December 2005 Mission Trip

In December 2005, The Surin Foundation partnered with the Sth Camberwell Uniting Church Hall to a team of 14 people to do mission work in Thailand. Here is some of what they experienced...

Rebecca Chan

The things we did in the village included (in order of priority): play with the children, teach at school, prepare for a Christmas concert, run an English camp and break things. Well maybe these things only reflect a small amount of the things we did in Surin but these were the
most memorable things for me. Also I really enjoyed teaching at the schools and seeing the students become engaged in learning English, It was so enriching for me as a new teacher to be in this environment of learning. I learnt a lot about communication and how to recognise
different learning abilities.

The highlight of our time in Surin was the Christmas concert that we held in the village, and for many of us it was the most exciting Christmas celebration we have ever experienced. We had taught many of the village children to perform dramas, mimes, songs and even a nativity play which they did on stage at the Christmas concert. The aim of the concert was to share the true meaning of Christmas that Jesus was born on Earth and Christmas is really all about Him.

To our astonishment over 400 people came to watch and celebrate with us. The children really shone that night as they all performed brilliantly. It was so uplifting to see how these children were being used by God whether they were aware of it or not.

Unfortunately the next day was our last day in the village; we were due to leave Surin on the evening train back to Bangkok. Leaving and saying goodbye was the hardest thing for our team to do. Everyone had their own way of saying goodbye. In my heart I felt an incredible
sense of how beautiful these people were and I don’t mean on a physical level. These were God’s people and He loved them so much. Experiencing God’s heart for the Thai people broke my heart and I was so saddened that we were leaving Surin. At the same time, I knew
that this was His harvest, and it was going to be bigger than just Ban Choke village. God has a heart for all of Thailand.

So it was only fitting that God would take us to a new area to share our ministry. He took us to Chiang Mai, well Phrao to be exact which is north of Chiang Mai. Phrao was pretty much a first for the mission team as only a small survey trip had been done previously in October.

Phrao is so very different to Surin. Though they consider themselves to be rural they are generally much better off than the rural life of Surin. Where we stayed I guess you can consider it to be the town centre. We were right next to a large market and not far from the main
primary school.

Our ministry in Phrao was one of mainly English teaching as outreach. As well as outreach we hoped to encourage the Church members to be more fired up for God. Again I loved the teaching part of our ministry. This time what touched me the most was the Adult English class I
taught at the church in the afternoon. I had in this class about 7 adults from all different walks of life. There was Am who was a farmer’s daughter. Songprawn was a street food vendor. La was a dog breeder. Somket was an artist. Aor was studying at university in Chiang Mai.

Bum owned an electelectronics store. Yim Hiang the sweet little grandma that ran a newsagency. There were a few more but these were the people that really impacted my heart. I really felt that I had become friends with them by the end of our time in Phrao and it was so sad to leave. My prayer is that they will keep coming to the church to learn. Even though they cannot learn English, they can learn about Jesus.

Coming home and trying to get back into life has been ok. I believe we experienced the harvest that God had promised us. Having been part of the first team that ever went to Surin back in 2003 I really saw how much the villagers have opened up to us. The children were coming
to Christ and so were the teenagers. They were asking questions about our faith and hungering to hear our testimonies. They were open to reading the bible and we being moved to tears by His word. Though we are no longer with them, I keep the memories and the hopes for the
people I met in my heart. If I never get to return to Thailand I still hope that I will meet these friends in heaven.

Alex Lau

The Thailand mission trip was definitely an awesome experience for me both personally and spiritually. There are so many things to write about but I am just going to share some meaningful events that happened.

First of all, I believe that the more our church sends mission teams to Thailand, the more people become members of God’s family. In Surin, Daniel said that our mission trip
would be a harvest of his previous five years of work. We ran programs such as school teaching, gospel sharing nights, Sunday services, English camps and a Christian concert (which was attended by 450 people). From my perspective, the children were a great blessing and they were willing to listening to stories about Jesus and the Gospel. Some of the kids took roles in drama and music, and some of the high school students even helped us organise the Christmas concert. Most importantly, thank God that some of them have become Christians!!

