OK, I first would like to start by apologizing for not blogging in a really long time. Don’t worry, I am alive, surviving and thriving over here in Thailand. Well, I don’t know if I would say ‘thriving’ but it rhymed and sounded cool in my head.
This blog is a bit of a jumbled mess of updates so that you all may know what’s been going on in my life over the last three weeks. Since I last blogged we had been to Surin for a work camp and to ride elephants. Wow, that was a long time ago!
Since then, we have been busy teaching, working around the church, venturing out into Thailand, preaching, visiting Chanthaburi for several days, speaking in church, harvesting a plant called Cassava, mixing and pouring cement, and finally today we are taking the time to embrace our rest time.
Teaching has been going well. Once October came, we switched to a different schedule because the students get two months off a year for their break and this month is one of them, next to April. The classes we teach now are ‘extra’ for the parents who want their kids to learn more English. We have a mix from second through fifth grade in the afternoons which is great because it gives us the morning to rest or work, whichever is needed.
Working around the church sounds very vague, because it is, but basically it means we do whatever it is our host family needs us to do. Sometimes we pick weeds in the garden, other times we go to the rice fields to clean up around the house and every Saturday we clean the church.
Two weeks ago our host mom and dad took us on an adventure to the border where Thailand meets Laos and to swim in a waterfall! That was a good day. We traveled two hours from our house in Selaphum, to a small town on the border where we could look across the river and Laos was on the other side. Along the river was a big market we could shop around at and after about three hours of visiting we left and went to the waterfall to swim. The water was a brown tint color and as gross as it looked, it was the most refreshing thing to be able to swim around for the first time since arriving in Thailand.
Fast forward about one week and that will take us to traveling to Chanthaburi for five days. Last Friday after school, twelve people piled into one truck and we traveled ten hours south to the beach town of Chanthaburi. We left at 4pm and didn’t arrive until 2:30 in the morning. We stopped several times along the way but let’s just say it’s a car ride I’ll never forget. For our time visiting, we stayed with another family that my host family works with to run a school and another church. During our stay there, we visited another waterfall (this one had clear water with big fish that we swam around with, it was a great time. Yet again, very refreshing)! We also went to the beach on Sunday afternoon after church and then again on Tuesday. At church, I was asked to speak, after having already spoke the Sunday before at our own church in Selaphum. This was a tough thing for me to take on but the Lord blessed me with the words to speak and I am excited to speak again in the near future. We had a lot of fun but it wasn’t just about that. The work set in soon after, and we were busy with helping in the school, painting the playground and cleaning around the property.
** Oh, and one of the greatest parts of the trip was being surprised with seeing our squad leader Liz and the team she was staying with!
We arrived back home from Chanthaburi this past Thursday, early morning again and we had to work that same day by 8am. The morning teaching group left to fulfill their duties and I stayed home in the morning to work in the fields to harvest a plant called Cassava. This type of plant is grown and sold to the factories to make a powder for cooking. This took two days to harvest but in the afternoons, I didn’t go back to the fields but to school to teach. Let me tell you, these last few days have been exhausting but so rewarding!
Most recently, Saturday actually, we mixed and poured cement outside of our church so that the driveway could be finished. This was also a day full of hard work and sore muscles but yet again, very rewarding. For our first month of teaching, we have been paid 5,000 baht, which is equivalent to about $150 USD (but it goes to our host family) and we made about 12,000 baht from harvesting the Cassava which, combined, turned out to be just enough to pay for the cement project outside of the church! God is so good and it’s cool to see how He is using us to help provide for this family we are staying with.
So, this brings us to where I am at now. It is Monday afternoon and I am sitting in a coffee shop writing this blog. Tomorrow we will be visiting our “papa’s” mom in another province of Thailand, about one hour away. Wednesday, we leave at 9pm on a night bus to travel ten hours to Pattaya for our whole squad debrief. This is when all the teams and all of our leaders will come together for five days by the beach to talk about life and how the race has been so far. Last but not least and maybe the most important update, when I get back from debrief we will stay in Selaphum, Thailand for another ten days or so before being moved to Cambodia for the whole month of November! We have been moved just for one month and then we will continue to travel the South Africa in early December. I am excited about this move but at the same time I am sad about moving on from our host family and ministry here in Thailand! I love them so much and know for a fact that it will be hard to leave. Despite the change, I am trying to look forward to the new opportunities and new relationships that Lord has in store for my team and I.
Thank you for reading and please be praying for strength and a sense of peace in this crazy time of life!
Love you all.
PS// I am FULLY FUNDED! Thank you to all who supported me with purchasing a t-shirt, bracelets and/ or making a donation. I wouldn’t be here without all the support and I couldn’t be more grateful for it all. Thank You!
