courage is fear that has said it's prayers

Wednesday, December 14 ; 12:09:00 AM♥

We assembled at the front door of Payap Zone at around 6am all packed for a night’s stay at Baw Gaew (mountain top). Tired and all, we settled our breakfast with hotdogs and cup noodles from the 7/11 near the Zone. Then we stacked our baggage on a hired truck and made our way to Baw Gaew. On our way there, almost everyone fell asleep despite the unbearably cold wind beating on our faces. Of course, we had fun snuggling together in the truck.

Finally, we reached the primary school at Baw Gaew. They hospitably welcomed us with open arms. Most of the children greeted us when they walked pass us! So cute. Then they lead us to the stage where we did a self introduction. Then, Candice, Kong Jo, Berm and Un lead the children into singing and acting songs like “peace like a river” and “J-E-S-U-S” cheer. The children actively participated in doing all the funny actions and cheers with us. We probably will not get such response in Singapore. Then we broke up into our different stations that facilitated the teaching of English. They are 1) listening, 2) reading 3) writing 4) speaking.

I was in the listening section and we played “old MacDonald’s” and “in/out of the boat” which required the children to listen to what we said and respond to it. Then we had packed lunch and started preparing for the carnival. Andris and Kenneth were dressed up prettily as they were to be the ones that gave out extra tickets to the children. The rest of us took charge of several games stations including dart throwing, ring tossing, twister, apple bobbing, ball throwing, fishing, etc. The children eagerly queued up for the games and we made use of the chance to give out gifts as prizes. These included teddy-bears, drinks, pencils, key-chains, candies, etc. We had lots of fun and we were sure that the children felt the same way.

In the afternoon after the English camp was over, we had a devotional and then we set off for the strawberry farm! But we hardly found any strawberries. Instead we plucked nice-smelling flowers.

Then we went to a small restaurant for our dinner. Finally we proceeded to the house of a local Christian for our campfire! We gathered on the mat around the fire and started singing songs and sharing stories.

A local Christian, Woot, shared his story followed by Jia Ni and Cheryl. Then we had a whole night of talking, star-gazing and fellowship followed by rest.

Sheena Goh (Geylang church)

Labels: Asian Mission Exposure 2005