Sunday Morning and Night Market

Sawasdee ka (hello)! Today was our second full day in Thailand and our first day with the whole Lampang church. This morning we joined our Khmu brothers and sisters for church; to worship together, pray together, and learn about the word of God. 

Walking in to the church building and seeing the faces of some church members I had met 8 years ago and recognizing each other brought me so much joy. For the first bit in the morning while those leading worship practiced we got to connect with the church elders and their families. We sang some songs together and the kids did a wonderful job leading us through the actions. While we didn't know the words to the songs we were all worshipping together. 

Throughout the service we heard from Nolan as he preached from the book of Acts. Several church members got up and shared their testimony of how they came to know God and how God has been at work in their lives. It was amazing to hear these stories of transformation - how God was at work in their lives before they knew it sometimes. Some of our team members also shared testimony of how they have seen God at work, though there are many differences between our team and the Thai church members,  God unites and transforms us all. 

Today was also the first day we started teaching some English lessons. As our kids in Sunday school may remember I had shared with them how nervous I was about teaching English when recently teaching them the story of David and Goliath Sometimes it is easy for me to teach the lesson that God is with us in the challenges, but hard to remember it and put into practice myself. But God is gracious and gives us lots of oppurtunities Though we did not cover much English, mostly introductions, some animals, and body parts like eyes and nose, there was so much fun and relationship. We started with a this or that icebreaker where church members the team members would go to one side or the other based on which option they prefer - it was very close between pepsi and coke, but in terms of stores 7-11 won by a landslide over any other store (we Canadians are really missing out when it comes to good 7-11s). There were lots of laughs while playing this together.

 Then we moved on to having each member draw some animals, mostly animals found in Thailand and then we also included a moose to represent Canada. It was so good to see everyone so involved kids and parents all drawing together. The drawings were turned into stickers with the help of David who figured out the night before while quite jet lagged the perfect way to tape them to wax paper so they could be peeled off and stuck onto something later. Then everyone had to find someone else with the same animal and practice introducing themselves in English. We did some other ESL activities, but more than that the Holy Spirit was at work in building connections between the team and church members. Even connections through silly moments, like David demonstrating his moose sound to the church members:

In the afternoon we learned that we were going down to the river for some baptisms We all piled into the van and followed the church members down to the river where 14 church members, mostly kids and teens, were baptized by Pastor Jan and Nolan. It was beautiful to see the commitment those individuals have to God and how they share it with their church family.   

We got some down time in the late afternoon and had a chance to refresh and rest before going out the evening to a Night Market (something we also lack in Canada but would be a great addition). There were so many stalls with all kinds of food, drinks, desserts, clothes, anime collectibles, and more. We explored around for a few hours, inhaling in the culture (metaphorically) and the food (literally). The team tried so many things, Ava and Cadence tried some bugs (with overall enjoyment - though crunchy). Katelyn, Lauren and I had the best steamed dumplings and refreshing coconut slushies. David, Tyler, and Silas became fast friends with a man at a juice stall, who though lived in Thailand his whole life spoke with a British accent from watching TV and videos on the internet. And for those who I am sure are wondering, Tyler did try some new food as well - grilled pig intestine, the whole team was very impressed :)

We are so thankful to God for how he has provided this opportunity for us to grow in our individual relationships and overall Westwood's relationship with the Lampang church. There are many things to pray about, but the connection and building upon relationships is such a key component of our mission and our shared goal with the church. So please be praying for continued connection (even across the language barrier and for friendship as we enjoy fellowship with church members in their homes this week during the evenings.