This holiday season has been uniquely different from anything I’ve experienced before and I wanted to share with you what Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s looked like on the field for my team and I.
At the very beginning of November, right before we left Ecuador, our whole squad got together and we celebrated Thanksgiving with a pot luck. Each team made a dish, our hosts made the turkey, and we gathered together for a night of food and fellowship. Each person stood up during the meal and said something they were thankful for. In that moment I couldn’t help but look around at all of my squadmates and see family. That was the moment that I realized that the people I have been doing life with have become my family.
When Thanksgiving day came my team had been settled at our ministry site for about a week. We spent the day teaching English and doing ministry with the students in the afternoon. That evening we went out for dinner, and then made “apple pie toasties” in our panini press type of thing. We listened to Christmas music and just hung out together.
To celebrate the Christmas season we decorated our house with lights, Christmas themed watercolor paintings, and some leftover garland from a birthday party. At school we taught the students about Christmas and showed them lots of videos that explain the story of Christmas in Thai. They loved it, and stay tuned for a blog about all of the fruit that has come from our ministry in Thailand.
On Christmas morning we celebrated as a team with a breakfast feast and Secret Santa gift exchange. After our team celebration we spent the rest of the day with the students. We showed them a cartoon of the Christmas story and then in the afternoon we had a party. Each class prepared a dance to perform and then we had a school wide gift exchange. It was a humble, but joy-filled Christmas.
We also celebrated by going to our favorite restaurant that evening. There is a small restaurant across the street that is run out of a family’s living room. We sat down and ate our meal and them, to our surprise, the family had small little Christmas gifts for all seven of us! We took photos with them and then closed our evening with some Christmas carols and worship.
Our New Year’s Eve was a relatively normal day, but we celebrated in the evening with dinner as a team, a few rounds of a card game called Dutch Blitz, and watching the movie New Year’s Eve together. To finish off the night we attempted to make “fireworks” out of coke and mentos and talked about our favorite moments of the year. We toasted with glasses of Coke and I FaceTimed with my parents after we rang in the new year. (Because Thailand is 13 hours ahead I got to FaceTime my parents that were in a different year!)
It was a simple, quiet, and small holiday season. It was hard to be away from home, but so so fun to have such a different experience from the hustle bustle of the holidays in the States.
Wishing you a joy-filled 2018
We will be leaving Thailand this Friday to travel to Cambodia, which is where we will be for the next two months! Be praying for health and safe travels as we hop the boarder and adjust to a new country!
