I am in Singapore!! I know that some of you may be thinking
what in the world am I doing in Singapore if I am serving in Thailand haha…Well
every 90 days or so I need to leave the country to renew my visa. I am not
allowed to renew my visa within the country and even if I were, now would not
be the best time to do so with all hassle caused by the protest. So I chose
Singapore to do my visa run. I have about a week off to do my visa and then I
head back to Nonthaburi, Thailand.
I want to first apologize for not updating as much as I
would like to the last couple of months. I have been fairly busy with the
everyday church activities going on here.
I just ended my teaching at Wat Fang, a local school that
many of our compassion kids attend. I was teaching there every Monday and
Wednesday. The kids are now in the testing season and will go on break until
the beginning of May. Every Wednesday was just regular conversational English
teaching for the 4th – 6th grade. Things like “What is
your name?”, “Nice to meet you”, “What do you like to do?” etc. Mondays on the
other hand was a day that I got to teach them Bible stories, but the challenge
was doing it in English, keep in mind these kids don’t speak a single word of
English. Thankfully though I was able to translate most of what I said into
Thai so the kids understood most of what I was saying and on days that I really
want to challenge the kids, hand motions became my best friend. I was able to teach
them some imported games from America that they have never played before like
Simon Says (instead I renamed it God Says J) and Ninja (if you
don’t know this game you can ask one of the youth kids at my church). The kids
really enjoyed this time, but the best part of this time was that I didn’t only
spend it with the older kids I got to do this every Monday with the grades 1-6
which is practically the entire school if you don’t include preschool. So it’s
amazing that the school has allowed us to go into the school and evangelize
with most of the kids in the school. God has really blessed the time I get to
spend with these kids. They are truly a group of kids that have so much love
and interests but don’t know how to show it. If you read from my last entry you
will be able to know a little bit more about where these kids are from and why
it is so important for us to minister to these kids.
Below is a photo of the last day I got to spend with these
kids. They are split up from grades 1-3 and 4-6, respectively.
So every Tuesday and Thursday when I am not teaching at Wat
Fang I am teaching at the church during the evening to a class mostly of
university students who want to learn conversational English. There are a few
older folks in the class who like to learn English that attend as well. The
great thing about this class is that most the students are non-believers and it
serves the purpose of what this English school was designed to do, which is
minister to non-believers through teaching them English. Some of them have
shown an interest in Christ, but are still pretty far from accepting change
into their lives. But we have befriended them and are building relationships
with them, which is a start to sharing the good news.
On Fridays we have something called Bible Club, which was
started only a several weeks ago by one the missionary pastors from Word of
Life. It is still in its early stages, but we want it to continue into a time
where the youth of this church can gather and really enjoy bible study with one
another and get a deeper understanding of what the Bible is really saying to
us.
Saturdays is another day I get to work with kids, but this
time middle school and high school ages, all still from the compassion
organization. Every Saturday kids come to church for VBS, but before that time
volunteers of the church teach the kids different school subjects to help them
with their studies. I of course teach English to the older girls, but not just
any regular conversational English, NO! I teach them grammar. To me, this is
beyond crazy!! ME?! Teaching grammar to anyone! Considering how much I despise
grammar and how bad I am at it most of the time, but God does have a sense of
humor and uses our weaknesses to do work for Him. So somehow these girls
understand most of what I’ m teaching them. Lets just all pray that I am
teaching them correct grammar hehe… I have had to brush up on a lot of my
simple grammar since teaching on Saturdays so please don’t go through this
entry looking for grammar mistakes cause I am certain that there are plenty
haha…
This has been my basic routine for the past 2 months with
the occasional specials events every now and then. However, Sundays is a little
different and something new since the last update. This church does small
groups after service and lunch. There are a total of 5 groups: Fresh Jiew
(Elementary kids), Fresh (upper middle school & high school), 3G
(University), Work (self explanatory), and Pra Pawn (Family). I am in the Fresh
group as a leader, which is also something I was not expecting from God. I
really didn’t think I could lead another youth group considering how close I
was to my group at home and how much I didn’t want to fell like I was moving on
from my group at RCAC. But God has taught me something while debating about the
decision to serve in this role.
He has taught me that just because I was willing to move all
the way across the world doesn’t mean that I moved on from my life as a youth
leader and away from the RCAC group. Something in me will always have a passion
for the youth and that really started because of how the youth of RCAC made me
feel. No matter how bad the days were or how tired I was I always looked
forward to spending my time with the youth because there is never a dull moment
with these kids. They made me look at the world differently, no matter how
stupid you look making all those ugly faces or how NOT funny your joke was it
didn’t matter because we all did it together or we made those around us smile
while doing it. But what they really taught me was how to love. I can say that
these kids have taught me to love them for who they are, to accept them because
we are all a work in progress and we all need a little TLC all of the time.
They have somehow got me to do things for them that I would not do for anyone
else. I realized that this move wasn’t just for my growth it was also for
theirs. So they can share the love that they have given me with others who need
some silliness in their life and share a smile with a few people around them. And
I need to teach what my group has taught me to the kids here who have no idea
what’s it’s like to have a family who really cares to take the time to give you
the love you don’t deserve, but need to have.
Though I realize that I may not be able to successfully transfer
this thought process to the kids in Thailand during my stay here, but I can
help instill this idea into those who are willing to invest their time into a
generation that is dying in social media.
With that said I ask to pray for this monumental task, that
God can use the people here to give love to those around them to spread the joy
that comes from the One and Only. To let the next generation know that the love
you see in movies is just that, a movie, and that true love comes from above,
but only if we are willing to seek out that love and share it with others once
we have received it. Please pray that God can use me to show the love that He
has given me and share that love with the youth kids here. Please pray for the
upcoming retreat the youth are going and this can be a time that God can lay a
foundation in them.
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| Just a night in the Singaporean Bay while the business district is still awake |
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| The Marina Bay Casino Hotel and Resort |
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