Since I am so behind posting blogs, I figured I give an overview of months 5, 6 & 7 all in one as they were all located in SE Asia. Here we go…
Month 5 – CAMBODIA (December)
This month team Ethereal Flames aka “the Baguettes” came to an end and team R.C. was formed after our squad debrief in Phenom Penh brought team changes. Our ministry placement was serving at an AIM run guesthouse in Siem Reap called Overflow. This month much of ministry was working alongside another team in our squad by making repairs, painting, cleaning, etc. This was some of the final stages to getting the guesthouse ready to accommodate the new permanent staff coming at the beginning of January. Some of the goals of the guesthouse are to be a light to people who come to stay, to serve and minister in the surrounding areas, and to love on the local staff who worked there. We also had the opportunity to help serve the guests their breakfast which I particularly enjoyed. There was a couple times we were asked to pray and go into the local community to get to know some of the people who lived in the area surrounding the guesthouse. Our smaller group got to meet a couple times with a precious woman who knew some English and ran a store while taking care of her newborn baby along with elderly parents.
The most challenging part of ministry this month was going out to a bar a couple nights a week and loving on women who are working there as prostitutes. It was challenging staying out late at night, being in a bar filled with women selling themselves and seeing men treat these women as their property. Most of our time was spent just talking and getting to know these ladies as we played a few rounds of pool. In the beginning I was really uncomfortable, this was totally out of my comfort zone, but the Lord kept giving me more confidence and boldness to love these ladies and to see them through His eyes. Other highlights from the month included getting to go to a local church and help them bring Christmas to a village (it was one of my favorite days on the race so far), getting to bake cinnamon cupcakes for my teammate’s birthday, visiting the stunning Angkor Wat (a world wonder), having a pool to use on almost a daily basis, and finally having the pleasure of cooking with my teammates a Christmas spaghetti dinner complete with green beans, garlic bread and peppermint brownies for the AIM staff, our two teams and squad leaders.
Month 6 – MYANMAR (January)
Our team was placed in the small beautiful mountain town of Pwin Oo Lwin where the weather was the coldest I had yet to experience on the race. It took us over 30+ hours of bus rides to make it to our destination. We actually ended up buying warm sweaters and socks as at night staying in a concrete walled hotel with no insulation this Florida girl froze. Our ministry host was the pastor and his family who operated Living Waters children’s home for 80 kids on their home property. The home was put in place for children from the border villages of Myanmar to come and get a solid education while also learning about personal hygiene, how to properly cook foods, and most importantly receive the Gospel. The hope is that these children will go back to their villages as young adults to bring the knowledge they have gained and to further the Gospel. Everyday Sophie and Caesar would come and pick us and we would ride in the back of the truck up to ministry and also graciously drove us around wherever we needed to go. Most week days we had off in the morning and early afternoon off. After lunch we’d get picked up and taken to the home where we worked with the staff, most of which were in the early 20s, helping them learn and practice English and also getting to know them. Once the children returned from school we’d hanging out with them until we had dinner. After dinner is when the majority of our ministry took place. Sophie would translate for us as we presented a Bible story to the kids along with songs and games. They loved learning new songs, especially ones that had dance moves involved.
Though there was a language barrier it was so easy to love these children! On Saturdays we would come for most of the day and had stations setup for different activities (songs, games, crafts, English, etc.) that the kids rotated through. On Sundays we attended the children’s service they held at the home which included the kids, the pastor’s wife, a few of the staff and us. It was the most incredible thing to witness the sincerity and purity that these children worshiped with as tears streamed down their cheeks. This month as we didn’t have access to a kitchen at the hotel and had no one available to cook for us other than breakfast at the hotel, we got to eat out quite a few times; it didn’t hardly break the bank as most of the meals cost between $1-3. The noodles here were especially delicious! Some of the highlights from the month included hot showers (YAY!), singing our goodbye “Out of the Box” re-mix song every night with the kids before we left and then having almost all 80 kids rush up to you to get hugs, taking a super long steep hike (using not very reliable bamboo poles to support yourself) to multiple waterfalls and then getting to baptize your teammate, after the hike getting to a restaurant and finding that they have puppies so you get to hold them, eating some incredible Indian food (masala kulcha anyone?!), making lunch and a cake for the staff and Sophie’s birthday, teaching English at another children’s home a couple of days, hanging out with the English teacher of the other children’s home having lunch with her, playing “Break Every Chain” on an antique piano in an over 100 year old church, getting to see her humble classroom and home and being able pray for her, and finally having a traditional BBQ with your host where you cook pork over an open flame (tastes similar to bacon!) and baked fish which then ends in a cake fight.
