It has been two months (two months?!) since I've last updated my blog and I apologize for failing at keeping you updated on what the Lord is doing on my World Race adventure, but I seem to have been sick for quite some time. It was a mystery, how this sickness kept popping up every time I went to write a blog or share my thoughts. The world calls this sickness 'writer's block' but just recently I've diagnosed myself with 'Spiritual Laryngitis.' More on this later… Including my miraculous healing, which you're all experiencing right now. =) But first, I wanted to highlight some of the major events, places, and people that have come my way in these last couple of months.
{Thailand}
My team and I spent two weeks living in a rural village in Northern Thailand working and living with a Buddhist hill tribe. And somehow, despite being sicker than I've ever been in my entire life for a couple of days, they were the best two weeks of my life as well. Oh, did God work! Team Ahava was split up into 4 different houses in the village, and my teammate Alyssa and I stayed with the sweetest family… Mae Ding, Pao Long and our sister, Phun. To say I fell in love with these people would be an understatement. A few highlights from my time in the village:
+Living with Alyssa in our big bed, covered with our oversized flowered mosquito net
+Praying for meals with our family… Holding hands family-style, none of them understanding anything we’re saying, but everyone saying ‘AMEN!’ really loud at the end
+Helping watching my mom cook breakfast in the mornings and taste testing her food
+Eating homemade chicken nuggets for breakfast… Yum!
+Constantly communicating through charades and grunting noises! It’s amazing what kind of conversations you have can without a single word!
+Waking up in the morning after spending an entire night clinging to the squatty potty from being so sick to my mom, dad and sister just standing in my room staring at me sleeping
+My mom taking us to the ‘restaurant’ down the road for noodles and Thai tea… Yum!
+Working in the rice fields… Such hard work, but amazing to spend days harvesting rice by hand and seeing how it works.
+Our friend, Patty, a woman from America who God placed in our lives for the month… She spent the two weeks in the village with us and blessed us with her wisdom, insight, love for the Lord, and awesome cooking skills!
+Visiting my ‘Grandma’, Mae Pehn, with Alyssa after having painted with bright blue paint and having her sit and scrub it off of us like 5-year-olds
+Riding tiny Asian bikes through the village, chewing on our knees
+Being sick. Yes, weird, I know… But God spoke to me so boldly in total weakness and dependence on Him.
+Having hour-long, wordless conversations with my grandma, just sitting with her, smiling and talking gibberish, holding her hand.
+Visiting my mom at work, where she worked with other women of the village shucking garlic cloves, just sitting with them and helping with their job.
+My mom trying to give me ginger cubes when I was sick, but hiding them because they were so gross
+Hard times with the girls on my team… God grew us and stretched us in crazy ways this month, and so much truth was spoken into my life.
+Dinnertime at Emmi’s dad’s house… It was always an adventure!
+Laying in bed with Alyssa, getting ready to go to sleep, listening to the rats being chased by cats (or maybe chickens… We never really figured it out) over our heads in our ceiling and not thinking twice about it.
+Walking through the village just getting place to place… I’ll never forget the view around me. Mountains on one side, lined with yellow rice fields ready for harvesting. It was absolutely beautiful!
+Skyping with my family on Thanksgiving and being able to pray with them
+Cooking an American-style Thanksgiving meal for all of our families, eating real mashed potatoes, explaining the meaning of the day, sharing the gospel and loving on them.
+Sitting around the table on Thanksgiving, realizing the immense love I had for each person at it, some I had lived with for only a couple of months, others for only a couple of weeks with little or no words passed between us… And God gave me just the tiniest glimpse of the great banquet table we will all be sitting at in heaven someday.
+Letting off lanterns on our last night, explaining the light of Christ and claiming that that village would be a ‘city on a hill’ someday… So powerful!
I don't have the words to describe my time in the village and the love that I have for those people. They served us so well in our two short weeks there and were literally the hands and feet of the Savior that they don't even know yet. If you think about it, please say a prayer for that village and my Thai family. They're so very close to knowing the love of Christ.
