**Part 2 of Mystery Man**
Well as I left off in the last blog we found a super cool rug store! Who knew a rug store could be cool? It was so full of lamps, rugs, pillow cases, and home decor all with their own beautiful colors and designs. Most of the things there came from Kashmir, India where the owner is originally from. They also have a store in Chicago if anyone is looking to buy one.
The two of us walked in and started looking around at all of the designs just begging for our attention when one of the employees came over to tell us where everything was from and what it was made out of. After talking for a few minutes her boss came over to join us in the conversation. Now as a white person in Asia one of the first questions you get is, “Where are you from?” To that we obviously say, “The United States”. The next question is usually along the lines of, ” What are you doing here?” This is where things can get a little blurry. Sometimes it is not safe for us or the long term missionaries for us to say exactly what we are doing so we typically say that we are doing volunteer work around the city. That is not what happened with the owner! After we told him where we were from he said, “Oh, so you are missionaries!” He then later told us that he could pick out missionaries from a mile away and knew the second we walked into the store why we were in Thailand.
John, the owner, started telling us that the worker we had been talking to, Nanu, was a Christian! The conversations slowly got split so Nanu and I went and sat on a couch to share our testimonies and talk about God while Jacob and John went to go sit around a desk with John’s friend, Tukata. Each one of these conversations were so fruitful and we ended up staying there for a few hours just talking with our new friends. Before Tukata left she invited Jacob to hang out with her and her husband that Saturday, she also gave him the option to bring a friend along so they could go sight seeing around Chiang Mai after lunch that day. She was so sweet and continued to tell us we reminded her of her children. We left shortly after Tukata and got to debrief with each other about the conversations we had just had.
(Fun side note: I went back to the store the next day and Nanu drew on my Bible)
That Saturday Jacob thoughtfully invited me to join him, Tukata, and her husband Don for lunch at a restaurant. Tukata ordered all different kinds of Thai food for us to just put in the middle and share. Like any mother figure she made sure that our plates were full until we couldn’t eat another bite.
After lunch we walked back to their car and they took us to the Silver Temple in the middle of town. This was a temple that I had seen on a map but didn’t have the chance to visit it yet. The couple explained that the government was always looking for ways to improve all of the temples in the area so they were always making renovations.
As we were leaving Tukata decided that she wanted to show us another temple that was 45 minutes out of town so we started making our way through the city to get there. Both Tukata and Don are very knowledgeable people and want to share any story or information they can with everyone they meet! They had lived in the United States together for almost 10 years before moving to Thailand, where Tukata is originally from. I was so thankful to have people who understood English and knew what American culture was like to compare it to how things are in Thailand. It is so interesting to here from their point of view since they have lived in both places for an extended amount of time.
Before we got to the temple we were originally planning on going to they remembered that there was another one on the was that most people didn’t know about. So of course we had to stop and see it! Literally we were the only people there and got to just completely take in where we were and the beauty of what was around us. After another 10 minutes of chatting with Don in the car and learning more about photography we got to our destination. This temple looked like something you would see out of a movie! In some ways it seemed a little different than other temples we had been to before because there was such a different combination of designs and colors between all of the buildings. I could have easily spent a few hours there just gawking at everything taking place around us.
As we were leaving the temple Tukata remembered that there we caves near by and thought that we should go see them while we were that far North. Again, Don shared a wealth of information about religion, government, and photography as we made our way to the next stop. It was getting late at this point and we realized that they stopped giving cave tours. Somehow Tukata worked some magic and got a local woman to give us a tour and lock up when we left. Normally there were lights through the cave but since we were late they had turned all of them off and all we had to guide our way was a lamp the guide carried. Between us though, it made it all the more cooler being in a dark cave with just a small light ahead of you.
Following the caves we grabbed dinner together before they dropped us back off at our hostel. I can’t tell you if that day was for Tukata and Don to feel a sense of their family being together again, or if it was for us to have a time to get away, enjoy the city, and get a taste of home being with Americans. It could have even been a day that someone we didn’t know overheard us talking about Christianity and heard God’s name for the first time. Any of them are good enough reasons for me and such a sweet reminder that ministry can be as simple as hanging out with people just because you can be the person they needed that day.
Thanks for reading! Thailand was such a gift and will always be full of such precious memories for me. I cannot wait to share them with everyone back at home. My team and I are now in Penang, Malaysia where we will be working with a global organization until the end of December. We will get the chance to work with homeless, volunteer at a church, put on a Christmas show, and help set up a house that they just started renting for future disciples. My squad and I would greatly appreciate prayers for guidance, health, safety, and boldness this month. Thanks so much!!
Here’s some pictures of my squad and team after our Thanksgiving dinner!
You can also subscribe and follow Jacob’s journey at jacobcolter.theworldrace.org
Much love,
Steph
