One of the ministries with Lighthouse in Action is called XLife which involves reaching out in a village a few hours outside of Chiangmai, called Mai Ai. Last week, I had an opportunity to take part in Xlife with some members of Peculiar Treasures. We had split a week of ministry up between us and team Throne Unveiled, so our time in the village was about 3 days. I loved my time in Mai Ai. We stayed with our Mae and Pho (Mother and Father) and a little four year old boy they care for, named Om. It was so much fun getting to know (either by our translator or by playing charades) this wonderful family and experiencing 100% Thai culture with them.
The first full day we were there, the rain kept us from being able to help serve in the rice fields or doing children?s ministry. We decided to prayer walk through the village. We knew that it was villages like Mai Ai where a lot of children are sent from to work in the red light district. We prayed for the children and families as we walked through the streets.
The rest of the afternoon was spent resting and playing with Om at the house. I had so much fun with this precious little boy. I love that with kids, you can have the best time with absolutely no need to speak the same language. Om would come up to me to start a tickling fight when I wasn?t looking and then we played catch on the front porch and we had so much fun. He also took about 200 pictures and videos of him and I on my phone and I loved every minute of it!
The next day was a day I will never forget. After breakfast, Erika came and told us they were doing some work on or around a temple and needed our help. Through rough translation, we weren?t exactly sure what they were asking us to do. We had a little moral dilemma since as Christians we weren?t comfortable with working on a Buddhist temple. We prayed about it and decided that we would go and see what was being asked of us and we would politely decline if need be. So, about 20 of us from the village piled onto the back of a pickup truck and headed to the work site. Clothing-wise, we weren?t exactly prepared for what was to come. It had been raining and so the ground was incredibly muddy and most of us just had shorts, tshirts, and sandals, while everyone else had rubber boots, hats, and work shirts. Turns out, there was a temple and a few monk houses that had been overrun (for years it seemed) and needed cleaning and the grounds restored. There were tons of men working to cut down trees and clean up the grounds while the women cleaned the houses. We ended up being asked to wash dishes?and not just a few dishes. They had cleared an entire building full of hundreds upon hundreds of dirty plates, dishes, silverware, etc. And since the place had been overrun by cats and other nameless creatures, it was not exactly an easy job to stomach, to put it nicely. They asked us to join the other women washing all the dishes outside. However, because of all the rain, all the insects (worms, spiders, beetles, ants) were all surfacing from the ground. There I sat, sitting on a small piece of plywood, in the mud, with bugs literally crawling up my legs, falling from trees onto my back, washing rotting dishes to help serve these beautiful people.
At first, I had to keep myself from totally freaking out. Bugs don?t creep me out as much as they used to, but this wasn?t just a few bugs, there were too many to count. And I was washing these dishes without gloves while sitting in the mud. So, what did I do? I prayed at first and asked God to help me not to complain?or stop complaining I should say. Then, I started to sing. I immediately was filled with joy and wasn?t so grossed out. I looked around at all the other Thai women and prayed for them to know Jesus. I sang, ?Our God is Greater? and the girls from my team joined in. Then, because God has a sense of humor, He asked me to sing Jesus Culture?s Set a Fire which says,
There’s no place I’d rather be
There’s no place I’d rather be
There’s no place I’d rather be
Than here in your love, here in your love
Set a fire down in my soul
That I can’t contain and I can’t control
I want more of You God, I want more of You God.
I thought, ?God you are so funny that you would ask me to sing, ‘no place I?d rather be’ when I am sitting here, doing what I am doing.? Haha! Well, I sang those words (after laughing at the obvious irony) and you know what? I was filled with so much joy. All the sudden it didn?t matter what I was doing, I could feel the presence of God. I know that during that sweet time of worship, I learned something about being content in anything and that God was glorified in that time.
The rest of that afternoon was spent walking through the rice fields, after a much needed bucket shower, and worshipping. I am just so overwhelmed with gratitude for where God has brought me in life. What a fulfillment of precious promises to have been standing next to mountains in that beautiful place, with joy in my heart and worship on my tongue.
On the way back to the house, we met up with some of the kids from the village. We played and laughed and we loved on them. They are all so very beautiful. One girl, in particular, would not leave my side (and I was okay with that). I told her that she was beautiful and that she was very special and she just smiled and let me hold her. I?m so glad that we had the opportunity to meet these kids and to have names and faces to pray for from Mai Ai.
The next day we already had to leave to com e home. I was sad to say goodbye to Om and our Mai and Pho. They are so sweet and so loving . I will definitely miss them a lot! If I ever come back to Thailand, I know I will make it a point to have a longer visit to Mai Ai. I?m so glad that I had the opportunity to take part in Xlife before our month in Thailand ended!
