The Mays’ Weblog

Hello again all.

We have just returned footsore (and as fancyfree as parenting will allow) from a worship and dancing marathon. It started at 4.00 this afternooon and finished at 9.00 this evening.
Believe for Chiang Mai was an all-church event sited at the Thapae gate, one of the busiest pedestrian parts of Chiang Mai. It was Worship, dancing, testimony and Gospel message all rolled into one.
Esther and the children were dancing and flag-waving in front of the large stage with some orphans from a local orphanage. They had worked out many of the dances in advance and were dancing for a large proportion of the time. The singing was great; very loud, very exuberant and uninhibited. One of the great things from our point of view was the fact that we knew many of the songs in English, even though they were all sung in Thai. We just sang along as best we could, even if we were singing a completely different verse from everybody else, or even making up some new words to fill in for the ones we had forgotten!
It was a really encouraging time, a bit of heaven on Earth, with about a thousand people singing together and many others just passing by and stopping to enjoy the party atmosphere.
One of the highlights was that we had taught the orphans the actions to History Maker. The actions were courtesy of Jamie Scott from the TAG weekend this year. When that song was played (the band were very good by the way) the worship temperature went up a few degrees. After it finished the dance area (about twice the size of the green carpet area at Arun) was flooded with youth and others, jumping, moshing and having a great time in what looked like a very un-Thai manner. It reminded us of home.

This morning we went to a Thai church because there was going to be an English-speaking visitor giving the talk. The worship and talk were challenging and inspiring. A number of people were healed of deafness after the meeting along with others from other ailments. What a day!

I have a feeling that there will be quite a few people lying awake in their beds tonight, either thankfully worshiping a God who bled for their healing, or, wondering if the message they heard this evening is actually true and has the power to break the chains of the religions they follow.

The Angels were dancing tonight and God will have done more than smiled, I am sure.

With much love as ever,

Andrew & Esther
Sunday 7th Nov 2004

* P.S. Luke and Isaac missed part of it as I had to take them to the RAM 1 hospital on the other side of the town in the middle of the time as Luke’s leg was hurting. He needed 7 stitches in his leg on Wednesday after having an infected insect-bite-wound excavated by the doctor. Unfortunately we could not understand the instructions adequately and he had only been taking half the recommended dose of antibiotic. It went septic and so he had to have it cleaned and redressed (see photos!). He is fine now.