Day 2

We arrived in Nakhon Sawan early around 4 in the morning. The thing about arriving in the middle of the night in most towns and villages in Thailand, you can't really see what surrounds you because it's quite dark. Anyway we unloaded the coach and brought all our things to the preaching station where Acaan Thiang was serving at.

The preaching station is basically a terrace house. It has a porch, an inner room, a kitchen, two upstairs rooms, and two toilets. As it was early in the morning, we settled down for a few hours of sleep. I had chosen to sleep in the inner room by the front door, since we couldn't fit all the guys into the kitchen. As I lay sleeping, a chill wind blew in through the mosquito net which was on the screen door. That was the first indication to me of how cold the weather was going to be on this trip.

Morning came and we had group devotion and breakfast before we all gathered in the inner room for what passed for Sunday service. Michelle, who has been doing her language studies at Lopburi for her missionary term with OMF, came by. She had arranged to meet us at Nakhon Sawan. It was good to see that she is well, and that God has been taking care of her. For service, we sang some songs, then Acaan Jaey gave a sermon. I thought I would let Doreen try doing interpretation, since I had done interpretation at the Thai service just before the mission trip. Anyway I ended up doing the interpreting as Jaey shared about a shoemaker who had a dream in which a voice told him that Jesus was coming to visit him the next day. In the story, Jesus didn't come to visit, but instead it was a succession of needy people that visited the shoemaker. Yet the shoemaker did all he could to meet their needs and in so doing, he fulfilled Jesus' words that anyone who meets the needs of the least of His brothers has in fact met the needs of Jesus.

I managed to do the interpretation quite well, though I still find interpretation rather difficult as I can't seem to maintain concentration throughout, especially when there are distracting sounds such as the Paddle Pop chime of the ice cream salesman as he drove through the neighbourhood.

After the service, we had lunch then after that, we started to get ready for the bazaar. Acaan Thiang had some bad news, saying that the bazaar might not be well attended as the district chief had not announced it to the neighbourhood even though he said he would. This meant that through the afternoon, we didn't manage to sell many clothes, though we did sell quite a bit of the toys.

After the bazaar, we packed up to get ready for the children's program. But before this, Junwei and I went with Lum and Naam to the coach to retrieve the guitars and drinking water. As we walked out to the main street, it was amazing to see the full extent of the street considering how little I had been able to see when I arrived in the middle of the night. The street was typically busy with shops, street vendors, buses, cars, and people.

Once we got back from the coach, the children's program began. Karen Yap taught the children the story of Jesus calming the storm, and she instructed them on how to make a diorama of the scene. The children had great fun and I hope the message that Jesus can calm the storms in their lives will take root in their hearts.

Dinner was next before we had a time of sharing in the inner room. Acaan Jaey led a short time of singing before Michelle her experiences in Thailand with the team. Then Acaan Thiang shared about the spiritual situation of Nakhon Sawan. She told us the the next day she intended to bring us to the main temple of Nakhon Sawan so we could pray for the city and its people for the yoke of spiritual bondage to be removed. As she shared of how bad things had happened after the previous times she had brought mission teams to the temple, such as how flood waters destroyed a bookshelf of Bibles and songbooks while leaving other books untouched, we all became intensely aware of the spiritual problems facing Nakhon Sawan. Small wonder then, that the singing that night was strangely powerful, as if the Holy Spirit was showing to us that He would be with us against the evil one.

After the meeting, we all washed up and went to bed. This time I felt the need to prepare better for the cold wind, but strangely enough, there was no cold wind this time.

End of Part Two