Sundays Are My Favorite

Sundays in Thailand (as elsewhere) are special.

You wake up moderately early due to the anticipation of what's in store that day and realize you have time to just lie in bed and read. And read you do until your alarm goes off and it's actually time to get ready for church.

You shower, dress, put a flower in your hair and some blush on your cheeks. There's no reason to hurry so you Skype with a close friend back home, a sister in Christ.

It's time to make the trek to church so you walk to the train station (across the street and up the stairs) and board the train to Ekkamai. It's a semi-long ride so you relax, look out the window at the sun spilling onto the streets of Bangkok, and enjoy the company of your fellow passengers.

You arrive at the right station, take the short-cut through the mediplex (like a mall but with different doctor's practices), and stop at the posh ("hi-so"/high society) Starbucks for a hot brewed coffee. It's worth it. You go down the escalator to the street and begin walking to church. There's no hurry, you tell yourself. You're operating on "Thai time."

You walk through the streets that are just beginning to buzz with life--stalls carting fresh fruit and coffee drinks, people sweeping storefronts, motorcyclists whizzing past, barely missing you. You take another shortcut and you soon arrive at church.

You enter the air-conditioned church building and people turn to look. They smile, wave, and welcome you. It feels like home. You chat with your American friends, 'wai' at your Thai friends (and hug them too), and you smile because you're happy to be somewhere that is truly a house of God.

Worship begins and you sit next to a couple you don't know. You worship God by singing as loudly as you can. Everyone else around is singing loudly too--giving God glory for having forgiven you and given you your beautiful inheritance that is Christ Jesus. You cry because you are sad you have sinned so much and so often. You cry because you are joyful. You know that your sins are washed away.

The sermon portion of worship follows the music portion. You listen as the pastor teaches about discipleship out of the book of Philippians and you remember the first time you heard this truth preached. You thank God for having placed you in churches where a high view of God is taught and the gospel is of primary importance.

The sermon draws to a close and the tithes and offerings part of worship begins. The whole service is worship from start to finish. Then announcements. Then lunch. You eat something that sounds like that character from Gilmore Girls ("Suki...?") and catch up with friends (your family). After all, most of them you haven't seen for a whole week.

The board games come out. Groups gather around games like Blockus and Sequence and Pictureka. You observe, not feeling any pressure to join in. After all, Sundays are special. Hours later, it's time to head back to the BSC. You walk by yourself at a fast clip to Ekkamai train station. (On the way there, there's a small incident with a collision into a sign--praise God, you're okay. You blame your height and your sunglasses).

You get back to the BSC and meet the student you're tutoring to make pretzel rolls. Ingredients are assembled. You beg your neighbors for salt and yeast that you should have purchased when you had the chance.

The rolls are rising as you and your student (Erdene) rush over to Sunday evening Bible English. You help your student understand what's going on to the best of your ability. You hope she understands the story that is told about the ant and the grasshopper (and the twist on the original version--the ant gives all his food to the grasshopper so the grasshopper might live through the winter while the ant dies).

Class ends, the pretzel rolls are almost finished. You play with the BSC squirrel "Chewy" and take the rolls out of the oven. You serve them to your friends who are hanging around after the study. Rave reviews all around. You say goodbye to your student. She tells you that she had a good time as she walks out the front gate of the BSC. You're excited to meet her three-year-old son on Thursday. You will walk together to the park.

Your younger sister calls on Facetime. You chat outside the guesthouse lounge and suffer the mosquitos to bite every square inch of exposed skin. It's worth it to see your sister and show her a glimpse of Bangkok at night. You wish she was there in person to experience it with you instead of thousands of miles away in Virginia getting ready for church.

You tell her that you are glad you got to speak with her and you let her finish getting ready for church. Sundays are special in America too but they don't operate on Thai time.


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**I'm sorry if the format of this "day-in-the-life" piece is confusing. I wanted to try something new and different...

BangSaen Beach

This past Saturday I got to leave the city on a day trip to BangSaen Beach! I met up with the Lifepoint team at the bus station and we departed on a two hour ride full of good conversation and the game of Life on someone's iPhone.
A group of nine interns from Lifepoint's Smyrna campus arrived this week so the trip was designed to be a respite from all the chaos of the city and exhaustion from flying halfway around the world. It was such a pleasure to get to hang out with them and hear them share what led them to come to Bangkok for six weeks. I never get tired of hearing what God is doing in other people's lives :)
As far as the beach goes, I was told to have no expectations. That said, the beach met my expectations! I really hope that sometime this year, I will get to travel to some other beaches that Thailand offers...Other than that, there was lots of shade to enjoy (see the above picture for an example of the umbrella fortress we sat under). I got to take a nap, walk around the shops with the interns, and play Apples to Apples--those were some of my high points of the day.
Another high point was watching one of my new sisters in Christ get baptized in the ocean:

[Photo Credit: Brittany Kaminh]

It was really awesome to get to witness this moment. The new pastor of Lifepoint's Bangkok campus, David McCaman, is the one baptizing Nisa. The water at this particular beach may not have been a tank full of chlorinated, crystal-clear water but neither was the Jordan River in Jesus' time (I imagine). The Spirit of God was definitely there and He was pleased by this profession of faith.
This one-day retreat was such a blessing to me and I am so glad I got to do something with my new church (while I'm here in Bangkok) outside of the normal Sunday morning worship.

If you look closely, you'll see that I got a little sunburned...so worth it though. :)