Paul McCartney chose Searchin’ as one of his Desert Island Discs in 1982. McCartney performed the song with The Beatles during their audition for Decca Records on 1 January 1962 (with somewhat mangled lyrics that included a mention of Peter Gunn).
As noted in my prior blog here… this is my 2nd blog of my Unsung Hero two-blog obligation…. Blog-bligation?
As the title indicates, our main task during the month is searching. Searching for more ministry contacts, searching for internet, searching for songthaew’s (Song t-ows), searching for street signs, meeting spots and ministry locations, searching for God, searching for the hearts of your teammates, searching…
I began my 9th month after about 80+ hours of travel within 4 days, going from Rochester to Buffalo, NY to Toronto to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to Lilongwe, to Cape McClear, Malawi, back to Lilongwe, to Kenya, to Bangkok to Chiang Mai, Thailand… on various forms of transportation. (Sweat much? Yes). I was re-leaving my friends and family at home since I went back to the USA briefly during month 8 for my friend, Jacob Baxter‘s funeral/celebration of his life (a blog on that later?). Mozambique (where I was suppose to be month 8) didn’t let half of my squad cross its border, so I chose instead to create my own ministry of sorts in the US. Twas a good choice despite the travel, cost, and culture shock of getting thrown back into Africa only to turn around and move to Asia.
My ministry for Thailand was Unsung Heroes, which if you recall from my Zambia blogs, is what I did there. It’s not usual that a person would do UH twice in their race (if at all, actually), but due to team changes (and maybe being one of the few who love it), I ended up getting the opportunity. There’s not a lot of ‘touching’ ministry photos, and this mission is more of an administration type/support role, rather than a lot of the ‘front lines’ we’re used to, but I find this to be a ministry I really like doing on the Race.
Our team was so strong here, that we had in-person meetings immediately. Jen Becker from my home church (New Hope FMC) set me up with Free Methodist Church contacts when I was in Zambia, and so I began with that same route in Thailand. I found a couple, Kathy and Don Williams, (who also happen to know the infamous Rev. Linda Adams too… so maybe I really do need to meet this woman?) and I sent them an email… What. A. Great. Find.
Don is the Superintendent of Grace International School which is this amazing school intended mainly for missionary children and local Thais. It’s essentially the hub of southeast Asia’s missionary world, since most surrounding countries are ‘closed’ countries so many families, from China to India and everywhere in between, send their children here. Not only is having a point person for the World Race to partner with to connect to TONS of various ministries a Networking Jackpot in itself, but the school’s students do all kinds of ministries themselves that Future WR teams can help with too.
Given that many racers use the race as an opportunity to listen to God and get a sense of where he might be calling them after the race… GIS is a WONDERFUL placement to have and connect with. Plus, if I’m personally real here… since arriving in Chiang Mai, I was falling in love despite it having everything I dislike… incredible humidity, seafood being snuck into everything, support raising, high cost of lemon juice, and crazy bugs… seriously, there was a sewer cockroach the size of my palm flying around here yesterday… gross, AND I watched giant red ants eat a tarantula the other day. That food though… mmm nom nom nom.
Thailand is incredibly ‘dark‘ with SOO many areas of front-line ministry, and though I often cringe when I think of being called out somewhere long term, mainly because I’m terrible at support raising… God has made this place easier to bear and worth whatever it would take. As I followed Kathy around for the day, I felt like I could hear God whisper: this is where you’re children will learn, this will be your neighborhood, these will be your mentors and friends, this is where your husband will coach sports, these will be your ministry objectives, this is where you will grow, serve and love me more…
and maybe that’s not till I’m 35 or something, but wow…
the friends and connections I made in Thailand made it feel like ‘home’ and hard to leave.
I also like UH months because you can be asked to do a range of quick things to help out the potential new contacts…
I painted this room and mural for Garden of Hope ministries
Spent two days in Chiang Dao living with this family/orphanage start up
and tried Korean style BBQ, at a Chinese family’s home, in Thailand, after a meeting for Japanese students to learn about about Christianity… (go figure?)
Good times. Cambodia has had a tough start… and not so bright days ahead in my opinion, and it’s only amplified by enjoying Thailand so much just last month. Pray I get through this month with joy…
Any Questions About U.H. Ministry?
Feel free to ask in the comments section or send me a message. I’m much better with pointed interest
Fundraising Update: I’m up to 24%, Thank you!!
Next Deadline is Today!
I got rid of another square since my last post, but still have 127 squares left to get rid of on my Fun[d] Board (Support Raising tool), so if you’d like to take a square or more and/or spread the word, visit my home page here to see instructions, or leave a comment w your email and I can let you know how 🙂 THANKS!
P.S. This would have been uploaded over a week ago… but, you know… I arrived in Cambodia, we have to go somewhere to find internet (via Tuk Tuk) and it’s been fragile both times. Since we have to stay in groups, I usually try to just post what loads and fix it if/when I return to internet. I think I’ll just wait till I’m back in the US to make regular clean posts because I just wasted 6 hours over two different Mondays trying to post this… to me, that’s costly and a poor use of ‘off day’ time. I really wish the situation were different so I could keep you posted more ‘in the moment.’ I apologize.
