As I’m riding on a bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, Thailand, I am looking back at things. I just got done saying goodbye to lots of people that I met during our month in Thailand – The Eubank family, Chert, Gee, Ty, Ye, Emmi, Pha, and many many more. It was the first month of our adventure. It was an introduction. It was a time of new beginnings and of bungee jumping. It was a month of blossoming friendships in the squad.
We spent our first two weeks training and having sessions that aimed to teach us about the holy spirit, life on the race, shame and guilt, relationships, legalism in Christianity, spiritual warfare, and many more topics. It was a time of input of information. It didn’t allow a lot of time for processing. Here’s a recap video. After training was launch.
Launch was a time where we learned a lot about our different roles in the squad, like team leader or finance. We learned how to live on the Race. We learned how to work in our teams. My team is Team Avanti! Sarah C, Alysse, Hilary, Loren, and I have gotten to know each other’s personalities as much as you can in one month, and we are looking forward to working together for as many months as we keep these teams!
Being in Thailand and starting ministry has changed my outlook on a lot of things.
1. The world is SO large and SO small at the same time. Large = The more I see, the more I realize there is to see… Small = I met 4 people from Indiana that are doing ministry in Asia. WHAT?!
2. Ministry doesn’t always involve talking about Jesus. Ministry is about understanding people and showing them the love of Christ. Ministry is showing people grace. Ministry is about listening to others more than you talk to them.
3. Some of the biggest connections are made by the smallest gestures. Or as Papa T says, “The small choices make the big choices.” Ex. When a group of English Education students say Hello! or when you buy a Coke from a woman at a small establishment on her third day of owning a restaurant.
4. “Love deeply, but hold loosely.” Especially on the race, I will need to continue working on this. The deeper my love is for people, the more both parties will get out of it, but I need to hold loosely the things that I see and the connections that I make.
5. Being away from people doesn’t mean that you forget them. Being away from friends and family doesn’t mean that I don’t think about them. Being 7 months removed from college doesn’t mean that I don’t think of my friends from Anderson. God gives us wonderful ways of connecting us and reminding me of the people I love from home.
I like to imagine my life right now as a subway system. It has many levels and directions to find the right train to get on. When you walk in, there’s many choices. You have to… look at the map or plan, determine the best route, wait in line to buy a ticket, buy a ticket from the nice people, try to decipher the signs written in random languages, finally find the sign for the right train, wait patiently, board the train, and ride until you come to your station.
Sometimes, you turn the wrong direction, get lost, ask for directions, and go back the opposite way. Sometimes, you have to transfer to another train. Sometimes, the train breaks down and you have to trust that everything is going to be fixed in a timely manner.
God has taken me on an adventure. That adventure is not meant to be easy. It’s not meant to go smoothly all the time. It is meant to show me how to ask for directions, decipher the things I don’t understand, and spend time waiting patiently for the train to arrive. God started my adventure in a beautiful place called Chiang Mai, Thailand, but He is not even close to being done.
