Hello Friends and Family. This is the first opportunity I’ve had to write since I left New Zealand on April 1st. Our team just finished up three weeks ministering in Tachachai, Thailand with a lady named Pa Jume and her staff. In Tachachai we had the opportunity to do street evangelism, children’s ministries, jail ministries, and pray for the sick. I prayed with Pa Jume for two ladies to accept Jesus so that was cool and one local lady we prayed with (who was experiencing headaches) became drastically better after we prayed for her.
In Thailand, it averaged around 100 degrees with high humidity; and, considering we were in the southern portion of the country, it was extra warm. It was fun because our team experienced “Sankran” which is Thailand New Year. We drove forty minutes south to Phuket and participated in the annual water festival. Phuket is the heart of the tourist action in Thailand, with thousands of foreigners from around the world visiting year around. Sankran’s main draw is the water fight. For one full day straight (its longer in different parts of the country) you drive, walk, or sit on the side of the road and throw water on people—I mean everybody—nobody is exempt (except for old people which I found out later). We started that morning by filling up our Izuzu pickup two trash cans full of water, water balloons, and pitchers. Then we drove to Phuket and joined thousands of others packed on the streets for the largest water fight I’ve ever seen. The streets were wall-to-wall with people and pickups throwing water and powder everywhere. Some people, the experienced ones, had blocks of ice in their water that would make you scream every time it was thrown on you because of the chill. We, being rookies, only had straight tap water, no ice and no powder.
It was a blast though. I thought after I was thoroughly drenched it wouldn’t be funny anymore (that only took about fifteen minutes) but I was wrong. Chucking water balloons at people at 75k an hour on the back of the truck was quite entertaining. Plus, having the occasional Thailander jump in the back up our truck or powder in the face kept things interesting.
As far as our team goes, we are doing well, all six strong of us. Leading an outreach team by myself is definitely a challenge, taking me to my character limits. God is growing me in a new way, in a way I needed to grow and its painful, yet very rewarding. I feel our group is really starting to mesh with on another and we sink more comfortably into our ministry.
Now, we just arrived in Lodz, Poland a week ago and will be here for another week until we leave for Latvia. Poland is an interesting country. The people keep to themselves, are traditional, and skeptical. In Thailand and in other “non-white” countries, we have the advantage of using our “foreignness” (or our “whiteness”) to attract people to our events; now, we have to rely on new ways to interact with people, which seems more difficult. And, coming into a post-communistic country, people are quite skeptical of outgoing people, especially people like us who have to talkative and charismatic. When you add a strong traditional Roman Catholic background (who thinks “Christians” are cults) it becomes even more difficult.
But God is good and we’ve had some coffee shops where people can practice English. We have another English coffee shop tonight at the church where hopefully more people will come and maybe strike up a conversation about God. I like Poland, though, especially the weather—the mild weather is a nice break from Thailand!
If you’re still reading this, you can pray for:
1) Divine appointments
2) Team unity
3) Strength for me
I hope all of you are doing well. Please let me now how I can pray for you and drop me a line—either on my Traveljournal.net “Guestbook” or by e-mail. Blessings!
In His Service,
~Eric
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