Phuket

After returning to M'cca from Sabah on Fri evening (3/3/06), I left again to KLIA to depart to Phuket on Sat morning. When I arrived home that Fri, I was totally exhausted and aching from my Kinabalu climb, sunburnt from my snorkelling experience in Pulau Manukan, lack of sleep from the whole trip and bored from packing, unpacking and repacking! After settling in, I immediately proceeded to update my blog and at the same time prepare my report. Unfortunately, my brother accidently deleted of my 3 hours work! All these made me really wanted to forgo my trip to Phuket.

But things turned out in such a way that I had to go....

So, off I went to Phuket. I basically slept all the way to the airport, in the plane and again when we arrived there. Thank God, I recovered by Sun. If I hadn't, my mom would have knock me in the head in disbelief ;)

So on Sun (4/3/06), I attended 2 church services. In the morning, we went to a newly (coming to 2 years) established church. Praise God that the church has really been growing. Though the service was in Thai, I really felt that we were united in spirit when we worshipped God and prayed. There we met 2 American men. Both are working towards being missionaries in Thailand. One of them, a young chap, has learnt the language and is now trying to learn Malay to reach out to the Rawai sea gypsies. Another came with his wife and young son. They are now in Penang for bible school.

Later that Sun evening, we attended a English service in Patong. Yup, the infamous Patong. Well this church is an outreach from Hope of God Phuket after the tsunami. For those who don't know the history of this place, its the red-light district of Phuket and the place was destroyed by the 2004 tsunami in Phuket. The pastor, Sandra, has a burden to share the gospel to the many Thai people working in the area as well as the tourist who come to visit the place. So during the service, we had nationalities of all places including us the Malaysians, the Thais, Filipinos, 2 Americans, a Canadian, an Irish and of course some pariah. I also got to know Robert, a 23-year-old American who was doing his internship in teaching.

On that Mon, we drove to Takuapa, a town on Phanga bay to attend a wedding of two lovely individuals. The groom is a Malaysian but he is half Thai and speaks Thai, English, Malay and Mandarin fluently. A Nigerian pastor who is working full-time north of Bangkok and is fluent in Thai officiated the wedding. To add to the significance of the place, Takuapa is located very near Khao Lak. This strecth of beach was totally wiped-out in the tsunami and carried the highest death-rate in Thailand. Before the tsunami, there was not even a church there. But now, there is like 20 churches in that whole place. Thank God for the many oraganizations that helped in the rescue work there.

For the next whole week, me and my mom visited a number of people. She has been following up on them every trip she and my dad makes to Phuket. Honestly, I was encouraged yet burdened at the same time. 3 young ladies I met which made a lasting impression of me were Simas (22years old), Patty (24) and Jenna (28). All of them are Thai and are full-time.

Then on Sun, we met up with 3 Malaccan ladies. They would be on their way to Ranong by bus for a mission work to the Moken people (sea gypies) . One will be teaching the children art and craft while the other 2 middle-age ladies will teach the women folk to weave for income. By a miraculous turn of events, the bride of the wedding we attended on Mon would drive them and accompany them through out the 1-week trip. It was so encouraging to see this 22-year-old young Christian decide to serve God in all capabilites she had.

Before we departed to Malaysia on Monday we met up with Noina, a 23 year old Thai lady who became a Christian at our home last December. I thank God for her and seeing her reminded me of my own purpose of life.

I left Phuket with much hope for the people, for my parents and for myself. This short trip has been very different from my trip to Sabah. But both trips has refreshed me before I start a new semester next Mon. May I not be drained by the coming 1year of studies before I have a summer break again.