Clean Hands and Pure Hearts

And so, Tim has returned. 9 days in Thailand and I'm finally back - a changed person definitely, with many new memories (oh, what an oxymoron) imprinted on the palette of my mind. The various colors of Khon Kaen swishing and swashing about, painting a bright picture - a picture of new passion and hope. Vivid memories ensue, as I unpacked my baggage at home, and thankfully, I brought a piece of Khon Kaen home with me.

On the 10th of December, I composed an email to Ding, a portion in it mentioning that (in a great coincidence) I would be off to Thailand and returning on the 19th. I never got the reply email, but saw him earnestly and faithfully waiting for me at the arrival gate on the last day - albeit a little larger (the American air, we believe) and with hair plastered down in a (contrary to Ding) messy fashion. It seemed an ironic twist of events (Had I said previously that I would wait for him at the airport on the 19th?). It was a great joy to see him there, still ding at the heart. :)

but enough. I'm jumping way ahead of the story. No one reads a book from the back to front, and so I shall follow that social standard of normalcy.

Travel Troubles
On the 10th, we departed, arriving at (insert long Thai name here) Bangkok airport. A short 3 hour flight, in great contrast with the 6 hour bus ride that greeted us at the airport. Squashed within an unthinkable (here I mean tiny) amount of leg room, with my bag, and Mr Chow's guitar upon my lap, I proceeded to getting some shut-eye. It was tough - given the bumpy road, the little room, and the gradual numbing of my pin-and-needles legs - but eventually, fatigue gave in as the clock approached 4 in the morning. I slept. But only a little. Rather, it was a semi-state of sleep.

Resting in God - Being Still
Arriving on the 11th with little sleep, and a whole day of activity ahead of us was not the best way to start. But we were graciously granted some time for rest, and rest in God (Yes, there must be a clear distinction here). One hour of quiet time a day was the given standard, it was difficult, but as Mr Charles Ng mentioned, it was only the ones who treasured this quiet time with God that would experience God and grow in this mission trip.

Spiritually, God chose to speak quietly this trip. And we found Him preferring a still small voice (don't we always find Him that way?) in place of anything radical.

Psalms 46: 'Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted in all the earth'

Such powerful words from our Lord. God longs for us to acknowledge Him as God - this includes surrendering our whole being to Him, realising that He is everything and we are nothing (sigh...the essence of humility). Being still, beholding His presence, understanding His silence and His love. More importantly, to know that He is God. It is something great to be grasped. Something powerful. and something which I have yet to fully understand.

First Contact
We visited the school for the first time (at least it was the first time for me). Met the very warm Ajarn Songsri - the principal of Khon Kaen Christian School (KKCS for short). The building was painted in (royal?) purple and yellow - the 2 year old paint starting to peel at parts, but more of less achieving its purpose of brightening up the old school building. The new school building still in progress, 3 stories high but lacking a roof - the current roof being a rough framework (interestingly, one individual felt a close resemblance to suntec city). Other areas of the school was painted in red, blue and yellow strips, a rather good effort at bringing out the ACSian colors, but many felt it made the school look like a temple. Nevertheless, the outside rarely matters more that what is within.

KKCS is a school for students from Nursery to Secondary 3 (otherwise known as Grade 9). Unfortunately (or fortunately), the students were not present on that day - owing to the fact that it was a public holiday. We sat around and did little, visiting the rooftop - where Mr Charles Ng spoke about the importance of replanting the gospel into our hearts, of rethinking the wretched state of man, the infinte justice of God, and the infinite mercy of God (mercy triumphing over justice). Justin also shared his inspiring visit to heaven and quiet conversation with Jesus. How touching to gaze upon Khon Kaen from three stories above.

We were greeted by the various teachers (or Ajarns), and were received with a sumptious meal (it was lunchtime). The warmth and hospitality was something to remember. The language barrier being overcome by acts of love, and of course - our substandard Thai (or whatever little we knew in Thai). It felt a little uncomfortable, but still, love prevailed. Not to mention, I was starting to feel overfed, as serving after serving of rice came. Later I learnt the secret was to say Pom imm leow khrap - 'I am full'. Yes. Most important phrase in Thailand (Arguably, the most important phrase could also be Hong nam yu tee nai khrap? - 'Where is the toilet?' - yes Wesley)

Prayer Walk
Then came the prayer walk. A whole new concept to me. But we were referred to the Israelite's conquering of Jericho, where they marched around the city and praised God for seven days before the walls fell down. As such, during the prayer walk, it was important that we prayed to bless, and prayed to glorify and praise God, staying spiritually sensitive to things around us, praying when we felt the need to. Also, it was a prayer to break down barriers, and open the hearts of men.

