Before I go into everyay happenings of the Mission Trip, I think it's important for me to write down the whole process of deciding on the place and dates of this trip. I would want to remember how God has led me to this trip and how God has been providing and guiding me even before embarking on this journey to Chiang Mai.
As many would know, I had always wanted to go for Missions. My first mission dream was to go on Doulos (Missionary Ship). Ever since I heard of Doulos, I wanted to go for 2 years. I wanted to give 2 years of my life to God before I start to work. So graduation came, Doulos was too old to continue sailing. And somehow, I didn't even ask about the other ships that were still sailing. So that option was out. My parents has a friend from Taiwan (Uncle Jospeh) who works in a ministry in China. This ministry works with youths in rural areas of China and teaches them English. And so, that was my next option. My mum wanted to go with me - so my family booked tickets to go to Hong Kong first and my mum and I would buy tickets in Hong Kong to go to China. HOWEVER, things didn't work out with that particular ministry - the timing wasn't right. So I had my second graduation trip with my family to Hong Kong in June. haha!
My options were open again. And then my parents' Bible College friends (Uncle David and Aunty Sarah) and their daughter Joy came to Singapore and they stayed with us for 2 nights. While they were here, they shared about the ministry that they were serving in. And so my parents told me about it - Uncle David and Aunty Sarah are full-time missionaries in Chiang Mai with China Evangelism Mission (http://www.cemhk.org.hk/). Because of the friendship between Uncle David and Aunty Sarah and my parents, they welcomed me to go too. This became another option for me to go. And Isabella (good friend from Wheelock) has always wanted to go to Thailand, Chiang Mai for missions. So I told her about it and asked her to check things out for herself.
Other than the option of going to Thailand, Yoke Theng (my YAM DGL) shared with me about another ministry in China. A pastor set up a kindergarten in China and would like for someone to go teach English (short and long term). Because I was in Hong Kong, I couldn't really find out more about the ministry in China. As I was talking to my parents and working out dates to go on the possible mission trip, many pros and cons surfaced about going to either places. Going to China would mean speaking and teaching a language I'm comfortable with but I'll go alone(which was actually fine with me). Going to Chiang Mai would be teaching English too but language would be a huge problem but I'lll most probably be going to Isabella. And Chiang Mai was a 100% can go. So I texted Isabella and we both deciding to go to CHIANG MAI!!!
We quickly emailed Aunty Sarah to inform her of our decisions and quickly decided on the dates 19 July to 6 August 2010. We asked a lot of questions that both Aunty Sarah and Joy answered. Though language was a barrier, we didn't have to worry much cause Joy was going with us. And Joy could speak fluent Thai. Aunty Sarah knew that Isabella and I both working with children so she arranged for us to help out at an orphanage - New Sky Home. We only knew we were to teach English and that the home had more than sufficient materials. So we didn't really prepare anything.
Isabella and I are quite involved with our ministries in Singapore. And before we went on our trip, we had to settle things in our ministries. For me, I had to settle issues about Starry Starry Night - a evangelistic gig that YZ and YAM organized together - that was supposed to take place on 6 August this year. I was overall-in-charge with Lynn and having to go on Missions would mean she would have to oversee Starry alone. And it would be quite overwhelming for one person to oversee such a huge event. So I prayed and spoke to Ben and other people. I want to thank God that everything was settled. Lixian agreed to support Lynn in overseeing Starry. Though there were some hiccups here and there, everything turned out okay!
On a side note, from what I hear from people, Starry went very smoothly. AND ALL THIS IS GOD'S GRACE TO YZ AND YAM!! It all went so well because God made it all happen!!!
With all our "burdens" settled, Isabella and I were ready to go to THAILAND!!!! We each changed about 5000-6000 Baht, as suggested by Aunty Sarah. Along came Audrey (a True Way church member) who blessed me a lot more, which is so much that I don't exactly know what to do with it. I was thinking of giving the extras to New Sky Home. So yeah.. :)
We packed and got ready. And off we went to THAILAND~~~ :)
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