Frank's Missions Journal: New Hope is in the house

One day after the Baltimore team left, San Jose New Hope came to the Jasper Kids Home. To say that I was excited would be an understatement. First of all it was my church coming, and secondly, I was gonna have a chance to work with one of my closest buddies, so I was downright giddy. So all of Saturday I waited eagerly for the team to come because I couldn't pick them at the airport since I teach on Saturday mornings, and lo and behold when the team arrived what did I first notice... both Daniel Park and I were wearing similar get-ups. We were both wearing navy blue Champion Dri-Fit shirts from Target and we were both wearing blue and white shorts, albeit his was Nike's and mine was Starbury's (yes...Starburys). This was probably the most befitting way for Daniel and I reunited, wearing almost the exact say clothes. I guess it's not as funny reading it, than if you were there. It was definitely nice to get a few chuckles in with my team. Aside from that everything went as scheduled for the duration of the trip. Like the other teams we taught English, did village visits, and held weekend VBS at Huay Hin Rat Nok village. Couple other things we had a chance to do with this team was to do eye glass ministry because Jenny, one of the teammates, is an optometrist. Secondly, the Jasper Kids had a three day break for holiday during the mission team's stay, so we held a day to have games with the Jasper Kids. Overall there was a lot of different planned ministry on their plate, and I'm proud to say they took it in stride and without complaining, no matter how tiring it was.

From the beginning, New Hope had to hit the ground running because there was so many things packed into the first week. After settling in Saturday and having Sunday worship at the JK Home, we got to cracking on hammering out our lesson plans for the following day. As the unofficial leader of the team, I'll say that I was encouraged by their openness and willingness to discuss and go over lesson plans, even if it was tedious to do so. On Monday, we taught at Thung Kha Chi School, up in the mountain. I was paired up with Jeff as co-teachers for 1st-3rd grade, and I was pleasantly surprised at how well Jeff was doing teaching English to the kids, to the point where I could just stand back and assist him. I say this because, when teaching English as a second language the first time, it can be daunting and frustrating because it's easy to quickly run through the lesson plan, but Jeff kept a nice pace throughout, so good job Jeff! After finishing up our lessons for the day, we had lunch with the students and then played some games. We played games like Steal the Bacon and Dodge Ball and it was good to see both Jeff and Daniel get into it with the kids. After a long day of teaching English and playing with the students we all hopped in the truck, students included and spent the night at one of the nearby villages, Pakka Village.

At Pakka, we got to tour the village a little bit, and this was the first village that I visited when I came back to Thailand in March, so we it was nice to see some familiar faces. After touring and and eating rotisserie chicken (picture will explain everything) we held an informal eye glass ministry at the village. I came away with two things from this ministry. First off, I was in charge of Visual Acuity, basically the guy who points at the E's on an eye test to gauge if one's vision is 20/20 or not, and to put it bluntly, it is hard. It's not the actual testing that is hard, but the translating and having people understand what to do, and the repetitiveness of it all. A lot harder than I thought. Secondly, Jenny is a monster!!! Even after I was tired after an hour or two, Jenny just kept on working tirelessly, and she had the hardest job of all since she was doing all the real check ups. I give mad props to Jenny for what she does! After a long exhausting night, we slept and woke up the next morning to teach.

The next day we taught at Thung Kha Chi school again, and teaching went a lot more smoother for most of us. Jeff did most of the teaching and Jenny had a better teaching experience, which is usually the case after knowing what to expect now. Daniel had it a bit tougher the second day because one kindergartner was being disruptive throughout the class (I feel your pain Daniel), needless to say, he didn't let it faze him. It also started to rain on Tuesday, so immediately after lunch, we went back down to the JK Home for some R&R.

