**Fundraising update: I am officially fully funded! I’ve been looking forward to writing that for a long time. Thank you all so much for supporting me not only financially but through prayer and reading my blogs. I have really enjoyed updating you on what God is doing through our squad throughout this year. I can’t put into words how awesome this year has been. I’m looking forward to sharing all the stories I can when I get home. Again, if you have any questions or want to chat please feel free to email me at [email protected]. Thank you again, God bless you all.
We started the month with a short debrief in Bangkok for a couple days to rest and recharge before heading out to our ministry sites around the country. Bangkok is a huge city and unfortunately a large hub for human trafficking, one of the worst in the world in fact. We saw plenty of this in our short time there. You would walk the streets during the day, then walk the same places at night and things looked completely different. Sitting in groups of 10-15, sometimes 20 were girls sitting on stools on the side of the road waiting to be purchased. I had heard it would be bad coming in but you have no idea until you see it for yourself. It’s hard to imagine this takes place on such a large scale and sometimes all you can do is pray.
This month, instead of being with our normal teams, since there are only 12 guys on the squad, we are all grouped together for ministry this month. We have the pleasure of serving in Mae Sot, Thailand which is about 10 minutes from the border on Myanmar. We are working with a ministry here called Outpour movement (outpourmovement.com). Their main focus is to disciple and mentor kids and young adults that have made their way to Thailand from Myanmar (Burma). They have a couple training centers set up to help train and equip them as well. They have a bike shop to fix and repair bikes as well as loan them out to people here in Mae Sot. They are also close to opening a restaurant called Famous Ray’s and a coffee shop called Braverly. We have been assisting in a few projects to help as they prepare to open for business.
I have absolutely loved being here. The people are incredible and so generous, and the food is some of the best I have had, not just on the race but ever. A couple of my favorites have been pad thai which is a noodle dish with chicken and egg. My favorite has been a taro basket. It’s a dish with chicken and some veggies and it comes in a basket made of a taro root that you can eat, it’s incredible.
We have had the opportunity to spend time with the kids playing soccer which is awesome!
Here I am with a couple of the refugee kids while we were working.
I got to teach all the kids a worship song one day.
Caleb and I hard at work repairing bikes.
Our host, Ray, took us up the mountain one day after working to swim and enjoy the surroundings!
Also had the opportunity to practice a little welding. Turns out it’s harder than it looks.
As we were working at the restaurant one day, some local college students came up and asked if they could interview us for a school project that required them to interview foreigners, of course we were happy to oblige!
Thank you so so so much for supporting me this year, I can’t put into words how much it means to me. Thank you again for taking the time to read my blogs. Hope all is well!
