I haven’t blogged from Thailand until now because for some reason I had the thought that my blogs had to say something profound or thought-provoking. Then last night I was reminded that my experience here at the orphanage is far different than what I had thought before I arrived and for that simple reason, it’s worth sharing.
First off, I’ll mention that we are the first World Race team to stay at this particular ministry site, so nobody really knew what to expect. My team had dreamt up this idea that we’d be setting our tents up in these little village huts out in the jungle and we were actually really excited about that. So here is the story of my life at the Tree of Life Orphanage…
the most common way to travel in groups (on the way home from church the other day, I counted 18 passengers!). The second most common is the moped — yes, the moped — the other day I spotted a family of 5 riding down the street all piled onto one little moped. Back to my story…after we stopped for lunch at this little biker coffee shop in town, we headed back to the orphanage. So, do you remember that movie Annie with all the little orphans all piled into that one big room and they ate porridge and sang about their hard knock life? Yeah, it’s nothing like that. The house here is an regular-looking one story house with slightly larger rooms to accommodate
the 15 children, two parents and a team of volunteers.
In the mornings, we wake up around 7:30 to see the kids off to school. All of school-aged except for Lalita who is 3. After breakfast and prayer time with the team, we head out to a local school to help with building, tiling, and outdoor painting projects. Next week, we will head to a different school to help teach English classes. Sometimes we go home for lunch and sometimes we eat out at a noodle shop. There are literally open air restaurants (I say that lightly) on every street corner.
After our school projects are done for the day, we head back to the house to tidy up. There is no dishwasher, so we have to wash dishes for 20 people every day. It’s good to know that we can come and help out this family who has taken on the noble task of raising these children in a healthy home. Most of the kids 
here have living relatives, but their parents either can’t afford to raise their own children or they simply don’t want to. That’s what keeps the children from being able to be adopted legally.
Our mission here is to share the love of God that this nation needs to come to know and though I haven’t had the opportunity to feel as though I’ve made a huge impact at this point, I feel confident that my work here is all to greater the kingdom of God.
Stay tuned for more!
