Sawadee Kah!!!!
(That’s Thai for hellooooo!)
I made it safely to Thailand, friends and family!! And I am now part of an amazing new team of 6 other women!! I have been asked to step out of my past leadership role to make way for other awesome leaders to step into that role, and I am SO excited to cheer on my new team leader Keeley with my other teammates Joanna, Leah S., Maggie, Leah B., and Anna Beth!! (See their sweet faces on the left side of the page?! :D)
I don’t have access to wifi very often here, so just keep watch for blogs as they come. They will come eventually to keep you updated 🙂
Here’s a hint of an idea of what ministry looks like thus far:
We are in the Rayong province of Thailand in a town called Kleang (pronounced “clang”), and we are working with a church called New Jerusalem. We have done so many different things so far like outreach at a juvenile detention center for young men where 6 OF THEM ACCEPTED JESUS!!! PRAISE THE LORD!! It was so beautiful! And we have done a lot of visiting new believers from this church and praying over them and their families, that God would bless their businesses, like a rubber tree business and a shrimp farm, and that He would continue to grow them in Him. It has been amazing spending time getting to know these brothers and sisters in Christ and praying for each other!
We have been so well taken care of by our ministry host TJ and his assistant, a woman named Sampean, and we even have a PRECIOUS little brother for the month that stays with us in the house near the church. His name is Manat, and he sweeps up dead bugs, lights the gas fire for cooking, and makes sure we always have enough fans to stay cool. We are SO BLESSED this month even just one week into ministry here in Thailand! Pray that the Lord continues to use us to be a blessing to the believers here and encourage them to stay strongly rooted in Christ in the midst of a culture and nation so deeply rooted in Buddhism. They are such lights and are bold witnesses to the love and power of Christ! Pray that the Lord would be stirring the hearts of the Thai people to see the light, grace, and truth of Jesus and come to know Him.
A few fun “facts” about Thailand so far:
-Pad thai is definitely a more touristy dish. It took us 3 days to find some, and it was homemade by Ms. Sampean from the church because we never really found it!! But the wait was worth it! Best pad thai ever!!
(One of my squad leaders, Lo, and Joanna [with the awesome face].. haha.. eating homemade pad thai, made by Sampean [holding the spoon in the pot] and also being enjoyed by our little bro for the month, Manat, to the right of Sampean)
-To be Thai is to be a Nascar driver! These people drive seriously fast… But we’re always safe, and we always arrive to destinations in a very timely manner. haha.
-Durian is everywhere. They grow and export a lot of durian, and we’ve seen trucks of it all the time being shipped out of the country or sold to vendors here. If you don’t know what durian is, it’s a fruit that I had NEVER heard of before, but it is EVERYWHERE in the past 3 countries I’ve been in. It looks a little like a spiky watermelon, and it tastes like a mushy onion. NOT my favorite fruit so far. But the people here love it!
Thailand is SO beautiful, and we’re having a wonderful time thus far in ministry and in getting to know one another as a new team. Truly, as I have ridden in the back of the church truck almost every day, seeing the near mountains and the greenery everywhere, I am overwhelmed with amazement that I am part of this amazing journey. I feel like I say this all the time in my blogs, and I hope it never loses its potency to you, my readers and supporters, but I am unbelievably thankful to you for your prayers and giving and your following of my journey!! You, in your obedience to give, are honoring the Lord Himself and have made this trip of a lifetime possible! I am most thankful to the Lord for weaving my story to include all of you in it and make you a part of all He is doing and will do!
(this luscious tropical greenery is in our backyard!! Fronds on fronds on fronds)
All my love from Thailand!!
-Abby
