February 26

This morning was Nak Su.  It was awesome to actually get to be there for it, we’ve been hearing about doing it for months, and were all so excited to work with them.  They have between 80-100 kids from 5 slums and a boys home there every week that they split up into teams to coach. 

I was helping with a girls team, and a U-8 mixed team.  The kids were so cute – as soon as we got there, they jumped all over us, and wouldn’t let go.  Some of the little girls would stand on our feet, and make us walk them around places.  I brought my sunglasses with me, and for the whole time, all the little kids would steal them from me and each other, it was so funny to watch.

Coaching the team was really funny though, because I have no idea how to play rugby – I don’t even know the rules for it.  It was a lot of fun though, some of the kids are amazing at it.

They were telling us about it a bit, and they said that they have sponsors that are willing to give these kids scholarships and stuff for university if they get good enough at rugby – it’s awesome to know that they’re not just getting to play rugby, but also are getting a chance to actually be educated and have a future more than just the slum that they live in.

February 24

This afternoon a few of us went into a slum to do a bible study type thing with the kids living there.  As part of ARK (the ministry we work with) they run these types of programs every week in all of the slums that the kids come to Nak Suu (the rugby program that they run every weekend).

We went into a community that’s entirely built over a swamp/pond area.  Going in there was crazy to see the way that these kids live.  They live getting only one meal a day, at the most.  Most of the people in this slum are from Cambodia, a lot of them are illegal immigrants.  Because of that, they’re scared to even let their kids come to our programs, because they’re scared that the police will take the kids, and bring them back to Cambodia.

When we got there, we just found a bit of an open space and played a bunch of games with the kids, and then taught them the story of creation.  It was really cool, because they had been learning about it a bit already, so the way that we did it today was that we brought pictures of creation, and then they told us the story of creation.  The kids love learning about God so much, it’s awesome to see.

February 19

This morning we went over to ARK International’s office/house.  It was the first time we’ve seen it – it’s an absolutely amazing building.  They have 2 houses that were given to them to use – one is for the family that runs ARK, the other is for the offices, and some more housing. The places are so nice – you could stick them in a Canadian neighbourhood, and they would be really really nice.  We did a bunch of prayer in the morning, and then work around the place, cleaning and doing inventory of stuff.  Also, another girl and I worked on planning crafts for the kids for one of the ministries that we’re going to help run while we’re here.

Then at night we went out with the counselling school and ARK to part of the Red Light District to do ministry stuff.  It was insane, seeing how open everything is here, there’s no hiding what goes on in the district at all.  The area I went to, it was a big open market, and as you walk down the street it was just like, market stall… market stall… women… market… women… family looking around… market… people in the Muslim dress things… women.  It was so out in the open, I’ve never seen anything like it before.  We spent a bunch of time praying for the women working there, and then me, a translator, and a couple of the counselling girls went to talk with one of the girls.  Her name’s Sofia, and she’s actually one of the sweetest girls that I’ve ever met.  She was really eager to talk to us – she told us about how she was heart broken right now.  Then she went on to tell us about how she used to be married, and had 3 kids.  But 2 years ago, her husband took her kids, and moved to Canada, so now she has to live here alone, and hasn’t seen her kids since they left for Canada.  It was so heartbreaking, to see how much pain she was in because of it.  As we talked to her, it was obvious that she wanted to get out of her job so bad, but she couldn’t, because it was the only way that she could afford to live.  While she was talking, we just saw so much how she has the kindest heart – she said that any time any of her ‘friends’ need anything, she’ll do it for them, if it’s giving them money, or anything, without expecting anything back from them – but she also talked about how her friends were only her friends when they could get something from her, when she had money that she could share with them, or whatever.
We ended up talking to her for about an hour – she just kept talking, because she didn’t want to be working so badly.  At the end of our time, she only stopped because her friend literally grabbed her by the arm, and dragged her away so that she could get back to work.

Please pray for Sofia and girls like her – they don’t want to be in the situations that they’re in.  Please pray for opportunities, and for ministries, within the Red Light District that are helping to get these girls out of the lives that they’re in now.  Also, please pray for safety for the girls – it’s really dangerous down there for them, we were warned when we got there to be really careful about even talking to any of the girls, because if they’re seen talking to someone and not working, they can get into big trouble by the guys that own them.

