Last week we we’re in Siem Reap for a conference with 2 other squads on the field, and then we had a couple days of debrief with just my squad. We got the news a week before leaving ministry in Cambodia that we were going to have squad wide team changes. Then a couple days after that I got an email that said we were having a complete change in team leaders. As I’m sure you can imagine I had many different feelings about this. Initially was the question, “what did I do wrong?” But the Lord helped me work through that insecurity because I trust my leadership when they told us they would give us feedback if we were doing something wrong. After that I felt relief because now I just get to be a racer for a while and not have extra responsibility. The Lord taught me a lot about myself while being a team leader and I know he is going to keep going with some things and walk me in freedom in other areas.
Here’s what I came up with on how to view this change, and how to release my old team as I embrace my new one: Team Hesed was for a season, my friends are for a lifetime, and sisterhood is for eternity. So goodbye team Hesed, we learned so many things together and it was an immense joy. Alyssa, Paige, Kierstin, and Kaiti, I am so excited to get to know you in different ways and always look back on the time we shared together in close community.
You may have noticed that Courtney’s name is not on the list and that’s because she’s on my new team!! So introducing my new team: Jordan (team leader), Rachel, Courtney, Jonathan, Nick, and Brandon. And guess where we’re at? Chang Mai, Thailand! Can you say Pad Thai?! After basically 24 hours of travel we arrived in Chiang Mai early last Friday morning, spent the day resting and getting settled. Then on Saturday our host took us to a beautiful sticky waterfall. I had no idea what a sticky waterfall was, but it’s a waterfall that you can literally walk down! The rock is limestone so it’s kinda like sandpaper and such that you can walk on it with water rushing all around you. So cool.
This week we have been working in the office of the ministry that we’re at, helping with little things here and there. Most of the things are simple but they are jobs that help alleviate a lot of the work that the staff just don’t have time to do. Then yesterday and today we were out at one of the children’s homes painting the boys’ room. We scraped off mold and peeling paint, gave the room two coats of mold resistant paint, and then scrubbed the floors. It was a good amount of work to get done in about 24 hours but it’s done and the mold is gone! The children were so great, we played frisbee and soccer (they are so good at soccer, I felt old), and they played my ukulele (I bought one in Vietnam and have been learning how to play it!). It was a short trip but we had a great time.
Even though we only been together as a team for a week I love these people already. Youll be hearing more about them later!
Keep the faith,
Malia
