So I ended up just skipping the whole village deal and came straight to Bangkok. The health and natural remedies training has proved to come in handy for my own benefit at least, and hopefully will for everyone else in my life that would enjoy some elite education ﺕ Actually, I might be giving some health talks at one of the local churches from the training's Power Points. Thumbs up!
I responded to a need here for a story-hunter. I expressed my interest in creative writing and interviewing, which apparently was in great demand, and got “hired” into the team. By “team” I'm referring to the small group of leaders who make up Hope for Bangkok – an organization that is dedicated to planting Seventh-Day Adventist churches all around this huge and distracted city.
As Christians, we have the hope of Jesus coming again soon and His promise of a perfect, eternal life not because of anything we do but simply because God wants for us to live in heaven with Him, even though we are undeserving. It's possible for us to have a relationship with our God because He lives. For most who follow the Buddhist belief system, life is a grueling and hopeless cycle of reincarnation and working for good merit. Their main god, Buddha, has been dead for over 2000 years. Sharing the Christian message of what knowing Jesus can graciously do for these people is the main intent of Hope for Bangkok. Make sense?
This upcoming week, some Adventist leaders from all over the world are coming to meet up and talk about the local needs of Thailand and Singapore - the places that their money is funding. In order to relay the needs of the people to the people who can help supply those needs (a.k.a. people like you), someone needs to go talk to the locals, get their stories and personal testimonies, observe their surroundings to increase awareness about the environment from which they come, assess what they need, and make a call to action so that those who read the stories will be encouraged to help supply those needs, whether it be by directly sending money, missionaries, or by motivation to be a missionary in their own community.