Arrived safely!

November 1, 2013

I have arrived safely in Thailand!!!! And I’m alive!!! It was about a 20-hour flight with an hour lay over in Seoul. The flight itself was not to bad as I slept through most of it as I do with any flight. I stayed the night at one of the missionary’s home in Bangkok, Pastor Glen and his wife, Bim. Pastor Glen is a missionary sent from his home church in Singapore however he is originally from Australia and his wife is originally from Bangkok but she moved to Singapore for Bible College. Now I am at the church that I will be working with, Streams of Blessings. I will be staying in the church dormitory until I find a place of my own to stay at. The church is a 3-story building and I am staying on the 3^rd floor. It used to be a school until they converted the place to a church a few years ago. I have already met a handful of people including the Senior Pastor, Pastor Ohm and his wife, Kae and some of the church members. I also met May, who is a missionary from Singapore as well; she and I will be the 2 English teachers here.

A new semester for the English school will start very soon and I will be able to sit in a few lessons to get familiar with the curriculum that the school here uses. Until then I will be trying to settle in and get used to area. Everyone went for dinner tonight at a church member’s house, however I was starting to feel the jetlag and decided to stay behind and get some rest. But first I will discuss my first impressions of Thailand and the people I have met so far.

First off Thailand is HOT and humid! It’s one of those places that you take a shower and feel like you need another shower right after. Second, they drive on the other side of the road! I always knew that they did, but its very different than what I imagined it to be like. This is probably the first thing that I need to get used to. And lastly, the people here are an interesting bunch of people, a great mix of personalities, at least from the people that I have met so far. The church members are very laid back and never seem in a rush to do anything. Everyone has a “go with the flow” mentality, which if you know me you know this is NOT my kind of mentality at all! Haha…something else to get used to. :P However, there is one person who does not have this mentality at all and that person is Pastor Ohm. He has a very intentional personality and he seems like a person who is very passionate about everything that he does and in particular the ministries within this church that he has been leading for about 5 years or so now. He was very excited to meet me and that I am here to join efforts in leading a few groups within the church. He is particularly excited because not only am I the first person to come from the States to serve as an English teacher, but I am the only to person to have came from anywhere around the world. CRAZY!! I know! But let me explain.

There are 3 full time missionaries within the church, 2 couples and 1 single woman. 2 missionaries are from Singapore and 1 couple are from Atlanta, Georgia and all three were sent from different ministries to help out with a different cause other than this church but somehow found this church and started to get involved with the church ministry while also helping out with other ministries. But I am the first person to come for the purpose of just serving this church. This church as never had an outside missionary specifically come with a purpose to serve just in the ministries of this church. This was quite shocking to me because this church was started over 20 years ago, but this tells me that this church is still has a lot of room to grow as with any church. From what I have learned about this church through conversation with Pastor Glen and Pastor Ohm, it seems that the congregation members lack committed to not only the church but also Christ Himself. This church is in country that is mainly Buddhist and most of the people here only know Buddhism so it is difficult to break the mold and not fall back into the social norm. But I can now see why Pastor Ohm was called to lead this church. He gets very excited about God and ministry and his excitement is very contagious. I believe that this will help the people here to start getting excited for Christ and His serving His Kingdom. As for me this is a lot of pressure knowing that this church has never had anyone like me before, but at the same time I am very excited to see what I can do with this type of role within the church.

I know that God has called me to Thailand and in particular this church for a reason. I hope that throughout this next year I will not only grow spiritually but help others grow spiritually as well. Being the planner that I am it’s terrifying not knowing what will happen next but I am trusting in the Lord to guide me through this journey and to give the wisdom to help guide others to Him as well. I came to Thailand not expecting much because being here is a blessing all in itself, but I look forward to the many blessings and lessons God has planned for me here. But for now it is time for me to sleep! I will try to update as much as I can. J Thank you for taking the time to read the first part of many parts to this once in a life time adventure.