Ministry, Devotions, and Blessings...

I have been sitting in my chair the last hour trying to remember what I did this past week, and a lot has gone on, since the last time I blogged.  I'll begin with last weekend, since during the week, it was more of the same as the previous week.

I went up to Wiang Pa Pao last weekend and I was pleasantly suprised that I now have my own living quarters!  I live in a room attached to the garage, but it has its own bed and its own bathroom, so I'm definitely excited to move in my stuff soon!  Only downside is that I got bit by either ants or spiders 7 times when I was sleeping.  On Saturday, Pastor JJ, Junya, and I helped out at a medical clinic in Wiang Pa Pao, run by Yoido Full Gospel Church (aka largest church in the world).  As I got to observe and help out at the clinic, I was just amazed at the scale of the clinic and the resources that Yoido church provided.  From Korea, the church sent out twenty plus volunteers for the clinic.  Within the clinic there were several stations, there was a physicians station, dentistry station, acupuncture station, pharmacy station, and a physical therapy station, and a hair salon station (yes, I know, that last one is very random).  Pastor JJ and Junya helped with all the medical stuff by being translators and I hung out outside with some of the Jasper Kids college students (Pondtip, Narong, Mayuri, and Sompon) as they were translating and helping out with the hair salon station.  Unexpectedly I had to help translate because the Korean hair stylists didn't know English, so Pondtip would translate from Thai to English, the requests of the locals, and then I had to translate from English to Korean, to the volunteers.  At first it was very painstaking trying to translate, especially when there was a lot of words lost in translation going from Thai - English - Korean, but eventually it got progressively easier as the day wore on.  I'd never thought in a million years would that I have to use all three languages at once.  The locals were definitely having fun, as I tried to communicate back and forth from the three languages, because I could see them all smiling and making comments and staring at me.  That was definitely the funnest part of the day.  We helped out at the clinic from 8AM - 2PM, and afterwards headed back to Chiang Mai.

On our ride back, I asked Pastor JJ and Junya how their experiences were, and they were vastly different from mine.  The main sentiment was that the effort and idea was great, but executed poorly.  Lot of it had to do with being understaffed, fatgued, and being overexposed.  I say overexposed because the clinic was not only announced to the town, but to the surrounding villages, so there were way too many people than the clinic could treat or handle.  Because of the huge crowd, I don't know how effectively people were being ministered to, but I trust the Lord and His plan, and hopefully He used the clinic even with its flaws, for His glory!  It was definitely refreshing to see people willing to serve the Lord, and it was encouraging for me that I got to help out in whatever way I could.  Out of that whole experience, man it really hit home, how important language is.  If you know different languages it really comes in handy in different situations, and it definitely makes ministry more effective, as I learned first hand.  Now I understand why my parents kept sending me to Korean school...hahahaha...

After the clinic, we went back to Chiang Mai, and Pastor JJ picked up his niece (cousin's daughter) , Elizabeth, or Eli (pronounced Elly) for short, at the airport.  She came to visit Pastor JJ and the family, from Korea since she had a long weekend because of Children's Day.   From Saturday to Monday, we did all the touristy things in Chiang Mai.  We went to the mall, walking market, Night Bazaar, Prachaphruk Royal Garden, and visited some ruins close by.  I really enjoyed the Royal Garden and the ruins (which being a history buff, it's a given).  One thing I noticed about Thailand is that they have a lot of royal gardens, and they're all really nice.  I didn't enjoy the mall very much, but I've never enjoyed going to the mall, but it has A/C, and out here A/C is man's best friend.  In that time, I just got to hang out with Eli, Pastor JJ, Junya, and the family, and we had fun sharing stories.  I just noticed that all the visitors, and short termers that I've met in Thailand have been girls.  Where are all the guys!?  I definitely miss having fellowship with brothers!

Luckily, I have both Pastor JJ and Missionary Alex to fellowship with and have accountability with.  Since Monday, Pastor JJ, Missionary Alex, and I have been doing morning devotions together at 5:30AM, and to say that it has been good is an understatement.  Just starting my day in prayer and scripture sets the tone for the rest of my day and to have some good accountability and fellowship has been encouraging.  I say this because my devotions had been lacking in the last month.  A lot of it had to do with "being busy" or tired, and when I'm busy the first thing to go is my devotions, whether it's because I prefer the extra sleep  or needing more time for work.  When I first got here, I thought since I'm here as a missionary, I would be doing my devotions diligently, but that wasn't the case.  What I've learned over the past two months is that you get so caught up in the work that you're doing, and all the little unexpected things that occur in the day that you forget to make time for God, and it happens here in the mission field too.  I remember when I went to Uganda, Pastor Dave, who was serving as a missionary for one year in Uganda, told our team that one of the hardest things for a pastor or missionary is to keep up with devotions.  At the time I was thinking, man your doing God's work, how can it be so hard, but now I know, since it's so easy to get caught up in all the other work that needs to be done.  Fortunately I've learned, and I hope to go strong in my devotions.

This past week and a half has been a good week, and God has been showing me different aspects of the mission life, and let the learning continue...

I will post up some pictures of the clinic a little bit later, but for now enjoy some clips from the Thai church retreat at Pattaya...