One month down. Eight to go.
As Month One Debrief approaches, I thought I’d take some time to recap my weeks the past month.
Sunday: We are at the Monastery teaching the kids English. Not gonna lie, this day is tough-with-a-capital-T. The kids go to school during the week and have English classes on the weekend, so they are already tired of it by the time we get there. Last week, we literally locked the kids in the classroom because they were trying to climb out of the windows. With that being said, I love these kids. They are actually insane, but their energy gives me life. It teaches me patience and shows me just how crazy indescribable the Lord’s love for them is.
Monday: Sabbath. Praise THE Lord for Sabbaths. We rest. We drink coffee. We seek Him. Best Day Ever.
Tuesday: Serve Team duties. Merrill, Lilly, and Ashlynn go babysit for some of the long term missionaries while me, Sky, Brittany, Hannah, and Christie/Baljeet work on ATL which has involved researching and formatting a scavenger sheet for future squads and a brochure for the hostel’s residents.
Wednesday: Shopping day. We spend the first half of the day at Macro and the market getting all the fruit and food for breakfasts. I LOVE Macro aka Sams/Cosco (especially the samples) and the market is super cool to dive into the culture and continuing to get to know Maim. Only thing I didn’t like about it was the LIVING fish I saw flopping around in the crate. Maim and the rest of the team thought it was hilarious. I did not.
Thursday: Serve Team duties. Merrill, Lilly, and Ashlynn go back to babysit and the rest of us work on things around the hostel. These have included, but not limited to, painting, sweeping, scrubbing, and shopping for supplies. Serve team is not always the easiest thing in the world, but getting to leave an impact, like freshly painted doors, for the hostel is super cool and satisfying.
Friday: Teaching day. We spend about 4 hours on Fridays learning from Haley (squad mentor), Christie and/or Kat (squad leaders), or the long term staff. We’ve discussed anything from honor to identity to seeking higher perspective and I have loved all of it. I continue to be fascinated by just how much wisdom my leadership team has and to get to learn from them every day is such a blessing. Getting a whole teaching from them is just a cherry on top. Overall, Fridays are a great day to relax and get poured in by some amazing insight.
Saturday: Adventure day! This day we spend exploring Thailand. So far, I have gone to Grand Canyon Chiang Mai (giant inflatable obstacle course, zip-lining, sightseeing, cliff jumping, etc), Sticky Falls (3 level climbable waterfall), and Thai Culture Day (food, dancing, culture, lantern festival, etc.).
Every day:
7a-8a: Squad devos
8a-9:30a: Breakfast/get ready
9:30a-3/4p (tues-fri,sun): Ministry (or teaching on Fridays)
12p-1p: Lunch break
6p-7p: Team dinner
7p-8:30p: Team time
8:30p- : Freetime/bed
During my freetime, I like to:
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play Dutchblitz
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spend time in the word (morning free time before devos)
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hang out with squadmates
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coffee dates
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occasionally take naps
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journal
Life on the field is gr8 and holy cow God is on the move in Thailand.
