AFC Bangkok 2006

English camp was a HUGE success!!! We left Friday at about 7 PM and met at the bus station.  We finally left the bus station at 840 and were on our way to Cha-Am which was about a 3 hour drive on a huge bus.  When we got to Cha-Am we went straight to bed and woke up the next morning at 8.  We had breakfast and then Ross and Julie taught our students some fun songs such as "Deep and Wide," "Sing Amen, Amen," "This is the day," and several other great songs.  It was fun to see them go through the hand motions.  After the songs Amos led us in some great English speaking games such as Telephone and other games of the sort.  After a great lunch we went on to plan skits.  We divided all the students up into 4 teams and assigned them certain movies to skit out.  After skit planning we had some great team games from Justin, Kate and Leigh.  We played some amazing games like water balloon volleyball, steal the bacon and other games I haven't gotten to play since I was a child.  We broke to free time after that and the Aggies practiced our own skits.  At 6 we had an amazing dinner of Moo Gata and then we started our Skit/Talent show.  We started it out with one of our own skits and then we opened it up to some other talents that our students had.  We had some amazing fun and then after all the group skits we did our skits for them and they loved it.  We even had to improv   After the talent show we had time to fellowship with the students and some people even sang karaoke.

This morning we woke up early and we had worship service.  It was fun to have the students worshiping with us.  P'Glome had an amazing lesson that made all of us think about our lives and how we are and how we need someone to accept us regardless of who we are and what we do.  All the students payed attention intently.  Afterwards we had our Fightin' Texas Aggie shirt give-a-way.  Then afterwards we ate lunch and packed up and headed home.  The Thai Christians even agree that this was one of the best English Camps ever so I was excited to hear that.  I took about 400 pictures of the weekend that I'll have to process and I'll try to get them posted as soon as I can.

Also, on another note, the church had another baptism tonight.  That makes number 16 for this year and the church has a goal of 30 baptisms for the year, and like I've already posted before, many of our students are studying the Bible so hopefully it'll come to harvest soon.  I'll write more later.

In His service,

Tong

Well we've been getting ready for English Camp, which is TOMORROW!  I'm so excited as of right now we have 25 students (this is not including the Thai Christians or us).  We have a ton of activities planned and I'll have pictures posted as soon as I can.  Justin will be leaving tomorrow morning to help set up and the rest of us will be leaving the church at about 6 PM and we'll be meeting at 7 PM at the bus station to drive to Cha-Am.  That's all for now.

In Him,

Tong

Wow, I just had some amazing spiritual encouragement given to me and I thought I'd pass it on.  We were walking to the Big C with 3 of my students and one of them walked up to me and started talking to me.  He asked me in broken English, "Tong, how come you can speak Thai?" and I told him how my family moved from Thailand to the States.  Once we talked a bit in English we started visiting in Thai since it was more comfortable for him.  He asked, "All of you here are Christians, right?" and I answered that we were.  Then he asked, "I've never had that many interactions with Christians before.  Are you Roman Catholic?"  I proceeded to explain how as the Church of Christ we do our best to follow what the Bible says.  He asked who we held as the high teacher because the Catholics had the Pope and I explained that our head of the church is Jesus and we don't believe in levels in the church.  I then explained that our teachers were usually men that went to Bible school and they are normal guys like the rest of us that teach us what they've studied in the Bible.  He then asked have I ever witnessed God.  This is the amazing part, it was a chance that I got to talk to him and tell him my testimony.  Now I've never given my testimony in Thai and I know that God was working because he seemed very interested in the things I was saying and I know God was working on him.  I got to tell him how I used to be Buddhist and how I was taught about Christ and His love for me.  After I told him my testimony, he asked how he could get in touch with God.  I proceeded to tell him that if he seeks God with all his heart God will find him.  I also told him it'd be good for him to begin studying the Bible with P'Sam, P'Bao or P'Nueng since they're better at teaching about Christianity in Thai.  Pray that he continues and follows through with his interest and pray that somehow in the time that we have left we can make an impact for Christ on him.  It was just really encouraging that he asked me that out of the blue and it was a miracle that God spoke through me and allowed my student to understand me even though I've never told my testimony in Thai before.  That's all for now.  I pray that God will continue to work through all of you as He also works through us.

In the King's service,

Tong

Well like I said in my last post, we just got back from Chiang Mai at about midnight last night and we were all exhausted. 

Chiang Mai was great.  We left on the train from Bangkok at about 6 PM on Saturday and we arrived in Chaing Mai on Sunday morning at 6.  We got to the Zone at Chiang Mai University and the girls got their stuff situated and the guys went to the missionary's house that we were staying at and we got situated as well.  At 9 we had worship with the church at Chiang Mai University.  It was great!  After church we took naps to recoup from the train ride.  That evening we went to walking street.  It was great to get to hang out with the Thai Chrsitians in Chiang Mai. 

