Breaking the Silence

Wow, I am on my 3rd week and I feel like everyday is an adventure! I have walked the streets of Bangkok and seen so much but yet there is so much more to see and experience. Friday the 22nd was a draining day. I went to the premiere showing of a documentary on Burma called Breaking the Silence. I was feature length and should have been longer! I was mortified by the way the Burmise people were being treated by their own military. They are being raped and forced to carry the babies, starved, put into prisons, for not just a few years but decades, made into slaves, beaten, and slaughtered. The testimonies of these people were horrifying and made me angry that such a thing could go on and I had no idea. The outer countries of China and Vietnam are protecting Burma so that they can reap the rich harvest it has to offer. In 1988, 3000 people were massacred on the streets in broad daylight, during peaceful demonstrations to protest the country's conditions of endemic poverty. These are the worlds problems, not what am I going to eat tonight but will I live tonight? I have no words to describe what I saw and I only watched, these people have experienced. Many of them have fled into the jungles and into bordering countries to seek refuge and hope. I was spent after those 2 hours. The only thing I could think to do was cry out to God and pray protection and strength on the people of Burma.

After the documentary I had to gather myself and head of to fellowship at the BSC. Quite a change of scenery. I met Kik a girl who loves to be Punk! We learned about control and how we don't have control over our lives and the events that happen. Funny how that came right after my eye-opening experience earlier that day. This world will not make sense to us but God has a plan. The next day I went to teach and I can already tell that Wednesdays and Saturdays are gonna be my long days! After teaching I spent time with my new friends, Ting, Fang, Dylan and Tommy! We went to Platinum which is an indoor market and shopped around (everything can be discounted hahaha!) Ting is quite the negotiater and we got some neat things! Afterwards we went to Tommy's little sisters birthday dinner at a restaurant that is different from anything I've been to! It is outdoors and a buffet of sorts. On the table there is a cooker of some sort with hot coals under to cook the meat and a lip on the edge to pour water into and cook your veggies. In the center there is food that is already cooked and there is raw meat that you cook at your table. I tried both! There was fruit and I had a yellow watermelon which was very good! They had some pretty interesting things to cook, some of which Ting and Tommy ate, like octopus with the skin and everything(it looked like a whales tale) and whole fish cooked and ready for people to dig in and share! It was great to spend time with friends and experience something new!

Sunday was another interesting day. Monti Bart and I went to the church at the BSC called New Vision, it is all in Thai. To hear the sermon you put on headphones and listen to the translation. It was neat to watch the Thai people listen intently to the gospel spoken in their language. I met up with Kik and she choffered me around and took to me 2 different Bible studies, both in Thai! I listened but still was lost! We ate some lunch and Kik and I shared about our past and the struggles we have faced and learned that we have dealt with basically the same issues, depression and lack of self worth. I told her about my tattoo and its meaning and she was happy to see that she was not the only one! She showed me her tattoos and told me she now wanted one to represent her life in Christ, like mine does. We formed a bond and became sisters in Christ! It was wonderful and later that day their youth group called 300 for Christ asked me to join them for dinner, I agreed and then the trip started! It was at least 30 min away and we drove outside of the city but we were still in Bangkok. We were piled in Deang's(the group leader) van! Cramped and happy we sang worship songs in English and Thai and I loved hearing them sing in Thai! We come to a fish restaurant on the river and it was family style, everyone shared. Again I had chicken and rice and left the whole fishes to the others! It was a great time and beautiful when the sun sank into the night and the lights lit up the trees over the water!

I am loving my time and fellowship here and everyday has something new to show me! God is amazing and he has complete control of this heart of mine.