February 17

This morning we went to a university here, to hang out invitations to a church service this Sunday, and just talk to people.  The university that we went to has about 700,000 students (that’s about 5-6 times as big as Abbotsford).  It’s insanely huge.  It was really cool, because most of the students there at least spoke a bit of English so it wasn’t too hard to talk to them.  It was weird though, because I’m so used to being in Mexico City, where you go up to someone, and just start talking to them about God, and they’ll talk to you.  But here, we can’t do that – people are super closed to hearing about God, and a lot of people don’t even know who God is.

Then in the afternoon we went to one of the International School’s in town.  It’s a kindergarten to grade 12 school, that's a lot of the missionary/diplomat kids, as well as a lot of the kids from rich Thai families. We just hung outside of the school for a while, playing drums, and being with the kids.  There are some people that go there every week, and use drumming as a way to draw kids in, and then to be able to talk to them about God.  So we just went there, and drummed with them.  It was really weird to hear kids speaking English again.  I don’t even remember the last time that I’ve actually been able to have a conversation with a kid without having to pull out the little bit of Spanish I sort of know, or sign language or anything.

Octopus tag with the kids.

Sharing the gospel and giving testimonies.

February 16

This afternoon we started working with ARK International (a YWAM Perth ministry that runs here in Bangkok).  They go into the ‘communities’ (slums – they don’t call them that because of the negative connotation that it has, but that’s what they are) and pick up a bunch of kids to run an afternoon program with them.  We picked them up from 2 different communities, and brought them to a park to play games with them.  We played octopus tag with them, it was so much fun.  They all just jump on your back, and ride from one end of the court to the other that we were playing on.  The funniest part about it, was that if you got tagged, instead of them sitting down with you, they would get off you when you sat down, and they would keep running.  It was so much fun to see them have so much fun playing the game with us.

Then after, we shared a bit of the gospel and prayed with them.  They seemed really receptive to it, it was really cool.  They all listen so well to it, and seem to be taking it all in, and starting to receive it.

There was one little girl that I was sitting with, she had this little barbie with her.  She was so cute, she kept saying how the barbie looked like me, because it was white.  She got me to put up the barbie’s hair like mine was and everything, it was so cute. 

February 15

We went on a ‘religious’ tour of the city today.  Pretty much it just consisted of going to a bunch of the different shrines/temples around Bangkok.  It’s insane how much they put into their religion.  Tons of people come to the shrines every day to pray and make sacrifices every day to the Buddha’s.  They all seem so dependent on something that’s so dead, and can’t actually do anything for them. 

But then at the same time, it’s really weird because they’ve turned their temples into tourist attractions.  They charge money to get into a bunch of them, we went outside the Presidential temple today, they charge about $10 a person, just to see the Buddha that their King worships.

Here’s a couple pictures of the temples, they’re really cool looking:

Bottom Left:  This Buddha is called the Reclining Buddha.  It’s literally reclining.  As in it’s a 42 meter gold statue that’s lying down.

Bottom Right:  The Presidential Temple.  It’s in the complex that the president lives in so it’s crazy touristy.

February 14

This morning we had out Thai cultural orientation… it’s crazy how different Thai culture is from North American culture.  Mostly for humour’s sake, I’ll put up a few of the differences here:

1. The head is the most honourable part of the body – if you touch someone else’s head, it’s incredibly insulting.

2. Feet are dirty.  Never point your foot at someone or something.  Don’t sit with your legs extended.

3.Buddhist monks can not touch a woman.  If a woman has to give something to a monk, she must pass it to him through a man.

4. The Thai people love their King.  When they ask you anything about the King, you have to reply “The King is good”, even if they’re asking a question like “Is the King tall?”

5. Questions like “Why are you so fat?'” or “What kind of birth control do you use?” are perfectly normal, and not considered nosy.

yep… kinda some weird things that will probably take a while to get used to.