We were led to several places, and I still recall vividly, how we were led.

The Canteen ('Feed my Lambs') - here it was a prayer for the sustenance of the students and the teachers. Also a short prayer for students to be free from any baggage or bondages from the past (inspired by the presence of ropes). There was a nagging need felt in the canteen, though we could not pin it down.

Grade 8 Classroom - Daryl felt led here. A prayer for the students that they will be brought up with the right moral values (Fui mentioned that many girls nowadays determine their value by the number of boys who liked them), with Christian values. Lee Yang was led to Daniel 5 - the judgement of Belshazzar - the desecration of God's temple. That was a scary prospect, we brought it up later at the debrief. Lee Yang's image of tangled string.

School Field - A half-barren field. We prayed for growth of the school, for discipleship, and felt that though elements for growth (sunshine, water and soil) were present, there was something that was missing. The sprinklers led Daryl to picture a river of life that could once again restore growth in the land.

At a later debrief, the various groups gave a summary of that things that were felt during the prayer walk. Fear ensued for a moment - there were feelings of judgement, Haggai 1 came to my mind, and there was the worrying passage from Daniel 5. However, after much prayer, it was felt that God's presence still dwelled in the school, and God's favor was very much upon the school. We were told to focus on the love and compassion of God on the children of the school and not focus overly on judgement. That was what I chose to do, though the talk of judgement was strangely worrying, and not something to be dismissed so simply.

Cranky (Mr) Charles
And it was such possibilities, coupled with the stress of being team leader, and having to make everything tick according to schedule that caused the usually jovial Mr Charles Ng to turn cranky. Other than the occasional winks of the eye, he was painfully silent, and sometimes chose to (oddly) ignore us when we spoke to him. Crankiness. The Sec 4s all felt it. And we knew we had to pray. But that, I will come back to later.

Turning Point
That night, my life was changed. In a brief moment we were told that only 3 more boys could go and teach the next day, and the rest would have to go the the family center to do painting. Priority was given to the NYAA boys - the Sec 4s. We were shocked - what justified the priority? Surely not a mere NYAA award. For a moment we were lost. There were five Sec 4 boys, two would have to be left behind. No one wanted to raise his hand, for fear of disappointing the rest.

But Kenneth raised his hand. And I followed, upon remember the words that God had spoken to me a feel days back 'Feed my lambs'. I felt called, and that was it, i made the decision. It seemed selfish, but I decided to pray over it. The last person to volunteer was John. In retrospect, it was a painful choice, seeing the many Year 5s who wanted to go and meet up with their former students in the school (Gareth and Justin mainly). Painful. But it changed my life.

百年树人: Teaching
We were off to teaching in KKCS the next day. Mr Kan gave a briefing, we prepared the materials. Of course there was a rather humorous encounter between Mr Kan and Ms Gao as some of us would remember. Ms Gao preferred rest to teaching - in the end, Mr Kan, gentlemanly as he was, relented. I was given the daunting task of teaching a class of 17, thankfully Fui would be there to help me. Wes (Kenneth gave up his place) and Jes, John and Mr Kan would also be teaching a group of students.

As we entered the school, the students greeted us warmly. Perhaps a little too warmly. To quote Mr Jonathan Ng, we were like Hollywood stars. If that were so, Wesley would have been the main star, he was swarmed by the Grade 7 to 9 girls. Sounds of 'Sawatdii ka' (the thai greeting), 'Khun chi arai ka?' (what is your name?) rung in the air. And how about me? I stayed in the background, little attention. Perhaps it was my looks, perhaps it was just the presence of Wesley. There wasn't jealously, but there was a tinge of disappointment. I shrugged it aside though, and focused on what was ahead.

Camping in Mr Evan Yap's little room, Ms Gao gave us a crash course on teaching, and we had several practice runs, and drew little pictures on our whiteboards. Learnt a little more thai. Otherwise, we simply rested ourselves for the task to come.

The lessons focused on phonetics, the KKCS students recognized letters, but they were unsure of the sounds. And so our lessons were filled with:

'K. K sounds like (siang men) Ke. Ke. Ke."
'L. L sounds like (siang men) Le. Le. Le."
'Khao jai mai khrap?' (Do you understand?)
*insert blank look*

And every few moments:
'Nong long! Nong long khrap!' (desperate cry for children to sit down and pay attention)

I think I lost my voice after the lesson. Controlling a bunch of hyperactive thai students was no piece of cake - not to mention we had the majority of boys (yes boys were harder to control, and girls were stereotypically smart - sorry to say guys). And when we produced sweets to reward them, upon seeing the sweets in our hands, even the girls went wild, we were swarmed, and hopelessly lost control.

