Hey Friends!
Now that I’m out of Laos, I’m so excited to tell you a bit more about what life was like there! We didn’t have wifi this last month and my host specifically asked us to be careful about posting blogs, so hopefully I can fill you in a bit more!
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In August 2015, I applied for my World Race route that would take me to 11 countries in 11 months.
And yet, I just spent the first month of 2017 in a country that I didn’t sign up for: Laos. In fact, I didn’t even know if my team and I would be sent to Laos until a couple weeks before arriving.
I arrived in Laos with little expectations and little knowledge about the country. I soon found out that Laos is a closed, Communist country-meaning that the message of Jesus is not welcomed, and you’re definitely not allowed to be a missionary there. I became a “cultural exchange participant” for the month. And while my team and I were probably never in any real danger because of where we were working, I know that the people we worked with could face real, serious consequences.
It would be easy to feel the dark a bit closer this last month. It would have been easy to check out at the words “manual labor” because we just did that in that Cambodia.
That, however, is not the Wolverine way. When we became a team, we decided on the name “The Wolverines” because (according to Dylan N. Borst, resident wolverine expert) they are, I quote, “the hungriest animals in the animal kingdom!” and we wanted a team name that reflected the hungry nature of our team (hungry for Jesus, hungry for the Kingdom, and just plain hungry for food). And so we adopted the way of the wolverines, which is as follows: “Wolverines kill everything, so that they can eat and then go back to sleep!”
Essentially: we go hard. We eat hard. And then we sleep hard. And then we wake up and do it all over again.
If Cambodia was the introduction to the Wolverines, Laos was the test.
Laos was one of those months on the Race with 4 full weeks of ministry. As much as we wish that was the case in each country, there are things like debriefs and other logistically helpful developments that get in the way sometimes.
And it was such a beautiful, exhausting, bright 4 weeks where I learned how to leave something better than I found it.
My unexpected January was spent an hour outside of the capital, Vientiane, down a long dirt road at an “ecolodge resort” in the jungle, on the banks of a river. Imagine a typical summer camp set-up, with cabins and a dining hall, but with the dining hall on a big floating dock and the cabins nestled among the Lao jungle. I couldn’t have asked for a prettier place to call home.
I got to live here! The boys were just on the other side of the paper-thin walls…
While 2 of the Wolverines, Brandon and Jon, endlessly poured their time and energy into homeschooling our host family’s children, the rest of us spent 6 hours a day doing what Jesus apparently thinks we do best: manual labor.
For my teammate Hannah and I, that looked like hauling bricks out to that long dirt road and filling in the potholes. And yes, there were enough bricks and enough potholes to keep us busy doing that for 4 weeks, minus a few odd days spent mixing concrete and a couple days doing manual labor at a drug rehab center.
At first, I often wondered if my work was “enough”–did God really bring me to Laos to fill potholes? I wasn’t out evangelizing on the street or waving my Jesus flag around. I didn’t feel like a super cool underground missionary in a closed country; I was dirty and ripped my favorite pants, right up the butt.
I worked alongside of non-believers on the lodge’s staff, yet I couldn’t even speak their language and they couldn’t speak mine. Would they see Jesus when I didn’t know how to wisely and effectively share him?
I often ate rice for 3 meals a day. ONE TIME, I LITERALLY USED STICKY RICE TO SCOOP RICE PUDDING INTO MY MOUTH.
As always, God provided everything I needed and more during this long month.
That long dirt road? That’s 1/5 of a mile leading to the ecolodge that is BLESSED. Those potholes are not only filled with bricks, but with so many fun and encouraging conversations with Hannah, Liz, and a member of the other team, Cat. I have a lot of creatively parodied songs about bricks now, too. As odd and sentimental as it sounds, that road holds a special place in my heart. And on the day that I felt like I would VOMIT if I so much as LOOKED at another brick, God provided a rainy morning and instant coffee to hide away with for a couple hours of warm conversation with Hannah.
The end of the road, leaving the lodge!
That language barrier? It existed, but smiles and laughs and a lot of charades more than made up for it. I had a lot of fun expanding my Lao vocabulary over the month (more about that in a later post!). Our work ethic and God-provided energy brought lift and laughter to the staff we worked with, and from what our host has told us, I think we left them better, too.
That rice on rice life? Eh, I actually loved it. There was this magical sweet chili sauce that is probably loaded with MSG and I’m probably addicted to it, so it was fine. I am still not sick of rice, and it is a good life, my friends.
Being outdoors was my favorite part about my month of bricks. So many interesting, gross, and cute bugs crossed my path that they deserve their own blog post. I have a love for (mostly) all of the neat things He’s created, and Laos was my very own Safari Zone. We surprised more than a few scorpions and snakes, and I truly believe God protected us from them even as He kept my childhood fascination with critters alive and well. To top it off, almost every morning I was able to run outside the resort property and watch a beautiful sunrise. When we weren’t working, we sat by the river and swam in the current when we got too hot.
At the end of the month, when I reflected on the hours spent pushing a wheelbarrow and sweating, I was filled with joy. I wouldn’t trade this month for anything. God spent me, making the lodge/resort a better place for future travellers, and I can’t wait to see what He does with all the dreams our hosts have for that place. God taught me what a beautiful thing it is to labor for someone else’s dreams.
I believe we left our little corner of Laos better than we found it. Potholes are filled, weeds and undergrowth are cleared, and we built uplifting relationships with the staff and family.
And Laos, the unexpected country, left me better, too. I leave Laos with a great tan, a little bit more muscle, and memories of a long road and a lot of laughter. I have loved a hard work and a hard month well-and it feels good.
PS. You can now refer to us as the “Swollverines” 😉
