Mark's Adventures

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Location: Abilene, TX, United States

Sunday, June 24, 2007

New People, New Faces, New Beginnings

It’s been a while since my last post and many things been going on. The Payap interns, Jason, Marvin, Kyle, Pui, Un, Amp, Erika, Casey, Marissa, and I, along with Robert Reagan, the missionary here, went to have some bonding time up on the mountain at Crazy Horse rock climbing. We climbed up the mountain and then repelled down into a cave. It was lots of fun climbing around and doing some outdoor adventure stuff. We stayed there most of the day and enjoyed getting out and doing something new. We have been having more and more people coming to the zone for English class and just to hang out. Each week we have cell group on Thursday night where we eat and then have a devo together. Our group is growing every week. God is working in great ways here! We are having many non-Christians starting to want to know more about this Christian thing. It is awesome that Christians that were brought to the zone as non-Christians are now teaching their friends about Christ. There are some amazing stories of how many of these students have found Christ out of Buddhism. Please pray for all these new Christians and for them to share their story with their friends.
“Friday Night Live” is one of the activities the zones, Payap and Chueng Doi, do to get to know new people. The first one we had this summer was a scavenger hunt around the area of town where Chueng Doi is located. We had lots of fun trying to get a picture of some random things. I’ll put up pictures on facebook of all these things soon. So, if you have facebook, check ‘em out. We had lots of fun and by the way my team won! It was a good time to meet new people. After we watched the pictures of each group we hung out for a long time just having a time of chillin’.
Last Sunday the church at Payap had a fellowship meal at P’Rang’s house. We had some amazing fried chicken and homemade French fries. It was a delicious meal, and the best part is that Minter brownies have made it to Thailand. After many hours of searching for ingredients, especially the chocolate and peanut butter chips, Marissa and I made some very delicious brownies. Everyone at the meal enjoyed the brownies so much that they were all gone when we left. It was a great time of singing and fellowshipping with the church members and some of the new students. Kyle Miller told of how much he enjoyed Chiang Mai and then we took him to the airport to send him back to the states. His time here was short, but like all of us he talked of how he has been touched by the people here in Thailand.
The next day, on our Sabbath, we went out to a waterfall and hung out for several hours. It was very relaxing and refreshing to just sit in the cold water and listen to people play the guitar. We also went down a short waterfall into a little pond. It was fun until the current picked up. I went off the little waterfall and got pulled back around behind the waterfall before I could grab the side. A little Thai guy had to come pull me out. It was a funny experience. After we left the waterfall we went and hung out at a cool coffee shop close to Chueng Doi called Mo’s. It was a very relaxing day. That night I started to feel sick. It started on Sunday afternoon, but then it got worse on Monday and Monday night I didn’t sleep much. I felt so gross and the next morning I went to the chemist around the corner and some medicine. I made it through equipping time, but then I had to go back to sleep. I fell asleep on a couch upstairs while everyone went on campus. Then about 1:00, I woke up to the desk in the room shaking and making noise. I had no idea what was going on, but I found out later it was an earthquake. Monday night and Tuesday were rough days trying to get over being sick. Wednesday was really refreshing because I got out of the zone and hung out at Chueng Doi in the morning and then Robert took us to his new house that is being built. It was nice to do something different one day. On Wednesday night we had a great time of prayer. We went up to the third floor here at the zone and sang and prayed for about an hour. I really enjoy hearing prayer requests from the students here. It allows me to realize these people are going through stuff as well as myself. It also reminds me of our Friday prayer time with the Minter U. I love this time during the week.
On Thursday we had a time of solitude. Each of us was asked to go to a place and not talk to anyone and listen to what God had to tell us. I felt led to go to Starbucks. I know you are thinking Mark and Starbucks…solitude? Well it was an amazing day. I got my coffee went upstairs and prayed for a while and then listened to what God wanted to say. God showed me many scriptures that hit me where I needed to be hit. Lately I have been struggling with judging others and worrying about how people judge me. God allowed me to stop worrying about this and give it to him so it can’t get in the way of his work. It was a great day of reflecting on what has gone one so far here in Thailand and to be refreshed by God’s word. After about 6 hours of solitude we met back and went back to the zone. Thursday night is cell group. This week Amp cooked cashew chicken and it was “arroi” (delicious). Aong, the student I mentioned before that started coming just recently, was the MC for the night. He had to have an icebreaker game and introduce everything. It was a great time to see him getting involved in an upfront position. Also we had 36 people at cell group!!!!! It was awesome because Robert was telling us that usually they only have about 15-20 people. This group is growing every meeting, and it is awesome.
So I bet you are getting tired of reading, but there is still more going on here. This past weekend we had an English Camp on Doi Sutep, which is the mountain on the border of the city. We had 40 people from both churches. We had several students come that had never been to the zone, and now they are signed up to come to English classes during the week. It was a great to be able to be out of the city and hang out in nature and just hang out with everyone.
I pray that you all are safe and having a blessed summer. Please keep praying for all the new students here at the zone, Aong, Bon, Pui, Pun, Arree, Oil, and Dome to name a few. Also please pray for all the interns here at the zone, Un, Amp, Marvin, Jason, Marissa, Erika, Casey, and myself to keep strength spiritually and physically. God bless each of you in all you are doing this summer.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

