- Thailand is amazing. I’ve been far busier snapping photos and
sucking at the squatty potty to post a blog.
My apologies. I’ll do better next
month in Cambodia. Promise.
- The first bullet point wasn’t really a bullet
point at all.
- Food is ridiculously cheap and almost always
delicious.
- My forehead looks like a post war battlefield
thanks to the mosquitoes. Jerks.
- When you don’t speak the language, revert to the
beloved game of charades.
- Did I mention that the squatty potty is my arch nemesis? Right-o.
- Sometimes when you sit quietly outside your room
in the common area at night, a bat will chase you, and you will hit the floor
on all fours and yelp like a little girl.
I mean, I think you would.
- That was more than a few bullet points. Oops.
In all seriousness, it has been an outstanding month. It is
difficult to quickly sum it all up (this is why they say to blog often…double
oops), but I will do my best. We began
this journey in Phuket where we met up with the entire U Squad for the first
time since Training Camp. It was so good
to see everyone. Funny how you can meet
a group of strangers and in just a couple of months long to see them like long
lost family members. Good stuff. We spent a few days prepping for the Race, ate
as much street pineapple as possible and visited the 7-11 at least twice a
day. My team, Johnny (Awesome)
Gospelseeds, was told that we’d be going to Kalasin, but first stopping off in
Udon Thani to work at a youth retreat for a couple of days. Translation:
you are needed to come here and “make
fun”. Done. I do fun like it’s my job. We literally
walked up to a pavilion with somewhere around 300 college students and were
promptly pulled to the front and told to do a shower/chicken dance. We came. We danced. They laughed. Score.
We spent 2 days with the students worshiping, laughing, practicing
broken Thai phrases and helping them with their English. The location was a beautiful national park tucked
away in the mountains offering breathtaking views, awesome running trails and
showers so cold that a mental “happy place” was unattainable.
Before I go on, I have to go back a little. My blog may get taken down but it’s honest
and that’s the only way I can be so here goes.
I didn’t really “love” Training Camp.
I struggled with some of the worship styles and wondered if I would ever
find myself in a posture to at least be comfortable with it all. I wrestled with my feelings for the entire 9
days. Let’s just be honest, speaking in
tongues freaks me out. I have no shame
in saying that. I’m not even comfortable
calling it that. Prayer language is much
more my speed. That feeling most likely
is a product of my somewhat conservative Baptist/Methodist background. Regardless, I’m comfortable with my stance or
I should better say that I’m comfortable with my discomfort. So there you have it. Moving right along, I met a student who is 20
and her name is Ka Rum. On the second
night of camp we sang several songs, played several games and there was a time
for sharing. I ended up sitting next to
Ka Rum and another girl stood to share her testimony. Of course, she was speaking in Thai and I had
no idea what she was saying. Ka Rum
began whispering translations to me so I could follow along. At the end of the girl’s testimony we were
asked to group up and talk about why we love Jesus and what God means to
us. Ka Rum looked at me and said, “my
eyes and nose are too small, I am fat and many days I feel sad and alone but I
know that God loves me and He fills my soul.
That brings me joy.” It brought
tears to my eyes because what I saw was totally different. I could recall a time in my life where I battled with similar struggles. This
young lady was such a delight to talk to and we spent the evening getting to
know each other. I instantly fell in
love with her.
The following day we gathered under that same pavilion and
again sang songs of worship and played some games. Late in the morning there was a time for
prayer. Again I was standing next to Ka
Rum. As the prayer time began and the voices
of 300+ people began to lift it wasn’t the cluster of voices that I heard. I listened intently as I quietly heard this
small lovely voice repeat the same phrase over and over and over. It was the first time that I experienced
someone using their prayer language in a way that did not make me
uncomfortable. I peeked (yeah, I opened
my eyes during prayer) over at Ka Rum and saw tears rolling down her cheeks and
her hands waist high palms facing up melodically praying to God. It was like music. She probably had the softest voice under that
pavilion but it was all I heard and it sounded like the sweetest song that has
ever been sung. It was just Ka Rum and
God. She was praying with such intention
and sincerity. I had the privilege of
witnessing it. I put my arm around her and
later she opened her eyes, looked over and said, “It’s ok. I’m ok.
I’m just praying that God pours Himself into Thailand; that hearts are
touched and changed; that people come to know Jesus.” Me too. My prayer language is still English, but I’m less unnerved with those that are not English…so to speak. I’m grateful for that. Baby steps.
As far as Ka Rum goes, we are friends on Facebook now…of course.
The rest of the month we’ve been in Kalasin doing college
ministry. I’ll write about that in
another blog since I’ve pretty much tripled the number of words that the
average attention span can handle.
Sorry! I hope you didn’t stop
reading. I’ll cut the next one down and
add more pics. It’ll be like a virtual
show-n-tell.
Peace and Love,
k
