Trip to the South (March 29 - April 5)

Saturday the 29th a group of us from the RCC (some team members, some old Christians, and some students who are not Christians yet) drove down to Pangnga (in the South of Thailand); many call this village Tsunamy Village because when the 2004 tsunami hit SE Asia, 70% of all those who were in that village at that time were killed. We went down to see the ocean when we arrived there; there was a tsunami memorial at that beach that we visited. It was a walk way and on one side a wall with the names of everyone the tsunami killed in that village, and on the other side a huge wave, the size of the tsunami wave that hit that beach. It was really neat. We stayed the with the church there that night and worshiped with them in the morning. We had lunch with them, and then, before leaving, we stopped at the work of one of the church member there. He works with an organization that is helping rebuilding in the area. They had just built a new building and they wanted us to pray over it and the work there.

We then drove to Krabpi and had Sunday evening worship there and dinner, and then we hung around roasting and eating cashews with the church members. We slept in the church building there and in the morning drove to Chang . . . a something, I forget the name of the village, but I shall refer to it as Arnon's village (cause that's the name of the student that we went to visit there). When we got to Arnon's village we ate and then were taken for a hike to see a waterfall. It was beautful. That day, and throughout the next 5 days we were there, we kept meeting Arnon's family members; there were so many (he is the youngest of six and he has so many aunts and uncles he couldn't count them; he tried, but they're too many). We stayed with one of Arnon's aunt and uncle for the next 4 days. His whole family are rubber tree farmers. And I'd have to say that a rubber tree field is one of the more beautiful things I've seen in nature, really, they're really pretty trees. While there we took several hikes, to see waterfalls. Took motorcycle rides to the nearest town the buy things at the market, went to visit many of Arnon's relatives and neighbors, played lots and lots of cards, and ate, and ate, and ate.

My Thai definitely got better on this trip, as there weren't alot of English speakers around and as the Southern dialect is very quick; it's made my ear better.

We also visited a couple of temples in the south. I hadn't gotten to go to one before. Before hand I tried to imagine what I would feel going into a pagan place of worship and seeing people worshiping idols. I couldn't quite decide how I would feel about it, but when I went there, I was surprised to find that I felt nothing. I didn't feel angry, sad, creeped, or anything. It didn't feel like a place of worship at all; it didn't feel sacred; it felt empty, like nothing, and all that I saw people around me doing to please their gods looked like nothing more than an empty ritual or dance, which I now suppose is exactly what I ought to have felt. The only pang of sadness I had was when all those who came with us payed their respects to the idols and prayed and bowed to them and Arnon with them, to see him devote himself to an image was so sad to see, as I love him and want him to be my brother and come to love and give himself to a God that is alive and real and will not disappoint him.

Friday evening the whole family took us down to the train station to see us off. I'm glad to say we really did manage to make a good impression on them (even if at first they didn't understand us too much). I'm so glad they liked us, as that was one of our purposes for the trip, to get closer with Arnon, but also to show his family that Christians are good people, so that they might be open to Arnon studying about Christianity and possibly becoming Christian some day.