As I sit here, on a couch in a room cold with air conditioning, memories of India and Nepal seem like distant dreams that I once had. Dreams, and nothing more. This is extremely strange to write because when I was in them, India and Nepal were some of the most difficult and frustrating and growing times of my entire life. I don’t want them to impress me just as dreams, but I need my experiences to affect me and the way I live the rest of my life.
Being literally half way around the world, Thailand is a far shot from America. Nonetheless, it is the most American-ized country we have been in so far. Let me give you a rundown of the internal list we’ve all been keeping in our heads.
In India, Kaitlyn and I went to a grocery store to buy food for the next day. We couldn’t read any of the labels and everything was so distinctly Indian, that we, for the most part, had no idea what anything was. In Nepal, we couldn’t find a grocery store to save our lives. Unless we were in Kathmandu. There, it was a trekker’s grocery store with tourist prices. Our budget did not allow for us to live luxuriously enough to eat from a grocery store. Here, in Thailand, 7-11’s line the roads like the Thai-Starbucks. They actually have Starbucks here too! And McDonald’s and KFC. Beyond 7-11’s, they have real grocery stores. Kaitlyn and I again went grocery shopping last night. Our contact’s wife, Pook, brought us to a store called Tesca Lotus. It was Wal-Mart. Well, it wasn’t “Wal-Mart,” but it was just like it. The one-stop shop with absolutely everything you never needed. We were able to buy peanut butter again, and yogurt, and fresh fruit, and oatmeal, and fat free milk. We could have bought cheese too! Imagine that! Cheese! These things that we just take for granted that we have found to be a luxury to most countries.
Beyond grocery shopping, we have been lavished in many ways here in Thailand. At our ministry location in Nakhon Si Thammarat, we are staying in a five story building with air conditioning on the first floor, and fans on every other floor. The power comes on and stays on at all times of the day and night. We don’t have to worry about if they fans will come on every night; they are once again taken for granted. The toilets are NOT squatties! We are provided toilet paper AND a washing machine. There is running water all the time. There is a filter for even cleaner water. Our choices of food are tremendous. We can walk just around the corner to get to a market where everything is safe to eat and generally, it’s delicious. Oh yeah, and it’s around 30 Baht per meal. 30 Baht equals one American dollar. I’m still trying to figure out why American food is so stinking expensive, but that’s beside the point. If we’re not feeling like a night on the town, we have also been given free reign over a kitchen and a fridge. And, to put icing on the cake, we have a ping pong table.
Is this real life?
I just remember back to our months in India and Nepal where we would literally rather starve than eat one more chipote. No matter how you fixed it: with the rice inside like a burrito or the rice on the side, it was still a chipote. And in Nepal, we felt like we were melting away in the heat. A phrase that really got me through those months was, “This Too Shall Pass.” We could have lingered on the small things that really frustrated us. We could have focused on the times where we were in need. And frankly, I’m blessed to have been in those situations. I was not comfortable. I was not safe. But God doesn’t call us to live a comfortable or a safe life. He tells us to go. He says that He will be our comfort, our shelter, our provider, our shield. He tells us not to worry and to go.
So, while this time of comfort and luxury is nice, I’m thankful that it is only for a season. I know what it is to live in plenty. I also know that the poor will inherit the kingdom of God. I want to live in such a way that I am worthy of my calling. I want to know what it is to be poor and in want. This season of plenty, it too shall pass.
