After a 2 hour plane ride to New York; a 12 hour layover at JFK airport; a 15 hour flight to Shanghai, China; a 5 hour layover in China; 4 1/2 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand; a 5 hour layover in Bangkok; a 2 hour flight to Chiang Mai; and literally missing an entire Thursday of my life, I am finally at my home for the next two months!!!
My first couple of travel days have been a little hectic, so I just want to take a minute to catch you up on launch and what life has looked during the chaos of traveling here because it has been AMAZING!!!
Bittersweet goodbyes…
Not going to lie: saying goodbye is harddd. All the excitement and anxiousness hits you randomly in huge waves. If you don’t ask God for a surfboard and how to use it, you’re in for a beating.
It’s the moment you’ve been anticipating. The moment you’ve been dreading. Those last hugs. Those last words that your dad doesn’t make easier for you because he brings up when he took the training wheels off of your bike for the first time and asks if you remember what you said. Then, he proceeds to tell you that you yelled, “Turn me loose, daddy! I got this!!!” and that he’s turning you loose now. And you basically want to die inside because that is definitely NOT how you feel in the moment. You want him to tell you that you can’t leave, but you have to be a big girl and own God’s calling on your life and know that a godly daddy like mine wouldn’t keep you from that. That moment makes you feel like your parents’ brand new baby that needs them for everything and their grown up daughter that has to own her life all at once. It’s messy and raw and beautiful. Hey, that’s life, right?
Travel Days!!!
Again, not going to lie: you realize you packed way more than you should have after about five minutes of lugging your backpack around in the airport (World Race life). We definitely took advantage of the luggage carts. It had to be amusing to watch a bunch of American teenagers push multiple carts full of backpacks (and sometimes the American teenagers) around in a Chinese airport. I could tell by the looks.
Travel days consist of a lot of sleeping on top of a mountain of backpacks in the airport floor and trying to find water fountains to fill up your hydroflask because you don’t want to pay $8.00 for a bottle of water and attempting to get free Wi-Fi at the airports, so you can tell your mom you’re still alive.
As crazy as these days have been, I’m so thankful for them and the blessings God has poured over us. We had all smooth flights and transitions (minus one girl on our squad almost getting deported from China because she accidentally left her passport on the plane), we got to grow together as a squad, and we got to be blessed by our amazing logistics leaders and treasurers as they used their gifts to serve The Lord and us in their leadership roles and get us here safely and efficiently (you guys rock!!!).
Chiang Mai!!!
So, as I said in the beginning of this blog, after many hours of travel we are in Chiang Mai! Thailand is a dream, and we all love it so much already! The people are so very kind and everyone has been so welcoming.
We are staying at the AIM base here in the city. It is a hostel, and it is a blessing already. We are praising God for hot showers, actual beds, Wi-Fi, and a super awesome coffee shop downstairs. We have the next couple of days to explore the city as well as have cultural and ministry orientations, and we will begin ministry on Tuesday!
Ministry!!!
This month, my team’s ministry will be Serve Team and ATL, which means Ask The Lord. Serve Team means that we will have the responsibility of helping with meals and clean up afterward for our squad each day. As for the ATL part, this means that my team will spend each day asking The Lord what He will have us do, so each day will look different. Some days, this may mean going on the streets and praying for people or making connections. Some days, this will look like cleaning another team’s room. Some days, this may mean working at the coffee shop downstairs and being a part of that ministry. We don’t have all the details yet, but we are super excited to have this as our ministry for the first month! Some of the other teams on our squad are working at orphanages and doing manual labor. Next month, we will still be in Thailand at the same place, but the teams will switch ministries! Please be in prayer for our squad as we get acquainted with life here in Chiang Mai and prepare to begin ministry. I would more specifically love for you to pray for my team that The Lord would continually reveal to us each day ways we can serve the people around us! Pray that He will show us each day who is on His heart and what He would have us do. 🙂
Love from Thailand,
Maeci
