Sunday Morning Church in Bangkok

Our first Sunday morning in Thailand was spent meeting and worshiping with brothers and sisters in Lampang. Our second Sunday was spent in Bangkok among another group of Thai brothers and sisters.

This new and developing congregation welcomed us warmly and it was a blessing to worship together with them. The service we had attended in Lampang was all in Thai; but the service in Bangkok, fortunately for us, was a mixture of both Thai and English.

We sang a variety of hymns and contemporary Christian songs, led by the congregation's worship leader, Ben Dooley, a well-known and highly regarded Thai musician. The words to the songs we sang were projected onto a screen which really only helped us when there were English subtitles. Still, we knew the music to most of the songs and so even when there were no subtitles, we were able to hum the melody or harmonize as the rest of the congregation sang out in Thai.

Dave Bruner, Global Impact Pastor of East Cooper Baptist Church and our team leader, delivered the morning's sermon: Unity as the essence of church life and ministry.

Ben served as Dave's translator and it was neat watching them work together. Every so often they would stop to engage in brief clarifying discussions before moving on.

Dave and Ben had an extended conversation following the service about the role of a translator and the complexity of  how to translate what was being spoken. The translator has to ensure that the translation is true to what the speaker is saying and do so within the linguistic constraints of the second language while always taking into consideration what the audience will understand.

Following the service, everyone gathered in an  adjoining space for the weekly congregational meal. It was a grand time of getting to know new folks and enjoy some great food.

 

The afternoon concluded with a team meeting to discuss the schedule of classes, assignment of teaching groups and translators (each teaching team has a Thai translator for each class they teach), and the week's schedule. We reviewed three lesson books, one for each of the 3 levels of courses, and then, as if we had not had enough to eat at lunch, all went out to dinner together.