Woof. It has been a hot minute since I’ve sat down and updated you all, and for that I am sorry.
Month eight (March) was in the beautiful country of Thailand! This month was crazy cool in several ways. God showed up and showed off! This month was also crazy hard. I’m going to go out on a limb and say Thailand was the toughest month I’ve had thus far.
Here is both the awesome and the hard.
Thailand was an all squad month, meaning all my people were living in one place! There is something super sweet about being together as a squad. As you know, there are only 19 of us and we have become more like family than I even imagined possible. With the sweetness of being all together, there was also some struggles. As a squad leader, I am typically doing life with one team and really digging in and pouring into that team. In a all-squad month, Nichol and I really wanted to reach every member and love on the whole squad. Our intentions were good, the reality was that we only had two weeks and several other responsibilities on our plate, like planning for the upcoming team changes. Before I knew it, the two weeks were coming to an end and I only had maybe half of the conversations I wanted to have. So I have to admit I struggled with feelings of failure and disappointment. My squad means the world to me, and I am blessed enough to have them as my first priority! In that, the Father taught me a few things about grace and expectations.
Speaking of grace and expectations, there was another super exciting part of month 8, which is the reason we only had two weeks together as a squad. MY MOMMA CAME TO THAILAND! So the World Race does this cool thing called Parent Vision Trip (PVT). With the help of some stellar supporters, my momma got to join me in Thailand for a week. Putting into words how it felt to see my mom after 8 months of long long distance might be difficult…let me just say I was in tears most the day. As much joy as I felt in seeing her, I was also a bit fearful. You see this thing happens when you’re away for so long and experiencing so many different cultures, you kind of forget what your own culture is like. You forget what kind of conversations to have, or how weird this life we live actually is in comparison. So having some of our parents doing life with us actually acted as a degree of reverse culture shock. Not to say it was bad, just not what I expected. I actually had to adjust to what it was like to have my mom is this part of my life. But oh was it sweet.
I got show my mom how I worship the Lord. I got to show my mom how I pray. I got to show my mom how I mourn for the brokenness in the world. I got to introduce my mom to some of the most important people in my life. It was incredible, but that’s not even the coolest part. My mom got to experience the Lord in a entirely new way! She got to step out of how she viewed missions and practice a missional life! My mom prayed out loud for a woman in need of some love, and it was amazing. Seeing the Lord use my mom in her own gifts was by far the highlight of the week.
Before I even had time to process that my mom was in Asia, it was time to say goodbye and start our month 8 debrief. My head is still spinning a bit from all the turnarounds we had this month. But we have to keep moving forward! At debrief, we gave the squad their new teams and talked how we can finish this thing in the best way possible. Then if all of that wasn’t enough, we quickly hopped on a plane to a month change, country change, continent change, and climate change. (And you did catch that we had new teams, right?)
This is such a brief and limited summary of the craziness that occurred in Thailand, and I really am sorry I did not send out more updates. Sometimes I get so wrapped up in the here and now that I forget that this whole thing is so much bigger than just me. You all have come alongside me in this and for that I am so so grateful!
Today, I am in Ukraine and loving every minute of month 9. More to come on this place very soon.
With love,
Lina
