Send Blane to Thailand

This summer I had an experience of a lifetime. I was able-because of both your prayers and financial gifts-to spend two weeks in Thailand on a missions trip.


The Flights
Long Story Short:
Birmingham, Alabama -> Atlanta, Georgia = 1 hour
Atlanta, Georgia -> Seoul, South Korea = 14 hours
Seoul, South Korea -> Bangkok, Thailand = 6 hours

Total Flight Time: 21 Hours
Total Travel Time (including layovers): 33+ Hours


The Reunion
As I have mentioned before, our local campus pastors here at Chi Alpha in Tuscaloosa moved to Thailand in early June for an entire year to do ministry on several college campuses in Bangkok. As soon as we walked of the plane and grabbed our luggage, they meet us there which was awesome becuase I hadn't seen them in months and because in a city with millions of people-a familiar face goes a long way.

The Food
So, if you didn't know this you may find this interesting: as part of our application, we have to agree to eat "all food set before us" during the trip. This is primarily because we are eating with students all the time and it would probably not be a good idea to insult their food and then say, "hey, Jesus Loves You!".

The Menu: Rice

Of the three meals everyday, I would say about 2 3/4 were a rice dish. And although here in the states I am not a huge rice fan, I quickly adjusted. One thing that was really cool was that you could eat lunch on campus for 20 baht, which is great seeing that the exchange rate is about 32 baht = 1 US dollar.

The Language
Sawatdee Cop (Male Speaker)
Sawatdee Ka (Female Speaker)

Which means hello is about as far as I got. Okay, I learned a few other phrases but Thai is a tonal language which makes things a little difficult for me. However, with phrase book in hand I went at it and with the help of the Thai students-I think I almost sounded good.

The Ministry
During our time in Thailand, we focused on reaching out to the college students in Bangkok which actually total 1 million plus. We did this through teaching english in a conversational setting. Many Thai students that I met were English Majors but most of them described classes with over 500-1000 people spread out in several buildings with 1 teacher broadcast over Closed Circuit TVs. As you can imagine, that doesn't provide for much time to practice speaking English. The students themselves would admit that this is a large need-so we wanted to fill it.

Intro the concept of "English Hour". We would pass out flyers in the morning and go up and meet random people (with our phrase book of course) and invite them to English Hour which was located in a public area on campus and completely free. English Hour consisted of about 5-6 hours of conversation a day and if successful, lunch and dinner with students. The fact that we are not only native speakers but also from America-is a draw to students that are both curious about our culture as well as mastering the language.

In addition to English Hour, we spent time advertising for the English Camp which we were hosting at the end of our two week trip.

In both settings, English Hour and English Camp, we focused on building relationships and getting to know each of the students on a personal basis. To paint a picture, we usually had 4-7 Thai students at each table with one leader. Most of the students came and went as they had classes throughout the day but some of them would stay for hours on end and come back the next day as well.

Book & Pack
These are the names of two students that I met during English Hour and had the opportunity to spend hours with throughout our two weeks of campus ministry. Once we talked about the basics: family, friends, likes/dislikes, favorite movies, etc. we begin to talk about our faith and our life experiences. I was able to share a gospel message with Book which was was an amazing opportunity to plant a seed! Although he was not in the 5 that accepted Jesus on the trip, please help me in continuing to pray for him.

Pack, was a really great guy I met who actually asked me about spiritual/faith issues before I took the chance to go down that road! He asked me to show him how to pray to God, and it was simply awesome because as we said Amen, he said that he felt "clean and fresh" on the inside. I was also able to share my faith openly with Pack, which I know will also be a seed God can grow! Please also pray for him, that he would enter into a relationship with Christ.


English Camp @ Sattahip
Our team was able to host this camp in a ministry partnership with Bangkok Liberty Church which was really great because four other missions teams spent time in Bangkok promoting this camp.

Sattahip is a Naval Base on the Beach and it is where we held the camp. We had a great turnout-over 40 Thai students joined us for this weekend. We played a lot of games and taught English in a small group setting as well as did teachings on "Life Lessons". During one of the teachings, we talked about Success-what it was, how to have it, etc. This provided a platform for us to begin to share our faith which caused excitement among our team and curiosity among the Thai students. And during one of the last nights, a pastor from the church preached the Gospel Message and 5 people received salvation, and as I know, are currently plugging into the church.

Our entire team has said that we would do a trip like that even it was for just 1 and although 5 may seem small, considering that 98% + of the country is Buddhist-this trip was a great success. In addition to that, our focus and goal was not just for people to pray a sinner's prayer but to become fully devoted followers of Christ.

So...
Thank you for giving and praying so that this could be a reality! Because of your sacrifice, not only did 5 Thai students accept Christ but dozens more were exposed to a concise presentation of the Gospel for the first time in their lives. As for me, I have had my eyes opened to a different language, culture, and group of people-an experience that I will never forget!