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swatdee Kaa

The first week of teaching is over, I have 8 classes! I teach 2 classes a night from 5-7:30. At first I was really nervous, I felt like I was rambling on about nothing. They listened to everything I said.  The first class the cd player wasnt working so I had them teach me some Thai. The second class went better and I got the hang of it through out the week!! There are roughly 20 students in each class, ages ranging from 16-40's. On Wednesday I visited an Immigration Detention Center. This is the place where people who have violated their visas are put. They have stayed longer then was alloted, but most of them are running from their country and have no where to go and so they get caught and thrown in here and cant get out bc there is a $2,000 fine and dont have family outside of there so they are stuck. The main purpose of visiting them is so they can see eachother they are seperated men and woman so the families cant see eachother unless there is someone who visits them and we bring them clothes and food and necessities or books, stuff they ask for, they are treated worse than people in prisons. It is so sad and if my visit can bring them joy for just a second then I want to bring as much joy as I can! In order to visit you need your passport and visa to prove you are supossed to be here. I was not told this and so I thought I was not going to be able to go in. As we were approaching the building I felt God say "look in your bag", I ignored it because I knew there was nothing in it i needed, but the voice said it again "look!" so I unzipped my bag and there was my passport with my visa in it!!! Praise God! He had a plan! The lady I visited has a daughter and someone else visited her husband so the family could be together. Her name is Sopitha, she is Sri Lankan. They have been in there for 3 years and had not seen eachother in over a month. It was her birthday, her husband asked us to get her a card and a gift. It was pure joy to see them together. The father held his daughter the entire time as I got to speak to Sopitha the best I could, over the noise and language barrier. When you enter the center you are patted down thoroughly and the items you bring in are checked. All the detainees are behind a chained gate and there is a walkway separating us, for a guard to pass through, and then another gate which we stand behind. We visit for a while and then let the families reunite as we take a step back and try and grasp how awful this is. When the bell rings we leave and the gates are opened for the people to get the things that have been brought for them. They are so thankful! Hopefully they will see God in our face.

My prayer is that whatever the path that God has set for me I am sensitive to His voice. I want to be less so that He is more. I want to build relationships with His children and lead them back to Him. Church was amazing on Sunday and I truly felt God's presence! It was much needed and tears of anxiety, joy, worthlessness, hope, and love came pouring out while I sang praises to my God! He is so good and I will always praise His name! I am ready to conquer this week in His name! Amen

Roosters and Brezels

I'm here! Thailand is amazing and has so many things to take in. I have heard that you can go eat somewhere different everyday and never have gone to all of them! That's a lot of places to eat! Let's start from the beginning. From the moment I left home God had already began working. During the trip from Atlanta to Los Angeles two things happened, first Monti's bag was not on our flight and second my suitcase broke open and the zipper was jammed. We had to walk to the oppositre end of the airport to go to the international side, we checked our bags in, minus Monti's missing one, and I stood in line to drop our bags off. The line was so long Monti had gotten her bag and come back before I was to the front! So here comes the miracle, She was suppossed to pay 100+ for her third bag but when she got to the check in the lady slapped on her flight sticker and sent her on her way, WITHOUT CHARGING HER!! Praise God! As she was doing that a Thai woman behind me pointed out that my bag was broken and that I should ask for something to close it. I asked the baggage man if he had tape and he gave me some, as soon as he placed it in my hands the entire family of the Thai woman took over and began tapping my bag shut till there was absolutely no way it would ever open! It was hilarious but a great highlight and blessing from God! We boarded the plane and began our 17 hour plane ride! We landed and the airport is so nice! It's only a couple years old so everything is new! On our way to Monti's I encounter huge billboards everywhere. You can't miss them! The other thing you can't miss is personal space, there is none!! If there is room, there wont be for long. Cars and motorbikes take every inch of the road possible without a second thought, it's rather nerve racking!!

I arrive at Monti's and get settled and washed up and I hear this crowing, it's a rooster. I figured it was just someone passing by or something but nope, this rooster lives down the road and crows every day all day and stops only to sleep! I have grown used to it by now and only hear it once in a while. Also down the street is a German bakery that serves amazing authentic German baked goods. The best are these Brezels which are German Pretzels, they are amazing!!!! There is so much to see and experience here and I can't wait to see what God has in store! Thanks for all your prayers and support!