One Awesome Week Down

An amazing week down and so many fun adventures to come. Today is our Sabbath day here at the Payap Christian Zone so I decided to catch you up on what we’ve been doing this last week. I’m going to give you a schedule of a “normal” week here at the Zone. Sundays begin with church at 9:00. Church lasts until about 10:30 and then class until 11:45. So it’s like the Minter schedule of Sunday worship. After church we go around to a local restaurant and then the afternoon is on our own. Then we have been going to Walking Street at night on Sundays. It’s a night market only open on Sundays. It’s crazy to see all the people and the street vendors.
Mondays are our rest days that we can do whatever we want.
Tuesdays through Fridays are pretty much the same during the day. We have equipping time at 8:45 where we have a time of personal spiritual equipping. We are going through the book of John and Richard Foster’s spiritual discipline book. At about 11:30 we walk over to the Payap campus to eat lunch with people. After that we walk around campus inviting students to our free English classes at the Zone. Around 2:00 we head back to the Zone to have a time of rest until 3:00 when are supposed to be downstairs to be friendly and greet people when they come for English class. The evenings are filled with amazing food and then hanging out at P’Little’s milk shop. She is a lady from the church who lives just two doors down and she has her milk shop out in front of her house.
On Wednesday nights we have prayer and singing at 20:00 and Thursday nights we have cell group with dinner at 18:00 and devo at 19:00. That’s our “normal” week.
I say “normal” because after this last week those were the only things that seem like we will do them every week. We also did about a thousand other things. Here are a few highlights. Last Monday Marissa, Kyle, Jason and I climbed up one side of the mountain here in Chiang Mai. Jason had found this trail and wanted to take us up it to see if it led to this old temple, and it did. It had some awesome views and I took several pictures. On Tuesday was our first day on campus. We handed out a lot of flyers for English class. When we got back to the zone there were four freshman guys hanging out and wanting to sign up for English class. Yes! God is amazing and brought four new people to the zone. After Tuesday the guys have been coming back often to just hang out. Also one of the guys, Aong, came to cell group and to church this past week. It’s awesome because he is so open just to hang out with us and he has never been around here before. Please pray for him and his willingness to stay around and get to know the people at the Zone and God more.
Friday was different than “normal.” We got up at 5:30 and took off for Bakaew for an English camp at a school there. My group got to the school a little late and the other interns had started singing and doing games with the big group of kids in about 6th through 8th grade. After a little introduction we split up into groups so we could do individual English stations with the groups of kids. My group was “body parts.” It was fun doing “head, shoulders, knees and toes” and “Simon says” with the kids. After a while all the little kids (probably about 5 or 6 years old) started coming out of their classes and attacking the playground where we were doing the stations. It was so much fun having all these little kids with the biggest smiles running around and wanting you to take pictures of them. It was amazing to see how our group interacted with all these kids. It was a blessing to me to see these kids being so happy just running around and being loved on by our group. After we finished the school day we went back to where the girls would be staying. It was where they have church. We hung out there until it was time for dinner. While we were sitting around talking a gorgeous rainbow came out. The weather there is about 10 degrees cooler than in Chiang Mai and the scenery was awesome. After a very delicious dinner with smoked chicken we went in to have a devo. After a few songs we found out that several of the kids we had worked with earlier that day had come up to participate in the devo, but there wasn’t enough room inside to fit them all. So we moved outside and kept singing. It was a blessing to see these church members out in the country worshiping together. It was an interesting night because we slept in a church member’s house on the floor. I was woken up by the rooster outside at 4:00, 4:15, and then sporadically until I got up at 7:00. It was fun. On Saturday some of us went back to the school to paint. It was fun to work with the kids from the school doing a project for them. Then on Sunday we went to a local orphanage with the whole church. We hung out with the kids all afternoon. It was a fun weekend!

