21 DEC - 11:00AM - REFLECTION DAY

We got together to share our reflections of our time in Khorat, and our experiences with organising the whole mission with DPC.

We asked questions like:
The reason I came on mission was...
Personally, the most helpful thing about mission was:
Personally, the hardest thing about mission has been...
The best thing has been been...
The thing I would change about the Khorat leg of mission would be...

We rated 1-10 on:
The mission has been helpful for me in understanding more about gospel work in a different culture
I think the mission has been helpful for the Christians in Thailand we have been with
I think the mission will be helpful for our congregation in understanding gospel work beyond DPC

Cathy was disappointed that there weren't more tears.

The hotel had this bizarre relic of 70's modernist design - a mush-room shaped meeting room - in which we had our meeting and our lunch.

The Sampsons headed off on a bus that night.

21 DEC - 10:30AM - BREAKFAST

Sleep in day. Breakfast was coffee, fried eggs and toast.

20 DEC - 7:30PM - DINNER

Dong took us to the Moo Ge Tah. Awesome.

On the way back there was some reference to 'The Wicked Witch of the Inner-West' [Being a male team member]. Not quite sure what that was about.

20 DEC - 5:30PM - RENTALS

We went and rented some bikes. Despite the poses, only people with Australian Bike licenses actually rode them.

20 DEC - 3:00PM - SLUM VISIT

We took the afternoon to go and visit a slum in Khorat. These families effectively live in cast-iron lean-to's along the railway line. Most of them are either awaiting a job, or have mental illness. Our translator Dong had a contact with the World Vision worker there. Most of the kids come to church at Dong's church.

REFLECTIONS ON THE DAY
Craig:
"The teacher came up to me and said it was too straightforward, and the third time she said it we changed the schedule, and ran with it. Plus, on the run we pulled out a song about Christmas"

Dave S:
"Really enjoyed walking through the slum - reminds me of where Jesus was born."

Astrid:
"I'm really glad to see the change in the slum with the presence of World Vision." [Decrease in violent crime]

Lauren:
"I'm really glad that the person from World Vision was a strong Christian."

Jo:
"A reminder that being a missionary is not an elitist position as a Christian - it's about growing God's kingdom one person at a time."

Lauren:
"What we see is that the Dickson's lead a normal Christian life here."

20 DEC - 9:15AM - SCHOOL

We visited another school and went through our repertoire there. In the small groups, the kids English was quite good. Kudos to Cathy for rewriting a gospel-based version of jingle-bells backstage with only 20 minutes warning.

20 DEC - 7:30AM - BREAKFAST

Breakfast was Toast, pineapple, watermelon slices, marmalade, tang orange juice, noodles, drip-filtered coffee, and cold fried eggs.

19 DEC - 6:30PM - DINNER

Julian was presented with a suitably embarrassing hat to wear for the night. We went back to the restaurant that Dong had taken us the first night. Dinner was vegetables, chicken cashew nuts, spicy fishcakes, pad thai chicken and chilli chicken salad.

19 DEC - 9:15AM - SCHOOL

At this school we were given groups of students in sets of 20, and given space outside on the pavers in the cold wind to work with them.

We did six 40 minute sessions, repeating the same dialogue & skit over and over. The benefit of this was that different people got goes at different things, leading skits, dialogue roles, warming up the kids and so on. It was quite mentally exhausting.

In the middle of this the school gave us lunch in a music room. Lunch was seafood soup, omlette, green chicken curry, vegetables and mandarins.

REFLECTIONS:
Jono:
"I thought the small groups went a lot better."

Astrid:
"That day was the most exhausting and doing the same thing over and over. It was really good that everyone had a go at everything."

Deb:
"It was really good to tell them about family with photos in small groups."

Craig:
"We played touch footy with the kids the teachers didn't normally want in their class. It was good."

19 DEC - 7:30AM - BREAKFAST

It was Julian's birthday today. He was given a present at breakfast. It turned out to be a carefully wrapped Durian keyring. Thoughtful.

Breakfast was cold eggs, toast, watermelon, pineapple, orange marmalade and carefully aged drip filter coffee.

18 DEC - 6:30PM - DINNER

Dinner was Chicken Pad Thai, Pad See Ew, Chicken fried rice - but it was probably below the quality of what we'd gotten used to - or even what is available in Sydney.

18 DEC - 3:30PM - VILLAGE EVANGELISM

After school the Song Tao drove us to a rural village where the Bible College students were setting up to do some planned village evangelism.

Ben & Jono disappeared over a hill chasing antelopes. Goats eyed us from their pens. Locals declined photos. A hen and her chicks pecked at the dirt.

Had we stayed we wouldn't have gotten back till 10:00PM - and we had two more days of school visits so we decided to let it go.

The bible college students described this activity as a 'mini-crusade'. Some of us looked puzzled. Cathy said, "You know, like Billy Graham."

"Aha" - the rest of us thought - we were worried it was the other kind.

18 DEC - 1:30PM - NON CLAT PRIMARY

We traveled to another school 10 minutes drive away and did this morning's run again with a group of year 4,5 and 6 students minus the question time.

Astrid:
"I felt really tired in the Song Tao up. Praise God that the energy came when it had to come & that Jesus was clearly proclaimed when he had to be and I think that the kids had lots of fun."

Dave Sampson:
"Besides the big blue gorilla [bible college students teaching the macarena] - I think the fact that a bunch of kids who didn't know Jesus got what Christmas meant - probably as well as kids in a public school in Australia."

Cathy:
"At the beginning of the class for the little ones they didn't have much idea but by the end they all knew who's birthday it was. We got across the bare bones of Jesus birthday - I think that was really important."

Jo:
"It was really nice to be able to see Thai Christians from the Bible College telling Thai children about Jesus. It's real evidence of the indigenous Thai church - which is exciting."