Jr. High camp officially ended today, all 150ish kids back snug in their own beds tonight. What a week it was. Kinda tough for me; being a lead in Thailand this year has been sweet, but definitely makes it harder to connect with kids when you're not sleeping in a cabin with them. And these kids were just different from the jr. highers I'm used to. More independent, less I-want-to-hang-out-with-you-always. Most (but not all) of the times I tried to strike up conversations about anything other than boys or the latest gossip went something like this: "So what have you thought about Chris' teaching this week?" "I love it! He's great!" "Awesome! What's stood out to you, anything you've learned?" "Yeah, totally." "Sweet! Like what?" "Ummm....." Oh jr. highers. Kinda tough for a lot of us, but God was working in some cool ways through the staff as a whole, and it was awesome to hear some of the stories and interactions that came out of the time at camp. This week I prayed for God to use me wherevever, however would be the most needed. It seemed it wasn't always with campers, and it was cool to be able to encourage some of the staff girls and counselors from some of the different schools here. Had some sweet conversations with them about what God's doing in their lives and around them, passions and dreams and desires for the future, how best to love on these kids. So although my time looked a little different than I expected it to at times, it was still sweet.
And then tonight!!! What an amazing opportunity our team had to go to the Yee-Peng Sansai Ceremony (and I have the "Foreigner Guest" sticker to prove it!), which corresponds with some phase of the moon which just so happened to fall on TONIGHT. So we drove out to a temple in Chiang Mai, where thousands of people (mostly Thais, but a few othe foreigners like ourselves) had gathered for the buddhist tradition of lighting and releasing THOUSANDS of giant paper lanterns into the night sky, based on the belief that their sins are being sent away/atoned for in doing so. Sad, to be sitting in the middle of all those people during their chanting and meditation, not knowing of the grace that could so easily be theirs. Spectacular, to be able to light a lantern with my friends alongside them and watch these countless lights ascend into the night sky, saying a prayer for these amazing Thai people. It hit me from a ne perspective: the whole reason we come out to Thailand is for these people! The camps we run for these missionary kids, they're going to be a big part of impacting this and many other parts of the world for Christ, of being a light in the darkness here in Thailand and all over the world. So as I watched my lantern disappear into the cloud of lights in the night sky, I couldn't help but be in awe and hopeful of the future for the people of Thailand. God is at work out here in some amazing ways, and he's not giving up on them yet--not by a longshot.
[to catch a glimpse of what we saw tonight, go search it on YouTube!] :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment