Crossfire Thailand Mission

Roden asked. Sam said yes. Yay! Nice way to finish mission.

It has been so good to see the testimonies of these kids evolve over the past couple of weeks. Pray for continual transformation by the spirit as we head into our debrief period. ^RR

Well the mission part of our mission is over now, and today we head down to the beaches of Cha Am for a few days rest & debrief before heading home. 

There were plenty of hugs (and some tears) as we said goodbye to the church yesterday -  this last week truly was a partnership in the gospel. And as I think about what we got to do, I am just blown away by how God far exceeded my expectations for this trip. 

Again, God had us here just at the right time. 

There was a lot of clean-up to do. Not only did we get to bless the church by cleaning up the property and buildings, we cleaned the daughter church and it’s nearby park, and we got to help out at 4 other homes as well. It was work that was messy, smelly, tiring - but would not have been done for quite some time had God not had us here.

We painted the church!  Well at least covering over the flood line. McWade’s crazy idea actually worked out great and the building looks brilliant (hopefully there’ll be some photos up soon). I am very proud of our effort - given that none of us really knew what we were doing. 

We repainted the mural - incorrectly referred to as “murial” and affectionately known as “Miriam”. The old mural was of the creation account, with Adam & Eve and the animals. It had become faded over the years, and now ruined by the dirty flood waters. Our artistic people had the brilliant idea of doing a new one, this time with Noah and the ark and the animals and the rainbow - just after all the flood waters went down. Very appropriate! Again - it looks brilliant and I am so proud of the team who worked on it. 

And to cap off our week - we helped run their community Christmas concert. This was in the park just opposite the daughter church and there was face painting; singing, dancing & drama; plenty of prizes given away by the church; a Christmas message; and we handed out gift packs, food packs, and gospel tracts to all who were there.  This was such a great community event. There was probably 400 people there, and for the daughter church which is only 3 months old - this well and truly put it on the map. Our team and the Thai church wore specially made shirts - and it was great to look around and see us all working together - as I said earlier, truly a partnership in the gospel. 

I would love to see this partnership continue. Khongluang Church and Pastor Prasit would love to see it continue and grow. And so throughout the week we have been discussing and dreaming about what that might look like. Their church has a desire to plant more and more churches and they would love us to help them do that. Are we able to send a team of Years 12’s over every year? Can we send smaller teams or individuals who can stay for 6 months or longer?  These have been exciting discussions and many on our team have been stirred by God to help make this happen.   

Watch this space!

Rod

A startling turn of events at the bathroom

My sincerest apologies for the delay in blogs. I imagine for many of you this blog has become apart of your daily routine. It brings a tear to my eye to think of the havoc I must have wreaked by eliminating a crucial aspect of your life. However I know that my relationship with each and every one of you is strong enough to overcome this.

Now for the excuses. My goodness we’ve been busy. The main cause of this drastic increase in activity is a Christmas concert that we put on in conjunction with our partner church, and finishing off paint work at the main church. The concert went really well, we estimated that about 400 people came, which is amazing outreach for the church. That concert was on Saturday evening, since then we’ve migrated back to the heart of Bangkok, from which we’ head to the south of Thailand for our debrief over the next few days.

Rod spoke at our final church service with the Thai’s today. I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve appreciated the simplicity of the messages that Brierly and Rod have given. Whilst this simplicity is necessitated for the Thai’s, it’s reminded me of the need for a childlike faith, and how I (I’ll hazard a guess and say there a lot of people who do this) turn my faith into a literary and intellectual experience.

Interestingly enough, I had kind of forgotten how packed Bangkok is. We were based in a much more suburban area over the last week and somehow I’d forgotten that in Bangkok you share each step down the street with 40 people who are trying to land that step on exactly the same square centimetre of concrete as you. It’s an interesting place, I imagine there is nothing you couldn’t buy here, you walk down the street and see the most bizarre collections of items for sale.

Now for my title. Did you know in MBK shopping centre in Bangkok you get charged to use the bathroom? Now you and I do know. I felt at age 21 I had gathered enough skill and confidence to walk into a bathroom without attracting the attention of other humans. Let me tell you, when someone starts exclaiming at you in Thai as you walk towards the bathroom door it completely throws you. All of a sudden I wondered if I had done something wrong. After all these years had I finally made a mistake in a process I had brilliantly succeeded at without ever giving it a second thought? No. I just have to pay for the privilege to void my bowels in MBK. So after momentarily looking as bemused as a policeman who’s reached for the gun only to find a banana , I paid my 2 baht (AU$0.06) and walked in, only to discover a female cleaner working around the urinals…Rod was so affronted by this charge that he didn’t go to the bathroom in protest.

My apologies for the essay but I felt we needed to catch up. So how’s life?…typical, no reply.

If things get dull on our trip to the south you may get a post about my favorite movies and why. I can’t wait.

Thank the Lord for the amazing ministry he brought about with the Thai church. Also keep us in your prayers as we recover and regain our strength.

It rubs the lotion on its skin or it gets the hose.

Toodles.

Alex