Thailand Mission and Cultural Trip 2012 - Journal 3

An exciting and full day! Church was full because it was a combined service of the Thai, International, and English churches on campus. They meet together twice monthly. One of the highlights was to see Supaporn. I baptized her on the 2005 Mission trip to Chiang Mai Academy, and we have been sponsoring her through high school and now in college since then. After church we ate at the wonderful church potluck. Oh, and Michael volunteered to read the scripture during the pastor’s sermon. During the sermon the pastor asked for a volunteer from the Walla Walla group to come and read. Michael got a pack of cookies as a gift!

We travelled the beautiful back country on the way to Uncle Prasan and Auntie Nang’s farm along with Dr. Wayne Hamra and his wife and some University students. They were so excited to see us. We had a little service as usual. The students from APIU go there weekly to have a Branch Sabbath School. When we come, they always ask me to speak. I spoke on the Parable of the Sower, and the meaning of “good soil” in the Thai context and how it relates to how we approach our mission task contextually and incarnationally.

It was then gifts giving time. First he brought out Jen’s (from the 2011 group) letter that she sent them along with framed photos of our send-off last year. They were so appreciative. Then I brought out a 20 kilo bag of dog food that Lorraine asked us to give them. The dogs were happy, and are looking forward to receiving a supply every year! Then Nang picked coconuts and we chopped, drank, and ate. She then took us on a tour, through the weaver birds’ nesting trees, to the road that we began to construct last year and paid to have completed earlier this year. What a difference it has made in their lives!

It was on to the great excitement of climbing the more than 600 steps up to the White Buddha. It was a thrill. Even Jackie, with her broken toe, made it to the top! And I made history – I wasn’t the last one to reach the top. There were 4 others behind me! We took lots of fun pics up there. We ended the day going through a vicious downpour of rain to have dinner at the Blue Restaurant. 19 of us we fed for just a little over $30.00 (including drinks)! The pics for today will tell the stories in more detail: http://people.wallawalla.edu/~pedrito.maynard-reid/gallery2/main.php/v/thailand_mission_and_cultural_2012/pedrito_thailand_pictures_2012/.