And before I make the lesson sound like a tragedy, it was acutally really fun, and really rewarding, the students were really cute at times (no. I'm no pedophile...please). We hoped to build up simple relationships with them - relationships that would be built up in the years to come.

Short term mission trips with a long commitment.

We left for the family center thereafter.

Fe2O3 - Derusting Family Center
Auntie Dorothy - whose late husband Gerald Khoo founded the Gerald Khoo Foundation, was part of the team who pioneered a family center in the midst of the slum area. Using a millionaire's former mansion (obviously, the mansion in the middle of the slum was not prime property, so they got their hands on it), they created a family center for people of the slum to go to for aid - or simply for company and some joy.

We were tasked to paint the family center and make a it little more jolly. Unfortuanately, painting was not the only thing on the agenda, we also had to de-rust. Oh that horrid word - Derusting!! A gate went around the whole mansion, a gate that bore the many scars of time, and we first had to use sandpaper to smoothen the rusted surfaces before paint could be applied. That alone was a draining task. And though we tried to do it with a joyful heart, it was difficult, given the sheer size of the job.

Donning straw hats, we proceeded with derusting. Gloves were stained brown, shirts were splattered with green paint (thankfully, we started to paint the front gate) and peppered with rusty bits of metal. Dirty job, but someone had to do it. And we did it with the slum people in mind, hopefully they will be blessed through the bright new colors of the family center.

The family center - a beacon of joy in the slum area, a refuge for the lost, and a ministry of love that will hopefully help to spread the message of salvation as well. It was all worthwhile.

We left with the job unfinished - but it didn't matter - we would come back for another 2 days to finish the job.

Pregnant Python
We returned to KKCS - this time with the whole group - to a welcome ceremony organized by the school. Again, we met up with the teachers, and tried to strike up conversations with them. Fortunately, a not-so-bad translator sat at our table - one of the Ajarns - and so we proceeded to learn more Thai words (like chopstick, and song, and others...)

Coloured cloths (pardon me I forgot the Thai name) that were characteristic of the Isaan (NE) regoin of Thailand were tied around our waists (was it to accentuate the bulk of it?) to welcome us. The cloth would become my very good friend - my trusty scarf - for the rest of the trip :), as most of the mission trip team would fondly remember.

We ate pregnant python (sausages actually - but Watchman Loh decided to call it something more exotic), beef noodles, and were further welcomed by the coconut dances and the song performances.

And then in quite rude a fashion, some of us left for networking - that is meeting up with the community of people in Khon Kaen who were all working for the same purpose in Khon Kaen - thereby expanding the network of people striving for the common purpose in Khon Kaen.

Networking
Fun ride to YWAM, I must confess. We sat at the back of a jeep-like vehicle, unsheltered and travelling at a rather high speed on the highway. Fui describing it as how the construction workers would feel - as our hair battered our freezing faces - the wind swiftly blowing.

It was a Thai service at YWAM. Thai preaching and Thai songs. We arrived late for the service, in fact, it was already the conclusion - albeit a rather long conclusion. As I recall - the Thai version of 'The Power of Your Love' was sung, and though there was (again) a language barrier, God's presence had no barrier, and everyone felt His strong commanding presence during the session, as we sung our hearts out and worshipped Him.

Sec 4 Rendezvous
Returning to the hotel, we had the daily session of worship and word, after which the Sec 4s met up for a little chat, and voiced our feelings for the past few days. A rather light chat, but many issues were brought up. And we prayed for Mr Charles Ng to be back to normal, talked about the painful selection of who would teach on the first night, and shared our experiences for the day.

Wesley shared how on the first night, he had been disappointed not to teach, as he had not raised his hand. He was confused and so prayed that if God wanted him to teach, God would offer him a miracle. At the same time, Kenneth shared that he was praying on the first night, only to find that he was not fit for the job (owing to lack of patience - among reasons), and so the next day he decided to give up his place - to wesley. The prayers were answered, what a miracle.

And so why did Kenneth put up his hand that night, well, one of the purposes - was that it led to me plucking up the courage to raise mine, otherwise the opportunity to teach might have been opened to the entire floor, and snapped up quickly by the rest. God was working - no doubt.

That concluded the second day. I vaguely remember falling asleep owing to fatigue.

And that concludes this post. Will continue this another time. Too many blessings, too little time to post.