Tuesday afternoon, we spent the day doing some laundry and resting up, and helping the Jasper Kids with their homework, overall it was a low key day. The following day we headed out to Phrao Village, the home of Jesse, one of the new Jasper Kids boys. It had only been visited once by Ajan Arunee and Ajan Somsak, and a team had never gone before, so it was very exciting for all of us to make the trip out there. We headed out after lunch, and it took us two hours to get there, but fortunately I knocked out in the car until our arrival. Going into this trip, I had no idea what to expect, other than that we would be an encouragement to Jesse's family who are the only Christians in the village. Upon arrival, we took a tour of the village and suffice it to say, it was a pretty well developed village, it reminded me of Baan On in the sense that it had electricity, and the scenery was nice too. After the kids arrived home from school, we held an impromptu craft, praise, and game time with the kids. Unfortunately, we didn't bring craft materials other than origami paper, and the photo printer, due to my lack of preparations, so there were some concerns on what to do. As usual God used even our unpreparedness to minister to the kids. Long story short, we made origami swans and turtles and decorated each kid's picture with origami paper. After crafts we played games like Simon says and sang some praise songs like "Jesus is My Rock, and He Rolls My Blues Away." It was definitely humbling how God made the day a success even when we didn't have our resources, and it was made even sweeter that the team clicked as a unit to really make things work! This is where I began to see how God was taking the totally different personalities of each team member and unifying them to work for His kingdom! Truthfully, outside of the mission trip, I would tell you that because of their different personalities you probably would never see them hanging out, but I guess that's the beauty of Christ and how it bonds us. In that same evening, we held an evening worship service with Jesse's family and it was just so beautiful to see Christians encourage one another. I say this because, Jesse's family is essentially on an island on their own as they are the only Christians in their area. To see them faithfully living for the Lord even though they're physically apart from any Christian community, is a testament to their faith. Over this summer, I'll have to say this village visit has to be one of the most blessed trips I've been on.

*SIDE NOTE* Up until the Phrao trip I have eaten snake with both Daniel and Jeff, which kind of tastes like chicken, but not as tough, and I've eaten what I think is possum meat at Jesse's home. How to describe it, well, it has a very gamey flavor to it, and it is definitely musky. If you've eaten wild game like deer (venison) or buffalo, you can see what I'm talking about, and overall the meat was very tender. Would I eat it again, maybe if I had to, but if I had a choice, probably not because seeing an animal paw in the soup kind of freaked me out.

On Thursday we came back to Wiang Pa Pao, but we couldn't rest because we had eye glass ministry at Pasak Village which is 15 min away from Wiang Pa Pao. Around 3 o' clock in the afternoon we headed to the village to see a boatload of people waiting at the community center. Initially I thought they were having a town meeting, but all the people that were waiting, were actually waiting for us. Excitedly we set up our stations and equipment because this was one of New Hope's main ministries, but over the course of the next couple hours, you could tell the team was getting hungry, frustrated, and tired, except Jenny. Essentially we stayed at the village from 3PM to 9PM tending to about 75 - 80 people. About half way through the ministry, I felt ready to give up, because I was so tired, and I could see it in the faces of Jeff and Daniel as well, that their frustrations were mounting. At the same time we couldn't complain because we just saw Jenny go through patient after patient without tiring, and from her expression she was enjoying it, so it definitely motivated me to suck it up and continue on. I seriously think that around 6 PM, God was giving us the energy to finish, because I was dang tired. We were able to get through it, even up to the last patient. What was so awesome to witness was the joy on people's faces as they received their glasses and actually see things more clearly than they did an hour before. Like the other times, the eye glass ministry stretched the patience and will of the team, but I was very happy to see no one complaining, no one slacking, and everyone pouring their heart into the ministry and being flexible.

After a long day of travel and eye glass ministry, we all came home got some rest, and started a new day on Friday. On Friday we didn't have much down time because we had to prepare for VBS and leave the same day, no rest for the weary, but it was nice to get everyone on the same page for VBS. Most of the day was spent hammering out the details of the VBS and in the afternoon we went to Huay Hin Rat Nok Village (the village of Nilawan, Orathai, and Anupong) and basically fellowshiped with the villagers there. It was also a nice time to bond with the guys on the team and Brandon (Missionary Alex's son), as well as keep my mind off of ministry. I'm usually the type to over prepare and over think things, so just relaxing at the village was a nice getaway from myself. The next morning, we started the VBS early, around 8:30 AM, and for the whole day everything went smoothly. Jeff did well as Saul in our skit and presenting the message, everyone participated in praise, thanks to the Jasper Kids who went to the village, they were a big help as usual, both Daniel and Jenny did a good job reinforcing the theme and message of the VBS through their Paul/Saul description activity, and Jenny did an especially good job with the crafts. Also a huge shoutout goes to Brandon, in helping organizing the games for after worship. Here is a kid who I've seen this summer continue to make strides in maturity while helping out the summer mission teams. Always good to see young guys taking initiative and serve fervently for the Gospel! As I'm gushing about the VBS, I guess you can kind of tell that VBS went over very well, and its due to the fact that everyone pitched in and helped out.

