Thailand: the Land of Smiles and weird food.
But really.
We landed in Bangkok at the beginning of December and hit the ground running. We had Three Month Debrief starting the day after what felt like an endless travel day from Costa Rica to Atlanta to Los Angeles to Hong Kong to Bangkok.
Several days later, when everything was over, Amanda and I were able to venture into the wonder of what is a Thai Night Market. I got my adventure pants on and ate a lot of suspicious things I couldn’t identify. If you’ve never had the sensation of picking beetle legs out of your teeth, you’re really not missing anything.
Clockwise from Top Left: Typical Night Market food, Bangkok street scene, strange rice dessert, Kyle and I eating beetles.
When the teams took off to ministry, Amanda and I were able to go take some much needed downtime on the island of Koh Samet, a few hours outside of Bangkok. We were able to lay on the beach, eat amazing food, sleep, and light floating lanterns one evening on the beach. Our favorite part may have been hiring a private speedboat to take us to the island and pulling up on the beach before jumping out and wading to shore. Rock star status!
Scenes from Koh Samet
After two short days on the island, we jumped into visiting teams. We taught a lot of English, played with school kids of all ages, visited a rubber plantation, spent time on Walking Street in Pattaya doing bar ministry, and attended several Christmas parties. We ate more than our fair share of amazing Thai food and attended numerous Christmas parties all over the country.
Clockwise from Top Left: tapping a rubber tree, Thai girls, bar ministry in Pattaya, play time after teaching English
In the middle of our time ministering to the teams, we were also planning our big team changes and praying into who the Lord was asking us to raise up as Squad Leaders. Our team changes took place in Bangkok, where we were able to track down seven floating lanterns and hold a releasing ceremony for the teams the night before the changes took place.
Before we knew it the month was over, team changes had went off flawlessly, and we were on our way to Cambodia. Amanda and I are in the middle of training our new squad leaders and spending our last two weeks with the squad as intentionally as possible. Cambodia has thrown a lot at W Squad this month, so please keep us in your prayers and stay tuned for another update soon!
With Love,
Laura
