The title of this blog is inspired by a famous South African band named ‘Shortstraw’ from the song, Thailand. A friend of mine (paige) discovered this song a few weeks before leaving Africa and it soon became our anthem !!
here’s a little Thailand Update:
I have been in Thailand for a little over 3 weeks now and I LOVE IT. We live in the heart of Chiang Mai, Thailand with all 5 of the girls teams on my squad. We are staying in a hostel for the 2 months that we are here.
Our ministry is very special. My team, Mosaic, and team Testify will be serving at Nikki’s Place Agape Home. Nikki’s place is an orphanage for kids with HIV & AIDS. There are over 150 kids at the orphanage from the age range of 3 months to 19 years old. On our first day we met our super awesome ministry host, Avis. She is 73 years old but has more energy and can move faster then me. She is truly a rockstar and loves the kids with her whole heart. She started Agape home when she was 18 and has fearlessly taught and lead the kids since then. She inspires me daily to pursue my dreams and to constantly be open to new ideas.
Everyday at Agape looks like:
Teaching a fun class in the morning until lunch time! The kids age from 5-12 so we do a lot of crafts and different games.
After lunch I head over to the Life Center to join some of my team in cutting fabric and wrapping jump ropes. A cool thing about Agape is during the summer, all the kids work on shoe box’s for Samaritans Purse. The box’s include the jump ropes, cool purses made from the fabric I have been cutting and so much more!
After that, we head over to the babies or preschoolers and spend some time helping the nanny’s for the rest of the day!
Since being in Thailand and spending time at Agape, I have truly learned that everyday is gift. There is so much to be thankful and grateful for in our everyday life. I’ve noticed that I can get so comfortable in the places the Lord takes me, that I easily forget to stop and see. I forget to look around and find him in the smile of a stranger, the colors of a flower, the glow of the sunrise, and everything else.
In the book I have been reading (Insurgence: Reclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom) it says,
“The reason there is so much beauty in creation is because it flows from our beautiful Creator. The beauty we find in the sky, sea and in the earth is Gods self portrait, showing us what the living God is like.They all give us a glimpse of the beautiful face of God”. This has brought an abundance of joy to my everyday life in the past few weeks!
Living in the city is new for me!! Everything is constantly on the move. There are always cars driving by & people headed in every direction. On the race, I have truly learned how to find quiet in the midst of noise. While the city is loud, it is super awesome to be around everything. I have never lived in walking distance of museums, markets and hundreds of restaurants!! The air quality is a struggle. The smog in Chiang Mai is the worst it has every been. To give you some perspective, the air pollution number in Los Angeles today was 33 while in Chiang Mai it was 238. This just means we have to wear masks everywhere we go & not do a lot of physical activity outside. Not having clean air has opened my heart up even more to eyes of gratitude. It is definitely something i’m looking forward to when I get home <3!
Overall I can’t wait to see what Thailand has in store for me ! Thank you so much for all the prayers and for helping me get here. Stay tuned for more constant blogs <3
If anyone has any prayer requests or just wants to talk let me know in the comments or email me, I love chatting!!!!!!!
Make today count
-Helen
