Mae Ra Moe - Day Three
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2008
1
24
42
Trip End
Jan 16, 2009
Mae Sariang,
Thailand
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Our Karen Duds
Then we dressed into our best Karen outfits, and made the mile trek to the celebration grounds for the first church service of the day.
Walking through Camp
We were seated on-stage behind the podium as the special guests. Jocelyn made a general introduction of the Alaska Team, and then each of us approaced the microphone to make an individual introduction.
Team On-stage at Celebration
We then joined Jack on the chorus of his song, "Grace".
Jack Sings
The service was intermingled with an offering, prayers, and occassional choirs standing in the audience to sing a song. Per the request of Pastor Robert, both Jocelyn and Jack spoke a message. Jocelyn spoke a brief word of encouragement, and Jack followed with a powerful sermon. Jack ended with his song "Arise and Shine", which was very appropriate, as the motto for their Thanksgiving Celebration this year was Arise and Shine! The service lasted about 3-hours, and we lingered for handshakes and introductions afterwards before our return to the guesthouse. The final service of the day (and of the Thanksgiving Celebration) was scheduled for the youth. Therefore, we thought it only appropriate that the Alaska Team youth would lead this service. Deborah, Ben, Allison, Ken, Keith, Kathy, and Kameron quickly planned several drama skits and games, and then they trouped-off to the celebration grounds to have some fun. The rest of us enjoyed a visit with Pastor Robert and each other.
Dinner this evening was a fun time of chatter. We visited with each other, heard about the youth service, made some new friends, and stayed-up late singing songs and playing card games. When we finally crawled into our sleeping bags for the night, we could not beleive that time had passed so quickly, and we would have to leave tomorrow.
