well... IM BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!! anybody missed me??? hahaha oh well shant delay n go straight into abt the trip.
this following part is frm my journal:
2nd december (thursday)
well, its the kickoff point of our mission trip. slept onli at 12+am cos was discussing wif jingmin abt missions. shes goin china on 5th dec (sun) so... i'll pray 4 her! den wake uip @4.30am feeling kinda nervous. waited till 5 n woke the rest of the familu up. bathed, did some final packing n we were off to the airport. reached @6.05am to find chuan tin ernest n john. yansing arrived nxt den jovan n jianwei. mr lai arrived last and den we began to queue up for check-in. wah kao took so long lah. haiz so we got my dad to ta-pao BK breakfast for us cos we havent ate yet. we came out wif harly any time to eat so we had to bring it in wif us. there were so many ppl to send us off! hahaha got pastor tan, andre, celine n fam, everybody's mum or dad or both. realli appreciated it esp. celine n fam cos celine wasnt even goin in the end. took a pic wif everyone n so... it was a hug for mum n dad n we were into the immigration checkpoint. walked straight to our row which was ROW ONE for dat matter. damn far lah. skipped looking at all the nice shops. ate my breakfast b4 boarding the plane. hmm... plane took off at 820am it was a damn small plane. only six columns and ard 25 rows. well nuttin much happened on the way there juz dat breakfast on the plant wasnt too good. a baby was crying so i cldnt sleep and i got a stiff nick frm trying. reached chiangmai thailand and was first to get out of the customs so i was like trying to haul every single bag of our team's out. turned out i nearly forgot abt my own. which was a super impt bag cos it contained all my underwear. ooooooops. hahahaha but we got it n den met tee outside the airport. he got us this truck-like vehicle which was red in colour. its called a song-taeao n a vital mode of our transportation in thailand. it cld contain all 11 of us n all our baggage too so it was cool. so we reached our guest house. its called the green lodge. shifted in and found the place pretty ncie and comfy. sleeping wif me were ern and jianwei. well our room, 406, was appointed to be the meeting room. hahaha oh well juz dat our room is the messiest. hmm den we set off at 12pm. oh btw thailand has a time lag of one hour. n den left to change money and have lunch. changed 50 bucks and got 1188 baht. felt rich. hahahha the exchange rate was 23.77. hmm went to this cosy little restaurant for lunch. on the way there saw damn lots of temples. as well as poor people selling traditional thai accessories. saw a man who was lame of leg and was riding a bicycle. it was modiefied so that his hands cld pedal instead but... juz had to pray for him la. well reached the restaurant. ratana's kitchen. haven of good food. it had CNN on the tv. had a realli good lunch and spent like onli 2 sgbucks. can u believe it??????????????? the fried rice i ate was like frm ding tai feng. cost onli 30 baht. omg. the fanta orange i drank was 10 baht. so it was onli 40 baht for my lunch. horribeeble. it was fantastic. on our way back we started buying ministry stuff, like scissors, mahjong paper and a molten soccer ball. baught many bottles of drinking water for consumption too. have i mentioned how cheap things here all are??? scissors for 50cents, soccer ball for $1+, drinking water one bottle 20cents. siao boh??? we returned to green lodge for a break b4 setting off for the central market of chiangmai. walked there past a sch. saw all the small little thai children, eating roadside food, playing games and shouting. they are no diff frm our kids. juz dat cos of their family background and environment, they are abit scrawnier and dirtier, but God loves em all the same. reached the market and tee gave each pair of us a list of 5 items to purchase. juz dat the list was in thai. n we din noe wat the items actually were. smart. i was wif ernest. well we went t ask a fruit stall auntie wat the items were and she gave us a rough idea of wat we had to buy. so we went to buy the yar-dom, sai-uwer, kar-nom-pang, nama-plao and wee. well if ur wondering wat those are, they are inhaler, a type of local sausage filled wif spices dat tastes real good, biscuits, coconut and bamboo fan. turned out the sausage cost us 20 baht when we were given a budget of 50 baht, and so destroyed our balance. haiz and turned out we were supposed to buy nam-plao, no nama-plao, which was mineral water. and wee had different pronunciations and we were supposed to get a comb -_-" oh well but everyone had fun. ern n i were laffing all the way. walked back to green lodge and left for dinner. we took the song-taeao to a shpping centre. central airport centre. i think. ate the northern thai food dere. wah kao rox lah. dey had all sorts of food. ate fried rice agfain and had this coconut drink which were both OH SO GOOD! the rest went to buy some other foods, like john bvought prawn paste crackers, tee bought mango wif sticky rice and my bro some sorta banana dessert. wah biang all tasted damn good lah. think im gonna fatten up instead of slimming down. well walked around the shopping centre and din spend any cash. think the night bazaar wld be more worth it. plus the souvenirs. think something more thai is a betta choice. took the song-taeao back n we had a debrief and i went to sleep shortly after. now its actually the nxt day already. woke up at 7am n preparing for devotion.
