Volunteers

We visited three children's homes, one church with a preschool and elementary school, and a hospital in our first week. We're slowly developing a schedule and projects for our teams. CallaLily is volunteering at the government children's home three mornings a week to play with the children and serve the staff. We were pleased to find an open door at this government orphanage since in the past they have stopped allowing westerners in. BearHunter is helping to build a mud-house library at the church's elementary school. He's excited to learn this new inexpensive way to build. Afternoons are personal project time. So CallaLily is currently taking a massage class on the first floor of our guest house "Thai foot massage and reflexology." BearHunter will pray for Thailand, study Scripture, and continue on his novel as his personal project.

Many evenings we'll do evangelism in the local area at the street markets and prostitute bars. Since we're here for a month, we're building relationships with people over time. For a nation that is less than 2% Christian, it's amazing how many Christians we meet. One lady is from Myanmar and sells silk items at the street markets. Many people from the hill tribes and neighboring countries come into the big cities to earn money. Her husband works hard on a farm back home and her children stay with him in the hilltribe. Because she is here to earn money for her family, she sees them only once every few months. BearHunter was really touched by her story. He initiated a gift from our team to help her buy a new mobile phone to talk to her family again. Her current phone had broken and she couldn't afford to buy another one. When we asked how she shared her faith, looking for ways our team could come alongside, she explained that no one in her church has time to because they work sometimes all day at one job then come sell at the market all evening. Her pastor may do an hour Bible study once each week, but he's the only one with time to do that. It's not surprising the gospel is spreading so slowly in Thailand.