This April, we all headed to Chiang Mai for Parent Vision Trip (PVT) for a great week to see and serve with some of our parents. We had an amazing time and were gearing up to head into our 9th month with new teams. During our time in Chiang Mai most of us had to wear masks due to the poor air quality in Chiang Mai, which was ranked the worst quality in the world at the time. At the beginning of the month my new team, Black and Gold, were placed in northern Thailand (Chiang Rai) to work on a organic farm to teach sustainable living to women who were coming out trafficking situations. About two days before we left we were notified due to the air quality we would be rerouted somewhere south and for the first time, do an Ask The Lord (ATL) month instead. With short notice many teams scrambled to get transportation out of of Chiang Mai and head south. As a team we decided on Bangkok, found a living situation “within budget” and started emailing potential ministries and churches.
ATL is an opportunity to step into listening to what the Lord has for us each day. Typically each month the Race sets us up with lodging & a ministry or church in each country and we come alongside of them to serve in any way that they need. During ATL every team is to “Ask the Lord” where He wants them to go, where to stay, who to serve and etc. There have been countless stories of miracles of how the Lord has provided through people. I’ve seen stories of how the Lord has provided food, housing and a multitude of ways the Lord has been shared causing life changing moments leading people to accept the Lord.
We headed to the train station to try and see if we could get reasonably priced train tickets to get to Bangkok. I went with our squad leader with my passport to purchase tickets the night before since passports usually are required for major purchases only to find out that we needed the entire teams’ passports to purchase them. The next morning we arrived early with all passports in tow to find out that only 3rd class seats were available. The tickets were within our budget and we figured that it would be an adventure. We arrived back at 3:15pm for our 3:30pm train to find out the seats were small benches with little cushion and very little storage space. FAIL #1
This is at the station but as we left more passengers came on board. Also, check out some our packs stacked in the middle of the aisle.
It was a long 14+ hours that included uncomfortable positions, a lot of sweat, hearing vendors yell their item prices almost every stop and eventually some of us laying down on the dirty floor.
When we arrived in Bangkok we got an email from our mentor stating that we should have approved our travel plans with her first and received information about our new budget for the month that was less than what we had originally thought. FAIL #2
We quickly realized that the lodging we had booked was way out of our budget and that we would have to cancel our 14 night stay. We tiredly arrived to our hostel around 6 am and luckily got an early check in. We were able to cancel the stay the rest of the 13 nights along with a hefty cancellation cost of course. FAIL #3 We all went to our room and crashed instantly to recharge. Later that night we looked up lodging accommodations within our budget. We came across four different one and didn’t know which to choose so we all broke out in prayer and over half of us got confirmation for a specific one. This accommodation was the only one that didn’t have an actual bed but 5 small mats on the floor available to sleep on. We all revealed we selfishly didn’t want this option but we all clearly heard mats #abandonment. We went ahead in obedience, booked it and waited for the host to reply.
The next morning the host still hadn’t replied but 3 out of the 5 of us had planned to go to church to meet people, make connections and hopefully find out more about possible ministry opportunities in the area. While the other two stayed with the bags after we check-out at the hostel, we attended Living Streams Church in Bangkok and it was an incredible service. Afterward a woman named Faith walk up to us and instantly became a new friend. Another reason church was incredible was because lunch was provided for.
WHO DOESN’T LIKE FREE FOOD?!?!
While grabbing lunch an American man named Matt introduced himself and shared with us his experience living in Thailand with his family the past couple of years. Throughout all of this we continually checked to see if our host had approved our lodging for that night and sadly there was still no response. FYI, this was around 1:30 pm and we were due to check in at 3 pm. Our other two teammates called to ask if there was any updates with the host and that the hostel began to make them feel as if they we extending their welcome since we had checked out hours ago and they were still sitting in their lobby with piles of bags. We instantly scrambled to try and figure something out. Some of us began to become frustrated because the Lord clearly told us that He wanted us to stay at the place with mats and we obediently booked the place even though that was our last choice. We didn’t know if He was testing our faith or if we had heard incorrectly. We asked the church if we could stay there, thought about looking up another place and even thought to ask Faith, whom we had only met about an hour ago. We decided to head back to the church to see if Faith was there to ask if she knew anything about a cheap place to stay but we ran into Matt first. As we were explaining our currently dilemma to Matt he began texting on his phone. After we finished explaining the story he told us that he just asked his wife if we could stay with them for the night.
