What a blessing we had today! The day began with an opening devotion for both the men and the women together. Seems like there were about 22 men and 24 women who attended, plus the 14 of us in the PLI group and the Luutheran Hour Ministry staff. The devotion was spoken in the Thai language, but we had an English version to follow. Singing Shine, Jesus, Shine was definitely a highlight of our time together. We followed the song on PowerPoint. They would sing a verse in Thai, then those who could speak English along with the 14 of us would do it in English. Then we would have the chorus on the PowerPoint in both Thai and English and sing it together. I videotaped part of the singing, sure hope it comes out! They sang a beautiful song in Thai that I hope I learn the melody for the next couple of days. After the devotion, the men went across the street to another building and the women stayed where we were.
We had a fun ice breaker where we each had a ziplock bag with 5 different colored beads. We were instructed to go around the room, introduce ourselves to another person, and then swap a bead with them. The object was supposed to be to calmly walk around and share your name with a few other women and wind up with the same color of beads in your bag. The fun part was that many people seemed to want to be the first one finished, and it became a funny and crazy time as well. Laughter definietly helps break the ice.
The theme today had to do with a Life of Faith. After we did some fun things with a string of pearls (fake ones) , my friend Kathy who wrote the Bible studies for these three days, started the lesson. She would have me do a "mini Math lesson" on a geometric shape, and she would follow that with the Scripture application. For instance, the first one was about triangles. The equilateral triangle is a special one because all three sides and all three angles are equal. No one angle or side is bigger than any other. We used large posterboard cut outs when we would talk. Then she would follow with the fact that our God is one God, but three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The women were very receptive and we were all blessed by our time together.
After we finished with all of the shapes and the explanations, each woman made "witness beads" with one of each shape so that they could share the faith story with others, including children.
We did lots of other things together and it was an awesome day. We started at 9:00 this morning and finished about 4:00 this afternoon. Each one of us PLI wives are at a table with the women. There are a total of 6 of us at our table. The five women and I have already exchanged email addresses so we can keep in touch. A couple of the women at our table speak pretty good English, so that is really helping. Some of the 24 women are pastors' wives, a couple of them are pastors, some are active lay people. Most are married and have children, but there are quite a few single ladies. It is a good mix.
Two of the ladies at my table had a great reunion today. They met at camp 35 years ago. At that time, one was a Christian and the other was not. The one who was not a Christian then is now a pastor at a Christian church that is worshipping about 20 or more people. She was married to a missionary who died about 8 years ago. She is continuing to spread the Gospel message. The two women had not seen each other in 35 years. Our God is an awesome God!
The unpleasant thing that happened to me today was that I was "attacked" by some ants in bed last night and I have 10 - 15 welts on my legs, somewhat like fireants. Janice, you said to experience it all, but I would have liked to have skipped this part. Thank you God for my supply of antihistamines and things like benadryl cream. The missionary that teaches English, Robin, gave me some special ointment that is also helping with the itching. Since the ants got me and not Keith, I guess all that I can say is that I am sweeter and better tasting than him!?
Oh well, it is about time to eat. Your prayers for our team, our health, our safety, the people we are interacting with mean so much. Thank you.
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Hearing about your ant problem reminded me of an interesting encounter at camp in Georgia last week. We found a live scorpion in our room one morning. I wasn't quite expecting that either.
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