Badminton at the church!
I’ve adopted badminton as my new sport. Just bought a new racket for 1,000. That is, 1,000 baht = 30 US dollars. Every Sunday we play hours upon hours of badminton as a church.
Sundays for me start out around 9am. Because the service here is all in Thai, we are encouraged (strongly) to sit under the teaching and faithful proclamation of God’s Word in English regularly. I like to do this Sunday mornings before church, and Will, a student of mine who is a senior this year, and I are planning on listening to Matt Chandler‘s current sermon series titled “Ultimate Authority” together for this purpose. Pray for us that our hearts would be soft to the teaching of God’s word and that we would be doers of it and not hearers only.
Around Noon, we then head over to our church building to have lunch and get ready for the church service. Here we have the opportunity to nourish our bodies with some delicious Thai food and our souls with each other’s company.
From here, we move into worship through singing, giving, and then the preaching of God’s word. All of this is in Thai, of course.
After the worship service, we all gather for more fellowship over fruit and other light snacks, and once things wind down a bit, we move into the gymnasium (attached to the church) for badminton.
A lot of those who come to worship Jesus at the church also will stay late and play badminton. Both guys and girls are extraordinary at this sport. My hand-eye coordination isn’t quite up-to-par yet, but I’m learning quickly they tell me.
Pad Thail - Delicious!
We usually go to Jaypon (not sure if that’s how it’s spelled, but it’s how it sounds), on the campus of Khon Kaen University, after Badminton in order to grab some more absolutely fantastic food for dinner. Pad Thai is quickly becoming a favorite of mine, and they always have great fruit smoothies. Food seems to be something that really brings people together here, especially eating out because it is so cheap (~$1 per plate).
I have really been able to enjoy getting to know these Thai believers, many of whom are first generations Christians.
