The Power of Relationships

One thing we have learned living and serving the Lord in Thailand is the power that relationships have in ministry. Ministry, we have learned, is a life not so much something that you do just at church or on a Sunday. Ministry in the New Testament church was something that overflowed from the relationship believers had with Jesus Christ. And much of that ministry between people happened through relationships. The church itself is about relationships (Ephesians 4:16), illustrating this the way that a body is connected together and operates through those connections (joints and ligaments). Nothing is more apparent than ministry here in Thailand.

When the teen group from Anchor came here, they taught English at one of the local schools here, Surawittayakarn School. They met number of people, but a handful of the students kept coming to see them while they were here. They were especially enamored by Shane and Tiffany I think! At any rate, these students (Foam, Jeep, Ice, Korn, and Doc to name a few) kept on coming even after the teen group returned to the United States. To sum things up, they have been coming out to church events (though not actually church itself) this entire time up to the present. Now, they are all going off to college... some in Bangkok, some in Chiang Mai, some a little closer. We maintain contact with many of them through facebook and email, and continue to pray that the things they heard about Jesus will sink into their hearts.

However, to illustrate just how much of an impact these American teens made, I include an excerpt from their yearbook. Here is a page that has the coming of the Anchor teens to their school. What may have seemed like a little thing, teaching English, could be in fact life altering for some of these young people. They saw and continue to see Thais and Americans whose lives are different, there is joy and real peace, something so many people here lack. So thank you, Anchor teens, what you did here made more of a difference than you may ever know!

Songkran: Water water everywhere...

Andrew and Sai soaking and being soaked.

I can't believe I've become one of those people who have a blog and don't update it. Shame shame shame. Well, honestly, it's been hard to think of major things that happened in April, somewhat of a slower month you might say. School is out, but we are supposed to report in each day, so there is usually not much going on at the office. The one major highlight of the month is the huge festival in Thailand called Songkran. Actually, it is the biggest holiday of the year, like Christmas or July 4th in America. The celebration is the Thai new year, the Buddhist year of 2551. The holiday itself takes some explaining. Basically, it is a water free-for-all. Anybody is a target, the old and the young. And don't think anyone will have mercy because you drive a motorcycle, in fact, you are the main target! So riding around town, we had to expect to get drenched anywhere and everywhere we went. Riding to the market, to the grocery store, for dinner, even for church. It's all fair game.

Ah, but life would be rather dull if one just resigned themselves to a water-logged existence. So Saturday Leah and I teamed up with Sai, one of the high school age girls at the church, and dished out our own recompense! We just loaded up a trash can full of water and sprayed anyone who ventured down the road in front of the church, which is one of the main routes in town. So as wet as we got, we had the satisfaction of dealing out a few gallons on our own! My initial thought was, "Wow, the US needs to get in on this!" But what with the road rage we already deal with in States, there'd probably be riots in every city! So maybe it wouldn't work. We even had a little water battle with some of the kids across the street from our house. It was really fun to spend some time letting them get us dripping wet. They even climbed the wall and ambushed us from the trees! What little monkeys! It was a very good opportunity to build relationships with kids we otherwise wouldn't get a chance to meet. Now when they see us, they say hello (or sawadii to be specific) to us.

On a more serious note, the church celebrated Songkran in their own way. Besides everyone coming to church a little more water-logged than usual, they had a special ceremony. There are a number of things that are traditional for Songkran. First, the water wars, that's the most obvious. Second, everyone wears bright colors, usually Hawaiian style shirts. Third, many people wear jasmine flower leis. Fourth, they will smear baby powder or a cream on their faces to cool them off. More often, people will do it to their friends as an act of kindness. But fifth, they will perform a ceremony to honor their elders. This is something the church does in celebration of this renowned holiday. All of the older members of the church sat in chairs in a semi-circle while the younger people formed a line. Each younger person took up a small bowl filled with cool water with jasmine in it. It gave off a sweet fragrance. They would take this and pour a small amount on the hands of the older person, who would in turn take some of that water and put it on their head. They would give their thanks for the life of that older person. In turn, the elder would give a blessing to the younger. This would happen all the way down the line. Little children thanking their elders, older people blessing the younger ones. What a beautiful picture of such biblical texts such as Titus 2 where we are told to honor each other, both older and younger. It was a very moving ceremony for everyone as each person expressed their love for one another.

So Songkran was about as different as it gets. It's an all-Thai event, and we were privileged to experience it. While our clothes may still be drying out, our hearts were really moved and encouraged by a church showing love for each other in such a unique way.

We did make a video which we made available to a few of the churches that support the Hayes. If you would like to see it, you can follow the link below and download it from there! Let us know what you think!

http://www.mediafire.com/?1guzyzim3nt