Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Kittens, electric fences and a whole lot of...WHHAAAT!!?! -Sam

Hello blogspot! Yes I know I'm horrible at blogging and I'm sorry! Neither of us have ever had a blog before and writing a diary type thing to the world is honestly a little uncomfortable, for me a least. Mostly because I feel like I have nothing to say that would be worth your precious time....until now! DUN DUN DUN!!!


So as we've already posted about, service here is amazing. I mean, 99% of it is done in Thai and... we don't speak Thai. But despite my stumbling over a 3 sentence presentation ( most of it probably pronounced wrong) I feel like the little tract or magazine that I place is so appreciated by almost every householder. Maybe its just me being in la la land but I love it. We will walk down a busy street placing literature with almost everyone we run into and by the end of the street you can look back and find everyone reading what you just gave them! Yes, they read it! They don't just take it and shove it in their pocket or throw it on the table and carry on their business, they actually take that moment and read it!! Its a beautiful sight :)

The other day we were working a territory in a very ramshackled little neighborhood and one brother we were with had an awesome experience, Brother, you know who you are, if your reading this, I'm sorry I didn't ask your permission to post this... Anyways the brother was placing the Truth tract and at his door (shack) one woman took the tract, read it WHILE the brother stood there not knowing whether to dismiss himself or stay. I really am not sure if she read the whole thing or what but she got to the back of the tract which offered a bible teach book with that section where the householder fills out their info. So right there and then she filled out that coupon with her information and handed it back to the brother. I mean COME ON!!!

Coming from the US, it's so strange when you say you're one of Jehovah's Witnesses and the majority of people you meet have no idea what your talking about, granted that could also be my white accent coming thru.. in any event, it shows theres still a HUGE need for help here, in Thailand and basically Asia in general. I recently met a very nice Thai women who had never heard about witnesses. And her story is the reason for this blog post, so here goes:

It was a normal Friday morning here in Pattaya, the birds were chirping, the street food people were cooking, the dogs were barking, all was well. Until just then while working in the ministry we encountered something so unexpected and adorable, yes right there in front of us behind the gates of our next door was a whole litter of kittens! White ones, orange ones, mixed colored ones. All so happy and healthy wrestling each other and sticking their little heads out of the gate that separated us trying to say hello. Yes, Our hearts melted and we totally forgot we were in service, right in front of someones door (with the door open mind you!), as we knelt down and spent the next five minutes (at least) ooing and aweing at the little fur balls. Suddenly I came back to reality and realized that there was an older Thai women standing right there in front of us, hollering in Thai toward the house. (And it was my door.... Yikes!!)

I stumbled to my feet.... and then thru my Thai presentation, the women seemed kind but continued to yell toward the house. ("oh no!" I thought! "She hates us for doing a photo shoot with her kittens with out permission!!") Finally someone came from inside the house and asked (In a completely "white" accent) "Can I help you?" Then forgetting I can speak English fluently I translated my simple Thai presentation into English, which was basically: "Hello, I would like to give you this tract, It's about the bible." ("HELLO!!! She speaks English!!! I can actually use my big girl words!!!" I finally realized!!) So I went a little more in depth and explained what we were doing and shared the Truth tract with her ( the only English one I had) After reading the questions I asked if she had every wondered any of these before? I kid you not, her eyes lit up as she turned to me and told me that she has thought about all of those questions very frequently. Since I had never heard anything close to that EVER in my life, I had no idea what to do. So I said then this tract is for you... and scurried away. JUST KIDDING!
My brain kicked in and we went over the first answer inside. I explained that we offer free bible studies and offered one to her. She explained how her mom was Muslim and he boyfriend is Buddhist but she doesn't have religion and how she has been wanting something to share with her children. She accepted the study and we made an appointment for the following day. (END OF SCENE)

(THE NEXT DAY)
We arrived at her home with two "Bible Teach" books, one for me and one for Michelle. (*Some names may or may not have been changed*) As we approached her gate, we noticed a hand written note posted. "Shoot!" I thought. "She left me a note saying she couldn't make it" And the worst part was that it was written in Thai So I couldn't even understand it! Just then a man came running out of the house motioning with his hands and trying to talk to us in Thai. We stood there with blank stares. He as he approached us he pointed up above, entangled in the gate were live wires... Yes apparently the gate was electrically charged and we almost went in for the shock of our lives. (hence the warning note in Thai) The man (who shall remain nameless, since I forgot to ask for his name) safely opened the gate with the assistance of a cloth rag and motioned us to come in. After guiding us to some benches in the courtyard, he advised us in broken English that Michelle will be back in 5 min. He brought us some cold water and left us to wait for her. (thankfully the kittens were still there so I resumed my photo shoot from the day before :)
(5 minutes later)

Michelle came thru the gates accompanied by an unknown female. We said our hellos and she informed us the unknown female was her friend Sugar (*^^^^^*) Sugar is a young women from Shanghai who also speak English perfectly. "Sugar wants to study the bible too." Informs Michelle. (WHAT!!!! Your killing me people! "Are you serious?!" you may ask, and the answer is "yes, I'm so serious.") So again, after I recovered from my shock and temporary heart stopping, I explained how a bible study works and offered her the "bible teach" book that was intended for me. Unfortunately Sugar was leaving for a visit back to Shanghai that afternoon and couldn't sit in on the study, but assured me that she will bring her bible when she comes back and would like to study.
After Sugar ran off to catch her flight, Michelle and I began our study. And the rest was history :) (Well, in a nut shell, she lit up after reading thru the "promises" pages in the front, and seemed to absorb and happily accept everything we read. She learned how to look up scriptures in the bible and figured out what the numbers meant after the bible book. (Example: the 3:16 part after John) Yes it was an amazing experience and I feel so privileged yet extremely under qualified at the same time. It just goes to show you, there are people out there, hundreds, maybe even millions of them who are still so hungry for the truth and want to learn about Jehovah and are just waiting for answers to so many of their questions. The Fields are white for harvesting, if we make ourselves available, no matter where we are, Jehovah will use us, and the feeling is amazing.
(Side note- Michelle is leaving on vacation until Jan.6 but told us very confidently that she knows where the kingdom hall is and is coming to the meeting Jan. 9th.....WHHHHHAAAAT!?!)




10 comments:

  1. So cool Tams!! Great experience. The angels are directing you. Hugs. Love u. MAC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! It's amazing :) love you!

      Delete
  2. Great experience! Keep up the good work, what a privilege! Nice writing too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! You guys too :) nice talking to you guys last night (I mean letting us listen to the extremely long messages ;)

      Delete
  3. Thanks for sharing your experiences. You don't know me personally but the rest of your gang does, hope to meet you someday.
    Jessica Boudreau

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes thank you! One day :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW! What an amazing experience!!!

    The Beck Family, Santa Rosa

    ReplyDelete
  6. That's so exciting! What an amazing experience! Enjoy every minute!

    ReplyDelete
  7. You should write in a diary every day and let me read it. Good writing! See you sooooooooon !!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hmmm, that might be the way to go. We do have a journal that we keep of our advetures... Can't wait to see you guys! Can't believe it's coming up so fast!!!! Woo hoo!!!!

      Delete