Thailand has to be one of the greatest places on earth.
Not just that the landscape is breathtaking almost everywhere or that the people are fun and engaging or that it’s culturally rich and historically noteworthy but that for the first time in WorldRace history, a team completely composed of men was able to venture off by themselves.
Eric H, Jake, Spano, Andrew and I took off to
Kanchanaburi,
Thailand for two weeks.
It’s a rural area on the Burmese border and is set in the valley between several mountain ranges.
The breathtaking view every morning of the clouds and mist descending over the mountaintops was never something to miss.
The rainy jungles were lush with foliage and our adventures to date included exploring an enormous cave, visiting one of the most beautiful waterfalls in
Thailand (the 7-tiered Erawan waterfall) and checking out the elephants in the area.
Our time was spent de-worming goats, mowing grass, cutting down bamboo and other grasses with machetes, constructing a bridge, digging post holes for fences, sawing through trees by hand that were at least 2 feet in diameter and squeezing in some preaching, testimonies, evangelism and soccer with the school kids in our spare time.
It was a phenomenal time of being men, sharpening each other spiritually, laughing, taking on adventures, proving our manliness at every turn.
It was awesome.
Our family was equally fantastic.
Arun and Baeng are a YWAM couple who moved out to ”
Mango
Tree
Village” four years ago and are trying to plant a church, bring business into the area through goat farms and agriculture and evangelizing the neighbors through ministry of presence.
They live with Baeng’s parents (in Thailand, parents are called by their kid’s names, so Maw Baeng and Paw Baeng and Maw Baeng’s mother all live in the house).
We met one of Paw Baeng and Maw Baeng’s godsons, Big and together we lived in community.
The food Maw Baeng prepared was heads and shoulders above anything I’ve eaten to date on this trip.
God is good and MAN-istry was one of the highlights of World Race for me.
We celebrated the induction of two new individuals into the family of Christ, saw people affirmed at our willingness to serve and bless them and all around saw the goodness of God displayed through his creation and the ministry of our friends in Kanchanaburi.
