Sorry that I haven't posted in nearly a month, just haven't found the time lately to do so. I know that I promised a more introspective look in the past month especially with the teams being here, but since I have not posted any updates on the goings on, I'll do that first.
Since my last post, two teams have come and gone. A team from Baltimore arrived shortly after L.A. team left, and immediately after Baltimore, San Jose New Hope (my home church) came and left last Saturday. To compare the two would be unfair, but I did have two very different experiences regarding each team.
With Baltimore team, it was made up of mostly high school youth group students, one college student, and a youth pastor. I definitely had my reservations about this team since it was made up of mostly youth group kids and a new youth pastor who only got to meet his team one week prior to the trip. I was more worried about team cohesiveness and maturity, considering that I wasn't too mature as a high schooler to go on missions. Even with those reservations, I would say that the experience was fruitful. More or less the schedule was similar to LA, there was a couple days of teaching English, some manual labor, weekend VBS at a village, village visitation during the week, and a whole lot of time spent with the Jasper Kids.
On their first official day of ministry, the team got to work on the Jasper Kids Staff housing unit that they started last summer. During their two week stay they finished building the walls to the unit, and I was impressed with their work. Since building a wall required precision, I was wary that a bunch of high school students would make the wall crooked, but they sure proved me wrong, and I was definitely pleased with their work effort. At every opportunity, all the team members were looking for ways to help out, and they seemed to revel in mixing cement and putting up the walls brick by brick. The next couple days, the team taught English at a local school in Wiang Pa Pao (it's actually 10 min away from the JK Home) called Baan Khuu School, teaching K-6. It was around this time my frustrations began to set in a little bit.
Having taught English last summer in Thailand, and teaching English now on weekends, I've come to understand that you need to have a gameplan going into whatever your teaching. From having a gameplan, to even having a backup lesson plan if you go through the lesson plan too quickly or things go awry, you have to come prepared or else the kids eat you up. Knowing this, I was frustrated that the mission team was ill prepared for teaching English, it just seemed like they were taking preparations or the whole teaching thing too lightly. All the more frustrating was that I couldn't really voice my concern because it wasn't my place to do it. Anyways, once we got to teaching, my concerns were realized as the members I was helping seemed a little flustered, but with some help, they made it through the day. After getting their feet wet, the team seemed fine on their next go around of teaching. From that I learned that I need to be patient and be reminded that God is in control. After a week of building and teaching, we all went to Huay Rai village to hold a weekend VBS. As usual, I didn't go to the village until Saturday afternoon because I teach English on Saturdays. Pastor JJ, the Soh's, and I didn't arrive until lunch, but from the looks of things everything seemed to have gone smoothly. The Baltimore team even had games prepared, so I could just relax and observe, which was a nice change, since it gave me some time to see how different teams function. Later that Saturday night, we held evening worship with the village folks and I'll have to say that it was my favorite part of the day. I really have to hand it to the Jasper Kids who went, because they came prepared with games, worship songs, the whole thing, to encourage the Christians in the village. They definitely challenge me to serve the Lord more passionately. More importantly, I think I got to really get to know some of the Jasper Kids better through the weekend VBS. I'll definitely will remember when we trekked across the rice paddies and streams at Huay Rai and played near the dam. Especially when we were walking across the rice paddies, I was just in amazement, that God gave me an opportunity to be half way across the world, in some remote mountain village, walk with some kids through a rice paddy. It's one of those once in a lifetime opportunities, and it made me feel like an explorer!
After the weekend VBS, the Baltimore team taught at Pasak School on Monday and Tuesday, and it was nice to see the students at that school again, since I taught there when L.A. team was here. On Monday, I think I had my most frustrating time teaching since I've been here in Thailand. I helped teach the kindergartners, and there was one little boy who would not listen throughout the day, and all he did was demand candy...hahahaha...now that I think about it, it was pretty funny...but at the moment it was annoying. I'm definitely not cut out to teach kindergartners. After teaching, we had lunch with the school kids, and we were planning to play games, but the students had to attend to an event at the Buddhist temple nearby. It was a bummer since all these students came up to me waiting for me to play games with them. The whole time I was thinking, how cool it was that they remembered me, but only to realize that the whole time they were waiting for me to see if I was gonna set up some games. Luckily, on Tuesday, after teaching was over we did get to play some games with the students.