The mission trip was also a process of finding myself. Throughout the continuous work and team sharing, I was able to learn more about myself in terms of my strengths and weaknesses. One night when I shared amount the team I said, “God has taught me the biggest lessons I have ever learnt in my life.’’

One of the most precious things I enjoyed was the team-bonding. I remember about 3 months ago when we all first met, we still had this sense of distance and strangeness with each other. In Thailand, by the great leadership of Daniel, we were led to really work and live as a team. We developed a very supportive team where everyone was eager to pray for one another. The wonderful united feeling of the team has encouraged me do my best so that our cell groups will be the same. Hopefully, I’ll be able to apply some of Daniel’s team-bonding techniques to Amos (our cell group).

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the church, and ask that we keep sending mission teams in Thailand so that I can join in. I can see how God is working through our church to expand his love around the world. Finally, I would like to say that I am thinking of going back, and I am looking forward to seeing more and more wonderful things from God in Thailand.

Karl Yik

The mission trip was an awesome experience for me personally and it definitely changed the way I look at life. It tested my faith and allowed God to take control of my life which I doubted he could do before going on the trip. So much happened on the trip where God was truly moving among the people of Thailand and allowing the team to show their gifts to do his will. I’m going to share the more significant moments which really captivated my heart.

First all of I would like to thank our almighty gracious God for giving me this calling to go onboard this mission and to help share his powerful word to the people of Thailand. I would also like to thank Daniel for putting his life into God’s hands and establishing a strong presence in Surin. Daniel told us that this mission trip was the time to harvest and we saw that happen with the kids continually coming to the house to seek more about God’s word.

The team from Australia arrived on a hot and humid night in Bangkok on the first of December and checked into a guest house nearby. We spent the weekend in Bangkok to acclimatise and get use to the idea that we were in Thailand ready to do a mission for God. We gathered resources for our ministry, bonded as a team and prepared ourselves before heading out to the province of Surin.

During our two weeks in Surin we did a lot of kids’ ministry where many of the kids came to know God and learn his Word through Bible stories and dramas which some the kids learnt and performed. We taught the kids English at local village schools, and the team ran an English camp for teenagers, where we stayed at the school for a whole weekend. The Christmas concert was the highlight of the trip for me because God provided us the perfect weather when we thought the rain would come and dampen our spirits. We had only expected about 150 villagers to come and witness the extravagant night, but in the end the final headcount was around 450 people! I couldn’t believe the large turn out and there was a huge buzz in the atmosphere which made it a phenomenal night. It was just awesome to see the kids perform the dramas and songs that we had taught them in such little time, and it really was their night to shine.

As I mentioned before about Daniel’s vision of the harvest, many of the teenagers really opened up to us and were coming to the house to hang out with us. There were girls coming and wanting to know more about Jesus and crying when they read the Bible. It was really touching to see their tears and I know God really touched their hearts.

I really saw how much God loved them and wanted for them to be saved.

During the mission I did a lot of soul-searching through the ministry work and team bonding. I was able to discover more about myself in terms of my strengths and weaknesses which I found rewarding and useful. The team I was involved in was unique and wonderful team where we all bonded well and shared many special moments. There was a time when one of our members experienced an empowering encounter which disturbed a few of the team members, but it brought us closer together and I feel very grateful for what God did for us that day. Before the incident I don’t think we were as close as we all thought we were, and there were times when the devil was able to stop us from doing God’s work. But after the incident, we become a more supportive team with a true sense of family. We showed much more care and love towards one another and everyone was eager to pray for each other all the time.

When the time finally came for us to leave Surin, it was really hard for the whole team as our hearts did not want to leave. It felt like our time had disappeared even though so much had been accomplished.

After Surin we made our way to Phrao an area north of Chiang Mai which was much more developed. In Phrao, we stayed at a church in desperate need of revival. We taught English at the local primary school and ran English lessons at church in the afternoon. Everyday, the kids came pouring into the church after school and it was so encouraging to see their enthusiasm. Teaching English was pretty intense but rewarding because we were able to build up strong relationships with the students and bring them into contact with the church. After our two weeks there, it was sad to leave but I am sure that God will continue bringing people to the church. God is really awesome and it was so humbling to thing that He chose to use us to reach out to the Thai people.