Wild goose chase

The weekend before last we were determined to check out a different church in Bangkok called, "Greater Grace." The church was listed on a 2009 edition map that we had of the city, we found a website about the church (albeit last updated Nov. 2008), and wrote down the address as well as the very specific location of the church "150 meters from the entrance of the sports stadium."

So off we went, allowing 35 minutes to get to a church that was about 20 minutes away by taxi. The taxi driver had no clue where we were trying to go and dropped us off near the stadium, but on the wrong side of the street. We asked for directions and the kind Thai woman wrote down the name of the church and address for us in Thai, pointed us in the right direction, and sent us on our way. By this time, there were about 5 minutes left before the church service was supposed to begin. We headed out, stopping to ask for directions every now and again to make sure we were on the right track. However, everyone pointed us in a slightly different direction, so we really had no clue where to go.

We finally stopped at this Indian man's store, and he and his two Thai friends from the neighboring stores tried to help us. The Thai woman spoke NO English, but was willing to take us on her mo-ped to the area where she thought the church was. So the three of us piled onto her moto and drove across town, but were still unable to find the church. She stopped every couple of blocks to ask people in the neighborhood if they knew where the church was located, but nobody had any idea. About an hour after the church service began, we finally ended up in a residential dead-end, where we found a family of 4 + the grandmother, who were visiting a friend's house that morning, talking outside. The nice moto-Thai lady asked them for help. The husband said that he thought they lived around the area where the church was located. So we jumped off the Thai lady's moto, piled into the car with husband, wife, grandma, 2 little children, who fortunately all spoke English very well, and started driving to the church. This time we came across a restaurant... turns out that the church used to be where the restaurant is, and that the church closed three years ago. [SIGH]

They offered to take us to another English speaking church that they knew of, which turned out to really be a Thai church where you could rent headsets to get the English translation. The only problem was that they only had 1 headset available for the two of us, and only one earpiece worked. So we spent the entire service trading the earpiece back and forth. What an adventure.

Now while I can confidently say that riding somebody's moto or car would not be something that we would do in the states, we felt comfortable doing it here. Not to be too idealistic/ignorant/trustworthy... but the Thai people are unbelievably giving, gentle, and kind. It's amazing to me that people who most likely were not Christian (only 1/2 of a percent of people living in Thailand are Christian) were so willing to give of their time (and gas) to help us find a church. And what did they want in the end? Nothing; they simply wanted to help us!

So while we were on a wild goose chase for Greater Grace Church, I think we may have found something better yet... examples of how to give so freely, and be the hands and feet of Christ.