Our ministry for the first month in Thailand is working with ActsCo. ActsCo is a company who gets church related supplies donated and sends them out to countries who don’t have access to them. My team and I were given a 40 foot container filled to the top with Sunday school supplies for all ages. We have to sort everything by age/grade and take inventory for it and load it all back in where it came from.
Most mission journeys I’ve been on in the past have been relationally driven. It mostly always was based around people. However, this is straight up manual labor. Thankfully we have shade and fans to keep us “cool” but we are sweating non-stop from the time we leave our hostel until we get home to shower. We truly do make the most of it though. Whether its jamming to music through a short-battery-life speaker or finding random animals (dead and alive (including but not limited to frogs, lizards, crabs, cows, spiders, etc)) my team and I are finding joy in the midst of our ‘struggle.’ Working and growing alongside them is my pleasure.
Our ministry seemed a little difficult at first because it is not as glamorous as other ministries. We don’t see any direct fruit and are doing the behind the scenes work. This seems disheartening at first, but we are serving the ActsCo staff by helping speed up the process by giving extra hands to get things done but also helping distribute Christian tools that can be used to change lives! At team time one night we were encouraged to pray over everything we touched; to pray for the people that will receive the supplies and pray that it will be life changing for them. That mindset has changed everything. We aren’t meant to be glorified in our ministry, we are sent to glorify God in everything we do! I am relearning that by getting sweaty and dirty and having tons of fun with my teammates.
Thailand has been great so far. I’ve seen the Lord in the city and my squadmates and I am so excited for everything that God is going to teach and show us!
