July 13 – Thank God everyone except Eugene (mild stomach problems) is healthy once again, but Dorcas and Jeremy both sprained their ankles playing basketball last night after dinner with the youth from the BH church. They can both walk OK, but just a little slowly. We were supposed to spend most of the next two days ministering to the poor in the slum area area at Nontaburi and evangelizing the older students at the Buddhist school where we went the second day we got here, but all the school activities were canceled because there is influenza outbreak in that area of Bangkok. We are still planning to visit some of the slum families there this evening. So instead, after group devotion at 8:30, so started our tour debriefing and went to the mall to grab an early lunch. Tour debriefing (contrasted to daily debriefing) is a very important part of our tour when each person reflects on what God has taught them and they decide what to bring back to LA. The group then encourages them and prays over them. We debriefed 4 members of our team before lunch. Pastor Ohm met us at noon in front of our Guest House to take us to visit the Thai Cultural Center. But God had other plans, the bus we rented broke down and the replacement bus was caught in traffic and could not come for two more hours, so we knew God had other plans for us. Pastor Ohm suggested we go to his alma mater located near his church in Nontaburi and we felt this is what the Lord wanted for us to do. We left Jeremy, Dorcas, and Eugene behind with some sandwiches and took 5 cabs to his church. It cost us less than 1/5 of the bus charter cost (and even though we have to pay a similar amount to return), we still netted a savings of over 2000 Baht by taking taxis. We went to the church to stamp the church name and address on our bi-lingual "Peace with God" tracts, and then proceeded to the University. We looked for people who could and wanted to speak English but also used Own (who had joined us at lunch time), Pastor Ohm, and Sue to speak in Thai. We sang as a whole group and as smaller groups to whoever would listen to us and then shared the Gospel. When we debrief this part of the trip tomorrow, we will find out more details of what happened, but at a minimum, Melissa and Meiring prayed with a girl to receive the Lord, and her friend indicated she wanted to know more and would come to Pastor Ohm's church. Joe and Fiona shared and one person accepted Christ. When we sang and shared, at least one person would pay rapt attention while some seemed bored, but it is clear the Lord set up some wonderful divine appointments for us. We left a little after about 2 hours to return to the church It was at this time we found out that Pastor Ohm did not sleep last night because he has seen a doctor and is suffering from shingles. We prayed for him and were amazed he did all he did today in pain and without sleep. Remember him in prayer. We then. broke into 4 groups, led by a staff member from the church and a translator and each team visited 4 families who lived in the slums. For each family, Pastor Ohm's church bought a 5 kg sack of rice, some milk products, that Vision paid for, so we brought those things and a stuffed animal for each child in the family. The sight is very much like Welfareville in Manila, poorly built shacks that house up to 20 people, but fortunately most of them had clean water and electricity. Some even had TV's and satellite dishes, but many did not have mother or the father was off in a different city to work so the grandma took care of the children. We also saw families who had become believers and had weekly Bible studies at their little homes, so it was a hard scene, but also hopeful. All were so grateful for the little food we brought. Again, when we debrief as a group tomorrow, I will have more details. We took a love offering from our team members, a total of over 9000 Baht to give to their ministry. We then invited Pastor Ohm and his wife and staff to dinner, which we all enjoyed. For 24 people, we spent 5500 Baht including tip, which works out to less than $6.75 per person for shabu-shabu, Thai style. Sue then treated us to Dairy Queen soft ice cream. We took taxis back and returned a little after 9:30 PM, a tiring day, but deeply satisfying in terms of ministry. God's plans are so much better than anything we can figure out.
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