This month, Team Amala has been hard at work in a village on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, where our host hopes to center his ministry. Most of our time has been spent at a small elementary school, teaching English and cleaning what will be a science classroom. To give you a little perspective, here is what the room looked like on our first day, minus a dozen bicycles that we moved out before we started.
Keep in mind that this was taken from the doorway. Imagine another corner, possibly the worst quarter, not pictured. And it still doesn’t capture the sheer magnitude of mess in this room. Uncovering everything that had been heaped into the space – it was almost like a treasure hunt, if not for the dust and critters.
So, we rolled up our sleeves and set to work. Garbage piled up next to the preschoolers’ flower pot garden. Teachers sent us their students, who trailed in and out, not unlike the ants we discovered behind the crack in one of the walls. The ping-pong tables became a rest stop for the children carrying electronics.
At first, it seemed like we were just spreading the stuff out in a more open area, and getting ourselves dirty in the process. But then, the garbage collector showed up, a bigger vehicle with each visit. The kids claimed the hula hoops and the instruments, pointing and laughing at the toilet and urinal we brought out. We started to see the termite-ridden floor and played hide-n-seek with the spiders.
By the end of the second day, the room looked like this.
Next, we attacked the walls, armed with metal bookends, screwdrivers, and our long-suffering fingernails. Years of tape and glue put up a hard fight, but we discovered that water dissolved the residue and allowed us to scrape more effectively. One afternoon, we found a ladder, and swept every window and cubbyhole free of dust. Once again, water and rags proved to be valuable sidekicks.
By the end of the week, we had purchased the paint. We scraped and dusted some more, and primed the walls.
Finally, we painted. A stark, clean white on top, and a gorgeous mint-teal-seafoam on the bottom. We excavated the cubbyholes (read: swept and dusted) once more, and balanced two to a ladder to finish the trimming. On Friday, our future science classroom looked like this.
Our job here is done. Another team is coming in a few weeks, and they will be pulling up the floorboards and retiling. Maybe, when the Thai school year starts anew in May, this room will be ready for use.
At some point, maybe when I was trying to scrape the alphabet tree off the wall, or resting my aching arms from holding up the broom, our host walked by and said, “this means a lot to them, you know. Not many people would be willing to come in and do what you girls are doing.”
My first thought was: “Yeah, no kidding. This room was a disaster!”
Seriously, though, he was right. Sharing Jesus at this Buddhist school means incorporating it into our lessons, or making fools of ourselves as we try to teach “Potato Chip, Potato Chip” to a class full of unimpressed toddlers. The language barrier means that very few of them actually hear or understand the gospel.
But the staff and students know we are Christians. They know that being Christians does not mean proclaiming Jesus and walking away. They know that our faith compels us to love and serve in a way that looked like covering ourselves with dust and paint for two weeks.
Two weeks. That’s all it took, to transform a space. Two months will create a classroom. Who knows what two years could do?
Pray for my team. On Tuesday, we have an opportunity to share Jesus with the students, their families, and the village community. Pray that we will proclaim the gospel clearly, truthfully, and lovingly.
Pray for our host, Pat. He is the one who will be here after we leave, to plant and water the seeds, and perhaps, to harvest the fruit. Pray for endurance and strength and unfailing love.
May our impact here last longer than a few letters on the wall. God is so, so good.
