‘Wait, what’s happening?!’
This is a phrase commonly used by my teammate, Erin Howey. Little did we know that this seemingly sarcastic and hilarious phrase would come to define our team’s month in Thailand.
Let me explain–
Typically, we would wake up and get ready for the day with little to go on except if we could wear pants or a skirt to ministry. In reality, it was funny that we celebrated the days we were able to wear pants because we were living on the surface of the sun–I mean Thailand.
The six of us, plus the YWAM Staff, would pile into the back of a blue pick-up truck and literally bounce along the road to ministry.
We joked that our team was ‘On Tour’ because that is was it felt like– a traveling ministry team/band that taught English, played games, told stories, sang songs, and shared the love of Christ.
Let me give some examples of the events that took place in a day:
Being thrown on stage in front of hundreds of Thai kids at their school telling them about our team and why we were traveling.
Being served coffee and amazing Thai lunches.
Being thrown into English classrooms, sometimes with, sometimes without a translator.
Being asked to perform ‘special songs’- which were limited to the four songs Rachel knew on her ukulele.
Being invited to sit on the floors of the different cell churches and share encouragement and pray over individuals in the church.
Being dropped off at a rural village to play games, sing songs, and share the Good News with the kids.
‘Wait, what’s happening?’
At first it felt overwhelming, even for me who loves going with the flow. I have worked in camping ministry where I had to be quick to ‘think on my feet’ and pull a group game and silly song out of my back pocket in a matter of seconds.
In Thailand, every moment of every day I had to surrender myself to the Lord. I had to trust Him, trust His Spirit living inside of me and follow.
As a result, my team saw the most incredible things happen.
One morning teaching English, Erin shared the Gospel with a group of students. All of them accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Two days later we listened to the stories of church members in a rural community. They were incredibly encouraged by our visit and we spent time sharing the Word of God and praying for them. The members of this church are a part of the 1% of Christians in Thailand who are evangelizing to monks, sharing the Truth with their families, and being a light to Jesus in a dark place. We broke bread with them and became a part of the ‘fellowship of believers’ that Acts calls us to.
That Sunday I preached to a small rural church about ‘praying like Elijah’, from the story of 1 Kings 18. We can’t just hope God will show up, but we should expect Our God to show up. As Elijah prayed for His people to turn away from Baal, we should pray for the Thai people with the same expectation: for God’s Spirit to fall, and the Thai people to turn away from Buddhism.
The next week we were asked to teach at a school for the entire day simple because my team met an administrator at the mall and she gave us a ride home. The kids came through our classes in rotations and in my class I shared the Gospel. The whole school heard the Good News that day and a lot of them had never heard the Gospel. After sharing, I passed out pamphlets with Scripture in Thai and pictures explaining the Gospel more in-depth. They couldn’t put the pamphlets down.
‘Wait, what’s happening?!’
‘What’s happening’ is God’s Kingdom is being brought to Thailand and He used my team to do His Kingdom Work. ‘What’s happening’ is He is using our obedience to say ‘yes’ to the unknown and unpredictable and allow Him to show up. ‘What’s happening’ is the Lord is calling His People back to Him in Thailand.
It was so beautiful and wonderful to watch unfold.
At the end of our month our team found ourselves exhausted. We had very long days of ministry, usually 8-12 hours. There was a moment near the end of the month were a lot of us were feeling the drag of the long days, heat, and constant state of ‘what’s happening’.
We were pulling up to a village, not sure what we would be doing, and I saw an elephant standing there with a man riding it. At first I did a double take, ‘Wait, what’s happening?’, there are no elephants in this part of Thailand, in the middle of nowhere rural villages. But, sure as day, there was an elephant with a man offering for us to ride it for a dollar each.
Earlier in the month our team had let go of doing touristy things in Thailand because we were in an area void of it (see previous blog). But, here we were finding ourselves with our own personal elephant to ride.
We were freaking out! We took turns in pairs riding the elephant around the village at sunset, in the middle of a rice field in Thailand.
Wait, what’s happening?
As we drove away from the village it hit me. God gave my team that elephant. It made no sense that it was in that village. He blessed us with that opportunity to have fun, and play, and take joy in His world because God cares about His children delighting in His Creation! After a long day, feeling the weight of exhaustion, I was reminded of His great love for me and for this country. We can’t grow weary of the work the Lord has called us to. We have to keep celebrating Him and His goodness even on the long, hard, exhausting days.
I will be leaving behind my heart in Thailand. The Lord has turned my heart for His People and His desire for His children to come back to Him and turn away from Buddha.
For now it is goodbye Thailand, but I will be back for you.
“Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so there people will know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You are turning their hearts back again.” 1 Kings 18:37
