September 4, 2013
Hello from Thailand!
Well another month has come and gone since I have written. It is officially September now. I am on the last leg of my World Race, which means the last continent, and the last three months of the Race. Where have the last 8 months gone? Wasn’t I just leaving for DC to start this crazy adventure last week?
Last time I wrote, my team and I were just about to leave Mozi, a week early for safety reasons. We traveled to an orphanage called El Shaddai for about a week to recoup and process the events of the last month, for about a week before we met back up with the rest of the squad and spilt into our new ministry teams for the month of August.
As I mentioned before August is what we called MANistry/Feministry months. Where we had a fruit basket mix up with teams where the men were placed on two teams of 5 for the month, and the girls were all spilt up into 7 semi-random teams for the month. It was a different month, living with between 14 and 18 women in a small house for the month, but it was also really awesome. My team and two others lived just outside of Manzini, Swaziland and worked at a local CarePoint daily and visited a small hospice once a week to visit with the residents and spend time praying for their needs. At the CarePoint, we spent our time playing with the kids from the community, and putting on a small kids program, consisting of songs, a story and games (By the way I have one of the coolest songs to teach the Sunday school classes when I get home).
Overall the month was a blessing and a challenge, it was especially challenging at first seeing as I thought frequently about Kedesh, and how it would be possible to go back in the near future. But, once I got past that more, it was awesome to get to know some of the girls on the squad that I hadn’t had the opportunity to get to know on a personal level before then.
It was a great thing for me to be away from my previous team, as much as I still love them, but to be in a position where my teammates for the month didn’t have any preconceived notions of who I was or how I was suppose to act. I was able to come out of my shell much more this past month, and I hope and pray that I can continue to do so for the months that are coming. After all there is nothing like experiencing the freedom to be who God created you to be.
As some of you may have seen on Facebook, N Squad arrived in Bangkok, Thailand last Thursday August 29th, and then headed out to our current location of Koh Chang or Elephant Island, which is an island in the Gulf of Thailand, close to the Cambodian border. This country has started off a little different than any other month, as we traveled as a Squad from Swaziland, to Thailand before we met with our coaches from the states from out month 8 debrief (In case you forgot, debriefs happen after months 2, 4, 6, 8 & 11, and are a time to rest and learn from our squad mates and coaches who fly into the country we are staying in for approximately a week). Usually, we debrief in the previous country, so normally we would have debriefed in Swaziland, but for a variety of reasons AIM had us debrief here in Thailand. This debrief has been filled with long conversations, great food (I love Thai food!), beautiful weather, although I have to admit I am not so fond of the humidity in this area (The weather averages lows of around 79 and highs in the 90s, with humidity at about a billion percent) and AMAZING sunsets. Oh and I can’t forget riding and swimming with elephants!
With this leg of the Race changes are happening left and right. We all knew that changes were coming for our teams, and last night we learned who are new teams would be for this final leg of the Race, our Squad leaders and Coaches don’t anticipate any team changes during the next three months. I am really excited about my new team, who is a combination of awesome people.
- Chelsea Ellis – My new team leader (and my team leader from Feministry), Chelsea and I have worked off and on throughout the course of the Race, we were placed in the jungle during month one, a short 10 minute walk from each other, lived in the same room in Romania, and served on the same team for the last two months (Mozi & Swazi). http://chelseaellis.theworldrace.org/
- Nick Shiley – Nick has been on my team since training camp, with the exception of last month. I am really excited to continue getting to know him over the last three months of the Race. http://nickshiley.theworldrace.org/
- Eric Nordhues – Eric is one of my favorite people on the Race, he joined team Sozo back during debrief in Romania and has been a great blessing to me ever since. It will be great to continue serving with him these next few months. http://ericnordhues.theworldrace.org/
- Cherissa James – Cherissa, like Chelsea has been a crucial part of the Race for me, she was part of Chelsea’s old team (Team Lumi), which means we also spent time together in both Ecuador and Romania. Cherissa is one of the women on the squad who I haven’t had enough time with in the past, and I am excited to spend this time with her and get to know her even better (Plus she is an even bigger animal lover than I am) http://cherissajames.theworldrace.org/
- Sarah Workman – Sarah was also one of the women on the Squad I hadn’t gotten to spend much time with, until last month that is. I was blessed to spend the month of August on a team with her, and am excited to see what God does in our lives for the next three months. http://sarahworkman.theworldrace.org/
Along with finding out our new teams last night we also found out what our ministry site will be for the month. Our team will be working with one other team in Chiang Mai, Thailand with an organization called Remember Nhu http://www.remembernhu.org/ Which works with at risk youth in order to prevent them from entering the sex-trafficking world so prevalent here in Thailand. I am not sure exactly how we will helping Remember Nhu, but it should be a great month of new changes and continued growth.
Please continue to keep me, my team and my squad in your prayers as we start this month of ministry here in Thailand, that we can continue to grow closer to God, each other and that we won’t lose sight of why we are here on the Race, especially as the end of the Race draws closer and many of us have decisions to make about what life will be like after we get back to the States.
Love you all,
Katrina
