Well after approximately 3 planes, 4 long buses, 2 hostels, 10 days, and 1 walking border crossing, we made it to our next country in Southeast Asia! It’s been a crazy few weeks from leaving Swaziland, traveling, and starting our new ministry. For this month my team and I are on our own living in a hostel in the city. Our days include a 2 hour bus ride to our ministry where we get to play with 22 amazing kids and love on their parents who are 2 of the strongest and most God-loving people I have ever met.
When we first got to the hostel I felt so incredibly young, like I was a little kid traveling around without my parents in a big city in a foreign country. As the days have gone on I’ve adjusted to the big city, public transportation, and independent life at the hostel here. We are completely responsible for everything. We buy our own breakfasts and budget the money to eat out, we pay for our transportation every day, we pay for our hostel, and we figured out where to go for ministry on our own. It’s a little crazy at times but also super fun!! We’ve started to figure things out around here and now we have it all down, for the most part… we still struggle to cross the roads (it’s a little different than in the US).
Ministry is with kids again but it’s so different from what it was like in Swazi. There are way less kids and they are a little less crazy. They already have such a passion and love for the Lord and it’s the most amazing thing to listen to them worship and pray in their own beautiful voices and language. Every week day we get to travel almost 2 hours in a public bus to our host’s house which is surrounded by Buddhist monasteries and pagodas to be greeted by kids with arms wide open. Even though the house is surrounded by all of that, it still radiates the Lords love more than ever. So far, we’ve gotten to teach them bible stories, play games, have some crazy dance parties, and listen to those precious kids praise the Lord.
Our ministry is not only with the kids and our host, but it’s in our everyday life with all of the people that we meet. We have such an amazing opportunity here at the hostel to talk with various travelers around the world who are all looking for something to fill them up, but don’t know yet that it’s the Lord. I can minister to them when I read my Bible on the roof, or when my team prays together before every meal at restaurants, or even by the way we act.
All in all, Asia has been so so amazing but also quite the adjustment.
Prayer requests: Prayers to keep us and the children safe, for the Lord to bless our host and his wife, for us to plant good seeds in people, and prayers for this country that’s almost 90% Buddhist.
