April 2006 Mission Trip

Team members: Daniel Loo, Aileen Ibuki, Jennifer Lam, Jack Tang (1 week), Wing Ho Kwong, Ivy Yuen (1 week), Theodore Loo (2 days), Margaret Loo (2 days).

Ministry Dates: 2-13 April

Purposes and objectives of the trip: To continue developing the ministry in Surin.

Description of ministry

The major part of the ministry was focused around an Easter program for the children during their school holidays. An average of 50 children attended on a daily basis. However many of the children with whom we were most familiar, were outstation with their parents on construction work. (Many families travel to the major cities to look for construction for additional income during the school holiday period). From another perspective, this gave us an opportunity to focus on our attention in reaching out to less familiar children.

The program ran from 9am -7:30pm each day. The time table was as follows:

9:00am – 9:30 – Aerobics
9:30- 10:30 – Worship and re-enacted bible story
10:30 – 12.00 – small group sessions
12 – 1pm - lunch
1pm – 3pm – movie
3 - 4pm – free time
4pm – 5:30pm – sports and activities
6pm – dinner
6:30 – 7:30 – worship and second bible story.

The morning bible stories followed through the steps of Jesus from his betrayal until his great commission and ascension.

The small group sessions then delved deeper into the exposition of the story often with a craft or some object oriented activity.

Here are some activities that the children enjoyed the most:

• Snakes and ladders – in this session we talked about Satan tempting Judas with the prospect of earning more money by betraying Jesus. We then got the children to paint a large snakes and ladders which they could then play in teams. The snakes represented falling to Satan’s temptation and the ladders represented trusting in Jesus and resisting Satan.

• Treasure hunt – in this session we talked about the resurrection and the empty tomb. We developed a treasure hunt where the children would search for the tomb of Jesus by finding clues hidden at certain locations around the house. Each clue pointed to the location of the next. The final location contained a white cloth. From this we explained that the tomb was empty except for the cloth because Jesus had risen from the dead.

• Cooking lessons – we used cooking lessons to bring out lessons in the bible. In one session we made unleavened bread to explain the story of the Passover.

• Drama and mine – We used drama and mime to reinforce the bible stories. This also helped to develop the children’s confidence.

• Music lessons – we bought along a number of musical instruments including shakers, triangles, xylophone, piano, guitar and taught the children how to play them and praise God with them. In the worship times we formed a music band.

The evening bible story was a walk through bible beginning from Genesis using a felt board. Two meals were provided each day, lunch and dinner. This was important to give confidence to the parents that their children were being well taken care of. In addition to the children’s ministry Margaret and Ivy ran 5 cooking classes for the mothers which was well received. It was the first time we have conducted a formal program for the mothers in the village. During the two Sundays that we were there, we ran Sunday service. The Sunday services differed from the daily programs in their formality and content.

Responses and Results

The fact that the children enjoyed the program was expressed both verbally and through their participation. In fact the attendance increased on a daily basis from 30 on the first day to 60 on some days.

Many mothers gave positive feed back to us; they were impressed with the quality of care we gave the children, and our ability to be able to control and discipline their children. On seeing the dramas and mimes performed by the children, they praised the fact that we were able to bring out such talents from children who most only saw as being immature and spending their holidays fruitlessly playing around. This strategy of focusing on the children’s talents and helping them achieve their potentials has helped us to strengthen our relationship with the parents.

Informal ministry

In addition to our formal ministry we also engaged in some “unplanned” ministry.

• Invitations to visit homes - On a number of occasions the children brought us to their homes. This gave us an opportunity to see the conditions that they live in, and relate to them on a more personal level.
• Visitations – on some occasions we visited children’s homes, without any formal invitation. Here we could share with the parents about the activities of the program, as well as find out more about the background of the children. This sometimes led to an opportunity to pray for the family if they brought up personal problems. One grandmother shared with us about her difficulties in raising her grandchildren whose parents had both died of AIDS. After praying for her we sensed a need to act more practically. The following day we delivered a 25kg bag of rice to her home.
• Water Festival - We also had a chance to play water fights with the villagers (both adults and children). During April the Thais celebrate their “Song Krang” Festival where it is common for people to splash water at each other. Even the Buddhist monks are not excused from getting wet. The openness of the Thais during this fun occasion allowed us to connect with some people that were on the outer during the formal program.

Long-term growth of the ministry

What we saw in this ministry are the fruits of almost 4 years of ministry in Surin. One of our ministry strategies was to share photos and videos of previous trips. This created a sense of connection between the children and the team through our common histories.

We also saw a number of children who have been regularly coming to our programs over the years grow in their faith. At this stage the children have not formally confessed their faith as they are still quite dependent on the decisions of their parents, and any public confession would strain our relationship with parents and villagers. Our ultimate goal is for whole families to come to Christ together. Nevertheless, we know that many children are Christians in their heart. This shows in the way they pray and sing praises to God.

The follow-up of the children is done through a number of Thai Christians; Satit and his wife Ratanna are based in Bangkok but travel to Surin every fortnight to conduct ministry programs and to oversee our scholarship children, whilst Korn is a recent university graduate who has given up her career to live in Surin and teach the bible to the children. Korn runs 3-4 bible sessions a week in the village, as well as “live” with the children. She helps the children through their spiritual journeys, answers their questions, and encourages them in any difficulties they may face in being a Christian in a majority Buddhist environment. Both Satit, Ratanna and Korn are financially supported by the Surin Foundation to work in Surin.

Daniel