It is about that time! Blog time! So far I have dove head first into a culture I knew nothing about, I’ve spent countless hours with kids who cannot understand me and I cannot understand them, and I’ve seen God’s love and mercy everyday poured out on my team during this transition.
Story time!
I am teaching English at a local school in Sikhoraphum right by the church where I stay. We usually teach 2-3 classes a day and then have the opportunity to make friends with them or play sports with them, so naturally I found myself on the muddy and puddlely football field. And I just want to give you a chance to understand the thoughtfulness of these elementary students who are overjoyed that we’ve come to their school! It was the first day I got to play football (AKA soccer) with the kids, I was not wearing tennis shoes and I was in jeans so I left my sandals off to the side, and a group of kids started to talk to me in Thai and point at my feet, I could not understand them. I was initially worried that I was not supposed to roll up my jeans or that I couldn’t play without shoes on, but instead that was fine and they managed to get out the English word “size”. Then before I could get a word out a little boy just wanted to give me his own shoes off his own feet!
It’s moments like these I know I am where I am supposed to be. It was one of the sweetest things someone has ever thought to do for me and it just happened to be a sweet boy from all the way across the world in Thailand. This is just one story of the many about the sweetest and most thoughtful children I have ever met. They all want to shake our hands, give us a million hugs, and they hate to watch us leave.
I hope that one day they will come to know Christ and know that they are unconditionally loved. I know that my team is the first world race team to come to Pastor Sutad, but I know that God has so much planned for the future of this village. I love planting these seeds and I am starting to see a better picture of the vision and design that God has for me while I am in Thailand. God is shifting my perspective from striving so hard to make an impact rather than just taking each day as an opportunity to love and knowing that is enough. One week down; I am so excited for more.
And if you’re curious…
The family I am living with pastors the church we are partnered with. They are encouraging, thoughtful, and very sweet. We have two translators who are from Thailand, Nuan and Fon, they have huge hearts for Christ and are the reason we are able to do what we do here. Our squad leader Christa is also living with us for two weeks and we have been so blessed to have her by our side helping us go through this transition, encouraging us, and going through it with us, love her.
We live in an apartment that is right next to the church, which is so nice. P’nian, Pastor Sutad’s wife cooks for us and it is very delicious, although, every meal is a surprise. We never know what to expect! I have eaten the egg of a chicken before it was an egg, pig liver, fried cricket, and pig blood (jello-like) as some of the less appealing foods here. I have also eaten durian fruit, lotus flower, morning glory, longan, papaya salad (MY FAVORITE!), mango sticky rice, and so much more as the more appealing foods here. Thai people eat everything! In my free time I can run with a buddy, read, go to the local market, or sometimes we get adventurous and go to the world’s largest elephant emporium and ride an elephant! (I cannot post pictures through my iPad yet, so check out Facebook for those!)
Life moves really fast and I am trying to not move right through it, but to make every single moment last so if you are praying for me please pray for my discipline in my quiet time and my intentionality as I love the ones around me. And praise God that nobody on my team has gotten sick, but please also send prayers to the other teams on my squad that are not feeling so well. I have said it before, this life is not mine, it’s His and there’s no other way I’d have it. Here’s to 9 months of complete abandonment of what I know best, control.
One last thing…
We have easy access to wifi at the church, but I want to make sure I only use it for 1 hour a week, though I would love to keep up with all of you, for now, while I am still adjusting I am going to try my best and stick to that and only use my Mondays, but feel free to get my email and email me about anything you want to, I WANT TO STAY IN TOUCH!
God Bless (Prac-Dow-Oi-Pon),
<3 Brittani
