Oct 8 Revisitin Klong Toey

Oct 8

Today was a lot of fun. I went with the two sarah’s (one from America and the other from Sweden) and we met up with my friend Noon in Bangkok. Noon is one of the women I got to know last year while I was here. She lives in Klong Toey, one of the largest slums in Bangkok. She and her roommate moved into the slums to be able to minister to the people living there. We met up with her in Bangkok somewhere and then went to the slums to visit the family I stayed with last year. It was just like old time, sitting on the floor, drinking some water, and trying real hard to translate what they might possibly saying to me while most of the words just bounced off of my eyeballs. Noon speaks good English, so that helped a little, but most of the time I was just looking at them while they talked to me telling me stories of what was going on there. It was tough trying to keep up. The church in Klong Toey is doing good apparently. Last week they had an outdoor meeting where they had evangelists come into Klong Toey to preach for the people and talk to people in the community. 68 people accepted Christ that day. There was one man who was unable to use his arm, but he came and heard the message about the power of God. I’m not to clear on all the details of the story, but I do know that the man went home that night and decided he wanted to lift his arm, and to his surprise he could. He praised God and went and told everyone the good news.
It was real encouraging to hear the good news of what was going on there and to see my friends again. They invited me to come out there on Friday nights and pray with them at their prayer meetings that they have there. I’m definitely going to try to make many of those. I’ll probably be able to stay overnight with the family I stayed with last year, or find someone else to take me in for the evening so I can stay late and pray with them.
I’m learning the value of public buses too! Despite the time it takes to wait for the bus and then all the stops they make, they really make for cheap transportation that’ll take me all the way from one side of the city to the other when I need. I can take two buses to get to Klong Toey from where I am and it cost less than half a dollar to get there. I’m getting much more familiar with getting around here in Bangkok which is definitely making things much more fun. Now, if only I can get this language thing down fluently…