As I mentioned in my last blog I said I received a renewed excitement and knew that God was going to do great things in my last three months on the race. Well, month one of the three proved to be one of great and unexpected things.
We traveled to Thailand from Malaysia by train. It was an overnight ride so we got to sleep on the train. Our seats folded out into beds. I slept on the top bunk. I am thankful I did not roll off. Overall it was really nice and definitely more preferable than a bus of any sort. The sunset was beautiful. We arrived in Bangkok the next day and got into groups and traveled from the train station to the bus station. We were at the station for a couple of hours before we all left for Chiang Mai.
It was very late when we arrived and our contacts were there awaiting our arrival. We knew the name of the organization we would be working with, the name of our contact, and The Haven Project worked with kids and had homes for them in the area and nothing more. So it was quite a surprise when we realized our contacts were not Thai but mostly Australian. It was a very good surprise in fact.
We were told we would be staying in a hostel and on the race you learn to let go of expectations and appreciate whatever accommodations you are blessed with. We arrived at the church building, gathered our belongings and walked over to the hostel which turned out not to be a hostel but a hotel.
A hotel.
We are on the world race expecting to serve in a place with squatty potties, bucket showers, sleeping in our tents, no internet, and no aircon. Sure I had heard about teams staying in places on the beach with wifi and aircon but never thought it would be my team. I am also the crazy one who really wanted to spend the entire eleven months in a tent but that did not happen either. We did not get the beach obviously which was more than okay because the hotel already exceeded the expectations we did not have because you abandon expectations when you go on the race.
The next morning we got up and had orientation with one of the greatest men at our ministry, Jim. He gave us the handbook for the organization and a schedule. A SCHEDULE. I had to learn quickly to let go of schedules at training camp, and even though it was a tentative schedule it was still beautiful. The handbook was beautiful as well and had one page of a few Thai words and phrases. God was speaking my ESTJ and OCD love language. I believe I may have had a few tears in my eyes when I saw the schedule and handbook.
That afternoon we went to the park where we met some of the staff, mostly from the school. It was fun to sit out on the hut that was just over the water’s edge of the lake. We had some great Thai food, as if you could have bad Thai food in Thailand, great conversation, and a nice swim in the lake. I got more and more excited for the month.
We did not work directly with the kids but we helped the organization itself. It was really a four in one kind of place. All in the same office space are people working with The Haven Project, Christian Outreach Center Thailand, House of Praise International Church, and a school. The offices and cafeteria are on the first floor, the church on the second, and the school on the third floor. Everyone in the office worked together to maintain all four. The staff is an awesome mixture of Australian, English, Scottish, Irish, German, American, and Thai. Maybe even a few others.
Our ministry in Thailand was mainly doing little projects around the complex. We painted a training room, the library, and an office. We organized the key cabinet which turned out to be quite the scavenger hunt for Holly and I. We organized the church library which was a major task. The first day in there was difficult because we kept seeing books we wanted to read. Ben and Francis did a lot of wood work and painting. Tom and Jesse worked in the school. I mainly worked with Rachel, Holly, and Kaiulani doing miscellaneous things.
We had the opportunity to work with the youth on Friday nights as well as being able to host the girls night “Be Gorgeous.” It was one of my favorites. I love working with youth and sharing God’s love and truth with them. Many of them already have such great faith and understanding. The youth group mainly consisted of missionary kids or students whose parents are working in Thailand as well as Thai kids.
We were able to visit one of the children’s homes in a village outside of the city a few hours away during our last week. The way there was very troublesome and unfortunately despite the motion sickness pills I took the curves of the mountain got the better of me. We had to stop because I was sick and I was out of it for the rest of the day.
I was supposed to speak that night but I honestly did not feel like it. I just wanted to sleep off the motion sickness as I was still feeling like I was going around curves. However, the kids started pouring in and I began to get excited yet sad at the same time. As I looked around I knew so many of the kids were from broken homes. Many did not know how deep the Father’s love for them was. I shared yet again about my earthly father, as I did in Zambia, and about God’s love for us is the most perfect of loves and the best fatherly love we could ever imagine.
There was one girl who stared me directly in the eyes the entire time. Her eyes did not waver. As I shared about my earthly father I saw pain in her eyes as she related. As I shared about my heavenly Father’s love I saw hope and joy in her eyes and a smile creep upon her face. That smile did not go away. Her eyes followed me as I went and sat down and she kept looking at me with the new hope and joy in her eyes and that beautiful smile upon her face.
There were at least a hundred kids there and if she was the only one that finally understood how much her heavenly Father loves her it was worth the trip and I would get carsick all over again just to share the Father’s love and to see that hope and joy in a child’s eyes.
We also had the opportunity to visit a nursing home in Chiang Mai. It was so much fun! We came in, sang a few songs, played musical chairs with them, shared a little testimony, and visited a little bit. One lady made my day with her high energy and fiesty attitude. As I said goodbye to each of them one lady said she was Christian and that she would see me again. Her words were powerful to me. I can not wait to see her again. I know it will not be on this earth and I know there will be no language barrier then either.
Apart from the times we got to work with the youth and nursing home it was not the ministry we did that made it such a great month. It was the organization and the people there and how they operate. I had an immediate love for Thailand and it was not because we were staying in a hotel with a seven-eleven across the street. It will be hard for me to write exactly how much this place impacted me but I will start with where COC Thailand first sparked my interest and heightened my senses to God.
Every morning, Monday through Friday, around 8:45 the staff comes together for a time of worship, prayer, and a devotional. It was not something that was mandatory but something that we were invited to. We went every morning. We would sing a few songs as Thai and English praises rose to God in one accord. Then prayer.
This is where I was most moved. One of the leaders would say something along the lines of, “Let’s begin by praying for our sponsors .” Everyone would pray out loud for the specific thing mentioned. Then the leader of prayer that morning would list something else and everyone would pray aloud. It was something that definitely used to make me uncomfortable a few months prior, but something this time felt so natural and beautiful. Things would be listed one at time and they were not only requests of God but also praises of thanks to God.
The last thing we prayed for everyday was miracles. We prayed that God would do miracles and for Him to open our eyes, hearts, and minds to the miracles He had for us. I had never prayed for miracles before that I could remember anyways. It was new and exciting. I believed I learned more about how to pray, the importance of prayer, and increasingly more about depending on God. I also learned how to pray through faith believing that God was hearing and answering. We thanked God in advance for His provision in things because we had faith He would provide in His time.
I watched and listened to the people around me. I observed their interactions with one another. I was surrounded by a community that depended on God for everything. Every staff member depends on God through the donations of sponsors in order for them to continue living and ministering there in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Every project and morsel of food for the kids in the homes depends on God through the donations of sponsors. They give all through faith knowing that God will provide some way some how.
Each day I was more intrigued by the faith, the prayers, and the dependence on God. I knew we had been brought into a special place. God also began to stir within me a desire to come back to Thailand.I got that feeling the first time as I was standing in worship during the Thai service. I have to say that freaked me out a bit, but I was excited. I always thought I would fall in love with South America on the race, but it was Asia, especially Thailand.
The people we worked with and the organization’s foundation definitely made the month for me. The friendships I built and the testimonies I heard were incredible. I had the opportunity to hear two people’s stories of how they came to be in Thailand and what God has done and is doing their lives. It was not by chance I heard these stories either. God told me to ask them. It was something I did not really want to do at first, but I am so glad I did.
There is something else about Chaing Mai, Thailand and COC that captured me, made me feel at home, and left me wanting more. I experienced God in a new way. I can not explain in words how exactly.
