Leaving Cambodia was hard. That’s something I can’t and won’t sugarcoat. As one who is heavy on the relational side of the task/relationship scale, leaving the kids I’ve come to love and call brothers/sisters wasn’t just a wave goodbye. It was a lot of tears and a lot of heartache. I’ve had to constantly remind myself that our God is a God who knows our desires better than we do, and He delights in fulfilling them. If I am meant to go back and continue my relationships with those precious children, then He will make it happen. Apart from the sadness of leaving, the Lord reminded me of the blessings He placed ahead. We have the opportunity to work at yet another orphanage for two months in Thailand, which bears the same opportunity for more fruitful relationships while loving on more joyful kiddos.
After leaving Cambodia, we spent a week in Bangkok to debrief and process our first month of ministry. We got to stay in a hostel and take actual showers with real shower heads. We also got to relax in air conditioning with beds and have worship on a rooftop overlooking the entire city. With lots of free time, we took advantage of all Bangkok has to offer. We got Thai massages, went to The Little Zoo Cafe, went to huge malls, saw The Grand Palace and other beautiful temples, got tuk tuk tours, went to the night markets, ate with locals, and so much more. Not to mention a few teammates and I got lost on the BTS and MRT for roughly three hours trying to get back to the hostel due to people giving us subpar directions. Makes for a good story though!! Overall, Bangkok was a great opportunity to relax, process, and grow in having unscheduled ministry. In a city that is so heavily normalized to having brothels, it was hard not to pray for these men and women everywhere we walked and went. Being up close and personal to these situations makes it so much more real and reminds me why God calls us to reach the unreached and love the unlovable.
After getting our visa extensions approved from the embassy, we headed out the next day to our ministry. We took a 10 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai, and then another 3 hour truck ride to Wiang Pa Pao, where we will be until the end of April. We are staying at Sending Hope International, which is an all-girls orphanage and prevention center. As soon as we arrived, the girls welcomed us with open arms and so much love. Our day-to-day here includes walking the girls to school bright and early, doing devotions and teaching English to the staff, some labor projects when needed, picking the girls up from school, teaching English to the kids, and speaking for night time worship with all the kids and staff. There is also a good portion of the day that we have down time. While this was a struggle for me at first as I love being busy, it has been such a great opportunity to dive into scripture and find out what it means to rest in Him. And rest in Him intentionally at that. Resting isn’t my strong suit by any means, so having this season dedicated to that will hopefully be a good learning experience. This past weekend, the girls had to take a self defense class. The girls get to go stay with family (if they have any) once or twice every year, but they don’t all have the safest home situations. It saddens my heart that these girls need to learn self defense as a precaution to going “home”. However, it brings me great joy to see that even after all these girls have been through, they love on others so well and so openly. I am so ecstatic to see the love and joy that come out of these next two months here!
