Seeing as I was recently minted one of two new Logistics Coordinators for C-Squad a week ago and we just completed our first Travel Day under that new heading, I figured I should tell you how it went.
But first, let us take a moment for honesty. In the several days leading up to Travel Day from Malaysia to Thailand, I freaked out several times and in front of several different people. It was a combination of things; people asking me questions I didn’t feel I had good answers to and struggling with comparison between myself and the previous coordinators. But mostly I knew that I didn’t and couldn’t control everything on this trip. I didn’t know what to expect because I’d never done it being in charge like this and I did not like that one bit. Especially with so many days to imagine the worst possible outcomes in as many hypothetical situations as I could concoct.
Several people prayed for me and it was great, I just had to turn the problems over to God time and again. It wasn’t until the night before, in fact only a matter of hours before we had to be up again, that I reached out to one last person.
I don’t know if it was the last prayer that threw me over the top of the spiritual wall I’d been climbing or the wise words spoken to me after the prayer, but whatever it was, God totally came through.
1:00 a. m. Wednesday morning: I finally wind down enough to sleep.
3:30 a. m. Also Wednesday morning: alarm goes off and we are up and at ‘em, bringing our bags downstairs to where our host will meet us and drive the big bags plus one person to the bus terminal.
4:00 a. m. Host arrives, everything is stuffed in his tiny car and off we go. Side note: no one in Penang is awake except that one random night club that was still going strong.
4:30 a. m. Make it to bus pick up station right outside terminal. Spades (the second team I’m in charge of today) has made it as well. Yay!
5:00 a. m. Spades gets picked up by their bus driver and are off to the races in the capable hands of Hannah and Anna. And a bus driver who barely speaks any English . . .
5:30 a. m. Our bus arrives and we stuff all of our bags into his poor mini van (15 seater). We share the space with three other middle-aged Asian men.
8:00 a. m. We make it to the breakfast stop right before the boarder. Our driver claims we need to pay 8 Ringgit per person to exit Malaysia (~ $2 USD).
None of us have any more Ringgit.
There is no ATM.
God gave us lots of grace and I didn’t freak out.
Then God gave us more grace and the man at the currency exchange place was not only fluent in English, but was very kind and helpful.
Then God showed me why I’ve had that $20 in my wallet all these months. He had a plan! The perfect amount to get us over the boarder with a little extra Bhat (Thai currency) to spare.
Then the boarder crossing went fine. Definitely among the fastest and smoothest we’ve ever done.
9:50 a. m. (Which turns out to be an hour behind, so 9:00 again), we are dropped off in the Hat Yai bus terminal and meet up with Spades who made it there just fine as well. Yay!
Now we get new SIM cards for baby phones, visit the ATM, get snacks and other food.
And wait.
And sweat.
A lot.
12:15 p. m. Five Multiplied, our final team along with my new partner in crime, JT arrive. Yay, the whole squad is here.
12:30 p. m. We load up on a bus to Phuket that will drop us off in Khok Kloi for our first week of ministry.
1:00 p. m. We say goodbye to 5X and start on our final leg of the trip.
4:30 p. m. Ash finally makes contact with our host and discovers they weren’t expecting us until tomorrow. Oops. Not sure how that happened, but now they’re expecting us.
7:00 p. m. We are supposed to arrive in Khok Kloi. Guess what we didn’t do at 7:00 p.m?
8:15 p. m. We actually arrive at the Khok Kloi bus terminal which is not a terminal. More like a station . . . maybe.
8:30 p. m. Picked up by hosts.
8:50 p. m. Go to grocery store because we are cooking for ourselves at least for this week. And hurry, it closes in ten minutes.
9:10 p. m. We finish getting the groceries and have a fabulous dinner of noodles on the side of the road. It also included pork and dumplings and some green stuff. Guess which part of dinner I didn’t eat? In my defense though, I did try it. In case any of you were wondering, it tasted like most other green stuff.
10:00 p. m. We arrive at ministry/housing site and are given short tour to be continued in the morning.
11:00 p. m. Me writing this blog.
11:40ish p. m. Me telling you that I’m going to sleep and I’ll talk to you again soon.
Much love,
TL
