Weekend in Ayutthaya
The night after we returned from Laos, we caught a bus early the next morning to Ayutthaya. That's where the Global Mission Buddhist Study Center is, where they develop materials and resources about how to reach out and minister to the Buddhist people. The director of the Center had invited us to come for the weekend because some student missionaries from Bangkok would also be there, learning from him how to better minister here in Thailand.
The trip there was beautiful! As we traveled away from Muaklek, the hills began to melt away into flatter terrain, and by the time we neared Ayutthaya, we were surrounded by the rich verdure of rice fields all around. The road to their house wound lazily around the boundaries of the various fields, until we arrived at their traditional Thai-style teak house, raised on stilts, located just opposite of a small lake. Such a beautiful, peaceful place!!
We met with the student missionaries for Sabbath School, and then we all joined together - Thais and foreigners alike - for the main worship service. It was located in a "sala Thai" (kinda like a gazebo) out on the porch. The entire program was designed to cater to the Thai people and their culture, so everyone removed their shoes, we sang Thai songs, and the "sermon" was simply a basic Bible story so that even someone attending for the first time could understand. It was wonderful to worship with them, and we got many good ideas for starting our own church here in Muaklek (since that's our ultimate goal...teaching English is just our method of reaching out to the community and building friendships with the people). So when we returned from Ayutthaya, I was impressed and inspired to get the ball rolling for our own church. In the past 2 weeks, we've made plans and gotten people interested in helping us, and we'll be worshiping together for the first time this Sabbath!!! It will be very small and simple to begin with, but once we get things going we'll start inviting more people to start worshiping with us. But more about that later.....
Sabbath afternoon, we got to go see elephants!! I was very excited about this!! They call it a "camp" that is owned by a rich man who simply loves elephants. He takes in elephants who have been abused or who have no where else to go, and he just feeds them and cares for them. He doesn't sell them, because it's not a business for him. He will, on occasion, give an elephant to someone if they show that they truly want one and that they will properly take care of it. We should pray for this man, because I believe he has a missionary heart - he's not doing it for money or reward, but because he has a burden on his heart for it.
There are about 180 elephants at the camp, but 1/3 of them are exiled on a small island because they have killed people, which is why they were sent to the camp. However, some of the deaths were probably deserved as the elephants were acting in response to abuse.
The camp is open to visitors for free, so we went and got to walk amongst the elephants, watch them play in the river, feed the babies, and take pictures with them. It was really neat!!!
What large toenails you have.....
These are children who help train the elephants
"I've got an itch!!"
You're not supposed to push on the heads of the baby elephants because they'll push back and form a bad habit of doing that. It's okay when they're little.....but once they get big, you really don't want them pushing you around! But without thinking about it, Andrew's natural reaction was to put out his hand and push on the baby's head to try and stop it when it came running at him. Opps!!
I got to sit on his knee!!!
There used to be around 1700 temples in Ayutthaya, but many were ruined during the struggles with Burma way back. But even today, there are still over 400 temples!
All sorts of buildings and dwelling places can be found along the shores of the rivers.
After the boat tour, we visited some of the ancient ruins.
This was what the Burmese did to all the statues of Buddha when they finally defeated the city.
There are tuk tuks everywhere in Ayutthaya!!! And they're all very unique and colorful!
Ayutthaya is a very neat place to visit. If you ever come to Thailand, be sure to put it on your list of things to do, and plan to spend more than just a day visiting the sights!
The trip there was beautiful! As we traveled away from Muaklek, the hills began to melt away into flatter terrain, and by the time we neared Ayutthaya, we were surrounded by the rich verdure of rice fields all around. The road to their house wound lazily around the boundaries of the various fields, until we arrived at their traditional Thai-style teak house, raised on stilts, located just opposite of a small lake. Such a beautiful, peaceful place!!
We met with the student missionaries for Sabbath School, and then we all joined together - Thais and foreigners alike - for the main worship service. It was located in a "sala Thai" (kinda like a gazebo) out on the porch. The entire program was designed to cater to the Thai people and their culture, so everyone removed their shoes, we sang Thai songs, and the "sermon" was simply a basic Bible story so that even someone attending for the first time could understand. It was wonderful to worship with them, and we got many good ideas for starting our own church here in Muaklek (since that's our ultimate goal...teaching English is just our method of reaching out to the community and building friendships with the people). So when we returned from Ayutthaya, I was impressed and inspired to get the ball rolling for our own church. In the past 2 weeks, we've made plans and gotten people interested in helping us, and we'll be worshiping together for the first time this Sabbath!!! It will be very small and simple to begin with, but once we get things going we'll start inviting more people to start worshiping with us. But more about that later.....
Sabbath afternoon, we got to go see elephants!! I was very excited about this!! They call it a "camp" that is owned by a rich man who simply loves elephants. He takes in elephants who have been abused or who have no where else to go, and he just feeds them and cares for them. He doesn't sell them, because it's not a business for him. He will, on occasion, give an elephant to someone if they show that they truly want one and that they will properly take care of it. We should pray for this man, because I believe he has a missionary heart - he's not doing it for money or reward, but because he has a burden on his heart for it.
There are about 180 elephants at the camp, but 1/3 of them are exiled on a small island because they have killed people, which is why they were sent to the camp. However, some of the deaths were probably deserved as the elephants were acting in response to abuse.
The camp is open to visitors for free, so we went and got to walk amongst the elephants, watch them play in the river, feed the babies, and take pictures with them. It was really neat!!!
What large toenails you have.....
These are children who help train the elephants
"I've got an itch!!"
You're not supposed to push on the heads of the baby elephants because they'll push back and form a bad habit of doing that. It's okay when they're little.....but once they get big, you really don't want them pushing you around! But without thinking about it, Andrew's natural reaction was to put out his hand and push on the baby's head to try and stop it when it came running at him. Opps!!
I got to sit on his knee!!!
We had some time on Sunday to tour around Ayutthaya before catching our train back to Muaklek. Ayutthaya is the ancient capital of Siam (Thailand), so there is a lot of history and ancient ruins to see. It is also an island surrounded by 3 rivers. We took a short boat ride around the island to get a quick overview of the area.
There used to be around 1700 temples in Ayutthaya, but many were ruined during the struggles with Burma way back. But even today, there are still over 400 temples!
All sorts of buildings and dwelling places can be found along the shores of the rivers.
After the boat tour, we visited some of the ancient ruins.
This was what the Burmese did to all the statues of Buddha when they finally defeated the city.
There are tuk tuks everywhere in Ayutthaya!!! And they're all very unique and colorful!
Ayutthaya is a very neat place to visit. If you ever come to Thailand, be sure to put it on your list of things to do, and plan to spend more than just a day visiting the sights!
Comments
I love the elephants!