Last week we arrived safely in Thailand. It’s hard to believe that we are already a week and a half into month two. This month we are together with our whole squad. So, all 39 of us are staying together at the same hostel. Being with everyone this month is such a treat. It has been an honor and a joy doing life with them and watching the Lord move and speak through each of them. This month is one of our shorter months, which I am a little disappointed about, so we technically will not be spending a whole month here.
This month my team is doing a couple different things. Specifically, we have an “Ask the Lord” month. This is where we pray and seek God and ask Him what He would like us to do for the time we are here in Thailand. Something cool we also get to do this month is find new ministry partners for Adventures in Missions. I know a missionary family from my church back home who lives here in Thailand. It’s really exciting because this month me and my team are able to work with them for a of couple weeks.
Their ministry is called Tawsaeng, which means “the morning light of dawn”. It is an after-school program for children ranging from kindergarten through high school located in the red-light district of Chiang Mai, Thailand. They offer children a safe place to come after school. If the children were to go straight home after school they would be by themselves which does not put them in a safe situation. Many of these families live on a dollar or less a day, so after school most of the parents are at work trying to provide for their family. At TawSaeng the children receive help with homework, lessons in life-skills, Bible teaching, English lessons and are able to enjoy fun activities and games. Me and my team are very blessed to be able to speak into these children’s lives while we are here.
This is what a typical day here looks like for me. I wake up around 6:30 am. Spend time in prayer and reading my Bible. Have breakfast. Get ready for the day. Then as a team we come together for an hour and dig into the Bible. We have been going through Acts. This has been by far my favorite part to my mornings. I find it very refreshing. There’s just something about coming together with fellow believers to read God’s Word and to talk about it. It has been such an amazing time and it has truly blessed my soul. After that, we spend time in worship and in prayer for the day. Once that is over we go out and let the Lord work through us as we build relationships with the Thai people and share what the Lord has put on our hearts. We do that for a couple hours and then break for lunch. After lunch we go and do ministry at Tawsaeng and then we come back to our hostel for dinner.
This past week me and my squad had an opportunity to go to the temple and participate in Monk Chats. Monk Chats are informal discussions where you sit at a round table and talk with prep school age Monks who are usually accompanied by their teacher. This is a great opportunity for Monks to practice and learn English. 94.6% of the population here in Thailand are Buddhist. The thought of going to speak to Monks really made me nervous. I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t really know much about their way of life or how they would respond to us. As I sat down I was greeted by three young girls who were the sweetest thing. We started off sharing simple facts about ourselves like our name, age and where we were from. Then we got into talking about our hobbies and the things we liked to do. Eventually it led to us talking about our beliefs. I was able to learn about Buddhism and was also able to share what I believed. After leaving my whole perspective had changed. I realized that they are just normal people like me and you and there was nothing to be nervous about. God definitely guided our conversations and I believe a seed was planted.
I am looking forward to going back to the Monk Chats and talking more with the Monks. As I continue to seek and press into what the Lord has I am excited to see the many opportunities He is going to open up for me to share my faith this month.
Much love, Calin
