We’ve done a lot of “odd” things in Ratchaburi. Fed monkeys on the street. Ate insects. Picked pineapples. Ate chicken foot. Swam in a hot spring. Ate dog (sorry Micah). Learned to use squatty-potties. Visited a famous Buddhist temple atop a mountain overlooking the whole province. Our hosts, Noi and Bronwyn are a YWAM missionary couple. Noi is originally from Ratchaburi, and his wife, Bronwyn is from South Africa. We have been working with them, along with Anne, Skip, and Vanya in the ministries they are already a part of here. Their hearts are full of compassion and love for the Thai people and for Ratchaburi! Noi and Bronwyn volunteer at the local Catholic school teaching English, and are also a part of the English club at the university. Thais are very relational, and so establishing a relationship outside of class to practice English and talk about spiritual beliefs is our aim. Of the week we have spent in Ratchaburi, I feel that ministry is just getting started. Much of the time I have felt like a tourist, the other part I felt like a visitor to the schools. Uncertain of how to relate to high school and college age kids who speak little-to-no English. Uncertain of how the short two weeks spent in Ratchaburi can possibly have an eternal impact. I’ve been aching to DO something: feed a hungry person, build a house or love on orphans. I know that a person’s spiritual needs are more important to God, but does a few minutes or hours talking to seventeen-year-olds about Thai food and our hobbies really make a difference? But God is working in Ratchaburi. Short term missionaries need long term missionaries to establish relationships and continue relationships well into the future. And the opposite is also true. Our being here can help spark relationships or conversations that can be continued by our hosts and/or future missionaries. I’m struggling to find my role. How do I participate in ministry, whether it is meeting spiritual or physical needs, but at the same time step back and record it all on video and in photographs? How am I a part of the team when I am separate from the team? How do I show the love of Jesus when I am striving to understand it myself? A quote from Athol Dickson that spoke to me many months ago and rings true to my heart now:
“Could it be that the truth lies not in one of the seemingly opposed answers to the paradox, but in between them, within the paradox itself?”
And where else can I go?
I didn’t know
The rules do not apply
And then he smiles
And nothing else makes sense
While he invents
The world that’s passing by
And I’m a part of that
I’m a part of that
I’m a part of that
Aren’t I?
