first..

yes, finally i have some time off [ literally ] to do some updates. there are alot of other stuffs that i want to say.. but hmm.. how should i start..

randomly la..

some of the many few [ oxymoron ] pictures that i took at my first overseas mission trip. some details:

venue : andaman seas, border of thailand and myanmar
people : 17 ppl - mixture of young adults and adults
duration : 1 week

ask anyone of us and we've all got our own stories to share. each and everyone of us have a different experience and encounter. let me tell mine.

we prepared ourselves a few weeks [ or is it months ] in advanced, but somehow, i still felt very unprepared for the whole trip. angela and myself had to be in-charge of the children/youth program - which was a challenge to me. well, although i am in the children ministry in church, i'm still clueless with children - especially of different culture, language. they is no speaking england. they speaking moken. we planned from the songs, to the visual aids, to the games. but still, i felt unprepared.

the day that we flew to ranong, and to stay at koh payam, i was nervous. seriously. and not knowing what to do. i just dont know what to do. i stared blankly as we were heading towards the island. where the people were. and when we reached the island, thats when the show begins.

i admit. i do not know how to approach people. i'm more reserved to myself. shy, in other words or introvert. [ somehow, i reckon, there're some of you that are saying 'yea, right!'. believe it! ] the whole day at koh payam, i didnt know what to do. kids were slowly coming out and looking at us curiously. all i did was.. smile.

then some of us walking around the place. talk to some locals. there are some that spoke malay and we found one guy that spoke really good english. still, i didnt know what to do. there were some of the guys that started playing captain ball. despite the language barrier, the moken guys could understand the rules and they played well..! really well..! and the score were really close to each other too.

one of us took out some balloons and we started creating shaped for the balloons. the kids saw and that got them attracted. but it was them that came to us, first. and thats was our first contact.

after the next day, the people recognized us. and the kids came to us. we started to sing some simple thai songs, couple of english songs with actions, and played some games. you can tell when the kids are comfortable with you - they get cheeky. they start playing tricks on you and being very mischevious too. also, they start to sit next to you more and got closer with you. thats when i knew, the barrier is broken.

but too late. we had to go on to the next island. i seriously missed those kids at koh payam. but it was a short visit there. we went to koh rhao. and it was again, the kids that came to us first before we went towards them.

anyway, to cut it short, it was really God that planned the whole itinarary. we may have planned a lot of things, but it was still God's show. all He needed was people that wants to be part of it. it was awesome.

i dont want a temporary encounter and thats it. i want to be able to have a continual encounter as such. but then again, i hate not knowing whats happening. ironic, aye?

well, dont we all?

song in head : ironic - alanis morissette