3rd december (friday)
well devotion was fine. liping led with a scripture frm isaiah and john aded in stuff abt facts and truth. are they diff? yes of cuz. facts are information given to us by our receptive 5 senses but truth involves the spiritual dimension, to get into contact wif God and understanding his will. dats TRUTH. well we had a fantastic breakfast of glutinous rice and pork. everything came frma a pig. we had sai-uwer again, 2 types of pork chop, some pork luncheon meat and deep fried pig's skin. it was excellent to start off the day. we then set off to walk ard the city. went to the reconstructed remaining wall of the lana kingdom, which is chiangmai b4 it was renamed. thought abt how the thais can actually value sumthin so much, despite its temporal nature. plus its such a miniscule monument compared to some in the world. the eternal kingdom of God is waiting for them. we den went to two enormous buddhist temples. did prayer walkes there and saw many things. its an onslaught at the first temple, as it was the first temple built in chiangmai. was all red n gold. there was this buncha singapore UWC kids copying the art on the paper there. there was another annex in the compound so i went to take a look. there were 32 pics of the buddha's life. alot of em looked quite... eerie. 2nd temple was ard that kinda design n layout too. but there was monk giving showers of blessings. made me think abt how fair our salvation is, n how unfair it can actually be or become. had lunch at this roadside kopitiam and ate the best beef noodles of my life. went back to green lodge b4 heading up towards doi suthep temple. it was half an hr ride on the song-taeao and i nearly puked. after climbing a flight of 306 stairs, i reached the top and gazed down at the city of chiang mai. it was beautiful, the way the sun was setting and all. walked ard to see the bagazilions of bells there. then went to sit outside the main temple area cos i was in berms and was disallowed in. i saw this security guard bowing to a monk and when the monk removed his shoes, the guard bowed again b4 he cld pick up his shoes and keep em at a rack. reminded me of matthew 3:11, where the scripture says that john the baptist had said that after him shall come a person whose sandals im unfit to carry. hmm...
well dats the end of my journal. cos i din haf time for the rest of the days and etc. so now i'll try to recall everything dat happened n hence, alot shorter.
hmm after climbing down the long flight of stairs we took song-taeao to dinner at this place which has steak buffet for onli 59 baht. dats like... 2.50 sing????? wah kao damn shuang. hahahaha there was chicken steaks, pork steaks, beef steaks n fish steaks n we nearly died. hahaha well we met another mission team frm ywam there. had quite little interaction wif em to be honest, tho we were supposed to share abt our experiences. hmmm onli toked to gloria and amy. haha we played alotta games tho. like big picture, around the world in 80 days, fuzzy wuzzy, 1st location, hahaha all the lame games lah. realli racked my brains man. hahaha the funniest thing was the trip back. we din get a song-taeao so we juz hitched a ride on the other mission team's pickup. problem is, it was supposed to contain 10 ppl n we had 19. hahaha it was soooooo funny. i sat on my bro's lap n nearly crushed him. n den he wanted to sae dat i was sitting on his water pouch, but he said instead: ur gonna burst my water bag!! hahahaha it's sooooooo misleading. hahaha well it was a damn funny trip back n it took quite long. when we reached green lodge, there was no more blood in my butt n legs. hahaha so we had our debrief n went to sleep.
4th december (saturday)
hmm went to first church of chiangmai. attended this sermon by a gospel outreach plan called "bless thailand". it was good. the praise was realli good. n den the sermon was quite useful. it touched on unity. n dats the greatest point we had to tok abt these few days. juz seemed like God was highlighting it to us again. hmm dey prayed for our mission trip to be safe n everything, den we went back to green lodge. n den went to carrefour for lunch. bought stuff for the orphanage. the carrefour there is like... HUGE! after changing n all we came back to the church to play soccer wif the youngsters. dey had this sports club thingy whereby they played soccer every saturday n use it as a method to spread the gospel. dats where tee first experienced the word of God. amazing isnt it? singapore seldom has this kinda outreach methods. hmm den soccer was ok. din score any cos the goal was soooo puny. but my team mate nick scored this amazing goal. he slid in frm no where to recieve horn's pass n juz cheonged it in. wah biang damn zai. hmm after dat dey prayed for us, wif ben praying for us in english. it was quite touching since dey were realli inconfident of their english. we prayed for their studies n everything too. den we left to change n for dinner. the teens were supposed to meet us but in the end we din lah. so we went to the night bazaar alone. hmm... there were so many things to buy!!!!!!! but i onli bought a bracelet and a choker and also a traditional thai shirt. all for damn cheap. the choker cost 180 baht, which is 7.50 sg, bracelet 20 baht, hardly 70cents, n thai shirt for 140 baht, 5.80 sg. wah kao damn shuang. hahahha but it was late n we nided to do debrief so we left for green lodge back home n den had our debrief. we did a prayer, me n jianwei wif ernest dat i guess realli calmed us down alot. slept n woke up for another new day.
