Beloved,
It’s Sunday
morning and we’re sitting in the Seoul airport waiting for our flights
home. We have long layovers – 8 hours for
California and a whopping 12 hours for Hawaii.
But don’t feel sorry for us. While
we’re anxious to get home, we are still warm in the faithful blessings that God
has laid on us here in Thailand. These
blessings were capped with a wonderful farewell to the children, students and
staff at ZOE last night. Their
demonstrated love for us fills our hearts.
Our cups overflow.
Saturday was a full day for us. Breakfast at 6:00am, off to ZOE at 6:30 for a
debrief meeting for the team. In this
debrief, we were asked to complete a questionnaire on our expectations and
impact of our mission trip to help ZOE plan for future trips. There were 9 questions and after several
hours, we were still discussing question number 2. This is just an example of how rich the time
was for all of us. We give all thanks to
God.
We then
gathered the children and students together and JoAnn led a lesson on the
subject of gravity. She did it through
the building and use of paper helicopters and gliders. It was such a joy to see the kids using their
imagination in altering the construction of the gliders and chasing them on the
large front lawn of ZOE. Bryce followed
with games and relay races. The kids are
very competitive, but show good sportsmanship in winning or losing. Their reward was candy! Great job, JoAnn and Bryce.
The weather
was still cloudy with on and off showers.
But it was very comfortable with a slight breeze blowing through the
campus. The weather could not have been
better. Thank you for your prayers.
We spent
most of the afternoon preparing for a BBQ dinner which we were hosting for the
ZOE family in the evening. We skewered a
bunch of pork sticks and received a lot of help from the older kids and Bible
students. It was good to see the
laughter and interaction between the team members and the kids. We had enough time to get back to the hotel
and finish our packing. Then it was back
to ZOE for the dinner and our farewells.
The dinner
was well run with about 20 mats laid out with a little hibachi in the
middle. The team members were assigned
to meet with at least 4 groups of 7 of the ZOE family. When the bell rang, the team member moved to
the next mat. It was great fun getting
to meet so many of the family in the short time that we had with them. Our team served them, and ‘tried’ to clean
up. I say ‘tried’ because the families
would not allow us to clean up their mess.
Such humble people. They really do live out their humility.
We then
retired to the worship room for a short program. It was so good. Alli and Brooke led the new hula troop from
ZOE. The girls had practiced hard and
they really did a great job under the watchful hands of their instructors. The applause and whistling brought the roof
down. Marvin then led his Kazoo band of
4 kids. They got off to a very slow
start, but through Marvin’s perseverance, we were able to recognize that
familiar tune of “Jesus loves me”. Well
done, Kazoo’ers! And lastly, a small
size chicken entered the room (Bryce really looked and walked like a chicken,
especially in his leotards). He got everyone to tie a chicken beak to their
faces. It was “Chicken Dance” time. By the time Bryce got through with us, he had
everyone (including the macho young men) jumping around like chickens. This time, the entire house came down and
they wouldn’t let Chicken Little get off the stage. You missed your calling, Bryce.
In closing
the program, several young students, Ann and Chai, thanked the team for coming
and for providing great blessings on to them.
Stan spoke for the team, and thanked the ZOE family for showing us how
to pray, how to worship and how to love.
And he corrected Ann and Chai by telling the family that it was our team
who truly received the blessings of God through them. Stan assured them that we would pray for them
and asked them to pray for us. We
praised God for His blessing on us.
And then
came the difficult part – saying good bye to everyone. Lots of hugs and teary eyes. It was so joyful. We could feel the genuine love that flowed to
us. We will thank our God every time we
think of them.
Our flight
for Seoul left Chiang Mai at 11:50pm.
And as we waved good bye to Greg, Jessica, Ming, Lee, and Lay, our
hearts were filled with gratitude for God meeting us in Thailand. And we remembered again, all of you who have
supported us. Thank you. We love you.
We praise God for you.
“I thank my God every time I remember you,
constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you because
of your sharing in the Gospel from the first day until now” Amen. James 1:3-5.
And we will
praise Him,
Your
Thailand Missions Team.
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