Day 8: The Global Church

 

We joined the Rim Khan Fellowship Church on Sunday night (Uncle Deng, and Deng and Khong's family had already left before taking this photo). In the photo is our family, Cynthia and Maceo, Muay, Aire, Nui, and Noi.

In the morning, we attended Kingdom Life Church

Cynthia had recommended we go to Kingdom Life Church for the morning...we're super glad we did! It is a Thai church that does translation to English for both music (on the slides) and through a radio transmitter and someone who does live translation for the speaking. It was really cool! We can't understand Thai yet we were able to worship alongside an international community in both English and Thai. We were also able to understand Pastor Sidney's message and learn and be encouraged alongside everyone - it was so cool and we're so glad we could attend!

After church we stayed for a quick lunch and talked with a missionary originally from California (Brandon) and another fellow and his wife (he was German and his wife Thai, although she spent many years in Germany). It was a very welcoming church and very vibrant...as James said, "They move a lot" meaning they like to dance, raise their hands, and shout "Amen." From our more restrained Mennonite perspective, it was more charismatic, and it was certainly encouraging to hear their heart for the Gospel in Thailand!

We needed a bit more food (that wasn't spicy for the kids) after church, so walked to a cafe for some chicken nuggets :). We then caught a Grab to Cynthia's place and prepared for church with Rim Khan Fellowship Church. We planned out some activities that we could do with everyone (origami), soccer, and badminton, and grabbed some donuts to share from Dunkin Donuts.

When we arrived at Aire and Nui's house they had their carport empty and setup with some folding tables and chairs. They also had a projector screen and had just been given a new projector and speaker to use for videos! Cynthia loaded up some Thai worship songs from YouTube, and after spending some time socializing, Juliet and James lead some origami crafts (a bookmark, a ball, and a throwing star...) and we started with the music. We had no idea what the songs were, but it was great to be able to be part of it! The kids stayed for that part of the church service.

When the songs were over, the kids (both our kids and Deng and Khong's and Maceo) played soccer and badminton while Cynthia did a study on Blind Bartimaeus. We couldn't understand what she was saying, but we could tell that she was emphasizing that he was an outcast and pushed aside by everyone. He then--out of faith--called out to Jesus begging for mercy and his healing...and Jesus heard him and called out to him. Jesus heard him in his suffering and in his low place in society. Everyone seemed fairly willing to share and speak, which was neat to see their active participation.

When it was over we all ate dinner together. Nui made some rice, fried cabbage (yummy!), panang curry, and soup, and there were donuts. It was great to sit with everyone and although we couldn't understand each other much, we were able to connect over food, faith, sports, and origami. It was a great day!