Thailand Week 2

Cooking a western style lunch for the kids a.k.a. spaghetti

The second week in Thailand our team went to 2 hill tribe villages. We stayed at the first village for one day and one night. During the day we played some games with the kids while the rest of the village sat and watched, entertained by the big group of white people playing children's games. That evening we joined the village church for a worship and prayer time. The next morning we headed off to the next village where we would stay for the rest of the week.

During the day the kids would gather in the church and we would split into about 5 different groups to teach them English. We had the opportunity one afternoon to go into the village with our translator to find someone to talk to and pray with. It was very quiet and empty (afternoon nap time according to our translator) but we kept walking and started to head up a muddy slope towards some more houses. We passed a house with 3 young women and their children sitting on their stilted porch. We said hello and asked if we could join them. They welcomed us in and so we climbed up the wooden ladder and made ourselves comfortable on their front porch. We started having casual conversation with them (well, as casual as you can when you are speaking through a translator) and then one of the woman asked us if we were Christians. When we told her we were, she said she was too. I was really surprised by this because Thailand is a significantly Buddhist nation with very few Christians, so to find a Christian in a random village was crazy. We talked to her more about what she believed and became confused quite quickly with some of the things she was saying. She brought out all the material she had about God and her Bible and it turns out that she was a Jehovah's Witness.

Teaching English to the kids in the Hill Tribes

 Some of the girls on my team asked her some more questions and explained more of what they believed about God. We had been talking for almost 2 hours and things were getting even more confusing with the language barrier. So we ended by praying for the woman and her children and went on our way. I was at a loss for what to do. In this type of situation, where communication is difficult and confused doctrines are being tossed to and fro, do you try to convince this woman that what she is already so confused about is all wrong or do you trust that the words you have shared with her about what you believe will touch her heart in a way that God can bring her closer to Him? I saw no point in trying to convince this woman to believe a certain way by arguing doctrine, in fact I believe that would have caused more division between us. It's not our job to convince people to know God or to believe a certain way. We're not salesmen trying to get the most buyers. Our job is to share how God changed our lives through what Jesus did on the cross and personally in our day to day lives. Our job is to share the love that God gives to us so freely so that we can give it away to the lost and broken. We can't save people, only God can do that. We can guide them, encourage them, love them, support them, and share with them. The rest is up to Him.

Our team with some families from the village