I know it’s late and we’re already well into Cambodia, but
here is the monthly summary blog from last month in Laos.
Here are the numbers
Number of beds slept in: 11
Number of Internet networks connected to: 5
Number of meals that included rice/rice noodles: 44
Number of times we ate ugali or matoke: NONE!!!
Number of times we packed our big backpacks: 9
Number of currencies that my brain attempted to shuffle through
during any given transaction: 3
Number of beautiful temples that we visited: 5
Number of trips to Tesco Lotus for fun (Yes, the grocery store has
become a major amusement attraction for us…it’s month 10 of the World Race!): 5
Number of bus/train rides: 7
Number of hours
spent in a bus/train: 65:20
Advice for
Future Racers
Laos is a tricky
place to go. It’s a closed country that is deeply controlled by communism and
quite hostile to outsiders bringing the truth of Christ. Having said that, it’s
SO WORTH IT! I would encourage you, if you have an Asia ATL month, to seriously
pray about going to Laos and serving there. For the safety of our contacts I
can’t tell you who we worked with on my blog, but if you want contacts in Laos
who are incredibly loving, Spirit-led people who will empower you to go
anywhere in the country that God is calling you, email me and I’ll hook you up!
If you’re in
the country and you want somewhere beautiful to visit (besides the fact that
the entire country is gorgeous), go to Luang Prabang. The whole town is a
UNESCO World Heritage site, and there are tons of beautiful temples, monks
walking the streets in their bright orange robes, great hostels and
restaurants, and also churches there that you could contact if you knew the
right people.
If you ever go
to the northeastern part of the country, which would be the more dangerous area
for westerners, be smart with who you ask to help you or who you hire. The
government has rules for tourists about where you can and cannot go, and they
enforce those rules. You need to use a registered tourism agency to go anywhere
in that part of the country, otherwise your driver or translator could get in
trouble and you could get fined. I can’t share more than that here, but if
you’re going and you want to know specifics, email me.
Ministry
Summary
Because of the
nature of Laos being a closed country and my desire to protect the contacts we
worked with, I can’t share much about our specific ministry on this blog. If
you want to hear stories from Laos, ask me about them in person when I get
home. What I can tell you is that we did a lot of intercession, prayer walking,
and tried to make more connections for future ministry to be done in Laos. We
also spent a good bit of the month working on a video to promote the ministry
that our contacts run in Laos. I posted a blog-friendly version of it in a
previous blog, but I’ll repost it below in case you didn’t get to see it. Laos
is an incredibly beautiful nation that desperately needs the hope that the
truth brings. There is a great need for more missionaries there, both short
term and long.
Prayer
Requests
We are
currently in Cambodia on our last month of the World Race. It’s hard for me to
believe that in a few short weeks I’ll be sitting in my house in Georgia and
all of this will be a memory. Please pray for our transition as we try to stay
fully engaged here with our ministry and our teammates while also preparing our
hearts for the huge changes that are just around the corner. I’ll be in LA for
a few days on my way home to say goodbye to my teammates, visit a potential
grad school, and spend some time with some of my wonderful friends from
Wheaton. I will land in Atlanta the night before Thanksgiving, and after some
sleep and a little turkey, I’ll be excited to see everyone and catch up!
Please also pray
for the flooding that’s happening all over Southeast Asia, especially in
Thailand. Bangkok is under a lot of water, and people are losing their homes,
businesses, and lives. Pray for protection, hope, and recovery for the people
there. Please also pray for our journey home as we have to find a way to get
back to Bangkok from Siem Reap at the end of final debrief to pick up all the
things we left there and catch our flight to China.
Thanks for your
prayers!!