5th december (sunday)
hmm went to first church of chiangmai. we were late cos tee rmbed the time wrongly. it started at 9am instead of 930am. so we went to the english section. the pastor spoke in thai, but the church was high-tech, so we got headphones which gave us immediate translation into english. zai rite??? hahaha oh well had communion there. they reallied used bread n not biscuit. hmm otherwise its pretty much the same as ours here in sg. eh... den after service we went to the history room to hang ard n look at how the first missionary came to chiangmai. it took him 3 months by boat, foot n elephant. n we take three hrs by plane or car. wat the... hahahaha thank God. oh well hmm den we went to the youth area to hang ard till it was lunch. wah kao ate green curry n it burnt my throat seriously. had a serious cough after dat. hmm den we had worship n sharing n all dat stuff. it was fun!! the songs dey sang were kiddish but realli brings out the true nature of God.
i like banana *whoo!*
i noe the mangoes are sweet
i like papaya *papaya?!*
but nothing can beat
the sweeeeeeeet love of God!
hmm den we went to their cell grps n there was this 17 yr old gal called som. som means orange in thai. well shes goin on this mission trip to australia but she felt inconfident as she thinks her relationship wif God is unstable. its so amazing. dat here i am in singapore n i experienced the exact same thing as a girl all the way in thailand, 3 hrs flight n 505 bucks away. so i shared wif her. glad it was of help to her. hmm den we prayed for one another. its heartwarming to see ppl of a thorough different background praying for u wif all their heart. den we left. but took three pics wif som, two on her hp n one on lipings cam. not given to me yet so... oh well. shall always keep her in my prayers. hmm den we went back to green lodge. n ernest suffered frm a high fever. so we left him to rest in the room while we left to buy stationery and haf dinner. wah kao we ate like siao lidat, dun even noe wat we ordered le. kept thinking we wld exceed the budget but in the end turn out we were still underbudget. crazy. 10 ppl eat like 6 course meal onli 40 bucks. its nuts. ta-paoed porridge back for ernest n we trudged back to green lodge. had our debrief n it was conk out time
6th december (monday)
well early in the morn after devotion we left for chiang rai. wah kao all squashed into the song-taeao wif the luggage so it was realli uncomfortable. ate breakfast on the way summore. hahaha we cld onli use bread pieces to dig out jam to consume. but we stopped by a petrol station so i got a sausage and a milo. the trip took realli long. we stopped halfway for lunch at this fantastic place. they had the world's best roasted pork rice. omg. it was too damn tasty. den left for a marketplace to buy meats n vege for the villagers. continued travelling, eating oranges on the way. everyone was having fun throwing the biodegradable waste (orange peel n seeds) directly outta the song-taeao. hahaha damn shuang. oh well there were many sights n sounds on the way there, n the scenery was absolutely beautiful. saw lotsa cows and buffaloes along the way. well reached the village quite quite late. expected 12pm turned out we reached like 3pm. we reached the orphanage n din noe dat it was actually the orphanage. we were still thinking wah kao, the pastor has so many children arh??? well there were 7 kids there, the rest were at sch i think. my bro took a liking to this boy called norse. hmm... first thing we did was a walk ard the village n a briefing by pastor tee. hmm den we played soccer wif the villagers. hahaha scored a goal n had two assists. oh well but i missed a whole lotta chances so... too bad. sian diao den we had dinner which was still fantastic. den had a campfire. had to share my testimony as well as do lotsa performances. it was quite fun n tiring. not to mention nerve wrecking. hmm den it ended n we gathered ard the campfire for warmth b4 having our short debrief part one. den we were paired up to go to seperate villager's houses to spend the nite. went wif ernest to this hse which had tv. so we watched till 10pm n dey den set out two mattresses, bedsheet, blanket, pillows n mosquito net for us. damn zai lah. den dey even poured out cups of hot chinese teh for us n also gave me a packet of tissue cos they saw dat i had flu. so i slowly drifted off to sleep...
