The Scandinavian Church in Bangkok was Tuesday morning 4 September invaded by 120 active and curious Grade 5 students from New International School of Thailand (NIST) interested in getting to know what the Church was doing, and asking all sorts of question to Lennart Hamark, the Swedish priest who together with his wife Lis hosted the youngsters.
“The students came to participate in some activities which we organized to enhance their knowledge of Christianity,” Lennart explains. Previously, the students had visited a Sikh and a Buddhist temple and in the coming weeks they plan to visit a Muslim mosque, a Jewish synagogue and a Hindu temple.
At the Scandinavian Church, the activities were divided into four sections. Each section would last for about 15 minutes and the students were divided into four groups. Each group would attend each activity section until every group had been through all of the four activities set up.
The first section was called the ‘Library Section’, where students were told about Christian books by Lis. The second section was held by the priest him self. Here students were taught about the basic Christian beliefs. For instance, the meaning of items that are present in the Church such as the Crucifix, the Mother Mary Icon, the lighted candles, the flowers etc. The third section was the ‘Snack Section’. Here students as well as teachers could take some rest while grabbing some snacks along. The fourth or the last section was the ‘Play Section’, where students were allowed to play at The Church’s playground.
After all the students had undergone all four activities sections, they assembled around 10:45 in front of the Church for the closing ceremony. Here the Priest spoke again on the importance and representation of Christianity symbols. For instance according to Christian beliefs, a child wears white clothes when she is baptized. Along the same line, she wears a white dress at her wedding ceremony and, finally she also wears white dress when she dies. This eventually indicates a girl’s three stages of life at which ‘White Color’ is being represented as the color of Life and happiness in Christianity.
The students were given opportunity to ask the priest questions about anything by the end of the event. Many students raised their hands to ask various questions for example, why did Jesus Christ die on the cross? Why do people go to Church on Sunday? Where does the term ‘Church’ comes from? And so forth. The priest answered them correspondingly until the time ran out and the students were asked to stop and leave by their teachers.
