As we entered Asia I didn’t know what to expect. Honestly I had never felt called to Asia and had never really thought much about it so it wasn’t that I had bad expectations; I just didn’t have any at all.
Asia started with a Debrief in Hua Hin, Thailand. Somehow as Racers we managed to be put up in a hotel. Yep, a hotel with beds and air conditioning. After a few days of adjusting to a new continent, a new culture, and new people, we set out to our separate towns.
We arrived during the Thai New Year which is a nation-wide water fight!
April was a time when the men head out into the wild to do whatever it is that men do. They call it “man-istry”. So with our brothers off hunting wild animals and getting battle wounds, the women of the squad were separated into teams based on what type of ministry we felt the Lord calling us to.
My Team:
-Bambi Bigley
-Heather Dodge
-Heather Reed
-April Wright
-Yours truly
The Mission:
Serve at an orphange
The Location:
Chaiyaphum, Thailand
The Contacts:
-Ram, our translator (who is 3 months pregnant!) and main contact
-Nan, Ram’s husband and our comic relief; master of building and fixing just about anything.
-Ma, Ram’s mom who could always make me smile
-Pa, Ram’s dad who is the most youthful, agile old man I’ve ever met
-Oi, Ram’s 19 year-old neice who came in from a nearby town just to spend time with us
-Teo, a friend of Oi’s who came with her and who has the ability to dominate everyone at UNO
The Reality Check:
As it turns out, Chaiyaphum actually doesn’t have an orphange. We discovered the miscommunication on arriving to our contact’s home. At first we were a little disappointed that our month of pouring into kids was all an illusion, but then we were excited at what the Lord must have in store for us. He called each one of us to that location through our love of kids, but had something completely different prepared. So instead of working at an orphanage, we did the next best thing: construction.
The [Revised] Mission:
-Building a saala
–Saala: outdoor structure resembeling a hut composed of bamboo, wood, and grass
-Mixing concrete
-Building a stone wall
-Teaching English camp
-Cell group and Church activities
-Pouring into our contacts and the community
-Evangelism
Our time in Chaiyaphum wasn’t anything like we expected, but the Lord still used us in amazing ways. The month was short due to traveling and other unexpected circumstances, but filled with hard work and community. The family there completely welcomed us into their home and for the first time on the Race I truly felt like I was a part of a family, complete with Ma and Pa. And through lots conversations and crazy games of UNO, the five of us were blessed with a new home on the other side of the world.
Fun facts:
-Chaiyaphum is a small town so our big weekly adventure was the whole family piling into the back of a pickup truck and driving 45 minutes to Big C, the closest supermarket.
-One of the first days we were there we attened a Buddhist funeral. There were 92 monks in attendance because the woman who had passed away was 92 years old.
-We were given football (soccer) jerseys to work in so we got to match every single day.
-We were up every morning by 5:30am so we could start working before it got too hot.
-My name sounds almost exactly like the Thai word for “kidding” or “joking” which is extremely appropriate.
-The hottest temperature we saw our thermostat hit was 115*F.
Buddhist funeral
Although our month was nothing like we expected, it ended up being one of our favorite places so far. Chaiyaphum set the bar high, even without an orphanage, so I can’t wait to see what else God has in store for these last 2 months in Asia.
And just for the record, never challenge a Thai person to UNO unless you are prepared for an epic beating.
