Day 4

Morning brought the end to our time in Nakhon Sawan. After breakfast and group devotion, we prepared to shift our baggage and equipment to the main street for loading on to the coach. Of course, we had to take a group photograph first, and if I can I will post some photos later.

The coach loaded, we left for Khamphaengphet. We were going to visit and stay at the village of Samakkee, one of the members from the Thai Ministry. It wasn't that long a ride before we came to his village. We would begin our school ministry in Khamphaengphet by visiting a school in the village. Alighting from the coach, we were led to the school assembly hall where we were told that we would be teaching a large group of students from a variety of levels. This was not what we had prepared for but Doreen and I decided that we would have to go ahead with whatever we could come up with. After all, God had given us the opportunity to be at the school, now He would surely give us the words to say and things to do.

As it turned out, we forgot that we couldn't both lead the session as one of us would have to do the interpreting. Plus, we were both suffering from stage fright. Thankfully, Acaan Jaey saw our predicament and came up front to help. I took the opportunity to step aside and let Doreen continue the session with Acaan Jaey's help.

Standing alongside the body of students, I found myself getting into a conversation with one of the English teachers. She asked me for some help in clarifying the meaning of some words, and she also asked me for words and phrases which she could use in her classes. By the end of our conversation, I was thankful that God had given me this opportunity to meet a need of the school in this small way while the main program went on.

By the end of the session, which went quite well, we packed up and went to Samakkee's house (or what I thought was his house) for lunch. After lunch we would be going to another school so we had to eat quickly. During lunch, we were introduced to Samakkee's wife. I had seen her at the first school we visited and thought she was a teacher. Well, she actually is a teacher in a school, at kindergarten level. Anyway it was good to meet her.

At the second school, we were told we would be teaching three classes of students. This was more or less what we had prepared for and everything went off without a hitch. After quite a few trips of school visits, I think I am more or less adept at conducting the class. Then again, it really depends on what the students know I suppose. At the end of my class, I wondered what I could do to get Naam involved. Doreen had asked him to join my class earlier on. Anyway, I thought I would have him read out the Bible verse which was on the bookmarks which we had made, and that's what I told him to do. He nodded to indicate understanding, but instead of reading the verse out, he called the students to attention and got them to read the verse out aloud. After that, he challenged them to believe in Christ that they may be saved. I was really encouraged by this because Naam is relatively young in the faith and yet he had taken this chance to affirm his faith publicly while sharing the message with the students. This was to be something I had Naam do each time we handed out bookmarks at the end of my classes.

On the way back to Samakkee's house, I had a discussion with Joan and Doreen regarding the evangelistic concert that we would be presenting that evening. It was felt that since we had already performed the mime at the first school, it would be good if we could come up with a new item for the concert. We brainstormed, considering additional songs, and even tae kwon do which two of the trippers are trained in, namely Bryan and Vivien. In the end, I suggested a dance set to a song, and told Joan to ask Karen Yap to choreograph the dance. This was because I recalled that Karen has dance experience from her school days.

Back at the house, Karen got to work on the choreography. Priscilla would be dancing together with her. Meanwhile, I got Bryan and Vivien to demonstrate some of their tae kwon do moves, much to Acaan Thiang's amusement, though she did applaud some of the more difficult moves. It was pretty strange to see Vivien high kicking and punching but I suppose you really can't judge a book by its cover.

Anyway, Acaan Jaey told me that the concert would be held at in the centre of the village at the village head's headquarters. This was a surprise to me as it was not so long ago that we had met with much less cooperation from the village official at Nakhon Sawan. I gave thanks to God that we would have the opportunity to use the village centre to share the Gospel message.

On a more serious note, I decided to take some time to talk to Doreen about leadership expectations. I had noticed some things which I felt were hindering her ability to lead and wanted to talk things over with her about them. Fortunately she knew what I was talking about and we resolved to do things better from there on.

After dinner, we made our way to the village centre and began to set up our equipment. However, we found that we were missing a piece from our three pin adaptor. This was the first of what came to known as "logistics failures" that we suffered on the trip. Actually, it was the second, as the previous day, logistics failed to heed my instruction to bring all the bottled water we had on our field trip to the temple.

Thankfully, we managed to set up our equipment as the electrical sockets were quite well placed. I was a little upset at how careless logistics had been so I went outside when the concert began. While outside, I talked with one of the villagers who asked me some things about our mission trip. Strangely enough, there was an Englishman there too who had married a Thai lady who lives in the same village as Samakkee. I talked with him too.

My main involvement in the concert was to act as the donkey which Mary rode on the way to Bethlehem. I had used vanguard sheets to create a donkey head and neck which I put over my head when I entered the scene. Unfortunately I had chosen the wrong colour vanguard sheet and furthermore, the ears which I had attached to the head created the look of a pig! Oh well. I went on when required to the amusement of those who were watching.

Karen and Priscilla then performed the dance which they had come up with that afternoon. Given the confined space of the performance venue, they did pretty well, dancing to the song "thaan kert maa" sung by Junwei and Christina.

The mime by Stacey, Vivien, and Yiwen was also performed, with Junwei and Christina singing "So You Would Come". Nicholas also presented his testimony and Jaey gave a short Gospel message.

The final item was the song "haak chiiwit sin sut phiang khwaam taay" as performed by Acaan Jaey, Joan, Doreen, and Karen Yap. This is a song that dates back to my first mission trip. It's a song which has a very thought provoking message, that if you should die today, where would you be? This song wasn't the only thing that reminded me of my first trip. In the final installment I will write about some of the things that really took me back to December 1999.

Concert over, we returned to the house. We would be spending the night there. As we didn't want to split the team up, we all slept in the same house, with a curtain separating the girls' section from the guys' section. We would all be sleeping under mosquito nets as the village is near a forest and there would be quite a few mosquitoes flying around.

Before I could allow everyone to wash up and sleep, I decided we had to take some time to review the past two days. Now, I know I'm infamous for late night meetings but sometimes they are necessary and this time was no exception. Quite a few of the team members shared that night, testifying to God's faithfulness and provision which they had been experiencing so far. After a fruitful time of sharing and prayer, I closed the meeting.

For some reason, the guys were feeling hungry so I decided to open the bag of Cheetos which I had bought in Big C back in Nakhon Sawan. It's a big bag which contains 12 small bags. I first saw this in June, but despite buying two bags, I never got to eat them. This time round, I offered them to some of the other guys. They were surprised that Cheetos taste so good.

That night, I chose to sleep outside on the front porch so it was imperative that I used a mosquito net. However, with four of us (me, Junwei, Nicholas, and Lum) squeezed under the net, I found myself itching in the middle of the night. Apparently my arm had settled right onto the material of the mosquito net. A mosquito had taken the chance to bite my elbow three times, The bites are still itchy now, more than a week after I got them.

End of Part Four