Mod is one of our translators. He is the only Christian in his family, but he has a passion to see his family come to know God through Christ. How blessed we both are to have both grown up in Christian homes! Would we have the same passion and compassion? How much does it mean to us that God has reached out to us and saved us and given us new life and a new relationship with Him?
Mod is also young enough to have the energy to play with the kids in today's brutal heat and humidity. We had a group of about 35 kids today. Mod got the day started with group singing (he's a good guitarist) and then had the kids chasing him and playing games. Our team has some people young enough to keep up with him, but some of us have left those days behind. And that age diversity is a good thing.
Below is a picture of KK applying fluoride to one fo the kids in her station. KK also shared her testimony with the group this morning. Becca shared last night.
The fact that we had a smaller group led to our health screening station being able to work with parents as well as kids. Hans could see them looking interested as he worked with their kids and so he spoke to them and was able to assess and give health advice to several. Some of us on our team are young enough to speak the children's language of play. Others are old enough to earn a hearing with the parents. It's good that this team isn't made up of just a single age group (high schoolers or young adults or older adults) but we can reach out effectively to an entire village through our various members.
I (Steve) had several chances to talk with Kristi and found that she was the cousin of a friend of his, Sean Curtis, pastor of Great Exchange Covenant in SF. Kristi could see that our team was not only diverse in ages, but was also a partnership between local churches, Covenant missionaries, and the local Thai/Isaan churches. She speaks excellent Thai and is completely at home in Roi Et.
We had dinner at a street food stand. The owner is Wichit, a leader in the church in Roi Et. His food stand has the best chicken with rice in Roi Et, according to whatever is the local equivalent of Yelp, i.e., the word on the street. He does great business and Malvin noted that his employees are all happy, indicating that they must be treated well. Business is so good that Wichit is ready to move into the building being constructed behind his food stand. Yet he doesn't open on Sundays. He's taken a stand for Christ (or taken a food stand for Christ).
BTW, his chicken is really good. Steve thought it was hands down better than the famous Nong's Khao Man Gai in Portland. "The secret's in the sauce."
After dinner we went back to the night market. The girls promised Tip Boonrang that they would eat silk worms. Becca was overheard muttering, "How'd I get myself into this?" But they all ate the silk worms. Steve thought they were like soft grainy peanuts. We'd had mango sticky rice the night before so we washed down the silk worms with strawberry smoothies.
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