Please keep everyone here at Payap in your prayers: Jason, Marvin, Marissa, Casey, Kyle, Erika, Un, Amp and me. Please also remember Aong and the new students coming to the Zone. Thanks for your support and keep praying!

Sunday, June 3, 2007

I should have known...


I should have known when I changed planes from American to Japan Airlines and the seats got closer together. I should have known when I got off the plane and the jet way seemed a bit small on all sides. I should have known when I met Nueng that I had come to the land of very small people. You all know me and you know I am not a small person in any way. This is a prelude to the amazing and hilarious massage I received last night.
This past weekend the Chiang Mai team consisting of 2 long-term missionaries, 4 long term apprentices, and 9 short term interns all went through an orientation to help the newbies get settled in to the Thai culture. We prayed for the city from a mountain over looking the city.
We learned some new words and phrases like: “bye gin cow” (let’s go eat), “hawng nahm you-tee noi khrap?” (Where’s the bathroom?) and the best and probably most used “put pasa Thai die nit noi” (I speak Thai a little bit). We ate some amazing food. Also, we are getting to know some incredible people here. The people are willing to help you in any way they can and are very inviting to all of us new people.
Well on the schedule after all the orientation was over was to get a traditional Thai massage. Not everyone wanted to get one, but I thought it sounded cool so I signed up. We have reservations at “The Best Massage” down in the tourist part of the city. We walk in, take off our shoes and put on slippers. We go up stairs and go into this big room. There are mattresses on the floor and little outfits on top of them to put on. Well I saw a big mattress so I thought this would be for a big person and that the outfit on it would be big—o contraire! I slip the shirt over my head and it gets stuck. I can’t pull it down or off. Two of my friends, Adam and Kyle, had to pry the shirt off my body. I found a shirt that “fit” and put it on. The ladies came in to give the massage and they look and me and laugh. She tells me to lie down. My feet hung off the end and they started laughing again. The massage began and I was about to fall asleep when she tried to stretch my leg over the other one. My body didn’t want to go that way and sprung back in the opposite direction sending the little lady flying. Everyone started laughing. This happened a few other times when she was trying to do different exercises. It was a very funny experience.
Mondays, like today, are our Sabbath day. We have planned activities every day but Monday, so today we are just hanging out around the zone. Today school started at the Universities so a lot of the kids (who are actually 3 or 4 years older than me) go back to class today. One of our new friends Nueng is graduating today after she presents her dissertation over bone and joint stuff. She is sooooo excited to almost be over with school so she can have fun as an intern for a while. Please pray for all the students and the schoolwork that will soon be pouring in.
I hope all of you are doing well. Please comment on the posts and let me know how things are going for you. Please pray for the work that we will be doing this week. God bless each of you.The whole Chiang Mai group!

Friday, June 1, 2007

Cute, Delicious Apples and Bananas

Today was the first day we started "working." All of the interns from ACU and Harding and the apprentices who have been here for a while started our orientation today. We did some Thai culture study and ate some amazing foods. We learned some fun words today, some of which are displayed in the title. It is sooooo much fun making a fool of yourself trying to speak Thai. The people are so willing to teach you and it's fun to learn! Please pray for the interns to integrate ourselves with the people here and to learn the language to be able to reach out to those we meet at the campus.