So, about those two days of outreach that we had last week. I got up early in the morning on Wednesday and went with my dad to the drop off point with a few other passengers and a whole heck of a lot of luggage (well, bags of clothes, sleeping material, our keyboard, our keyboard stand, my guitar, pillows, etc.) and we waited around for everybody else to get there. I had to make sure that we had all the stuff to set up sound for worship since I was in charge of everything and so then we packed up and headed out. There really weren't that many kids that went, and there were even a few that bailed out, but we still all had a really good time. The outreach was in this town (we're not sure what it was, it was way too big to be a village, but too small to be a city) called Wiang Pa Pao and all of us stayed in this children's home that I think is affiliated with our church. So we all slept on the tile floors, and that's probably why I'm still so exhausted. Soon after we arrived, we ate lunch and then drove out to the first high school that we were going to be witnessing at. We had a little program all set up with skits, songs, testimonies, and other things, but we really only had forty-five minutes there so we were a little short on time. We were all separated into three different teams for the different skits that we were gonna do: There was one team doing that 'Everything' skit, one team doing this other skit I found on the internet, and then our team was doing a funny one. Interestingly enough, all the girls went crazy over the guy playing Jesus.
Said guy.
The children's home where we stayed at. Yep, that's the floor we slept on.
The next morning mostly consisted of us eating breakfast and then packing up and leaving, and we were all pretty tired.On the whole the reception was pretty positive: they laughed at our skit, they cheered in the others when Jesus conquered, and they all accepted tracts. Score.
Later we went out to this thing in the middle of the town; but there didn't seem to be that many people around. And there was where we'd have all of our actual band play which really..didn't go so well. Most of the planning had to be done on the fly because I wasn't quite sure what was going on, and I'd have to say it was a bit of a mess. Even the other things we did didn't go so well: Most of the audience were younger kids and so they didn't really get any of the skits that we did and so the whole evening seemed to fall a little flat. After that we went back to the children's home to play a few card games before heading off to bed.
In the morning we got up (well, duh Ben, obviously) and ate a little bit of breakfast, and then prepared to go walking all around the whole of Wiang Pa Pao, handing tracts out to everyone that we could see who would take them. We spent several hours doing that and although it was blazing hot, it was a pretty rewarding experience. My small group even stopped and were able to hand this tract out to this Buddhist monk that we saw, although he didn't look the happiest.
After that we had a different school that we were going to that wasn't just high school students, but high school was still the age group that we'd be speaking to. That whole thing seemed to go pretty much the same way as the other school we went to did, and that was pretty fun. Although this time we had a lot more time to speak with the kids, and that was quite interesting. We definitely met some pretty cool people, and some of them even got some of us guys to go play basketball with them. I thought we were going to lose really bad, but people were saying that we won (I still don't believe them). If we did in fact win, it was only because of a certain person who towered over everybody and would have to rebound every shot that we missed. I'm pretty sure he was the only person on our team who scored.
There was a little bit more free time to be had as well as dinner until the evening when another youth group came to see us do our program. Since the people coming were already Christians, we spared them a few things and got right into it. That night I actually shared. Yeah, I know, little shy ol' me. I'd have to say I think it went pretty well. Anyway, right after they left, things were getting a bit emotional and all of a sudden somebody hits the ground and so we all crowd around and start praying and singing and crying..it was pretty cool. But actually our youth pastors had to tell us to stop because it was getting late and we might disturb the neighbors and/or get a little carried away. One of them says that slab of concrete is anointed with our holy snot now, and anyone who later walks on it is gonna get blessed, and I'd have to say, I wouldn't be too surprised if it happened. After that little experience we all played BS (Liar, Cheat, whatever you want to call it) together and then 'went to bed.' I put that in quotations because all the guys had big plans to finally take revenge on the girls after all the pranks that have pulled on us in previous youth camps by certain unnamed girls. We still failed, but at least we scared the female youth pastor really badly, so it was almost worth it. Then again, I didn't get much sleep that night.
Later we went out to this thing in the middle of the town; but there didn't seem to be that many people around. And there was where we'd have all of our actual band play which really..didn't go so well. Most of the planning had to be done on the fly because I wasn't quite sure what was going on, and I'd have to say it was a bit of a mess. Even the other things we did didn't go so well: Most of the audience were younger kids and so they didn't really get any of the skits that we did and so the whole evening seemed to fall a little flat. After that we went back to the children's home to play a few card games before heading off to bed.
In the morning we got up (well, duh Ben, obviously) and ate a little bit of breakfast, and then prepared to go walking all around the whole of Wiang Pa Pao, handing tracts out to everyone that we could see who would take them. We spent several hours doing that and although it was blazing hot, it was a pretty rewarding experience. My small group even stopped and were able to hand this tract out to this Buddhist monk that we saw, although he didn't look the happiest.
After that we had a different school that we were going to that wasn't just high school students, but high school was still the age group that we'd be speaking to. That whole thing seemed to go pretty much the same way as the other school we went to did, and that was pretty fun. Although this time we had a lot more time to speak with the kids, and that was quite interesting. We definitely met some pretty cool people, and some of them even got some of us guys to go play basketball with them. I thought we were going to lose really bad, but people were saying that we won (I still don't believe them). If we did in fact win, it was only because of a certain person who towered over everybody and would have to rebound every shot that we missed. I'm pretty sure he was the only person on our team who scored.
There was a little bit more free time to be had as well as dinner until the evening when another youth group came to see us do our program. Since the people coming were already Christians, we spared them a few things and got right into it. That night I actually shared. Yeah, I know, little shy ol' me. I'd have to say I think it went pretty well. Anyway, right after they left, things were getting a bit emotional and all of a sudden somebody hits the ground and so we all crowd around and start praying and singing and crying..it was pretty cool. But actually our youth pastors had to tell us to stop because it was getting late and we might disturb the neighbors and/or get a little carried away. One of them says that slab of concrete is anointed with our holy snot now, and anyone who later walks on it is gonna get blessed, and I'd have to say, I wouldn't be too surprised if it happened. After that little experience we all played BS (Liar, Cheat, whatever you want to call it) together and then 'went to bed.' I put that in quotations because all the guys had big plans to finally take revenge on the girls after all the pranks that have pulled on us in previous youth camps by certain unnamed girls. We still failed, but at least we scared the female youth pastor really badly, so it was almost worth it. Then again, I didn't get much sleep that night.
The children's home where we stayed at. Yep, that's the floor we slept on.I've talked a lot about what we did, but I haven't really talked most about the emotional intangible things that we were all going through. Well, first of all, I'd have to say this was one of my few youth experiences that I didn't particularly touched by God. That's not to say it wasn't an amazing experience, it just seemed like I was already in the moment and in that place. Most of the other people did in fact, get a kind of spiritual reawakening so it's not as if the whole thing went down in flames. I do know for an absolute fact that God was with us through the whole time, even when we messed up; I can honestly say that for worship I have never ever heard me sing that good. I don't know if I ever will again, but this is just one thing that stuck out like a sore thumb to me.
The other thing that happened that probably impacted me more than any of the other stuff was the sense of community that I got just from spending two days with these people. I mean, by the end of it, we literally felt just like one big family. There was nothing that couldn't be shared around, and nothing too little to be cared for. And I think in that aspect it truly was amazing. Just that fact alone made all the stress and all the exhaustion completely 100 percent worth it.
Until next time,
Ben
P.S. When the other pictures that I want get uploaded, I will be sure to get them to you. Cheers.
That's sounds awesome. ^_^ Even though sleeping on tile sounds hard. And it sounds like God really blessed.
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