When on the world race in Thailand…
-Wearing a dress 5 or 6 times in a row is completely acceptable. It”s great, especially when it”s only 1 of 2 dress options available to you!
-You have a woman who you affectionately refer to as your “lunch lady” because she teaches you thai and makes you deliciously tasty food, day after day. Without a contact this month, it is she and Sohm, our friend who works at the hostel, who you will miss most, as they’ve given us the best “tastes” of Thailand!
-You get to meet heroes of the faith here in Thailand, and impact the future of the race and the future of the Kingdom through the contacts you and your team make.
-You have the opportunity to have your first massage, but when in Thailand that of course means you need to try a Thai style massage, which most definitely means a spry Thai woman climbs all over you as she kneads and stretches your arms, legs, back, shoulders, and neck for 2 hours!
-You get to pray over women working in the dance bars of Bangkok”s red light district, and ask for chains to be broken, for both the men frequenting the bars and the women trapped inside of them. Never again will I forget the faces of #19, #29, and #33. So much more than numbers, they are beautiful girls who were created for more.
-You get to stand for the King”s anthem before seeing a movie or theater performance.
-You get to listen to worship music in Thai, and wish you could sing along in Thai, but you can”t read the language so you either sing it in English or don”t sing at all.
-You get a pedicure at 10 PM at night for $2.50
-You visit more malls in one month than you ever thought possible: emporium mall, mbk mall, siam discovery mall, siam paragon mall, siam center mall, terminal 21 mall, river city mall, Robinson”s mall, and Chamchuri Square mall”. which you primarily visit to eat at their cheap food courts, stand amazed at the ridiculously expensive clothing prices (despite the face that much of it is made in Southeast Asia), and window shop because of the detailed precision Thais bring to their stores, restaurants and malls!
-You have a fruit guy, and corn lady, and you enter more 7-11″s than you have in your previous 30 years combined, for snacks, snacks, and more snacks, plus the occasional phone minute fill up and shampoo or conditioner run.
-You get to be annoyed and yet utterly amazed at the simultaneous translation that you listen to at church as the pastor speaks in Thai and through a headset you are able to also understand the message, though it may be a bit disjointed.
-You have never eaten more things on sticks: watermelon, mango, pineapple, pork, fish, meatballs, waffles, sausage, octopus
-You cross a bridge over the river Kwai
-You visit a Thai national park where there are more Russian visitors than Thais.
-You have your feet nibbled on by flesh-eating “doctor fish” while swimming amidst the waterfalls of Erawan National Park.
-You visit the largest flea market in the world, covering 35 acres and housing more than 5000 stalls. Have I mentioned Thais like to shop?
-Snacks most often include an entire mango and pineapple, which sets you back $1. The pineapple tastes like sunshine on a stick!
-You find yourself listening to Frosty the snowman, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Joy to the World, Have yourself a merry little Christmas, and Jingle Bell Rock while standing in a mall food court whose theme is San Francisco”s Pier 21, between the Abominable snowman shaved ice stand and the cafeteria style fried fish place.
-Your team hits up 4 church services in one day, in an effort to maximize our last Sunday in the city and maximize our search to find awesome people and ministries doing Kingdom work.
-You realize as crazy as this language is, you really like it and find yourself wanting to learn it more than any other language of Asia thus far.
-You spend at least 10 hours in transit (though I think it was more like 12) on a train and in the back of a pickup to visit the most beautiful, and most unusual, waterfalls you’ve ever seen!
-You get to be blown away by the fact that while lost on the outskirts of Bangkok, you ask for help at a school which turns out to be a Suksa (muslim) school, and a faculty member, after a great conversation starter of “kob kohm ka” (which is thank you) from yours truly, spends 30 minutes of her precious time helping us figure out how to get to our Christian school, using her own personal phone, speaking in thai for us, and ultimately pointing us in the right direction! Never will I forget her face or her kindness!
-You get to experience the motorbike taxi for the first time, and while wearing a dress! Shout out to side saddle riding motorbike riders! I’m glad we didn’t go too fast or too far!
-You ride in a canal ferry boat, and hold up the plastic to protect your face from the dirty water, until halfway through the ride you see there’s this great contraption like a pull up blind string that pulls, and holds up the plastic tarp, for you.
