@powertochange:

Two Tales From Thailand

Written by Eric Reynolds

November 17, 2011

Sheldon Kotyk and Luke Schenk of TruthMedia went to Thailand two weeks ago and described the experience as “surreal.”

We went for a conference that was planned before the flooding started. It was planned in stability for our arrival. We also knew that they were simultaneously planning for how to evacuate us.

One trip, two very different chapters.

The first chapter involved a conference for Campus Crusade for Christ and its online affiliates from over 40 countries. The conference was split into two parts and one of them was a series of small seminars.

We did a seminar on film-making said Luke, Creative Director for TruthMedia. It is an untapped ministry for many of these guys and so the seminar was very impactful. We’re still getting questions from them via email.

Luke and Sheldon were also impacted by the conference.

It was great to take part in the global collaborating strategies that we discussed around the table in smaller groups. It was an eye-opening experience to see the potential of collaboration, as well as the difficulty.

Luke was moved by the excitement of others. The group got really excited about theLife project that Power to Change has begun. When I told them about 1,000,000 volunteers they suggested and increase to 70,000,000: %1 of the world’s population. It was great to be a part of that kind of vision.

YouVersion was there too, creators of the famous Bible app. We look forward to collaborating with them in the future.”

Luke and Sheldon commented on the second chapter of their visit.

It was surreal. The water rose fast and we saw people retrieving things from their homes using any boat they could find. We saw a kitchen table flipped upside down with an outboard motor on the back. People were walking waist deep, or neck deep to find clean water… it was tragic. The danger is when water canals carrying drinking water mix with floodwater, which contains sewage and garbage.

Amazingly, the ‘Land of Smiles’ held its name even amidst the flooding.

They painted the scene a little clearer:

We were boating down the street and hitting car roofs. We had to move telephone wires out of the way… underneath us. You could boat into buildings and around inside of them.