On Wednesday, we spent the night at Huay Mai Dua, and I would say that this was my favorite visit throughout Baltimore team's stay. This is a village that the Jasper Kids Foundation visit infrequently because of the poor road conditions, and it was a first time for any team to visit, so it was definitely exciting, especially when not knowing what to expect. After a rather bumpy, but safe ride to the village, we took a walk around the village, and let me say, aside from Baan On (Ajan Somsak's village) this has to be the next most gorgeous village I've been too. Maybe it was the blue skies and the sun shining, and the vegetation looking lush, but the scenery was a sight to behold. After getting a little tour of the village, we gathered up all the village children and we held an impromptu VBS session. We sang songs and did body worships, as well as, make some bead crafts. I will say that I was very encouraged and proud to see the Baltimore team pull together and work as a team and do so passionately, especially when it was a spur of the moment kind of deal. It just kind of reminded me of Uganda when we were supposed to hold a revival meeting at the Internal Displacement Camps in Gulu, but couldn't because of rain, and instead held kids worship with all the kids that followed us into the church. God just opens these doors, and there comes a time where you just go with it, and that's what the Baltimore team did. I'm also very encouraged by their actions because up until this point, the team was disjointed, and it was obvious that the team wasn't functioning as a team well. That same evening, we held evening worship with the few Christians in the village, and man did God rock me that night!
The evening worship started out normally, with some praise songs, but the key difference was the pastor. This particular pastor is actually from Mae Chang Khaw village, and he was called to Huay Mai Dua to serve as its pastor, and what blew me away was his love for the Lord that was evident in his praise. Looking at what was unfolding right in front of me, I just saw a man who deeply loved the Lord and wanted to share that with other people, when easily he could've stayed in his village where there is a bigger Christian community, but he comes every weekend to pastor the Christians in this village. This is the power of our God, the power of the message of Christ, and it moved me tremendously. That night it just made me realize, how much I love doing what I'm doing right now.
I don't feel that any of it is a burden, and I find so much joy out of doing ministry, much more than any other endeavor that I've undertaken, whether it's school, work, basketball, etc. Which got me to thinking, is this where I should be, is God calling me to the ministry, to missions full time? Before this night, just the very thought of it scared me and I would quickly put aside my thoughts, but I actually sat there that night and pondered on it. I haven't reached to a conclusion yet, but it has definitely been on my heart ever since, and all the plans about going into a credentialing program, and becoming a teacher has been thrown up in the air, and I feel like I'm back to the beginning to figure what lies ahead in my future. It is definitely something to pray long and hard about, but the thought of it doesn't frighten me so much.
Anyways after spending the night at Huay Mai Dua, we returned back to the Jasper Kids Home, and the Baltimore decided to just hang out with the Jasper Kids until Friday morning. The rest of the week was very relaxing. Since the Baltimore team was made up of high school students, I can tell that they could relate with the Jasper Kids better than I can or anyone else since they're all around the same age. It's encouraging to see how invested the team was in the Jasper Kids. After Friday rolled around, the team left for Chiang Mai, and I stayed back at the Jasper Kids Home to run a few errands that Pastor JJ wanted me to finish.
Overall I'd say working with the Baltimore team was both frustrating and fruitful. Frustrating in the sense that sometimes the focus wasn't there from the team, or there was a lack of unity, even though they had all the resources to excel, and a lot of it comes with being a high school student, I mean I can definitely remember not being as mature in high school. Having the Baltimore team was fruitful, because even with those deficiencies, God showed me He can use them for His glory. Whether it was through their willingness to do some manual labor, to their flexibility at Huay Mai Dua, to their genuine love for the Jasper Kids. Aside from having my moment in Huay Mai Dua, having the Baltimore team was fruitful in that it reminded me how important team unity is, especially after how my team from last year was not unified, and the Baltimore team taught me to trust in the Lord and have patience, no matter how much I wanted to intervene with the team. I had to trust in God's provision and not overstep my bounds, I know it sounds like a weak lesson, but it's definitely that was hard for me to do. In the end good experience all around! After Baltimore, the same Saturday that they left, San Jose New Hope arrived, and I will go into more detail about the San Jose team in my next post, otherwise enjoy the pics!
Teaching 1st - 2nd Grade at Baan Khuu School
Lunch after a hard day's study
Who's balloon is gonna pop first?
Anna, Mira, and Wonju hard at work teaching.
My students at Baan Khuu School
My other set of students
VBS at Huay Rai Village
The church at Huay Rai Village
Pondering Little Boy
Games involving food always priceless
Some of the Jasper Kids and Wonju
This was the runt of the litter, oh so cute
Teaching Kindergartners at Pasak School
The humble church at Huay Mai Dua, who needs a big facility when you can praise God in style in a hut with a thatched roof!
The nicest house I've seen in any village I've visited
Second best landscape next to Baan On
She's so cute!
Everyone holding up their Jesus piece...I kid, it's their fish piece!
Fellowship with the village kids
Fellowship with the villagers, so awesome!