-You goof around at your first experience at a playground for adults, or outdoor gym equipment, that just so happens to be painted bright yellow, orange, and blue! The best one by far: the surfer!
-You listen to God’s voice, and after an argument with Him on how ridiculous it is and all the reasons why it should happen LATER, you submit to his request of asking that you give up on makeup for an indefinite amount of time. You do so because He can continue to teach you what true beauty is, and how little the external matters! As a result, you slowly start to see yourself differently.
-You are able to say “I know your face” to a college kid at a church you’ve never been to, figure out how you know him, and then have him stick by your side throughout church. He sits with you at lunch, introduces you to all the ministry leaders at his church, AND interprets for you so that you can share the reason for your visit with the sweetest elder Thai pastor! This, people, is what it looks like to be Jesus to someone and choose to opt in when God gives you a unique opportunity!!
When on the World Race in Lao…
-you draw closer than ever to your teammates when we choose to have team love days, and each girl gets a day of her own, full of surprises where she is loved through activities, games, words, and deeds. It was just as much fun to plan and implement as it was to be on the receiving end!
-you learn how to let go of perfectionism– As Brene Brown puts it… I’m a “recovering” perfectionist.
-you get to prove I was letting go of perfectionism when the day I was slated to teach at cell group was also Beth day, which meant I had no control over the day. I had no idea, at any point in the day, what I would be doing and therefore had no time to prep. This led to me needing to rely completely on the Holy Spirit, and it was such a joy to share because He gave me all the words. It was a fabulous ending to a great day!
-when doing outreach on campus, you see a young man playing Ping Pong who is wearing a Texas Tech sweatshirt (my alma mater). This isn’t a “Asia has no copyright laws” sort of sweatshirt, but a legit this was bought in Lubbock, TX, sweatshirt. After causing all sorts of confusion since BOY (his name) did not speak English, including him trying to give me the sweatshirt, everything was smoothed out and this crazy white girl took a picture with him. His cousin is an engineering student at Texas Tech University, and sent him the sweatshirt!
-you go to a Lao wedding reception, experiencing the fancy traditional outfits Lao women wear to such events, and getting to do some Lao dances, which is primarily moving your arms. Or the universal dance of jumping up and down to pop/rock anthems. Some things are the same around the world!
-you meet 3 professional soccer players (two from Brazil and one from Uruguay) who play for the Lao national team in Vientiane.
-you get to ride bikes along the Mekong
-you climb a midget mountain in Vang Vieng, but unfortunately you thought you were doing something water related and didn’t bring your camera
-you jump from a tree into a blue lagoon
-you start jumping up and down during a giant cave thinking there are cool, legit cave paintings until you realize its dried mud recent visitors have used to write their names and/or initials. I truly was thinking the cave couldn’t have gotten even better, and then the momentary “this is Lao’s Lasceaux” was too much. Hehe!
-you cry as you cross the border into Lao, because you’re overcome by the reality that this is really your life, and the promise that God was going to bring you back to these places your heart fell for, was just too much to take! And I was so excited to be back for the reasons I thought I would be– for Him, and to get to share my love for Lao, Cambodia and Vietnam with my team was just amazing!!
-you make amazing connections with your college students
-you get to see the best rendition of the Christmas story by Lao college students, which included a ______ as Baby Jesus (even though there was a 3 month old in the house and at the party), and shepherds guiding a giant plastic duck instead of sheep.
-you get to share a message (your first full blown message of the race) about Mary and Martha and what he is teaching you about perfectionism.
-you get to go to your first gallery opening overseas– an photo exhibit about the salt mines of Lao and the baskets traditionally used as means of transport for salt, knives, food, knickknacks, fish… everything!
-you get to teach your students about the Christmas season through pictures and songs like Joy to the World.
-at the end of the month, and your last day in Vientiane, your students come say goodbye to you and bring you fresh cut and vegetables as a gift! You end your time with them teaching them the game of Uno.
-you have a wonderful Christmas on the race– including a sleepover with squad leaders and the Jesus Jewels; chocolate peppermint pancakes Christmas morn; a reading of the Christmas story, The night before Christmas, and lots of Christmas songs to Papa on Christmas Eve; “family” pictures Christmas morning, and last but not least time to talk with family back home and share in some Christmas memories with them.