The same evening, we had evening worship with the villagers, and after worship Pastor JJ had a little treat for us. He told our team to come outside and to our surprise he had fireworks all ready to be set off for us to play with it being 4th of July and all. With the villagers and the Jasper Kids, we got to set off bottle rockets, roman candles, and some other cool fireworks, it was a nice touch to end the evening. Now that I think about it, I haven't celebrated 4th of July in the States in 3 years, but it's all good. Sunday worship was awesome as usual, and it was even better because Daniel got to share his testimony, and I'm really proud of him, and how far he has come in Christ since I've known him. It definitely got a little emotional, as he was sharing in his testimony a tragedy that happened during his stay in Thailand, but the guy showed a lot of resolve and commitment to this mission trip even in the midst of hardship. So big ups to you Daniel!

After Sunday worship, as we were coming back down to JK Home, we hit a little snag on the road. As it was raining the previous evening and into Sunday, the dirt road became very muddy and on the first hill out of Huay Hin Rat Nok, all three of the trucks got stuck at the foot of the uphill road. Luckily, Pastor JJ had a winch on his car, so he was able to pull his car up the hill via the winch. The bigger problem was Ajan Somsak's truck which was only 2 wheel drive. Everyone got out and tried to push his truck up the hill to no avail because there was no traction as the rain continued to pour. After a few pushes, some slipping and falling in the mud, and a little help from the Pastor JJ's winch, we were able to get Ajan Somsak's truck up the hill and out of danger. Missionary Alex's truck also had some trouble getting up the road, but eventually after backing up and getting some momentum, he was able to get his truck over the hill. That ordeal definitely sapped a lot of my energy, but it was also some of the most fun I'd ever had. How many people will be able to say we helped get trucks out of a slick mud road while trekking through the mountain jungles of Thailand, once in a lifetime experience! Unfortunately expending all that energy and getting hit by the rain and the cold made me sick for the rest of the week, the price you pay for fun.

When we got home that Sunday, we all ate some Neoguri ramen (soooo......gooood....) and passed out. Then on Monday, we worked on putting together a basketball hoop for the Jasper Kids, but could not raise it and cement it because the rain kept coming, so instead we prepared for our day of fun with the Jasper Kids.

The very next day, it stopped raining, so we put up the basketball hoop , but we still couldn't play on it, until the cement finished drying, so we had to wait to christen the basketball hoop until Wednesday. On the other hand, with the Jasper Kids having the day off, the team organized a bunch of games with the kids. Our game list included games like eating a watermelon and then putting it on your head and running, eating cookies on a string, to putting a spoonful of peanut butter and trying to whistle (yes, I know a lot of games involved eating...hahahaha...). Although I was running with a fever, the team definitely picked up the slack for me! From the looks of things the Jasper Kids enjoyed all the games. In the evening we were gonna play some FOB games with the Jasper Kids like Dibby Dibby Dip, and Ming Meng Mong, but we decided to end the night by watching Forbidden Kingdom feat. Jackie Chan and Jet Li. Let me say, what a terrible movie, too many cheesy scenes especially between the protagonist and the female character, but the kids enjoyed so that's all that matters.

Finally on Wednesday, we had our final day of ministry, holding the eye glass ministry at the JK Home. This one was a lot more chill and a lot less people came. We were able to finish everything by 4 PM, and the Jasper Kids helped out a lot too. In the evening, we had evening worship at the Jasper Kids, and it was nice for the team to spend some quality time worshiping with all the Jasper Kids.