{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 2

Sunday, July 1
The Indonesian team arrived an hour late yesterday afternoon, just in time for dinner, and they were hungry, since Air Asia does not serve any food (without charging a lot). Dinner was a delicious curry chicken, veggies and lots of delicious, mouth watering fruit - mangos, pineapples, lychees, etc. Pastor Gampon briefed us about Thai culture and we spent a little time practicing together; and then Ching briefed us on the ministries we will be doing with her. We then went to bed early and almost all of us slept well.
Today got off to an early start but we were up to it. Sue is much better for which we thank God and all your prayers. We left for Chiangdao to a village church (mainly Kachin) made up of refugees from Burma. Service started at 9 with enthusiastic singing and a communion service. When we got there before 10, there were perhaps 100 adults and 40 or 50 plus children who sat quietly through the whole 3 hour service. There were another 20 or 30 sitting outside after we got in. We were given our time to share at 10:45. Since they had only a small keyboard, we sang only acapella songs. Andrew (from Indonesia) shared how he was given tips from the parents of the students he was teaching, exceeding what he should have received. When he reported this to the school, he was severely punished but was not expelled. Though he felt it was unfair, he soon realized how the school had given him a second chance, much like the many chances God had given us when we sin, and learned to thank God for His blessings. We also did the "give your heart to God" skit and Andrew Cuyegkeng shared how he learned about God's goodness when his dad was able to find a job in the Philippines after his family prayed so long and hard. Pastor Tom then gave a message about finding the "pearl of great price". We concluded the service with a challenge for all to "lay up your treasure in heaven" and "The Lord Bless You and Keep You". Their children, who had sung earlier, sang again and a short snippet is posted on youtube. We had previously given Ching Ngaihte money to buy lunch for the whole congregation so after the service, we all had a great fellowship lunch together much like we do at FEC except for the language barrier. The adults (including us) sat down while their elementary school kids served us lunch, and then ate when we were done.
After lunch, we met with all the children and played games with them. We played the name identifying game, identify who the leader is in a follow the leader game, duck,duck,goose, and then we taught them how to make the good news beads as Auntie Sue explained the Gospel message to them in the color of the beads. Meanwhile, Ching and Mei met with the ladies of the village and had a good time meeting. We found out that the pastor and his wife have served there for 30 years, and the church is so poor he gets only 3500 baht a month (less than $120). We also met a Chinese man, Mr. Lee, who came with the Chinese army, got stranded here, read the Bible and became a Christian, received some training and is now an itinerant preacher preaching the Gospel to minority groups. We left and returned to Chiang Mai where we went to the night market to eat dinner, treated by Marshall and Mei, returned home, and debriefed our day.

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