{Big Changes}
At the end of November all of J-Squad met in Phuket, Thailand, where we had a mini debrief to announce the highly anticipated team and leadership changes. It was at this time that Team Ahava came to an end, and Team Gateway was formed. While Ken, Joey, Kate and Alyssa and I are still going strong as a team, we said (a very hard!) goodbye to our married couple, Justin and Hannah, who decided the Lord was calling them back home in Jacksonville, Florida. The change was hard, to say the least, but over and over the Lord has shown us His sovereignty in our lives and that He truly works for the good of those who love Him. Team Gateway, inspired by John 10:9-10, is choosing to walk through the gate and into life abundant with the Lord for the remainder of the Race.
{Malaysia}
December was spent in Malaysia, on a little island called Penang. It was a month filled with good food, friends, multiple cultures, and even more ministries. Team Gateway was blessed to be living in the heart of Penang in a district called Georgetown, known for its thriving art community and delicious food. We lived in an apartment in the middle of Little India, where bollywood music was as abundant as the samosa stands on the side of the road. Here are a few highlights from our month in Malaysia:
+Praying for people at the Adventist hospital… Holding the hands of the Chinese woman getting ready for surgery, tears streaming down her face as the Lord touched her.
+Donning Santa hats and caroling through the hospital with the chaplains and nurses… I don’t think I’ve laughed that hard in a long time!
+Experiencing so many cultures where we lived… We would be in Little India one second, then the next Little Shang Hai, and then wonder where the actual Malays were!
+Indian food…My new favorite! Indian pizza, samosas, poori, lassi and curry galore!
+Bojangles and his friends… The mice that overtook our apartment, specifically my, Kate and Alyssa’s room.
+Meena’s! My favorite Indian restaurant that we became true regulars at…We knew what time to get there for the fresh cooked samosas and poori! We met our friend, Dava, and his grandmother, Meena herself!
+Working at the homeless shelter and becoming friends with Jenny, a middle-aged homeless Thai woman who Jesus is pursuing so evidently!
+Living with another J Squad team, Joy’l! It was such a blessing getting to know those girls and the Lord used them as such encouragement in my life.
+Wednesday night evangelism, where I met Sunny the lady boy, Hazel and Lena, the drug-addict prostitutes, and my favorite, the Cat Lady.
+Christmas morning with Team Gateway… Cranking up the AC, wearing sweaters and scarves, drinking coffee, reading the Christmas story and opening secret santa gifts.
+Praying and worshipping at PenHop twice a week… Seeing people from all over the world come together and pray for the nations was truly amazing!
+The roof of our apartment… The best view in the city!
+Coffee in a bag
+Skyping with my family on their Christmas morning
+Running through the park in the mornings
+The Christmas program we were a part of at the Indian Methodist Church. Bollywood Christmas music… Yes!
+Everyone we did ministry with throughout the month… Choon Ean, Peter, Solomon, Francis, and so many more!
+Going to Heaven Gate restaurant for team times, drinking yummy tea, playing Kinnect, and meeting our friend, Yishen. It was such a blessing to have a place to relax and feel at home at.
+Christmas Eve dinner at Chili’s and going to the mall where we put on winter clothes and pretended we were at home
+Hiking to Monkey Beach with Kate and getting chased by monkeys!
{Cambodia}
And here I am, right outside of Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, living with 34 other woman (25 Khmer, 9 American) in a tiny dorm building in the middle of town. We share 3 bathrooms and us Americans sleep in one room where we battle with the ants and mosquitoes, but we’re loving every second of our ministry this month. My days are spent working at a local church in the mornings and teaching English in the afternoons and evenings. Not to mention my nights spent doing all things 'girl'… Painting nails, doing hair, talking about boys, having dance parties and explaining to my Cambodian friends what frogs in America sound like. =)
It’s also ‘Manistry’ and ‘Womanistry’ month, which means Kate, Alyssa, and I are teamed up with women from two other coed teams while our men are off doing what men do. We’re so blessed to be living and working with these women and we know God has awesome things in store for our month.
Stay tuned as I continue to heal from the world's first known case of Spiritual Laryngitis and let you all back into the crazy world of Jaclyn's World Race!
