As we’re wrapping up month #5 in Thailand it is a bittersweet transition for me. I have loved working at Abba House, spending my afternoons teaching English and having bible studies and worship sessions with the New Life boys; laughing with the girls in the evenings during class as they try to explain stories about wedding traditions, holidays, and field trips in Thailand. It has brought me so much joy to get to invest in these kids and also to be reminded of my love for teaching and to be able to use the skills God gave me before as part of my ministry now.
For the month of December my squad is scheduled to go to Cambodia. If you haven’t seen the blog video Christmas in Cambodia, watch it now because this video really impacted me when I was deciding whether to go on the World Race or not, at about this same time 1 year ago. Oh, and grab the tissue box before you start watching (I cry every time).
Seeing the racers in the video spending their Christmas day loving on those street kids and blessing them is such a beautiful picture to me. They weren’t focused on the gifts they weren’t getting that year, or the massive amounts of food that their families were enjoying for Christmas dinner while they were away. They were living out the Christmas message: Jesus came because he loves us, and we should love others as he does.
So as Tom Turkey’s gobble is fading and the Christmas season is arriving in full swing complete with Starbucks’ Peppermint Mocha and Christmas carols sounding in the malls, I think about how much I would LOVE for my Christmas this year to look like the one in the video-one complete with bringing such joy to people who rarely, if ever, get a taste of it.
However…
My team has been assigned a new task and location this month than what is planned for the rest of our squad. While most of S-squad will having Christmas in Cambodia, as I dreamed, mine team has been chosen to serve in another country. The country we will be going to is a closed country, which means evangelism, Christian organizations, and missionaries are not allowed. That being said, I will not likely be communicating much with everyone back at home this month due to big brother watching (yeah 1984 reference!) and the need to avoid Christianese words like bible, missionary, missions, God, and Jesus. No need to worry!-I won’t be in danger, but giving away information about our contacts in the country and the missionaries we work with could very well put them in danger of having to pay fines to the government or getting kicked out of the country all-together.
Team Unashamed will be searching the country for “Unsung Heroes”. Unsung Heroes are missionaries, or anyone really, who is working hard to show God’s love to the world and further the gospel of Christ, but maybe has not been recognized enough to receive support yet. The goal of Adventures in Missions, the organization I am with, is to find these heroes who are serving like Jesus did, and to build connections and relationships with them that will lead to World Racers being able to go and serve alongside them and support them in their ministry in the future.
Because I will not be giving many (if any) updates this month in regards to what we’re actually doing, I want to lay out some prayer requests that I believe will be particularly helpful as I enter this new season. Please be in prayer for:
· unity in my team so that we would work well together and understand how to encourage and uplift each other
· open doors that lead us to easily make connections and find contacts that future Racers will be able to invest in and support
· safety as we travel from place to place more frequently than normal
· open ears and softened hearts to hear what the Lord tells us to do and where He tells us to go
· protection against satan’s attacks of doubt, fear, confusion, dissension, and homesickness as we experience a brand new type of ministry and as we spend Christmas apart from both our loved ones at home and the rest of our “S-squad” family
· boldness and courage to share our faith in the one true God
Sending much love and many prayers for all of you. Thank you for your faithfulness in praying for me.