We were unsure if we should take the offer questioning if we didn’t have enough faith but we knew we were running out of time before it started to get dark. We let our other teammates know about Matt’s offer and they began to pack our bags and head to his house. As we exchanged contact information and got his address we ran into Faith again. We got on the topic of evangelism and she began to explain a new method she learned when doing outreach with the church. She told us crazy stories of all that happened when using this method. She asked if we wanted to see an example and proceeded to walk over to the security guard at the front desk. She told her about Jesus and the woman ended up accepting Christ that day!!! The security guard told us that she works there everyday but usually only works the night shift except for that specific day because she had to cover a shift. It’s amazing how the Lord orchestrated that!! After we let her get back to work Faith was talking to us and began to prophesy over us. She walked Marah through the method and Marah began shaking and saw a vision of Jesus in a red robe. The crazy thing is that Marah wrote a song about Jesus in a red robe back in Costa Rica in month 2!!! Then she began to ask Lakota and I questions about things that only people who actually know us would know. It was an amazing experience and we even got to share the Gospel with another woman as Faith was showing us how to get to Matt’s home.
Lakota, Faith, Marah and myself
Upon arriving to Matt’s home that evening we met his amazing wife and two beautiful children. As Matt guided us to a place to get dinner Lakota realized that when the Lord told us the word mats the night before yet we ended up staying at Matt’s home that night! We all didn’t know what to think about that coincidence but we all knew that the Lord provided for us that night. We returned home to get to know Matt and his family better when we heard that his baby girl had thrown up about seven times since we had left for dinner and we were able to pray over her healing. After we prayed that night, she only threw up once in the middle of the night and was way more bubbly the next morning.
That night when we came together to pray and look for lodging again a new place popped up that had never came up in any of our searches previously. The place looked amazing and was surprisingly within our budget. We all prayed that everything would work out and that this host would be responsive. Within minutes the host approved and responded saying that we could drop off our bags in the morning and check in later in the day. We were amazed at how easy this lodging booking process was compared to our previous experience. Upon arriving in the morning the host told us that we were able to check in immediately as the previous guests had already left early that day.
Our new lodging situation is amazing! It’s a cute two story home with a lawn, beds with sheets & comforters provided, a bathroom w/ warm showers, WiFi, full kitchen and a washing machine. I’m pretty sure this sounds pretty standard in America but there have been multiple months where we don’t have these things in our living situations. As we got settled in I realized that this blessing shows the other side of obedience. We could have easily chosen a place (which none listed were as great as what we have) instead of asking the Lord what He wants for us. It is crazy how we were truly able to work our “faith” that day as we trusted that the Lord wanted us to sleep at “Matt’s”. We chose to continue to trust what He told us even when things didn’t make sense.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths”
Proverbs 3:5-6
UPDATES
I have only 75 days left on the Race until I return home!!! It is crazy to think about how quickly these months have gone by. With that being said even though I am in my 9th month on the Race, I’m still not fully funded. I’m currently $2,423 short of reaching my final deadline and struggling to find ways to fundraise. I have done restaurant nights, offered souvenirs for donors, raffled off a timeshare and tried to do a bug challenge. If it is on your heart to give you can do so by clicking the orange “Donate!” button at the top of the page to make a tax-deductible donation to my Race. Thank you so much for all of the donations, prayers and encouragement to everyone thus far.
Love,
Crystal
