Our squad traveled from Guatemala to Thailand last Monday-Thursday (4 days, 5 airports, 1 day in LA, 25 hours of flying, lots of fun).
The entire squad is split up this month throughout Thailand, so while 3 teams are at the Adventures base in Chiang Mai, 4 teams (including mine) are stationed in different towns and villages throughout the country. My team, Selah, is the furthest away from the base. We are in the Fang district, which is close to the northern border of Thailand.
Even though we’ve only been in Thailand for a week, I am already in love. The culture and people are wildly different from Guatemala, and I keep discovering new aspects of Asia to adore.
My team stayed at the Chiang Mai Adventures in Missions base for the first three nights, but on Sunday we took a 3 hour bus ride and hour long car ride to get to our village.
When we got off the bus, we met our ministry host Ajarn, went to the grocery store, and rode to our house in his truck. Since his truck was too small to fit us all in the front seat, I got to ride in the bed of the truck with all our bags. Let me just say that was the best car ride of my entire life. The sun was setting, the wind was blowing in my face, and we passed some of the most beautiful nature I’ve seen.
The entire countryside of our village here is filled with massive forests, and the trees are planted in rows you can walk in between. It is something wild.
When we got to our house, we discovered it has no furniture, no fridge, no stove, and no sinks! But it does have a squatty potty, a bucket for taking showers, and another bucket on the side of our house for washing clothes and dishes. We also have some mice friends, mosquitos, lots of ants, and some spiders.
Despite all the physical discomfort of the house, there has been a lot of growth amongst my team even within the first week. We share a special bond over trying to cook chicken on a mysterious panini maker in the kitchen, coming home to our food strewn about the front lawn (thanks to the neighborhood dog who broke into our house), and waking up with 15 new bug bites (despite mosquito nets). In an email to our Squad Mentor, Kacie, I mentioned that we are far from comfort, but close to joy. It has caused me to be deeply grateful for the food and supplies we do have, as well as appreciative for what nice living conditions we had at the base in Guatemala.
This month we are working at a school called the Bang Doi school. I will do a more in depth post next week, but it is truly a joy. We walk to school at 7:30 in the morning and the day lasts until 3:30 in the afternoon. The children greet us with bows, hugs, and smiles every single day. The staff are incredibly kind and accommodating for us, and frequently supply the “break room” with packets of coffee, bananas, and random Thai snacks. We teach the kids games and songs, (shoutout to all my years at summer camp for ideas; the kids LOVE baby shark) teach them English, and play games with them at recess.
While we have only been at this village for a few days, I already can see the Lord working through us. We cannot directly preach the Gospel to the children or share Jesus with them in the way we did in Guatemala, and the language barrier here is much tougher than in Central America. (We know hello, thank you, and yummy; tonal languages are difficult) Because of the limitations on sharing the Gospel, we must do it through our actions. It looks like reaching out to the child in need at recess, trying to converse (the best we can) with a teacher at the school, or showing the children in our classes a lot of love. We already are building friendships with the students and we are doing so in a very unique way, since we cannot actually talk to them in the same language, but it is a different kind of beautiful.
Also, I am excited to announce that I am FULLY FUNDED!!! Thank you SO much to everyone who has prayed, donated, shared my blogs, watched my videos, or supported me in any other way. You guys are the ones who are keeping me on the field, and none of the work I am doing could be possible without you. When we get to heaven, I’ll introduce you to the people here who you helped impact. Can’t wait.
All glory to God
MG
(also, I won’t be on instagram this month but I will be on vsco, feel free to check it out to see more pictures! 😀
