If you could sum up my team’s first day of teaching English at a Thai school, it would be “hectic.”
9 am the 8 of us rolled into the school gate, having no idea what to expect. We were given an orientation (of sorts), handed a schedule that we hadn’t a clue how to read, and told that our first class started in a few minutes, and we didn’t know where it was at…
My thought process at that moment: Dear Lord Jesus what is going on.
^Here’s our teaching schedule… good luck figuring it out. Took my team well over a week to understand it all!
So, my teaching group of three other teammates asked the front desk lady (God bless her) where the class was. Once we located the classroom, we sat down on the bench outside the class window and had a quick freak-out session. The four of us were internally panicking at the fact that in 10 minutes we were going to go in a class of 25 second graders and teach them something we’ve never been taught to do for a solid hour.
We had no lesson plan, no experience, no good translator, and no materials. But what did we have? Jesus, each other, and laughter.
For the next 50 minutes the four of us did the Hokey Pokey more than three times, Head Shoulders Knees & Toes more than three times, we covered all the months, we did the ABC’s, and we quite literally made up songs about colors and months on the spot. We were all laughing by the end, if but a little hysterically.
Once the clock hit 10:50 am, all the kids stood up and said, “Thank you teacher,” in English, all placing their hands in the Thai thank you gesture and slightly bowing to us in respect. The four of us waved and said bye, heading out the classroom door. The moment our feet the hallway, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief/hysteria/disbelief at what just happened. But there wasn’t time to sit and debrief our experience (there’s a world race culture term for ya) as we had another class in 10 minutes.
Thus began Team Orah’s first month of ministry, five days a week.
Did we struggle, feel unqualified, and a little lost? Yes to all those. Did we sing the Hokey Pokey and Head Shoulders Knees & Toes well over 30 times (including in my sleep)? Absolutely. Did we get on our bellies and slither around like a snake to act out animals? You betcha. Did we laugh? Yep.
It was incredibly hard, I won’t lie to you. But I learned to keep a positive attitude no matter what, I learned to trust God even when I had absolutely nothing to go on, I learned to laugh with my teammates no matter the situation, and I learned how to love on these precious children by playing with them, noticing them, and just being with them.
Vulnerability moment: I am not a huge fan of children’s ministry. Don’t get me wrong, I love kids, but man do they have a lot of energy! I also had no idea how to properly teach English to all these kids. But here’s the thing… God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. God is in control of everything, including when I’m running around a Thai classroom like a chicken with its head cut off. God called me to the World Race, he called me to go and share Jesus’ love. I am not perfect; I mess up a lot. But God has a pretty solid record of using broken and messy people to greater spread his glory!!!
I have the wonderful opportunity to love on these children. I get to hug them tight, play with them, draw goofy animals with them, get a million high-fives, see their bright and infectious smiles, hear their laughter lighting up the atmosphere, and heap Jesus’ love on each and every one.
Thank you, God, for this ministry.
He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”
[ Matthew 18:2-6 ]
Love,
Regan
