After going in and looking around the temple, we began talking to a Buddhist monk who was standing outside. His name was Jan and he was from Cambodia. He was very well-educated and had studied and read lots of books. Gulya asked him if he had ever read the Bible before and he replied that he actually had three Bibles (all in different languages). We started asking Jan questions about Buddhism and discussing our faith. We talked about how we place our trust in Jesus, and he told us that his faith was in himself and his good works. We had the opportunity to hear more about what he believed and to also share the truth with Jan about how we need God and we are only made clean and whole through Him, not by our good works. We talked for a long time and Gulya and I prayed for him at the end of our conversation. We encouraged Jan to continue reading the Bible, specifically the book of John, and to pray to Jesus. He seemed to really enjoy our conversation and to be genuinely interested in what we had to say about Jesus and our lives as followers of Christ.

About halfway through our conversation with Jan, Marissa noticed that there was a girl standing nearby who was listening to our discussion so she invited her to join us. The girl asked what we were talking about and Marissa told her that we were sharing our different beliefs (Buddhism and Christianity). She seemed interested so Marissa stepped aside and began having a separate conversation with her. Her name was Chloe and she was from China. Chloe told Marissa that she admires people with different beliefs because she didn’t grow up having faith in any religion. She had gone to church before with two of her friends who were Christians but she was still unsure and had questions about Christianity. Because Marissa grew up in a Catholic family, she was able to share from her experience of also not growing up as a Christian and really wanting to be sure of the truth. Chloe was very interested and open. She was curious about Christianity but seemed to be unsure of where to start in asking questions. Marissa explained the gospel to her and talked about how we serve a living God – we don’t worship idols and statues. God is always with us and the Holy Spirit lives in us. At the end of their conversation, we all prayed for Chloe. We prayed that she would continue to seek the truth and that Jesus would reveal the truth to her.

It was great to have these conversations with both Jan and Chloe and to see their hunger for the truth. Pray with us that both Jan and Chloe will remember our conversations and will truly seek after Jesus. Pray that God will reveal Himself to them and that they will come to know Him. Only He can truly satisfy them!

Our team now has a blog so I probably won't be updating my blog as often. Here is the link: www.pleasebringtherain.blogspot.com.

Merry Christmas!

I am with you

We had our last lecture on Friday morning - it's time to go to Thailand! The last thing that our speaker left us with was God's promise that He is with us. This is a promise that God repeats to His people throughout the Bible, and this truth is something that God constantly speaks to me.

For me, these words are very comforting and reassuring. I can rest in the truth that I am not alone, that I have a constant friend, that I am loved and cared for, that God is never going to leave me.

But these words are more than just a comfort. They are powerful. I am empowered by the reality that God is with me. I am reminded that I am not doing this on my own, but that the Holy Spirit is working in and through me to bring real and lasting transformation. The impossible becomes possible. Sick people receive healing. Darkness is overcome by light. Slaves are set free. Mourning is turned into dancing. The lost are brought home. God's Kingdom comes on earth as His people embrace the truth that He is with them always.

"Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20)

God is with you! Celebrate Emmanuel this Christmas season - God with us!