Two weeks ago, my entire squad stuffed our packs to perfection and lined up in the Atlanta airport waiting to weigh them, hoping that the 2 pairs of socks and face wash that was nixed from the necessities would magically take 5 pounds off the weight that was already becoming a burden on our shoulders. We loaded up on the plane and after a quick layover in Tokyo we landed in Bankok for an 11 hour bus ride, making the final total of travel a whopping 26ish hours and the arrival to our host site so much sweeter.
Our ministry contact this month is a wonderful woman named Emmi. She is from Chiang Mai, has a huge heart for the Thai people, and the three ministries she founded are all based on serving the people of Thailand. She runs a cafe – Zion Cafe – as one of her ministries, her other missions are Love Acts – which focuses on building relationships and showing who Christ is through our actions to the women, ladyboys, and backpackers visiting the bars in the red-light district, and the last ministry is called X-Life which works with the people of a Thai village.
Emmi's website is lighthouseinaction.org and here is a video where you can learn about why she does ministry and you can hear her testimony, which is very powerful.
http://www.lighthouseinaction.org/our-founder/
Our entire squad is living together this month above the cafe, which is where Emmi houses different World Race & YWAM groups that come to work with her ministries. We are extremely blessed this month with warm water, a very safe location, wonderful food, sit-down toilets, & a wide array of smoothies at our fingertips. I share a dorm room with five girls on my team. Myself and another girl get the privilege of sleeping on the ground, which wasn't bad until I learned that 2 weeks ago one of the girls that was sleeping in my room got bit by a cat sized rat and had to go to the hospital.
All of the teams on our squad (7) are split up doing different ministries this month – a few teams are working in the bars, others are teaching English, bringing God's presence through worship, working in the slums, and my team is working in the cafe with Emmi and her staff!
The Cafe
I have loved working in the cafe so far and the women there are very wonderful to us, so it is nice to be able to serve them in a tangible way. Also, the food is great and sometimes we get a sneak peek, which is an added bonus. Working there is also a great opportunity to talk to the backpackers and customers that come eat in the cafe!
Last night we were able to go with Mai (the youngest and newest staff member at Zion) out to eat, and then we went shopping at the night market and watched a movie together.
The women who work there work Monday through Saturday 8-10 every day, if not longer hours. They love to laugh at us and we love to laugh with them. We have built the foundations of some solid relationships with every one of the staff members in some way. Whether helping with laundry, peeling squash, or just sitting outside and making conversation and teaching them a bit of English, there are so many different ways to serve them and I've realized that doing the littlest things in order to help out are the things they appreciate the most.
Since we have been here two weeks now we have had 2 off days (Sundays) where we had the opportunity to visit a temple during a holy festival.
In order to get to the temple we crashed a huge party on the bottom of a mountain where people were throwing baby powder for good luck and I think one of my squadmates accepted a marriage proposal. We then hitched a ride in the back of a pick-up truck – sorry mom – to the top of the mountain.
Since it is a Buddhist holiday the temple was extremely crowded
The children were all so beautifully dressed and had prepared dances for the people who had come to worship
Our first day off we bamboo rafted, chilled in a waterfall and rode elephants!
It was amazing.
(Thank you Brittany Valdivia for taking this pic 🙂 )