Monday morning, we went to the Elephant Farm and got to watch the elephant show and Kate and Leigh got to ride elephants.  From there, we went to the umbrella factory and got some things painted.  After the umbrella factory we went back to the Zone to get rested up and cleaned up and that night we went to the Night Bazaar.  While at the Night Bazaar, we took some really amazing Thai pictures of the team and it was great! 

The next morning we went up to Doi Suthep, which is a temple on top of the mountain in Chiang Mai.  It was a great place to go take pictures.  After that we got to go see a waterfall and take a few pictures.   From there we had to go to airport plaza to hang out before our flight left.  Some of the team went and watched a movie, but I went back to the night bazaar to pick up the team's pictures from the day before.  From there we went to the airport and flew back to Bangkok. 

I enjoyed Chiang Mai, but I personally love Bangkok and it felt great to come back to the church.  We have lessons this week and then English Camp this weekend and I'm superexcited.  Also be praying for one of the girls here who has been studying English.  Ploy has been really close to making her decision to be baptized, but nothing has come of it yet.  That's all for now.

In Him,

Tong

Well we just got back from Chiang Mai and we're exhausted.  I'll write more later.

In His service,

Tong

Well lessons are going great now and I'm excited that we're under full swing.  All of our students are having a blast and we have quite a few signed up for English Camp which will take place July 28-30.  This will be a chance for our Thai Christians to get to know our students and fellowship with them.  It's basically like a VBS on steroids for our students.  We'll teach them VBS type songs and do a lot of other fun activities with them as well.  Please be praying for us as we plan that out within the next week.  Today at 4 we'll be leaving for the train station to go to Chiang Mai.  It'll be great getting to see Jennifer Cook again and then we'll take this team around.  We'll be back on Tuesday night, so don't expect any blog updates until after Tuesday night.  That's all for now.

In Him,

Tong

We left the church this morning at 4 to drop Katie off at the airport.  It was sad to see her go, but we all know that she's done amazing work here this summer.  We got back to the church around 6 and went straight to bed.  Today we have lessons as usual and then I'm going to do my best to hang out with my student Kong.  On an encouraging note, 2 of our students have decided to start studying the Bible with P'Sam!  I was so ecstatic when I found out and I can't wait to see what's going to happen.

In Him,

Tong

We got back early this morning from Sa Kaew, which is P'Nueng's hometown.  It was amazing!  We left Sunday afternoon after morning service.  During morning service, Katie was given a warm thank you from the church.  After service, we packed up and we were on our way to Sa Kaew with P'Nueng, P'Tdon and 2 of our English students.  Once we got there, we ate dinner and then went to the house where we were staying.  Then, we went to karaoke at a place P'Nueng used to go to when he was younger.  His best friend P'Thee came along with us who is not a Christian.  After we sang karaoke for 3 hours we went back to P'Thee's house and went to bed. 

The next morning, we got up and went to a temple that was overrun with monkeys.  After that we went to P'Nueng's family's house and got to see the farm where he grew up.  We picked a few papayas and we all got to help make some papaya salad!  It was delicious.  Afterwards, we went to a market and walked around for a little bit.  Afterwards, we drove back to P'Thees and got cleaned up a little bit.  Then we went and ate dinner at a restaurant that P'Thee took us to and Ross, Amos, Justin, and I went and sang on stage.  P'Thee took us to a carnival afterwards and then we had to say goodbye.  Before we left, though, he told us all how much he enjoyed having us around and how he saw the joy that we had with each other and how it wasn't anything like other foreigners that he's seen.  He also wants us all to come back and see him next year.  I promised him I would. 

Today we went to the grand palace and allowed the girls to do some sight seeing.  It was an eye-opener for them to see people bowing down to statues.  There was actually something going on at the palace today and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha was full of people.  After the palace we came back and got ready for Na Sao's house.  We had a full house of people at Cell group tonight and it was great.  Amos, Ross, Justin, and I also got to try a super-spicy dish and it was incredible!  It was so hot that we were sweating and coughing and nearly crying, but it was an experience worth having.  Tomorrow we have lessons.  That's all for now.

In His service,

Tong

Well today's lessons went great.  We taught all day and at 7 I went with one of my students, one of the Thai Christians, Kate, and Ross to Big C to eat dinner and hang out for a bit. It was great because this is the main goal of our ministry here.  We hope to figure out a way for our students to hang out with the Thai Christians so they will continue to come to the church after we go back to the states.  After dinner, we came back to the church for a joint devo with the church's youth group.  It's great, their youth group is composed of everyone from 15-35.  It was also great because about 6 of our students stayed for the devo as well.  We had a great lesson by Justin and P'Bao and then we played games with them.  We even had a chance to teach the Thai people "Boom, Snap, Clap" for those of you who are reading this that have ever done Aggie HYPE with AFC!  Well tomorrow is church and then we leave for Sa Kao, which is P'Nueng's hometown.  That's all for now, I'll post pictures soon.

In His service,

Tong