First thing this morning we picked up the rest of our teammates at the airport and went out to breakfast in Chiang Rai!
Next we visited two Buddhist temple sites for a time of learning and prayer-walking. Wat Rong Khun, commonly known as the White Temple (pic 1), and Wat Huay Pla Kang, often referred to as the Big Buddha (pic 2).
Later as a team, we debriefed what we experienced at the two temples and what we heard from God during our prayer time at the locations. The goal was to grasp a better understanding of the religious beliefs of the Thai people so we can consider how to reach with them with the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This evening, all 29 of us (14 students, 11 mission team members, and the 4 staff of the foundation) went out to dinner at Mugata, which is an open air barbecue buffet where you cook your own food at your table. Dinner lasted nearly 3hrs and we found out how much these students love to eat!
Many weeks ago the students and mission team members were assigned as prayer partners and we’ve been praying for one another in the weeks leading up to this trip. Tonight was the first opportunity we’ve had to really sit together as partners, get to know each other well, and converse in English as much as possible. One of the reasons this mission team was sent here is to speak everyday English with the students, which encourages them to learn and use the language more regularly and with familiarity. I (Rebecca) got to see this firsthand with a unique pairing. (pic 3) Mark & Cooper are partners. Rebecca & Reah are partners. Rebecca & Cooper are mother & son. Mark & Reah are brother & sister. So we all sat together at dinner. Mark speaks very good English but Reah is still learning and kept asking her brother to help by giving the answers. And I watched Mark kindly and gently help Reah figure out the answers on her own without as much of his help. How I watched her go from stuck and frustrated to correctly communicating, including tense and inflection, was so exciting. I think she was proud of herself and I was blessed to get to encourage her along the way. This is one of the main reasons the new homestay was built on the foundation property, so that prayer partners could spend as much time together as possible, speaking English.
We all learned a lot today!
We also walked a lot and are still jet lagged so we are turning in for the night to be up early for church together!
