We are in Thailand, the land of paradise!! This month is manistry/ womanistry month which means that the men of A-squad are all together at one location doing ministry and the women were split up into new teams and placed throughout Thailand. Another change happened this month and that is that I was asked to lead a team of 5 other women for the month. With all these changes it is definitely a different looking month.
I am blessed to have some amazing women on my team this month. I am reunited with a fellow WALDO member Kacie. I am with two women that I shared a room with in Moldova Bri, and Madison. I was able to stay with one of the New heights members from last month Jenna. And last but not least I’m able to get to know a woman this month that I have not spent much time with on the race but I’m excited to get to know better, Caroline.
My team arrived in our beautiful city of Chanthaburi on the 5th of April. On our way to the city we rode in our own personal van that had A/C, seats that reclined, and a DVD player that we watched Hop on. Riding in this comfortable van was one of my first realizations that we were not in Africa any more. We were in the land of paradise where on our way to our contact we stopped at a 7 eleven for snacks. The team arrived at our destination at about 7pm and our pastor picked us up in his truck. This pickup truck has become our mode of transportation. There are two benches on either side of the truck with a tin roof that covers the top of the truck keeping the Thai sun off of us all day.
This month we are living in what I like to call a flat above our church. We have a bathroom downstairs with a western toilet that you flush with buckets of water, a sink that is broken around the edges and several of us have cut our self on it, and bucket showers. However these living conditions have become the normal on the race and are not that shocking to us, we have moved past the squatty so the toilet is quite the improvement.
In the states I’m someone who eats out a lot and sticks to what I know, so I had never had Thai food before. Oh boy do I highly recommend it. Our pastor’s wife who we call “mae” because it means mom in Thai makes some of the best food I have ever tasted.
I have only been here 5 days and I have already fallen in love with the family I am with and Thailand. I have been too two waterfalls, an aquarium, the beach, and several markets and I have not even been here for a week yet.
This month is definitely a month of R&R, which is something I needed coming out of Africa. I’m excited to learn more about the Thai culture this month along with bringing God’s kingdom to this nation.