7th december (tuesday)
well so ernest n i woke up at the mercy of the roosters. they were crowing at the top of their lungs in their offtune voices every 5 min or so which realli pissed me off. roosters are the worst animals on earth. tried to chase em away frm behind my head but dey nv realli did move. haiz so exasperated, ern n i woke up packed up everything dey gave us n we left for the church building. turned out we were the earliest n we were in sucha hurry to pee. it was so cold mist was rising frm our pee. ooops. hmm we left the toilet to see tee coming out wif urgency too. hahaha well we sat in the room feeling cold like shit. n tee came back asking us to go out for a walk too. ERPZ so we were like freezing n all n waiting for the others to return. turned out the rest had breakfast already so ern n i were like -_-" well we started doing some balloons. hahaha onli rmbed how to make dogs so i was like... making many dogs. erpz hahaha we had our debrief for the previous day n den we set off for the nxt village. well took a van n truck down everything n saw the banner dey made to welcome us. WELL COME YWAME'S AND SINGAPORE LIVES CHURCH to zion hill! hahaha poor spelling but it made me feel alot betta. we stopped by marketplaces n all dat to buy food for the village. had lunch hmm den we juz conked out n travelled all the way to the non-christian village. well there was this sign dat greeted us which said: ATTENTION PLEASE! WE DON'T WANT NEW RELIGION. quite initimidating. we were told not to do anything until pastor tee's father was back cos he was the onli one who knew the villagers well. hmm we started playing wif the puppies n all. dey had this pair of stilts which everyone tried to master but to no avail. well pastor tee's father returned and we went to the village head's compound. prepared the dinner wif em. cut beef for the first time in my life n i my i hate tendons! damn tough lah. the blade juz cldnt severe it. well played wif the catapult too. den went to bathe at the waterfall! it was freezing can. hahaha but it was damn funny. cos the guys bathed firz n the girls were like: can we come in now?? n we were like NO!!!!!!!! DON'T! n i was struggling wif my underwear n all dat. erpz. hmm den went back to the village head's place to get back two torches. on my way back, which was damn far btw, i heard this strange chanting. the voice din realli sound human. spooked me out. realli struck a nerve. hmm den hurried back n waited for the girls for like a million years. walked back wif yansing half tearing off my arm. well we reached in peace n had a great dinner. the beef i sliced was damn good. cant help it. im juz good. hmm den there was this campfire which dey set up for us. a few of us wanted to sleep at firz but we decided to join in. n things began to change. we started singing songs of praise n worshipped. n the thing was dat we made them worship wif us. hahaha got a kick. hmm we sang millions of songs n created actions n all dat. yea by the time it ended i was bushed. but turned out it was freezing n i cldnt sleep. i talked in my dream, something ard the lines of: YOU CALL THIS PIECE OF SHIT COKE???!!! and i dreamt abt the trip on the song-taeao whereby yansing got scratched by a tree branch. so i said in my dream: yansing lean over. hahaha when yansing was sleeping nxt to me. so she got a shock n i heard john laffing so i woke up. oh well. went wif my bro to toilet n came back freezing. liping borrowed my torch n went ard whacking the roosters. who happened to be crowing at 2am. wat the. tee said once: IN JESUS' NAME SHADDUP. n the amazing thing was dat the roosters diam diamed! hahaha but onli for abt 2 hrs b4 dey came back at it. oh well we started a fire at ard 4am cos it was realli too cold. i got abit of warmth n went back to sleep.
8th december (wednesday)
well woke up at 7am lidat n played soccer, badminton n volleyball. while waiting for the song-taeao dat is. well it came at 1130am so we went downhill. chuantin handed the baby a mangosteen. i believe the mangosteen is the seed of God planted in this village. it wld grow sumday! hmm it was a long trip down. had lunch at this roadside stall which was hell good. dey have the best roasted pork in the world. n i ate basil leaf wif pork on rice. wah kao it was magical. not to mention the buffalo soup. too salty tho it was still damn good. oh well continued on our way to new life centre. its a christian centre dat saves young girls out frm prostitution n other sleazy businesses. well the driver works there so we got another van n we went all the way back to chiangmai green lodge. hmm had an hr of rest b4 we started sharing. hmm well it was our last debrief ever so it lasted frm 5pm to 930pm. hahaha shuang not??? well we den went out for dinner, all of us starving. oh well we walked to one buffet outlet n dey had already closed down. so we took a song-taeao to the nxt buffet venue. it was sumthin like seoul garden but there was no marination. oh well sian diao. but we had a good meal. den we walked back to night bazaar. but all the shops closed le. i juz bought some accessories for the ppl who prayed for me for quite ex price den walked back to green lodge. oh well my bro was in a hurry to shit. n we conked out. realli short day
9th december (thursday)
well woke up and had a time of devotion. left green lodge at 845am for the airport. well we settled customs n all dat den bought some food back for 1520. den we bid tee gdbye n we boarded the plane for home sweet home. reached singapore 3pm. yeapz
dat was my mission trip for u. any inquiries juz ask me k? dere are some details which i left out so u can juz get it frm me. God Bless the all of ya
