Hi y’all!
I’m in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and we start ministry tomorrow! For the next three weeks, I’m living with eighteen girls doing merit work, hanging out with monks, and doing many more things that will come up day by day. But that’s not what this blog is about. This blog is about letting you guys meet one of my new friends, who also happens to be a monk.
Chiang Mai has about 300 Buddhist temples. No, that isn’t a typo. We visited Wat Chedi Luang our first day here, explored the grounds a bit, and then sat and chatted with a few monks.
I spent the most time with my friend Lu. Lu is fifteen, he’s from Myanmar, and his favorite movie is The Boss Baby.
I don’t know about you, but when I hear the word monk, I think of quiet, old religious men, who like to spend time in silence. This might just me being naiive, but Jesus has a cool way of shattering stereotypes and connecting people everywhere. One of my favorite things about Jesus is how he loves people that he shouldn’t love, according to the eyes of the world. Now I get to do just that.
So this is my friend, Lu! He became a monk so that he could get an education. At the temple, he gets housing, two meals a day, and english classes. In his free time, he can sit and talk with visitors to practice his english skills, which is how I got to meet him. This boy has dreams of becoming fluent in his english, and being able to travel. He wants to get more practice with art, too, as he’s already a phenomenal sketcher.
Unlike some of the other monks I met, he has a sister who lives near by, so he gets to see her four times a year. He doesn’t see the rest of his family, because they live too far away.
Hannah Key and I got to look through his sketchbook, share photos from Guate, and see where in Myanmar he lived. He’d never heard of Guatemala before, and was amazed by the volcano photos. As a monk, he isn’t allowed to go to restaurants, but said I have to try papaya salad while I’m here. (Fun fact: there’s no papaya in it, and it’s ridiculously spicy.) He also showed us how to write our names in Thai.
This boy is a new face of Jesus for me. He’s the side of Jesus that loves to have fun and asks good questions. He’s the side that thinks before he speaks and is patient when we explain the same question in English four different ways.
Please be praying for our whole squad as we start ministry in different parts of Thailand tomorrow!!
Love,
Cait
