Wow.
I feel like last night I had a little to say-- which was pretty much summed up in the pictures I posted... But now there is so much more. Actually, I cannot believe that we still haven't been in the city for a full day yet. I feel like we've fit in three days at least. Aside from learning Thai (Sawat-de-ca: Hello/Goodbye) and (Cop-Khun-Ca: Thank you) and (Chai & Mais Chai: Thank you, No Thank You)-- being oriented to "The Kingdom" as it is called-- we also met Bret Cox and his wife, Susie-- went to the slums-- (which included two, as Doug put it, "terrifying" rides in the cab)-- had dinner with the Clarkson's (a family from Spotswood) and made a late-night trip to the 7-11... where we found many unusual things (that included "Seaweed Blankets"-- they were edible, and "Sushi flavored" potato chips. Dylan and I bought Sprite.) One interesting cultural thing is that it is offensive to drink straight from a bottle, so everyone uses straws. So, upon buying my glass-bottle-Sprite (which was 10 Baht- est. 30 cents) the cashier used a bottle-opener to open it for me and then provided me with a complimentary straw.
Today could not have gone better. We definitely were able to get a feel for the Thai culture and were able to interact with both adults and children-- and our time with the missionaries was phenomenal. It was so neat to hear their hearts for Thailand/Bangkok. One thing I am noticing (already) is that everything the missionaries do has a "long term approach." There is no "fast way" to share Christ with these people. They have no real base knowledge of the Bible/God/Gospel-- so, as one of the missionaries here said, "You can't start from scratch, you have to start from the itch." The missionaries can't just come in, share the Romans Road and do an altar call. The culture doesn't work that way. Instead, they have to build some equity with the people and really understand the culture before they can appropriately share the gospel. Doug, in one of his talks with the missionaries, found out that they actually try to avoid John 3:16 in conversations with the locals-- because to them, everlasting life is seen as a punishment. Because with Buddhism so prevalent, the reason they think they are alive is because they haven't been "good enough." So the ultimate reward is not life, but non-existence. So, for us as Americans to tromp in and start talking about "everlasting life" off the bat would be not only un-appealing, but repulsive to them. So instead, the missionaries are investing in loving the people, learning their culture and then sharing the gospel in a way that is maintains the authenticity of the Bible, but in a way that Thai people understand. This process doesn't happen overnight, but it was so cool today to get to see one of the stages of it.
One of the sweetest things today, though, had to be going to the slums. The people here rate slums on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the absolute worst (living in raw sewage-- trash-- straw homes, etc) and 5 being not so shabby. The slum we went to "Blaplaa" was a 2. The slums are all the King's Land-- so it is owned (and maybe maintained? It didn't seem too maintained...) by the King. Every Saturday Lifepoint: Bangkok goes down to Blaplaa and hangs out with the children, teaches them songs, have English lessons/play sports/etc. At first when we showed up it was pretty awkward. The kids all ran up to the missionaries, and a few wai'd at us (the Thai greeting) but for the most part they just ignored us. But after a few minutes we all picked different activities (basketball, pushing kids on this merry-go-round thing, playing with the girls, etc) and after lots of smiling and laughing, the kids warmed up to us. Before long, I had two girls holding my hands-- which transitioned into one of them sitting on my lap singing. "Hello, what's your name? *clap clap clap* Hello, what's your name? *clap clap clap clap clap clap* My name is ____" and moving my hands to clap along with the song. She then proceeded to see my pocket bulging and discovered my chapstick and hand-sanitizer... which, was a bigger hit than I could have imagined. The slum smelled like "White Citrus" by the time we left. It was so fun to see the way they got excited over everything-- we taught them "O Happy Day" with hand motions (of course!) and it was so fun to see them start singing along with us. We played soccer, basketball, the girls were giving lessons in Thai-traditional-dancing (I played soccer), but mostly, they just wanted to be hugged and loved on.
I don't really know how to give an appropriate snapshot of the day-- or to really faithfully represent all that happened and we experienced today. But I know that God is doing big things here. And I am so excited for the rest of this week-- and right now, am so excited to go to bed! Until tomorrow--
Sawat-de-ca.
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