mission trip to thailand

my 12th mission trip...

I started out feeling a little apprehensive, tired and weary...maybe i've done this too many times. Yet when i look back at the past 6 years or so...I'm reminded of His goodness...the precious lessons, the touching encounters, the wonderful people and places...and I was assured that this mission trip, God will be the same faithful God who has brought me on this wonderful journey for 6 years...and He will teach me new lessons and show me new things about Him.

This trip is really one where I did a lot of reflecting on what God has done in my life...what He has been teaching me during mission trips...how He has been leading and guiding me.

Even before the trip...one verse spoke to me greatly...
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9-10

On my first trip, we visited Bunchom. He's a short man. He's very quiet. He's the kind of person that would stay in the background...altogether very forgettable. When we visited him, he was the only Christian in his village. When put alongside others, it seems that this Christian brother had very little to offer in terms of evangelising his village or starting a ministry there. Soon after he returned to that village, ministry was started there by a Thai Christian lady from the Bangkok church, and soon after, by a Korean missionary lady. Through these 6 years, as I visited this village, there seems to be little growth. When there was talk about building a church there last year, I had my doubts - how to build a church when there're only two or three believers?

This time, we were told that Bunchom has bought a piece of land to build the church and that they are starting to build already. We'd be going to help. In my mind...i kept thinking...what's the use of having a building when there's hardly any believers? But I also realised the importance of having a church building for the few Thai believers in that village. It'll be a place where they will meet to worship God...have Bible study...teach the children about God...not just a place where the missionaries come to stay.

I was really touched and encouraged when I heard that Bunchom has been praying that there can be a church in his village ever since he came back. Though quiet and unimpressive, he has been a man of faith. He's been praying, and silently supporting the missionaries and workers who come to his village. There were some objections when the villagers came to know that a church was to be built, and Bunchom has since stepped up to be in the frontline...attending village meetings at the village temple...to stand firm and say that a church was going to be built. And God has been faithful...ppl with strong objections somehow were not able to articulate themselves during the meetings.

Since the construction started, things have not been easy. Many fell ill. A viral fever attacked the village and many have become ill. It was not easy pooling the few believers and the 2 single Korean missionary ladies to do construction work for a church building...especially when most have had no experience doing construction work of any kind. Other than the pillars and the roof, the rest had been DIY...all on their own...from buying the cement, sand, pebbles, tools & iron rods...to digging and firming up the foundation with iron rods and cement. And God has been faithful, He has brought many along the way to help, in one way or another...some are not even believers! So many stories of what God could only do...so many lessons learnt by those who could not see how they could complete this project...

And we were there for one day. In that one day, they had the 20 of us working...digging, putting on the cement...leveling the ground...for many of us it was the first time we did construction work of any kind. There were no sophisticated tools or machinery...no cement mixer...nearly everything was DIY. I think the only machines there were the water pump and the drill.

God blessed us with a cool day. They told us that it was usually very hot, but the drizzle was really welcomed during this super hot and humid season. And so it was pretty cool for the whole day...the rain came down pretty hard for just a while in the afternoon. At the end of the day, when we were all tired and really dirty and smelly...we saw a rainbow, right in front of the site. It was not just one rainbow, but TWO! and not just a part of the rainbows...we saw TWO perfect & complete semi-circle...from one end to the other. It was one of the MOST beautiful things EVER! It was like our reward at the end of a day of work...to me, it felt that God was reminding us of His presence with us...reminding us of His wonderful promises to us...

I looked at Bunchom, his wife, Saeng (another lady, new believer from the next village), Joy, the 2 single female missionaries from Korea...and I'm reminded of that verse again...that His strength, His power, His goodness...is made perfect in our weakness...and He uses the weak, the unimpressive, the quiet faithful few...so that His glory can be shown...so that we know it is He who is at work and not us...

There are many more events, incidents, stories & personal lessons I gained from the mission trip...but to me, just this lesson & reminder is really precious...a lesson that started 6 years ago when I first visited that village in NongKhai...