I don’t know about you, but waking up in a room of 20 girls you have never met before is pretty scary and daunting. That was my experience on day one in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
My first thought was ‘what have I done’. I was overcome with emotion and ready to get back on a flight to England. Can I really do life for the next 11 months without anyone else from England. I was scared. What had seemed like a dream for the last seven months was now a reality. This was actually happening. It was all too real and I was scared and homesick.
I left from London Heathrow at 20:30 on Friday 2nd January and flew to Beijing, China. It was the longest flight I have done on my own, but luckily for me I had a spare seat next to me. It aided my sleep. Win!
As we started to taxi on the runway I felt sick. Was I crazy?
I was flying on my own and will meet up with the rest of my squad who will have already spent two days together by the time I arrive in Chiang Mai, talk about awkward. I got out my ‘book of encouragement’ and started to read the notes that family and friends had written to me. As I did tears starting to roll down my face. I felt so loved by everyone back home and just knew I would miss them all so much over the next yet.
I finally arrived in Beijing and after lots of confusion and countless queues I made it through Chinese security and into departures for my second flight to Chiang Mai, I was over half way there and soon I would get to meet my family for the next 11 months.
When I arrived in Chiang Mai I was met by two of our leadership team Scott and Sun Ju and the Korean Racers (Sara, JaeRim and Hakyoung) who had been on the same flight as me from Beijing. We made our way to where we were staying and had to set up our sleeping mats and get out our stuff without waking the rest of the squad who had already gone to sleep.
When I woke up in the morning I wondered what I had done. Fortunately after breakfast my squad mates started to come up and introduce themselves to me and I started to get to know everyone. In the afternoon we were split into three groups, I was with Heather, Mercy, Andrew, Simeon, Tori T, Aly and one of our squad leaders Daniel. We went on a scavenger hunt around Chiang Mai which took in The Three Kings, a couple of temples, the gates to Chiang Mai. It was really good to see some of the city and to begin to form friendships with some of my squad mates.
We are staying at a wonderful place called Zion Cafe which is run by a Thai Christian woman called Emmi. She is a beautiful woman who is completely fired up and passionate about God.
Tune in soon to hear all about Training Camp and my wonderful squad mates who will also be my team mates when we begin ministry next week!
