Hey friends,
The first week is always the hardest they say. They were right. They were very right. I felt emotionally, physically, and spiritually drained after the first few days. Then Mom, our host mother, called us from Surin ( about 3 hours away) and told us to pack our bags and get in the car and come to work camp. Yep, work camp. We were all a little stressed but all SO in for the adventure that was to come from the next few days. The Lord knew we all needed a pick-me-up work camp. We arrived at the camp to meet Japanese, Thai’s, and Australians!!!! Australians that spoke english!!!! We all jumped for joy to finally have conversations that weren’t broken and that were understood. As we laid cement down at a church, our teams all connected and were able to build relationships. Our team was so thankful for those days. We now have life-long connections in Perth, Australia. We’ll for sure be seeing them soon.
The Lord has been working in my heart to just be in His presence and enjoy time with Him. It’s something I am not used to. Everyone has this picture that the race is this beautiful awesome ministry filled experience 24/7 and that we’re always out spreading the gospel to every person we see. Its not that at all. Its nothing like that. I haven’t shared the gospel with one person yet. Who would have ever thought that. Our ministry is a little slow here and we have a lot of down time to just sit and to sit in the Lord’s presence. A fellow squad-mate worded it perfectly, “I’ve always taken time for myself but a lot of the times I forget about Him. The whole “be still and know that I am God” thing has been in my head the past few days, and I’m taking my opportunities to slow down and just ‘be’. “
That is painted so perfectly of how the race has been for me and for other mates on our squad. There is so much time to just be. Time to be with the Lord and time to want to learn more about Him. Its so hard to not look forward to the days where you have ministry non-stop and can just proclaim the love of the Lord. But, you have to proclaim the love of the Lord to yourself and really rest in His love first. Thats what the Lord has moved in my heart.
excerpt from my journal: teaching has been a lot. It’s been tiring at times, it’s been fun, its been extremely draining, its been awesome, but its been such a learning experience and its only week 2. I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. I would say that teaching is not my calling and thats ok. I do know that I really appreciate the teachers who tried to teach my rebellious self. Sorry for putting you all through that. I’ll thank you the rest of my life for teaching me FANBOYS and the difference between have/has and was/were.
I couldn’t sum it up more than that.
The Lord has also shown me that this trying process of teaching reflects on how patient He has been with me throughout my life. I was rebellious and disobedient but He never gave up. I think the Lord put it on my heart to look back on my process of surrendering and realize how much of a process it really was. He’s given me the patience and newfound love to never throw the towel in with teaching. It gave me an incredibly different outlook on this week. This is not going to be an easy two months. These kids have no knowledge of conversational english. I have no knowledge of Thai. But, our end result is going to be unimaginable.
I can not wait to see how far these kids will have come by the end of November. The Lord is doing such big things here, Its just up to us if we decide to open our hearts and see Him.
Our team’s first day at Work Camp.
Sweet Boni, one of the kids from the neighboring leper colony. He comes by our home everyday and is always full of joy. He has a piece of my heart.
Much love to you all, more blogs and pictures to come. You guys are awesome.
Email me whenever you want to chat!
vicky
