It’s Monday, the last day of November as I write this. My teammates are sprawled out on their sleeping pads, and I’m sitting on mine too.
I remember back to month one in Albania and talking to teammates about “how I haven’t really processed this yet”. Little did I know, this would continue almost ceaselessly for the next 5+ months. It was one type of strange trying to adapt to a lifestyle of constant change; it’s another type of strange for shifts of countries, cultures, teammates, ministries, foods, languages, and settings to start to feel ‘normal’.
It’s normal in the way that a roller coaster would feel the twentieth time you’ve ridden it. Your stomach still drops, reacting to the intensity of the movement, but you climb on fairly self-assured. Let’s be honest. I think I’ve given up a little bit on trying to figure out where all the pieces of the puzzle go. I’m not quite ready to hear the cliche sentence of encouragement there about abandonment. Nonetheless, it’s happening.
Instead, we just go go go and then…crash and the end of the day.
Let me walk you a little through my past week. You may want to skim/read it quickly…because that’s more what life feels like right now anyways!
Starting with last Monday:
Monday: Say goodbye to students. Pack up, clean up, leave ministry in Cambodia. Go to the mall for some team off time. Eat a mystery soup, watch hunger games movie, journal, buy travel day food. Leave for Thailand. 15 hour night bus ride to Thailand.
Tuesday: Bus breaks down at 5:30 am a little over a mile away from the border. Switch busses. Make it to border, unload 50 packs. Get emigration forms ready. Stand in lines (mobs) for 5 hours where everything smells like fish and your whole sense of “line justice” is thrown out the window as everyone cuts. Move 50 bags to carts. Make it to Thailand. Get on minivans for 5 hr ride to Bangkok. Arrive in Bangkok. Check in, shower, hunt down dinner in a convenient store to get veggies, then go to an evening session. Cry going to bed thinking about being away from home for Christmas. Also, I’m exhausted.
Wednesday: Coffee with squad mate. Sessions. Ask the lord where to go in Bangkok to minister. Get on a boat, pray for healing for strangers, get yelled at by an offended atheist. Get 5 people involved trying to translate when you ask to pray for a man’s deaf ear. He thinks I’m trying to buy his hearing aid. Eat with strangers from Holland, try to pray for them—not interested. Walk the streets for an hour. Tuk tuk driver takes group in a circle. Get off, find a boat home and shove our way on. Don’t know how to buy a ticket. Miss our exit. Walk extra half mile through Thai streets. Find the post office, mail some letters. Get street food. Session until about 10pm.
Thursday: Thanksgiving! Sleep in. I’m exhausted. Get up. Eat two Oreos for breakfast because I’m out of food and team money to buy food. Read my bible. Pray. Write a blog post. Then, write it again when it gets deleted. Go on errands with a friend for a few hours around the city. Eat some leftover pad Thai. Talk with a friend & share a song I wrote. Run to get changed for thanksgiving. Pictures, talk, food, prayer. Say goodbye to my precious leaders who are returning to the states. Impromptu share the gospel with the whole waitstaff. They are so moved by the love of God in the room, several start crying. Say more goodbyes. Try to skype family, but no luck. Try to skype friend, but no luck. Sleep.
Friday: Get up. Read bible, pray. FaceTime friend. Pack bags. Go to squad mates baptism. Sit on the street for an hour and a half waiting because hotel changed their policy. Go with friend on errands. Finish packing. Stay calm when I lose passport….Find passport. More goodbyes. Cram into a taxi, drive to the bus station. 14 hr bus ride to Phuket, Thailand.
Saturday: Arrive at bus station. Meet new (American) Thai contact. Cram 8 people, 7 packs, and a guitar into one car, drive to church. Drop bags, go to beach to rinse off. Eat lunch at a restaurant. Meet with contacts about schedule. Eat lunch again. Nap. Wash dishes. Practice for worship the next day. Go to bed early.
Sunday: Wake up grumpy. No space anywhere. No food. Introverts nightmare. Pray & journal. Tell the lord I’m willing to be ungrumpy, but he’ll have to get me there. Clean the church. Practice worship again. Service. Eat Iranian food with church members. Go to Nepalese church. Play 2 songs on the fly when asked to. Eat again, this time with Nepalese church. Get served 3 plates of food…and eat them because the alternative is incredibly rude. Cram into car again. Go to surprise going away party for church intern. Try to stay awake…more food (Pakistani) offered. Be sociable for several hours, then nap. Woken up by popping balloons and being stepped over. Go to the beach for volleyball ministry. Stay until 10pm. Have 3 hour long team meeting. It’s good and necessary. Get invited by host to watch Bollywood movie. Say no, hear it anyways. Sleep at 2am.
Monday: Wake up at 8am. Walk around with 2 teammates to find an open restaurant. Bible study until 10am. Come back to church. Lead worship. Deep clean the kitchen. Eat lunch. Pray for church members and write cards of encouragement. Try to write Isaiah 62 in Nepalese. Give up. Go to visit a church member at work. Pray for her. Back to the church. Pray, memorize Colossians. Reconcile relationship with a teammate. Go to laundry mat. Teammate feeling sick–go to pharmacy for her. Eat dinner. Yum. Back to laundry. Go to another work visit. Walk down Banglha road (red light district). Pray the whole time. Get offered sex shows 20+ times by men, women, and ladyboys. Visit another church member at his restaurant. He offers us tea and snacks. More food. Pray for him. Walk past more sex shops. Contact & his wife get hit on and grabbed by ladyboys. Go back to church to get guitar for another house visit. Arrive at 11pm. Lead worship and share the gospel. Pray for and encourage family. Leave at 1am and walk back to the church. Shower, share some anointing oil with a friend. Post last update for 21 days of prayer. Check email. Write this. Go to bed… 3:40am.
And that’s been my first few days of Thailand.
