Have you ever experienced a moment in which you feel complete contentment? You’re lacking nothing and abundant joy and peace flood your heart. Month six in Thailand was a whole slew of those moments for me. From the moment we arrived we were greeted by a warm and friendly soul named, Heidi. She is from Australia and moved to Thailand to work for a human trafficking organization called, Destiny Rescue. She met her now husband John there years ago and today they are married with a beautiful daughter named Charlotte (She is actually legally named Charlie because Charlotte means nothing in Thai so they named her Charlie, which means “wire” in English).
For just over a year they have been working on creating an organic and self sustaining farm called, The Little Farm. Their hearts for the farm are for it to become a place where people can come to learn skills and work with animals or get their hands dirty in the soil planting and growing seeds. Our month consisted of manual labor and helping them lay the groundwork for becoming self-sustainable. We helped plant close to 11,000 pineapples in just over three weeks. Everyday we were hoeing up hills and planting spiky pineapples. I absolutely loved this. For some people they might have thought it was repetitive and terribly hard (which it was) but for me, I loved getting my hands dirty and knowing that because of my actions, fruit would literally be produced. Every summer back in the states I get so excited to start my garden and to grow my own food and although the pineapples won’t actually be ready for a year, it filled a little spot in my heart that was missing gardening.
One of my favorite things about working with Heidi and John was that they wanted to bless the community with us. While the majority of our time was spent working on the farm we also got a chance to work with a children’s home. We spent multiple days with these kids just sharing with them and loving on them. We were able to take them to a waterfall and have a picnic with them, we took them to the zoo, and we helped put on a fellowship night at their home. It was so encouraging to see their willing and able hearts. Each one of them was so eager to help in any way possible and to bless others. I found it encouraging to see such servant’s hearts in them. Even though we were there to bless them, I found myself being blessed by spending time with them. It gave me joy to witness how freely they give and receive love.
We also had an opportunity to visit an older Buddhist couple across the street from Heidi and John. They owned a chili farm and needed help harvesting. We spent hours in the sun picking chilies and playing word games with one another. It actually turned out to be one of my favorite days in Thailand. The couple was so grateful for our help and was able to receive 7x their daily income with our help. I learned that they will have friends come help during times of harvest and call them their “left hand.” Then when those friends need help with their harvests, they return the favor. I found this to be a really cool concept and gave the word community an even deeper meaning.
Thailand is flooded with memories for me but I’ll share a couple of my favorites. The Lord blessed me with meeting a beautifully groomed Golden Retriever named, Coco. She ran to me only after calling for her in Thai. I called ma, ma, ma in different influxes because that one word said differently means come, dog, or horse in English. The neighbor witnessed my struggle and told me her name was Coco. As soon as I called her by name she ran to me like a scene straight out of a movie. I literally cried and my teammate, Mariah almost peed her pants. If you know me than you know I have a Golden Retriever named Wrigley back home and she is my baby! Meeting Coco filled a small hole in my heart that’s been missing Wrigs. It definitely was a kiss from the Father.
Another wonderful memory was when Heidi set my team lose on the river in some floating tubes. We drove to a bridge and walked down to the shore and she said, “Follow the river for about thirty minutes, look for a giant white Buddha on the right and once you see that, veer to the left and look for me.” It took closer to an hour for us to get to her and one of our pastors thought that we had died and was having quite the panic attack while waiting for us. I got to spend that time actually sharing a tube with my squad mate, Vivian (it’s harder than it sounds) and chatting the whole way down. Figuring out how to take potty breaks was quite interesting 😉
One of the biggest lessons the Lord taught me in Thailand was to give thanks and make a joyful noise in everything I do, giving Him glory. There was one day in particular that I remember I was being a brat. I had been planting pineapples for over three hours and some of my teammates had been sitting down for about an hour resting and talking. In fact I remember at one point for a good bit I was the only one working, out of six girls. I was frustrated. We had thousands of pineapples to plant still and these girls were just sitting there while I was hoeing up hill and sweating bullets. I later gave feedback about this and explained how unfair it was for them to not be working while I was preserving to get the job done. One of my teammates who had stayed home sick that day said something that has completely changed my view. She told me that she had also felt those frustrations at certain points and the Lord reminded her that it should be for his glory and honor that she’s working. Even in our blood, sweat, and tears we still have an opportunity to give God the glory. I should not have been comparing who was working harder that day. It shouldn’t have mattered if I was truly working hard solely for the Lord.
Not a day has passed since I left Thailand, that I don’t think about it. I miss joking with John, baking with Heidi, singing to Charlie, bathing Tic-Tac, talking to the goats, working with the kids, and especially the authentic Thai food we were blessed with every day! I swear it was John’s goal to get the food to a spice level that us seven white girls couldn’t handle, but he failed! They were so impressed with our spice tolerance.I miss that spice in my life!
Thailand, you are forever in my heart and it’s only a matter of time until we meet again.
