Sawaddee-Ka! (Hello!) I’m back in Thailand! Oh my gosh I’m so excited! I love it here so much! Words can barely contain how I feel about this country. This is my second time in Thailand. I came here around two years ago with YWAM back in December ’07 and January ’08. It was an amazing time of growth and experiencing missions for the first time. It was also the time where God really captured my heart for the nations. After all the countries I have been to on the race, this is the first one I have ever returned to. I also didn’t realize how much of a heart I have for it until I started visiting other countries.
We flew from Nairobi, Kenya to the middle eastern country of Qatar before we arrived in Bangkok, Thailand. I couldn’t sleep the whole time because I was so excited. I counted later and realized that I hadn’t slept for about 37 hours. The plane landed somewhere around 5 or 5:30am-ish (Nairobi time) and as I was standing in the aisle waiting for everyone to shuffle out I seemed to have a bit of a problem with my face…
Have you ever had this weird thing happen where you’re so happy that you can’t stop smiling and because you’re smiling so much you’re face starts to hurt and there’s no way you could stop beaming even if you tried? I call it the permagrin. Its like a permanent smile that you feel you’ll never be able to get rid of. But why would you want to anyways because the thing thats giving you this permagrin just can’t be denied and there’s no other way you can show or contain your joy in any other way. You try to express it more, but your face just can’t stretch any further. Still, the muscles try in a vain attempt that ends up getting them to feel frozen. This is usually the point where you might feel a little bit of pain. But it is easily overshadowed by your object or moment of joy and even welcome. Basically, a permagrin is when you smile so much that it hurts. That was me at 5-ish am – beaming. While everyone around me looked like a zombie and was completely exhausted. I definitely got a few quizzical looks but all I could do was stun them with my beaming smile superpower.
They call Thailand the land of smiles. Sounds like the perfect place for me doesn’t it?
Once we cleared customs and we started driving, I realized I recognized some things in the area. It felt like I was coming home. The beaming continued.
We arrived in the city of Hua Hin for debrief with our coaches and old squad leaders. It was so good to see them all again. Pappy, Mama C, the Alonzo’s and Caitlin. Oh I love them so! As a squad we got to come together to worship and go to a few sessions on re-entry. I can’t believe this race is over in three months. I’ve learned that I can still be completely present here in Asia and still be thinking or planning for the future at the same time without it consuming me. No, I have no idea what I’m doing when I get back. Not yet anyways. But I trust that God will lead me and show me what to do. He’s provided in too many ways this year for me to doubt him, his love and provision for me.
We had a bit of tough debrief to be honest. But we worked through alot of stuff and it was really quite amazing. But God is teaching each one of us how to love each other just as we are and giving each other so much grace. Community life is hard! But its so good and its so worth it. I’ve learned that its ok for me to be me and that my team loves and accepts me for who I am. Its really quite freeing. I can’t tell you how loved I feel today. Sure, debrief was rough. But its brought openness, healing and freedom. It was worth the tears. I am so excited about what God is going to do in my team over the rest of the race. I love each person so very much and God is going to use us to bring Kingdom in Asia!
Sadly, we’ll be apart for this month in Thailand. But its not really completely sad because I get to work with some beautiful and amazing people. This month all the guys on our squad are doing are doing man ministry. They have endearingly named it “manistry“. As far as I’m concerned its going to be a bunch of men running around in the jungle bringing Kingdom. I think its going to be so amazing for them. Manistry – I can’t wait to hear the stories.
So that leaves us girls split into a few teams. I’ll be working in Northern Thailand with Martha Lemke, Lauren Maldonado, Jennifer Mitchell and Leize Marie Baschon. I don’t have alot of details on our ministry, but I think we’ll be in the city of Nan working with a church. We might even go into the jungle and work with hill tribes. Whatever it is, its going to be amazing. Also, the Songkran water festival is happening this month. Google or Wikipedia it. Please. You won’t be disappointed and you’ll probably wish you were here because of its sheer awesomeness.
Songkran Festival
