Hello from Chaing Mai, Thailand!
I wanted to share with you a story- actually, it’s been a rather big thing that has happened.
We took an overnight bus from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Chiang Mai, Thailand for our ministry this month.
It was a 20 hour bus ride.
Let me just say, that was not on my bucket list. Hah.
But really, it wasn’t bad at all.
It was a private, double-decker bus that our squad rented out.
At midnight on our travel night, October 2nd, we took a first pit stop (after the Thailand border) at a 7/11 in Bangkok. I went and took some Thai money, Baht, out of the ATM. We went and bought stuff from the gas station and continued on our trek to Chiang Mai.
We had our first debrief in Chiang Mai. Debrief is basically discussing what happened the previous month and we have chances to have one on one discussions with squad leaders and coaches. Also, this month is an all squad month. All 42 of us are together at the same ministry in Chiang Mai.
During debrief, I went to a Thai mall with some girls from my squad to look around and do a little shopping.(Later, we went back and we went to a movie… in Thailand! It was sweet. It felt like home.) At one of the stores, I was going to buy some earrings and I went to get my debit card- because this particular store took cards- and I COULDN’T FIND IT.
The girls that I was with each took a turn flipping my wallet inside out.
THEY COULDN’T FIND IT.
I started to rethink my steps…
Where was the last place I saw it…
And then it hit me.
I never took my card out of the ATM when I got money out in Bangkok!
I was humiliated. I couldn’t believe that I was so blonde in that moment that I LEFT my DEBIT card IN an ATM.
***My first thought was, oh man, I have to cancel it right away!
***My second thought (actually, like a memory-ish too) was of Cambodia and how we had like no internet and when we did, the connection was pretty bad… how was I going to contact the card company quickly enough? What if someone is using my card right now? *Fortunately, there are not many places that you can use your card over here… at least that I’ve seen*
***My third thought was, dang, how am I going to have money on the Race?
***My last thought was, gee, even if this is an all squad month and we are somewhere “permanently” for the month- how could I get a new card? (we aren’t supposed to have things mailed to our ministry site)
Obviously, my first few thoughts were “freak-out” thoughts. They were worries. What do I do? Woe is me. Poor Ashley.
But then,
God spoke to me again! And just like every turn so far: my jobs, my lack of jobs, my living situation and lack thereof, my family, my friends, people He put into my life, the infection on the race, the clinic bill situation: He said, “Ashley, I’ve got this.”
“Ashley, I’ve got this.”
Man. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that from Him in the last 9 months. Annnndd everytime GOD KNOWS exactly WHAT HE IS DOING!
And He totally DID have it. All of it.
*let me first point out that last month in Cambodia, the most consecutive amount of time that my tent was set up was 4 days. We were constantly moving around.*
**I also want to point out that God allowed me to lose my debit card at the BEGINNING of the month- a month where we were going to have a ‘permanent’ address**
To answer the first thoughts:
***1.He allowed me to cancel my card the next morning. There was no activity on my card besides mine.
***2.The internet at the hostel that we were staying at was solid. I canceled my card and they sent me a form that I could fill out to have a replacement card mailed to me.
***3.Even though asking for help is hard for me,(see the Clinic in Cambodia blog) it’s something God is helping me with, I was able to ask a squadmate to borrow some money. -I actually had a few different squadmates hear about my situation and just come and ask me if I needed to borrow some money- I get so much love from my squad-family!
***4. My squad leaders heard about my situation and told me that I could have a card mailed to the ministry location! I guess that this was important enough.
There was paperwork that I had to do, things to sign, a representative from the branch actually called me in Thailand to verify that it was me… all this was done in a thirteen hour time differnce, it was a little crazy, but manageable for sure.
The bank told me that they would send it out express and it could take two weeks or more, depending on customs.
They officially sent it out in the mail on October 12th.
It came October 17th.
5 days after it got into the mail.
God said He had it and He did.
He always has it.
God is good
all the time
and all the time
God is good!!
I love you all!!
<3
Ash
