Yup! as many of you know, I went for a Thailand mission trip! It was AWESOME!! well, I will post what I wrote for my essay that I handed in for rangers. haha.. Cuz I'm a lil lazy to repeat the whole thing. so, yeah.. the following is my essay.. read on! =)
As a group representing Bethel Royal Rangers outpost number 1, we went to Chiang Rai for a mission trip from 16th June to 21st June 2006. God is good and He blessed us with a safe and quick journey from Singapore to Chiang Mai airport and from there to Chiang Rai. The van ride from the airport to Blessings church was approximately three hours. It was a good time to take short naps, take pictures of the beautiful scenery, and reflection.
Through out the trip, we had to travel around a lot. The first day was spent on buying of our logistics from Macro. The snacks there were so cheap; we all could not resist buying! We bought chocolates and sweets that we estimated would last us for the next five days or more. These did not come on a packet or two but boxes! So each of us bought some snacks each while looking out for the logistics for craft as well. The girls then decided that the craft we had initially planned needed to be scraped as we could not find the materials we wanted. So, we improvised! We decided to decorate cups and mini bottles instead of wristbands. The children in the various villages enjoyed it when we taught them how to decorate it and they made such lovely decorated cups too! We also bought balloons that could be twisted into shapes for the children. That was our back up craft that we had in mind.
Thank God the children had fun decorating their own little cups and also putting on the balloon hats that some of the commanders made. At Ayo Village, many children put the balloons in their mouths and ‘tasted’ them. It was a good thing none of them bit it till it burst. At least I did not see anything of that sort occurring. It was nice seeing the children having so much fun with the balloons and just playing with it in their different ways.
Next, it was amazing how the language barrier was overcome through the use of body language and hand signals. One thing I learnt was that a smile is a language that does not need to be taught. It does not matter if you smile at a child or an adult; they all reply you with a smile. In my opinion, a smile is an expression of friendliness and approachability. When I smiled at the children, they started opening up and smiled to me whenever they saw me for the rest of the day. Their smiles never fail to amuse me and bring warmth to my heart. Despite the simplicity of their lives, you can see the joy on their faces and in their eyes.
I really thank God for the children and how wonderful they are. One thing they taught me was the heart of worship. Looking at the simple way they worship and sing their hearts out to God, it really touched my heart. God reminded me that He does not look at our physical appearance but He looks at our hearts. When I saw a little boy about the age of two singing his heart out to God, it moved me and I was tearing. You could really see the Holy Spirit moving by looking at how the orphans were worshipping God wholeheartedly. I have never seen such pure and innocent love and worship unto God. So this is what it means to have childlike faith.
God is so so good! Through out the entire trip He watched over us. I remember how we were playing games and He provided such good sunny weather. Just when we finished our games and finished giving out the goody bags, it started to rain. What great timing! God is so good. The weather through out the trip was wonderful. It was never too hot or too cold. He sent sufficient sunshine and rain. And at all the perfect times too! I remember the sound of the heavy rain approaching during debrief at the end of the day. It was like the sound of a waterfall. Soon the heavy rain came down. It was so refreshing!
I am really grateful to have been given the opportunity to go for this mission trip. Really thank God for all the wonderful people who planned this trip for us too. This trip has taught me a lot and has opened my eyes to a lot of things. Really thank God for being with us and leading and guiding us. It would be good to go every year! =) Praise the Lord!
Through out the trip, we had to travel around a lot. The first day was spent on buying of our logistics from Macro. The snacks there were so cheap; we all could not resist buying! We bought chocolates and sweets that we estimated would last us for the next five days or more. These did not come on a packet or two but boxes! So each of us bought some snacks each while looking out for the logistics for craft as well. The girls then decided that the craft we had initially planned needed to be scraped as we could not find the materials we wanted. So, we improvised! We decided to decorate cups and mini bottles instead of wristbands. The children in the various villages enjoyed it when we taught them how to decorate it and they made such lovely decorated cups too! We also bought balloons that could be twisted into shapes for the children. That was our back up craft that we had in mind.
Thank God the children had fun decorating their own little cups and also putting on the balloon hats that some of the commanders made. At Ayo Village, many children put the balloons in their mouths and ‘tasted’ them. It was a good thing none of them bit it till it burst. At least I did not see anything of that sort occurring. It was nice seeing the children having so much fun with the balloons and just playing with it in their different ways.
Next, it was amazing how the language barrier was overcome through the use of body language and hand signals. One thing I learnt was that a smile is a language that does not need to be taught. It does not matter if you smile at a child or an adult; they all reply you with a smile. In my opinion, a smile is an expression of friendliness and approachability. When I smiled at the children, they started opening up and smiled to me whenever they saw me for the rest of the day. Their smiles never fail to amuse me and bring warmth to my heart. Despite the simplicity of their lives, you can see the joy on their faces and in their eyes.
I really thank God for the children and how wonderful they are. One thing they taught me was the heart of worship. Looking at the simple way they worship and sing their hearts out to God, it really touched my heart. God reminded me that He does not look at our physical appearance but He looks at our hearts. When I saw a little boy about the age of two singing his heart out to God, it moved me and I was tearing. You could really see the Holy Spirit moving by looking at how the orphans were worshipping God wholeheartedly. I have never seen such pure and innocent love and worship unto God. So this is what it means to have childlike faith.
God is so so good! Through out the entire trip He watched over us. I remember how we were playing games and He provided such good sunny weather. Just when we finished our games and finished giving out the goody bags, it started to rain. What great timing! God is so good. The weather through out the trip was wonderful. It was never too hot or too cold. He sent sufficient sunshine and rain. And at all the perfect times too! I remember the sound of the heavy rain approaching during debrief at the end of the day. It was like the sound of a waterfall. Soon the heavy rain came down. It was so refreshing!
I am really grateful to have been given the opportunity to go for this mission trip. Really thank God for all the wonderful people who planned this trip for us too. This trip has taught me a lot and has opened my eyes to a lot of things. Really thank God for being with us and leading and guiding us. It would be good to go every year! =) Praise the Lord!
