As I’m sitting on this bus heading into Vietnam, my head is flooded with thankfulness of this past month and the growth My Father let me witness. We came in as 42 people who liked one another and with a blurry idea of monk chat and slums. Now, I have 42 family members I will miss as we split back to teams. I’ve left having had conversations with monks that lead to bellyaching laughter. And I’m grateful for the smile of a small child.
It was incredible to have corporate worship each night. We had time to share meals and I’ve enjoyed getting to hear how my squad mates are stepping into the gifts and freedom we have been given. I’m encouraged by the ways he has given eyes for us to individually understand his work and our purpose in his plan in Thailand.
This month blew my expectations… Even though I’d like to say I didn’t have any. I thought I was going to learn about monks and what they do, not expecting to have conversations of grave impact or depth. But our Father is more present and alive than that. He’s been working and moving here more than I could have known. This week we got approached and spoke with monks every day. Which was a miracle because monk holidays shot our opportunity on days prior. Each convo filled with encouragement as they asked their questions about our beliefs and recognized us before we sat down. This amazed me as He really did create us to illuminate and wear something different on our skin to be recognized on a first time meeting someone. The last conversation we had we got to hear about the different ways monks twist their robes together. For instance, the dragon style is worn, quote from the monk ‘by those who have a flat belly because it’s so tight across.’ And then, we heard of a robe wardrobe malfunction. The monks laughed and shared their humor with us! It felt like an ‘in’ to their life. It was a wonderful mark of celebration of the progression I made in understanding monk life and the relationships we developed this month.
Another expectation blown when a teammate spoke French with a girl at the slums! We had thought the language barrier was too high to break down. But here they were in a slum in Thailand, communicating in their broken French and laughing over silly songs. Our time with the children we richly improved and time spent turned into precious moments.
It was a wonderful way to end the month. We broke bread as a squad. We rejoiced in conversations with monks and we belly ached from time with beautiful children. I leave Thailand feeling refreshed by what He’s doing there. Realizing I didn’t ‘bring’ anything. I didn’t do anything special. But rather He has been there before time existed and is doing precious work. I saw it in the kids smiles. I saw in monk’s questions. I saw it in the beauty of the mountains surrounding the city. And I see it in the hope of this city that was home.
11 things learned from my time in Thailand:
– Smoothies are awesome and can be found on every street, the best coming from a small pink truck
– The mote is a 8.6 km run
– Waterfalls can be climbed straight up at StickyFalls
– Pad Thai is excellent with the chili powder added
– You might have to ask a Thai 3 times, but they’ll say yes to join in
– Zion workers know how to dress for a Halloween costume to scare Americans
-Lanterns are best let go when they are filled with smoke
– Monks don’t eat anything after noon
– You can be a monk for as short as one day
– Going across the border takes a lot longer if you overstay your welcome
– Your feet are the most filthy part of your body, don’t point them towards anyone
Bye bye land of Smiles!
