Tales from Thailand Part 4
A Journal Entry
Monday 22 September 2014 6:02 am
We (Team Aperture) spent the night on the beach in Thailand. While it was not one of my best evenings/nights I am so very blessed to be here, a beautiful beach in Chanthaburi, Thailand. We have made new friends with a pastor and his family who work closely with our ‘home base’ in Selaphum. It has been an interesting weekend.
To get here we rode about 12 hours in the back of a pickup truck and everyone got a sunburn. The trip really took about 14.5 hours, we stopped at three 7-11 stores and for lunch/ nap time. The church we stayed at is part of a lepersy colony that has a nursery school, Aperture stayed in this room. Pastor, Ma, Tik and little Sarah made the trip with us to visit their friends/cook/translate/hangout with us.
I am an introvert. I like my alone time. I also like people (most of the time.) however, I think the option to be alone or not alone is really important to me. Yesterday we took girl/team pictures at sunset and then people seemed to pair off and I was left. This was fine at first, I was playing with Sarah and Pin, two Thai two years old who have been adopted by their families. Once they warmed up to me, we had a great time saying ‘nam’ (water in Thai,) and each other’s names as that was about all I could understand/speak. We even walked out to the water a few times. I looked to our ‘campsite’ a few times and didn’t see anyone around. When the baby girls and their families left for the evening, there was no one at our site. Tik had asked us to not use the toilet alone so I knew I couldn’t go exploring/searching for them. So I had a little pity party on the beach by myself. Questioning why I am here, what is my purpose, what is God trying to tell me?!?! It can be difficult in our group of seven to always have someone, there usually has to be a group of 3; but I really hate the 3rd wheel feeling. It was just frustrating and I felt unwanted.
We did have some solid worship time last night though and it’s always good to meet God as a team and worshipping in English.
I had a sleepless evening with the wind and my rainfly fighting all night. I feel bad for Sarah (teammate) who slept in my tent with me. So now, here I am, just after 6 am sitting on the beach in low tide observing all God’s beauty. Thankful for the opportunity to sit in the back of a truck for 12+ hours bonding with my team over sunburns, books, 7-11 stops, etc, to meet new friends along the way, the learn Thai or some language from two year olds, to go to sleep and wake up and enjoy God’s awesome wonder.
