“Wake up early to warm up your voice, drink something hot, and look over your outline,” the advice given to me by my father before I delivered my first sermon floods my thoughts as my alarm clock chimes at 5:00am. I slide off my blanket and place my bare feet and the red hardwood floors. As I walk out of the bedroom door and begin descending the staircase I am aware of the stiffness behind the scars on both of my feet, a result of my multiple surgery. Sunday morning I am tired, and stiff but excited about the day ahead. I shower and shave, a task I find a bit more difficult in Thailand. With a warm cup of coffee in my hand I begin reading my outline aloud. I am concerned about the topic that I have chosen to preach. The sermon uses multiple passages of scripture and can be difficult to understand in English, and I will be using an interpreter for the first time. After studying my outline, I go upstairs and pack a change of cloths in my backpack, store my computer, change into my slacks and dress shirt and walk out the door.
John Mark and I put our bags in the trunk of Dui and Gift’s car, say goodbye to our grandfather and climb inside. Following the Sunday service we will go with Dui and his family to the Chanthaburi province. We have been invited by a family to spend two days in the coastal province. We make the short drive to the Hnonghnea church and arrive in time for Gift and I to go over the outline I have given her. She will be translating for me. The worship service is quaint but the twenty-five-or-so people in attendance seem to enjoy the music lead by Dui. When the time comes for me to preach the sermon, I stumble my way through my outline, trying to simplify things enough, for Gift to translate, without losing my emphasis. The lack of reaction from the congregation makes me think that I have chosen a topic that has been lost in translation, but Gift and Dui both encourage me that the people understood what I was preaching on. I am excited and encouraged about my message when I hear that a man, who has struggled with an alcohol addiction, approached Dui after church and informed him that the sermon spoke to him and he is going to stop drinking.
After church is over plates and silverware appear and we fellowship (it is always good to use good church words like “fellowship” when you are blogging about church) with one another over lunch. While standing in line to get my lunch I notice a bowl containing fried food in ball shapes. The food has a green substance that can be seen in between the fry batter. When I ask what the food is I am told that it is frog. I ask if it came from Gift’s grandmother’s house. When they inform me that it has I ask if they killed it that morning. When they told me they had, I informed them that I hope it is not the frog I took a picture of the day before. Everyone laughs and we enjoy our meal together. After eating we travel to a house close to the church to pray for a man who has broken his leg and has four pins and a long shaft bar holding it together. We pray for him and return to the church. A few minutes later we climb in Gift and Dui’s car and begin our three hour drive to Chanthanburi.Related Article:
1 comments:
Thats cool about your sermon...It is always encouraging to hear stuff like that, but especially when you feel like whatever you is teaching isnt connecting.
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