And a little over 43 hours and extremely jet-lagged later, we have landed in Bangkok, Thailand! I am currently sitting on a bottom bunk bed at a YWAM base that my team will be staying at for the next couple of nights until we separate into our teams to go to our ministry sites. My team will be heading up to Selaphum, Thailand to do ministry. Selaphum is about an 8 and half hours outside of Bangkok, making our trip 51 hours total.
This past week we got our ministry/ ministry site and some of the details about what we will be doing in Thailand. I don’t exactly know for sure what will be happening, but what I do know is: we will be staying at a 4-roomed church and doing things like: kids ministry, teaching English in the mornings, working in rice fields, playing lots of sports, and much more. My team will be busy for sure and I am so overjoyed to get started.
The fact that we are actually here is so overwhelming. Just two days ago I was in America and now I am halfway across the world. My life doesn’t feel real. My thoughts are trying to grasp that I am in Thailand right now and staring down at the street watching the different cars go by doesn’t help me connect to the point that I am here. My emotions are mainly calm. I feel like I should be bouncing off the walls with excitement, but I am also running on no sleep, so that could be it. My squad mates and I keep saying that none of this feels real yet. I’m starting to wonder when being here will feel real.
***Rewind to Monday, September 7th***
Today I had to say bye to my family for 9 months. Many tears were shed throughout my squad as we gave our lasts hugs to everyone. Once we said bye it was as if there was no turning back. Literally…the parents on my team actually turned their backs to us after we said bye so they didn’t have to see us walk away.
As we rapped up the rest of launch with sessions, our teams got ready to leave for the next morning. Bright and early on Wednesday we flew out of Atlanta, Georgia to Dallas, Texas (2 and half hour flight). From Dallas we flew to Doha, Qatar (15 hour flight). Then from Qatar we flew to Bangkok, Thailand (6 hours) making the trip, including layovers, a total of 43 hours if I am doing the math right.
I started my second flight off by watching “Inside Out” which I have never seen. SO good. I recommend everyone see it. Shout out to my Aunt Ruthie for telling me to go watch it. Afterwards I basically slept on and off throughout the rest of the flight. At one point I fell asleep on one of my squad mates, Cecily. She told me I didn’t move a muscle for 2 hours making her check my pulse multiple times because she wasn’t sure if I was alive. No worries, I am alive.
I can honestly say that I am happy to be back on the ground. Flying can be thrilling in the beginning, but after a while you start to over think about being in a tube in the sky and it freaks you out. At least for me it did, and having a 15-hour flight didn’t help.
Well, that is all I have for now. Thank you so much for all the prayers sent our way as we traveled. I hope to have more updates coming soon! Time for me to take a nap! I did lose 11 hours…Sending lots of love back to the States!
