Det Udom
We traveled to Det Udom this weekend by overnight train to visit Trish (an intern on our team who's been working in that area) as well as to visit the Thai church and EMM workers there. We stayed with EMM worker, Lucille Zimmerman, who kindly showed us around. On Saturday evening we had the privilege of eating a traditional Issan (a name given to the Northeastern part of Thailand and its inhabitants - read more here) meal with a family from the church. We all sat on an outdoor platform and ate with our fingers. Eliza loved that eating style and she devoured an amazing quantity of sticky rice.
The highlight of trip was attending the monthly joint meeting of the local church groups. We had to travel for close to two hours by songtaew and we saw a lot of farms and water buffalo along the way - quite a change from what we're accustomed to seeing in Bangkok. The church service was a blessing to us. We've met Thai Christians and attended several different Thai churches, but this was a much more contextualized service and it was encouraging to see Thai people worshipping Jesus in their own way. They sit on the floor, play traditional instruments, dance, use sticky rice for communion, and eat together after the service. After the meal they invited us to participate in a string-tying ceremony. This is another custom that they have adapted for use in the church. Church members took turns tying cotton string around our wrists while praying for God's blessing on our lives.
After the church service we went back to the train station and took another overnight train back to Bangkok. We all enjoyed travelling by train and even managed to get a good night's sleep in our little compartment. Overall, it was a very worthwhile trip - we got to see more of this country and more importantly our exposure to God's kingdom here was broadened.
We took a lot of pictures and are having a hard time being selective, so we'll just put a bunch of thumbnails on here - click on any of them to see the larger version.
-Tom
The Issan meal
The train ride
