Hey everybody! Ok, so month 6 my team was stationed in Chaiyaphum, Thailand. There, we worked with an incredible family that was associated with an organization called YWAM. Our days were crazy long and jam-packed. We would leave the house around 8:00 in the morning and head to whichever school we were teaching English at that morning. That was an interesting experience. Many times we would arrive at a school, expecting to teach for an hour, and end up teaching for eight. Or we expected to teach as a team and then find out that we each got our own classroom. Or think that we are teaching high schoolers and then find out we were teaching a bunch of 9 year-olds who barely knew any English. It was draining but so good. After we taught, we always shared the gospel with the students. It was crazy to think that we were evangelizing in schools that had Buddha statues on their campus. After school, we went home to change, and then went to soccer ministry. We would get home around 7:30, eat dinner, and then crash. The whole month we only had two rest days. Needless to say, month 6 was a very tiring month.
This month was difficult for many reasons. As you can see, our team was incredibly exhausted from ministry. The culture shock was also a HUGE adjustment. We were definitely not in Central America anymore. And the heat was RIDICULOUS!!!! I’ve never been so hot in my life! The temperature was over 100° every day and we rarely had air-conditioning. And honestly, our team faced a lot of struggles spiritually that month. I’ll be straight with you guys – the majority of my team was done. And when I say majority, I mean like all of my teammates were ready to pack their bags and go home. Basically, my teammates were wondering where God was that month. They were having a hard time hearing from Him and seeing His presence where we were. This is a completely normal thing to experience on the Race. I can’t even tell you how many times during my first few months I was ready to pack up and go home. But it’s very unusual for you to be the only one on your team who wasn’t checking the price of plane tickets home on a daily basis.
So here I was, loving my ministry and my hosts and Thailand, and everyone else on my team didn’t want to be there. It’s kind of funny if you think about it. Just a few days prior, I was prophesied over and was told that I’m a leader; that I’m steady; that I’m a lion. And now there I was. I was literally the last man standing. So what do you do when everyone around you is drowning? What do you do when people on your team don’t even know if they believe in God and you’re in the middle of a yearlong mission trip? What do you do when you see your friends lose their fight? You learn to pray.
When this year is over and I’m reflecting on how the Lord grew me each month, Thailand will always be the month where I learned the importance of prayer. Prayer is powerful. I quickly learned that there was nothing I could do in my own power to help my teammates. I could encourage them; I could hang up Bible verse around the room; I could buy them candy when I knew they were having a bad day; but I couldn’t fix them. I think in the beginning I thought that I could. I thought that I was their personal knight in shining armor and I would save the day. And to an extent, I did support them. One of my teammates even told me that I was the glue that held the team together that month. But honestly, it wasn’t me. It wasn’t until I started praying for my team, fasting for them, asking God for encouraging words to tell them that I feel like I was any help. That was a lesson that I had to learn the hard way. It’s okay to fight for those that you love, but when you forget that you’re fighting to not just bring them up, but bring them closer to God, your efforts will be a lot more exhausting and less fruitful.
That month, I also learned the importance of choice. Life is never easy. There will always be things you don’t want to do or people you don’t want to be around. But I learned that you have the power to change how you handle different situations. You have the power to choose. You have the power to choose to love a teammate that’s annoying you. You have the power to choose finding joy in teaching children who are incredibly disrespectful and have toothpaste wars while you’re trying to teach them English. You have the power to choose to open up you’re Bible, even when the Lord feels distant. You have the power to choose to be present. To not check out. You have the power to choose not to give up – even if you’re the last man standing.