Month 7 – THAILAND (February)
Our final month in SE Asia was in the city of Mae Sot near the Myanmar border working with a ministry called Outpour. This ministry has multiple offshoots including a restaurant, Famous Rays, a coffee/bike shop, Braverly, a children’s home, and a few other ministries as well. We stayed in their old bike shop that had been converted into housing for teams and/or interns. Our host Dana was incredible and very welcoming. Most of our time was spent at team housing helping sand, paint, and lacquer furniture and paint walls. We also had time on Saturday mornings where we gathered at a sport’s field and played games with the kids from the home. Sundays we attended church at the children’s home with the staff from Outpour; one of my teammates lead worship and a staff member of Outpour spoke. A couple times we were asked to do ATL aka “Ask the Lord” which is praying and asking for the Lord to give us a vision or clues as to where to go in the town and seek out someone to talk with and possibly pray for. For Valentine’s Day we decided to do something similar and go hand out flowers randomly to people and also in the local hospital. One of the prior ATL days a few of the girls on my team meet the director of the hospital who was a Christian and allowed them to come and pray for people. On Valentine’s we went back and had such a sweet time getting to pray with a few mothers and newborn babies and also a little girl.
One really unique part of this month was that we used bikes to travel everywhere we went. Some days we biked between 10-15 mi and it took a few days for our bodies to get used to it. We were on our own this month for food and so we made easy breakfast at the house and almost ate out for every other meal. This was a tough month for me as my dad had major heart issues requiring him to receive a triple bypass surgery, but my team really loved me and supported me through it as well as the staff from Outpour. Another unexpected thing that happened was a couple days into the month I accidentally got to close to a car and barely hit my handlebar against their tail light, but it broke and I had to shell out $180 for the damage. Highlights from this month included getting to eat quite a few times at Famous Ray’s (they have awesome burgers, fried pickles!), teaching an English lesson at the children’s home, getting to visit a “no man’s land” village and pray for the people we met, leading worship with my teammate at Braverly with the Outpour staff, and getting my first tattoo (Bamboo!!).
At the end of our 2 weeks in Thailand I traveled with my team to Chiang Mai so most of my teammates could participate in PVT (Parent Vision Trip); myself and another teammate joined up with a squadmate at her ministry site who wasn’t a part of PVT. At her ministry we did a lot of secretarial/administrative work with a church that needed files organized and shredded. One fun opportunity we had was to travel with a group from the church to a village in the mountains and stay 1 night. There was a couple there who had a 10 month old daughter that was so precious. We got there in the afternoon and the ladies spent the night in their church; I froze because I had no clue we would be going to the mountains and I didn’t pack a single warm item. That night I didn’t sleep more than an hour, but the next day it was worth taking the trip. We went to a large village school and worked in stations teaching hygiene and personal improvement; my station was games with hula-hoops and at the end we handed out hygiene packets that included a children’s Bible. A few days later I got to celebrate my 29th birthday by going to a Middle Eastern restaurant, having a Red Velvet whoopee pie and watching the movie “Hidden Figures” in the theater at the mall.
The Lord really did some incredible things these last 3 months of Asia and grew me in new ways that never would have been possible without changing teams. He was faithful through the good and the bad; He never gave up on me! I have since changed teams and been through 2 countries in Central America. Thanks for being patient with me and supporting me through prayer, encouragement and love while on this journey.
More blogs to come…
