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