Over the next few days, I will blog about the mission trip that I just came back from. This time, the theme of the trip was "Jesus is Lord!" and in the entire team of 17, there were 6 newcomers to Thai mission trips. This was the most newcomers from our church that we've had in a while.
Each post will cover a day of the trip, beginning with this post about Day 1. I haven't given the names of the team members. The names will come out one by one as I post, showing that everyone really played a part in the trip.
Here we go...
The story begins on Saturday, the 16th of December. I went to church at 4:00pm to help out with the final logistics preparation. We had to finish packing by 6:00 so we could load everything into the bus we had hired to take us to the airport. I wasn't feeling too well, having come down with a bug just two nights before. I was taking medicine though I knew that God's will would be done, no matter what.
Anyway, as the packing came to an end, the rest of the trippers who would be meeting in church began to arrive. It was interesting to see how they had interpreted my instructions to them regarding their luggage. As it turned out, a few of them brought hard suitcases along. Fittingly, they were first-timers. Fortunately the suitcases weren't too unwieldy.
Not long after, the bus arrived. As we were loading the bus, I made a snap decision to leave behind some of the clothes and toys that we had packed for the trip's bazaar program. I was of the opinion that we would not be able to bring everything for that would cause us to exceed our weight allowance for the flight.
Anyway, we all got on the bus and began our journey to the airport. I prayed for a safe commencement of our mission trip and gave the team last minute instructions on what to do when we reached the airport.
As the bus made its way along the PIE, I began to experience mixed feelings of excitement and nervousness. Some of the trippers had just come back from the YF camp and were physically tired. I was also concerned that the YF campers might form a sort of clique within the mission team. I was also beginning to feel a little anxious about the task of leading the team. This was going to be the fourth time I was leading a team, and yet I wasn't sure how things would turn out. I asked God for peace that I would be able to calm down.
At the airport, we unloaded the bus, and proceeded to check in. As we checked in our luggage and equipment, it soon became apparent that we were going to be overweight. I had to make another snap decision, this time to leave more of our bazaar boxes behind. However, before I could make this decision, some of the boxes had already been checked in. This meant that we ended up with a strange mix of clothes. On top of this, I made another snap decision to bring a box of winter clothes that would put us 10kg over the weight limit. That cost me about $100.00. I put that financial loss out of my mind, and refocused myself on the task at hand, finishing up the checking in.
We said our goodbyes to the few church members who had come to the airport to send us off, and proceeded into the passengers-only area. As we entered the immigration area, an immigration officer beckoned us to come towards him and try out the automatic immigration machine. It's pretty cool, you scan your passport and thumbprint and you are through.
Once everyone had come through immigration, I told them to proceed to the departure gate. I told them not to stop for shopping or any other kind of distraction as the boarding time was getting closer. Then with my team in tow, I began walking in the direction of our gate. On the way, I shook my head in dismay as some trippers began to lag behind. Nevertheless, I pressed on. As we got nearer the gate, I realised that the trippers who had been lagging behind were now out of sight. I was a little frustrated, especially when I found out where they had gone. Apparently, one of the young adults from church works in an ice cream parlour at the airport. She had invited them to have icecream.
Now, I have nothing against people buying icecream on the way to the plane, but I felt that permission should have been sought as getting ice cream would mean going away from the general direction of the departure gate. I decided that I would have to take some form of action. Thus, I placed the trippers who had gone for icecream under probation. This meant that any further acts of indiscipline would be dealt with severely.
This episode over, boarding began. I told them not to switch seats, as this is a general precept of airline security. However, some trippers switched seats. I was a little upset, but I decided not to pursue the matter as I believed it would be petty and pointless.
The changing of seats meant that instead of sitting next to my assistant leader, Doreen, I was now sitting with Robert Oh, the ESC representative. I regretted that I would not now be able to give Doreen a final briefing before we reached Bangkok. Yet, in God's own way, the new seating arrangements meant that before the flight was over, I would have been given an important message.
This message began with a discussion between myself, Robert, and Vivien on the place of spiritual gifts like healing, tongue speaking, and prophecy. This was an interesting debate which ended with the compromise position that these gifts exist when God allows them to. It was nice to hear Vivien talking on the subject, as I had yet to have any serious conversation with her in my capacity as the team leader.
Once this debate finished, Robert told me that he had something that he wanted to share with me. He shared about what had been going on in his spiritual life and the direction in which God was leading him. By the end of his sharing, I affirmed the decision that he had made and encouraged him to continue to seek God's will for himself and his family.
Very soon, we began our descent into Bangkok. We would be landing at the new airport. I was quite excited about seeing the airport for the first time. The first thing I noticed about it when we made our way into the terminal from the plane, was the size of the airport. I've seen some pretty large airports, like Incheon and Chek Lap Kok, and Suvarnabhumi is right up there with them.
Clearing immigration, we collected our bags and went out to meet Acaan Jaey and Accan Thiang, as well as Lum, Bui and Naam who would also be coming with us. It was good to see Acaan Thiang again.
We headed out of the arrival hall to rendezvous with our coach. I was again struck by the size of the airport as we stood by the arrivals lobby waiting for the coach.
After some hiccups regarding the rendezvous, we finally located our coach. Getting on, we began our journey to Nakhon Sawan. I was now filled with excitement about the mission trip, though this was tempered by the flu medicine which I took just before boarding the coach.
End of Part One
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