Hey y’all! It’s been a hot minute since I updated everyone! So here it is: so my team and I have been in Thailand for almost 2 weeks now, and let me tell y’all this: Thai food is actually one of the best things on this planet. I’m going to refrain talking about food in this blog because there is so much more important stuff I need to say.
So like I said we have been here for 2 weeks and my entire team is loving it! We started our ministry this week which is something we have all been looking forward to. We are working with an organization called Agape Hope which takes in kids who have been diagnosed with diseases such as HIV/ AIDS. In the mornings, we have been hanging out with the kids, playing with and talking with them. They can’t understand us, but, to me, a smile says a thousand words. After we play with the kids, we get down and dirty. We started the week cleaning out a classroom they use. We took everything out and dusted them off. Scrubbed the floors. Cleaned one of the dirtiest bathrooms I’ve seen. And swept the outside balcony. The rest of the week consisted of painting a house that Agape is looking to use. We finished the house yesterday and it was a ton of work. Y’all, we tore our fingers up getting tape off of window and door frames. It wasn’t the most fun thing but, ya know #forthekingndom
We have been prayer walking, sight seeing, and building relationships with one another throughout the week. One of my favorite things we’ve done thus far is worship. We’ve had 3 different worship times since we were here, and God has spoken to me each time in different ways.
Lately, He’s been putting the concept of “peace” in my mind, and I can’t say I understand why. Is it because I’m not realizing something that I need peace about? Does one of my teammates need a little peace right now? Or what about one of the children? A random stranger on the street? I’m not too sure, but I know it’s out there.
It does boggle my mind though. Every person I’ve come into contact with here in Thailand has had a smile on their face and are genuinely happy. I think to myself, “There’s no way they need peace because they seem happier than I am!” But then I remember what this place is full of. Darkness. It’s why I’m here. It’s why my team left everything we know for 2 months.
I‘m constantly reminded of how broken this world is, and how I’m directly in the thick of it. Reminded of how these people need us, and they don’t even know it. Those kids we have been with every morning for the past week need us. My heart has not stopped breaking for those kids since I first laid eyes on them. I wish I could just pick them up and tell them that everything was going to be alright. But I can’t. I can’t promise them that. I can barely say hello to them. All I can really do is pick them up, hug them, have them chase me around, have them cause me to be exhausted after we see them, wave to them, and smile at them. But ya know what, I’ve seen those kids smile so much. Some of the biggest and genuine smiles I’ve seen ever. And it breaks my heart to know that, even though those kids’ smiles are for real, they don’t know what true happiness is.
I wasn’t called to fix these kids. I wasn’t called to give them an easy life. God doesn’t promise me and easy life, and it hasn’t been easy. Not being able to help these kids has already been so hard on me. I wasn’t called to do any that. However, I’m called to love these kids. Love them like God loves them. And I hope and I pray that they may realize who God is through my team‘s actions and smiles.
Everything we are doing. Everything we will do. God is working in them. I thank God for Agape, teaching these sweet little kids the Word of God. I’m so thankful I’m apart of those kids lives. They may never remember me, and that’s okay. But I can say I’m never forgetting these kids. One thing I’ve learned from training camp is that “Ministry is life.” I pray that my life may be His ministry. To these kids. To the people of Thailand. To my team. And to myself. I want God‘s light and mercy to shine every where I go, and not just in Thailand.