 

After orientation we had a bit of a food orientation… it was awesome.  Thai food is amazing.  We went to a restaurant, and they just had a billion different foods there for us to try (mostly it was just lots of different stuff to put on rice).

February 13

We landed in Thailand today… it’s a completely different world here.  Everything is so foreign, and amazing.  I love it so much. On our way home from the airport we rode in the back of a truck, and passed by fields and rivers; pretty much it was exactly like anything you see of Asia(the parts that aren’t actually in the huge cities) on shows like the Amazing Race, or something like that.  We’re living at a YWAM base here… they have a dorm-type apartment building that the have for outreach teams.  There’s a massive market right by our house too… it’s so cool!  They have pretty much everything you could imagine there – and everything is super cheap, it’s awesome.

I think the weirdest experience so far here has been eating.  Because we have no idea what anything is, and obviously can’t even try to figure out the menus like we did in Mexico.  So the only thing we ever have to look at is the pictures… but so far it’s worked out pretty okay.

Also, really weird thing… I keep trying to speak to all the market vendors and pretty much everyone else too in Spanish, even though a lot of them do at least speak a little bit of English.  It’s such a weird experience, because I’ve never thought that I would try to speak to people in Spanish before I tried to speak to people in English before.

February 11–Goodbye Mexico City

This morning we left Mexico City (at way too early in the day to be alive)… It’s weird to not be there anymore.  It had gotten to the point that our church was home, and it was like we had been there forever.  It was an awesome experience, but I’m ready to go to Thailand, so is the rest of my team.  It’s really exciting though, to think of how the work that we’ve been doing in Mexico City isn’t going to stop because we left, but I know that the church there is so grateful for Megacities coming to them, and they’re going to continue so much with everything that we’ve been doing there.

Here’s some random things about Mexico City that I’ve discovered over the past 2 months, but never put up here:

1. They have absolutely no respect for women.  You walk down the street (even if you’re walking with 8 guys that are 6 feet tall) and guys whistle at you all the time – it’s weird to not hear it.  At first I was confused, but then I realized that at least part of it is due to the fact that porn is everywhere… literally.  There are magazine stands at pretty much every street corner, and there are always porn magazines everywhere. 
If you guys could pray for that, that would be awesome, just that those stands and that disrespect for women would just really get torn down.

2. The smog here is disgusting.  We were in the airplane this morning, and looking out the window onto the runway, I couldn’t see the end of it, because the smog is so thick.

3. The city is literally sinking.  It was built on a lake (dumb idea… apparently some Aztec god thing showed the people some sign or something that they should build there city there).  You walk through the city, and it’s the weirdest feeling ever, because it seems like the whole world is tipping sideways, but it’s just the city sinking.  Also, if you go into some of the buildings, it feels like the whole building is a huge ramp because of how sunk it already is.

4. Taco’s are pretty much the best thing ever… I’m pretty sure I could eat them everyday of my life and not get sick of them.  Like actually though, there were weeks here that we would eat Taco’s for one or two meals a day for a week straight… it was awesome.

5. The Mexican church is amazing!  They’re all so excited about their own city, and about bringing God into their city.  It was so cool to see, because at home it always seems like the hardest place to reach is your own city, and that it’s so much easier to just go overseas, or even an hour away to a different city or something.  But the people here are all so excited about bringing God into the people they know, into their neighbourhoods, into their city.  Mexico City is going to change so much in the next few years because of how excited the church is for God after this year of YWAM being there.

February 8

Today was our last day with the kids that we teach English to.  It was so weird knowing that we aren’t going to see them again until heaven someday hopefully.  The kids are so cute though.  They always just repeat everything that we say, so that they can learn better.  So when we get there, we’ll ask them how the are, and instead of answering us, they’ll ask us back.  I never actually thought that I would like teaching so much, it was always one of those things that I thought I would hate so much, but I’ve loved teaching these kids so much.
We were talking to the lady that runs the Salvation Army, and she was telling us about how us teaching them English for around a month with help them out so much in life.  It was really rewarding, to get reminded that what we’re doing is actually doing something for these kids, it’s not just something that we’ve been doing for the past month to just fill up time.

This is a picture of our class: