Aimee and I made our way to a village called Mae Ai along with a YWAM team and a wonderful translator, in hopes of sharpening our Thai language skills. Once we arrived to the village, one of the host mothers took us to a restaurant to eat. As we were sitting at different tables, she began to stare at me from across the room and begins to point to her face because she recognized me from 2 years ago. Then with a grin on my face, I held up my left pinky, motioned tears, and did a cutting motion. Instantly, she ran over to me and began hugging me nonstop.
serving alongside the L.A. YWAM team
You see, last time I was in that village, I left a piece of me there…literally. It was a bright, hot day when we were harvesting away out in the rice fields. I was into my singing and lost focus of what I was doing. Out of nowhere, I saw blood dripping from my glove and then the lights became dim as I fell into the arms of a teammate. You guessed it…I had sliced my pinky to where it resembled two-face from Batman. Hours later tears streamed down my face as these women from the field scrubbed my pinky relentlessly all the while laughing at my tears.
right after it happened in 2011, the women grabbed some weeds and stuck them to my finger.
Needless to say, I have a reputation in this village as the Farang (foreigner) who cried after she sliced her finger. You would have too…trust me. At lunch, this woman began telling everyone there who I was. I was pretty famous. After we returned from eating, we were placed with host families. By God’s hand, I got to live again with my lovely family from the Race. Once they remembered who I was, the smiles on their faces perked up and never ceased to beam.
reunited with my Northern Thai family
November 2011
OHM
feet that have seen many years of hard labor
same fields that I worked in
hanging with my lil man
