This is my new friend Jiab, she's a college student at my church who is smart and funny and a strong leader among the young people. She told me that she wants to serve the Lord full time with her life, but doesn't know what that will look like, so she's praying about it. Last week I took her with me to a missions conference at the Bible School in a neighboring city about 1 1/2 hours away. We heard one of my old college professors speak to the Thai students about what it means to cross cultures in order to serve the Lord. This was a message that, according to Jiab, she hasn't really heard before. It seems like since Thailand is only 1% Christian, there isn't usually much of a challenge for young Christians to go overseas to serve the Lord. It was interesting for me to hear what she thought of the message, and she was still talking about it days later. It was also good for me to hear this message, as a good language practice opportunity, but also as an encouragement to me as someone who has crossed cultures to live and serve the Lord. It was a reminder to understand and accept the culture that I'm in, not to try to change it to be more comfortable for myself, but to remember that I am the guest here and I chose to leave my own culture behind. Also, it was a reminder of God's faithfulness to us no matter where we are and what new challenges we are dealing with, and finally a strong reminder of the importance of commitment.
It was really fun to hear Larry Person's speak, he preached in Thai, which was no problem for him as he grew up here in Thailand, but he was relatively easy to understand, I find that when foreigners speak Thai well, they are much easier for me to understand than Thais! But also, I understood his preaching style, as it was pretty American: introduction, three points, solid summary and a few memorable stories!
Oh, a highlight of the missions night was the chance to eat international food. The picture shows Jiab and I eating Kangaroo meatballs from Australia! They weren't bad, salty and a bit fatty. The Australian English teacher who brought them was appalled that her Thai students prepared them Thai style, complete with chilis! I thought they were much better that way. However, I'll admit that my favorite food of the evening came from the good old US booth - egg salad sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies and rootbeer floats! Definitely worth driving 1 1/2 hours to sample!
1 comment:
So interesting about the Thai-American pastor's teaching style. I find this fascinating. I never understood Thai enough to understand what the Thai pastors were saying...how does their style differ?
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