Beautiful, spicy and friendly are three words that come to mind when I think of my time in Thailand. It’s currently monsoon season, so it’s not only raining all the time, it’s pouring! That rain has turned everything luscious and tropical. That plus all the beautiful beaches makes this country a gorgeous place to seek adventure and explore. The food is great, but I’m limited on what I can eat because Thai people LOVE spicy food. I’m talking your mouth will be on fire for days spicy. The people here are very kind and welcoming. Everywhere we go people are greeting us with smiles and trying to feed us.
Thais greet one another with a “Wai” (pronounced “why”); place the palm of your hands together, with your fingers extended chest level close to your body and bow slightly. Thai culture is very conservative, so dress code is modest (outside of tourist towns) and tattoos and piercings are frowned upon and often need to be covered. 95% of the population is Buddhist, the official language is Thai and the Thai Baht is the local currency (1USD = 33 Baht).
The king is highly respected in Thailand. Before each movie begins at the theater the Thai Royal Anthem will play and everyone must stand up out of respect to the king. Always remove your shoes before entering a building and make sure not to point your feet at anyone especially when you are sitting, that is highly offensive. Your feet are considered the lowest, dirtiest part of your body and your head is the highest, cleanest part.
This month my team worked with Share the Love Foundation and Share the Love of Christ Church in Phang Nga, Thailand. Their mission is to grow in the Word and to reach out to serve. We spent the month serving alongside P-Yui, P-Yoi, P-Jamie, Peter, P-Bume, Olivia and Joanna who live on the compound.
Our big ministry event for the month was planning and completing a 3-day English camp for a local school. We taught 80 kindergartners in the morning and 90 1st & 2nd graders in the afternoon. We taught basic English conversation, colors, numbers, body parts and shapes through games, crafts and songs. Each day started with singing and dancing to different songs relating to Jesus such as “This Little Light of Mine” and the children’s personal favorite “I Want to be Like Jesus.” English camp gave us an opportunity to talk about Jesus to many students who don’t know or follow Jesus.
My team also helped out with different responsibilities and ministries on campus. We assisted with landscaping (rain or shine), which included trimming bushes, weeding, planting different plants and raking. We taught Sunday school, helped with church set-up and clean-up, shared testimonies in church and participated with the youth group meetings (playing volleyball and going on a city scavenger hunt). We also had opportunities to do community outreach and evangelism. We attended a few Thai aerobic dance classes at the local community center, visited villages and prayed with locals, did landscaping at a sister church and spent time cleaning up trash at the local beach.
This month our team lived on the Share the Love Foundation property. There were two dorms with beds and air-conditioning! We had access to an outdoor kitchen to cook our meals and a washing machine. Our hosts loved playing volleyball, so there was a net set-up on property and we played a lot of pick-up games. There were a lot of little nooks on the property to get some quality alone time like the dance studio, a classroom, the coffee shop, and the balcony.
We were on our own for cooking this month, so I typically made my own breakfast and dinner and bought lunch from a local restaurant or market. The markets and restaurants had lots of different foods such as green curry, stir fry, grilled meats on skewers, veggies and rice, juices, stir fry, pad Thai, etc. It was nice to cook for myself and have the option to eat what I wanted. We also enjoyed baked treats once in a while from the coffee shop on the property (chocolate chip banana bread was usually my go to).
There is so much to see and do in Thailand and my team took full advantage of our 3 off days this month. Our first adventure day was visiting James Bond Island or Khao Phing Kan, a small island where two James Bond movies, The Man with the Golden Gun and Tomorrow Never Dies, were filmed. It was quite the adventure getting there in the pouring rain on a sketchy little wooden boat, but we had fun seeing the beautiful islands and swimming off the boat.
My team spent our long weekend in Phuket, Thailand. We took an island boat tour and visited smaller, but gorgeous islands, Khai Nok and Phi Phi. We enjoyed the day swimming, snorkeling and soaking up the sun (or burning). We also enjoyed eating foods that we haven’t had much of on the Race and that made us feel like we were back home (pizza, Mexican, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc.). We walked around the town, visited markets and hung out at the beach. We did visit Bangala Street, the main party strip, where a lot of sex-trafficking occurs in Phuket. It was hard walking down the street seeing all the women stuck in the sex-trafficking industry and feeling helpless.
My team’s last adventure day was very action packed. We feed monkeys at the monkey cave, drove ATVs in lots of mud, rode an elephant, zip lined and visited a local waterfall! My favorite part of the day was riding on the head of an elephant even though it felt like you were going to fall off the whole time.
It was a great month full of ministry, community and adventure!
Check out my teammates highlight videos of English camp and our adventure day!
