I haven’t updated this in FOREVER! Crazy…
I would like to apologize for that, and then smoothly move on to resuming. 🙂
so here is a post that I’ve used already on my facebook, but I think I’ll re-use it for this. Here we are:
“Well! Everyone! I’m finally back where there is internet! I can communicate with you! I’ve been a bit disappointed that I have had no time to do smaller updates, but electricity/internet is not a sure thing where I was. So. I shall do a nice little review of my entire outreach for you! (Hopefully I get it pretty much all right) (oh, and the week numbers are approximations.) Week 1-2: Thailand. The main things of this week were the kids camp and Song Kran. At the kids camp, we were helping out a Thai Christian kids camp by doing activities, sharing our testimonies, singing songs, teaching art and drama, and helping do worship. We learned a valuable lesson at the kids camp: BE FLEXIBLE. It is amazing how every plan we made did NOT happen, but we just had to deal with it and roll with the punches. In the end, what was important was how the kids saw our team. Were we displaying patience, or were we letting the difficult situations get us down? This would prove to be a consistent theme throughout the outreach. Song Kran: handed out evangelical dvds as blessings to people at the huge water festival here in Chiang Mai. It was super fun! Week 4-5: India North V. We helped out with a bunch of different things up north. We stayed at a guest house, and almost every morning we went to a school/widow’s home to help out there. My favorite thing we did was paint a nice mural for the school. I’ll show a photo once I get myself organized. We also showed the Hindi evangelical movie to the widows and at a leper colony. I fainted at the leper colony. That was humbling. I had always thought I wasn’t bothered by blood and stuff, but as soon as they showed us how to clean the limbs of the lepers there, I fell to a crouch and desperately needed a bathroom. How embarrassing. I thought I was so tough. 😛 Another favorite thing there was to visit house churches and worship with the people there. Indian people are so hospitable! Us westerners can surely learns a thing or two from Indian culture. And that’s partly why we were there. Not to come knowing all the answers, but to come saying “I am interested in you. Teach me, please!”
Week 5-6: India South V. Now this was an interesting couple of weeks! This was where we learned about contextualization most. We, not knowing the language or the cultural norms, came alongside the workers who were already there and just did what they told us to, basically. Also, we gave input and new ideas, etc. But it was a lot of learning on our part, again. We painted a mural for the workers in their office, and started one on a wall in the community that we were in most. We did a kids camp there, too! We all had different stations, and our leader, who lived there, had a bible story theme based on the coloring books we had brought. (those were the ones that we had created during lecture phase.) I was in the arts and crafts section, which is quite challenging, but very fun. We spent a lot of time praying for the kids before and after the camp days. The camp lasted five days. My favourite part of the South V. experience was meeting a man who personified this concept: “are you willing to be the seed that dies in order to bring life and growth?” He was a guy who got a heart for India and became a Hindu priest who follows Sud Guru Yeshu. That’s right – Great Teacher Jesus. Full on for Christ, that man! He does not compromise truth, but he really brings Jesus into the Indian culture. He has respect from the Hindus there, because he looks and acts like a Hindu “Swami.” (religious teacher.) I was really challenged. What does it mean to die to make life? What needs to die in myself? Week 7-8: Himalayas/homecoming! OH MY GOODNESS! The lessons I learned in the mountains!!! Wow! I had a good first half day of trekking, but after that I realized I am waaaaaaaaay out of shape. I was near hyperventilation, and my legs were dragging up the trails. I was only carried up by God and the encouraging words of my team. (there was also another team with us here, from England. About fifteen people my age, plus their leaders.) Lesson of the day: There is always beauty, even amongst extreme pain. I was hurting SO bad! But I looked up, and thought, “Oh, gee. That is so incredibly magnificently gorgeous..! Pant, pant pant..” The rest of the trek up was very hard physically, even though my leaders graciously let me put my backpack on a donkey. Other lessons: Don’t dictate the speed of your step by the difficulty of the path, or in musical terms: Don’t dictate your tempo by the difficulty of the notes. (I learned that a long time ago from my wonderful violin teacher, but I really FELT it when I was walking.) It is amazing how closely connected the physical and spiritual are, actually. I was surprised. When I was suffering physically, I actually found it easier to depend on God spiritually and our prayer times for the people in the region were very powerful. Oh, yeah! That’s why we were there. To pray for the Kamoni people. We had very powerful prayer times interceding for them. On the way down I did very well. I was challenged to give my imagination to God, something that hadn’t really occurred to me to do before. What could I be capable of imagining if God the creator was the one sparking my imagination? WOAH! The POSSIBILITIES! Another challenge: We are all called to missions, some to go, some to send. But the heart behind that is to glorify God. So the question is not whether I ought to go to missions. I know I am called to do missions. The question is more HOW. How can I best glorify God? Right now I believe I’m called to use my artistic skill for the glory of God. That’s easier said than done. Artists are generally a proud bunch, who love glorifying themselves, not God. So every time I do art, I must remember WHY. FOR THE GLORY OF GOD. That’s the point of my life. That is the point of all life. To Glorify the Glorious One. How exciting! That is what I learned on my outreach, in a nutshell. 😀 I’m back in Thailand. I’m very happy.”
There it is. 🙂