Tomorrow our son Levi is going to Thailand with the High School youth group.
Here is their schedule:
1. Thailand Orientation at the church (led by Kelly, Gary and Paula)---Friday morning, Feb 13.
1. Thailand Orientation at the church (led by Kelly, Gary and Paula)---Friday morning, Feb 13.
2. Campus Ministries---Friday afternoon, Feb 13 (Go to Ramkamhaeng University the largest college in the world--over 250,000 kids). We can put the team at a large table with a sign "Students from the USA. Come and practice your English!" Yes, it is a little like being on display as zoo animals ("Don't feed the Americans."). But they will love it and get a chance to actually interact with some Thais who are 'trying' to learn English. Also they can pray for the school and the students to come to know the Lord.
3. Valentines Service---Friday evening, Feb 13 (Our Home Chapel).
Experience a real Thai service with mostly college aged students. This is the service I wrote you about that has opportunity for people on your team to perform a song or skit if they want to.
4. Community Prayer Walk---Saturday Feb 14---Near the Foursquare church is a small poor community of people. Foursquare has strong relationships with the children here. The childrens pastor has moved into the community and will show you around, allow you to see and visit with the kids.
5. KidsQuest Outreach---Saturday, Feb 14: A 90 minute evangelism show at a church in Bangkok or Pattaya. It is an opportunity to see one of the teams we trained perform a great show and immediately involve the kids in a discipleship program. You will also witness an alter call with the vast majority of kids coming to the Lord.
6. Slum and prostitute prayer walk---Saturday or Sunday, Feb 14 or 15:
Bangkok slums are notorious for drugs, rape and violence. Of course we will not actually go inside the slum but we can view the slum from a nearby location and pray for the people. Paula and I will also educate the team to the problems there.
7. Bangkok tour---Sunday afternoon, Feb 15. The team can tour some of the key important elements of Thai history, culture. The Grand Palace, a river boat ride on the Chao Phraya River (with excursions into the arterials), a snake show (not to be missed?).
Monday, Feb 16: Drive to Maesot, tour the town, have dinner and rest at the Guest House.
Tuesday, Feb 17: Visit the Elpis School. This is a school for 5-10 year old Burmese children. The kids are all sons and daughters of Burmese illegal refugees, but the government allows them to go to school until the 5th grade (after that, they are on their own...sad). The school is run by Filipino missionaries (Roselyn and Joy) who are great friends of ours and of Foursquare. The school is located on Foursquare property next to the church, but is independent and supported by various means.
Wednesday, Feb 18: Visit a Karen Hill Tribe village with Pastor John.
This will be an all day evangelism event. Pastor John will evangelize and the team can learn about the tribe and pray for and with them. One issue is that the vans will not be able to make the trip due to the poor roads on the way to the village. I'm assuming that the team is willing to do a little 4-wheel driving experience (an hour or 2) to the village.
Thursday, Feb 18: Visit the Home of Hope orphanage in Maesot. This is a small orphanage run by Foursquare Pastors Neill and Diane. The team can learn about the orphans, also make a monetary gift if they want. The 10+ orphans are Thai kids. They attend school plus make handicrafts that are sold at the coffee shop that Neill and Diane operate.
In the evening, Foursquare Maesot will have a service that the team can attend. They can also meet the youth team (about 25 kids between 13 - 19 years old).
Friday, Feb 19: Return to Bangkok
2 comments:
Update #1:
After flying more hours then I can remember, we have arrived!
Somewhere along the flight we lost a day, but fortunately will gain it back on the way home.
Ten hours flying time to reach Seoul with 18 minutes to find gate 41. The Lord was with us, thank you Jesus.
Five more hours until Bangkok. Now this part of the flight I witnessed a few worn out students.
Many of the slept, some even missing a meal.
By the way, Asiana's food service is amazing!
The hotel MetroPoint is brand new and quite nice. It is 12:41am, everyone is (should be) tucked away in bed.
Tomorrow morning we will gather at 7:45 for devotions, breakfast at 8:00 and 8:30 So and his gang (hopefully I will have all the names memorized by tomorrow)
will pick us and off we go...-- Melissa Johanson
Hey! It's Levi! This is my only chance to talk to you so here's an update! This is the night of our third day. Today we did the river tour and visitied the King's Royal Palace. Yesterday we went to a city called Pattaya and evangalized to kids in a little town. Then we did a prayer walk through the city. We ate at a barbeque place kind of like the malting pot. I ate jellyfish and giant shrimp and chicken feet. We ave been having an awesome trip riding boats and tuk-tuks and trains. Tomorrow we take the buses to Maysat and we stay there for the rest of the trip. This will be the last time I talk to you so yeah. See you in a few days! -- Levi
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