As I got off the plane on December 30th, I looked around at the country that had moved my heart
and changed my perspective 3 years ago. Thailand was my first mission trip and my first time to
a country completely outside of my comfort zone.
I went to Thailand a couple months after graduating high school and just a month before going to Liberty University. My later high school years were not easy and they tested my faithfulness to God. There were many days that I did not want to think about God and many times that I did not want to serve him. I was angry with God. I remember one day I was lying on my bed staring at the ceiling. I began praying out loud telling God that I was upset with him, telling him that I felt like I was talking to the ceiling and that my prayers meant nothing. I cried, I yelled, I got angry, and in the end I didn’t come to a huge revelation but I got up and realized he had heard my voice because I had more peace than I’d had for awhile. There was an understanding in my heart that my walk with God was not going to be easy and that it would take perseverance.
After this “breakthrough” I visited Liberty University and my mom saw a booth for Xtreme Impact. She told me about it when we got home and I started to brush it off because I didn’t want to apply and take the time. Mom really pushed me; she knew that ever since I was little I had said I was going to be a missionary. Naturally, I decided to look into it to get her off my back. There I was, a naïve little 18 year old suddenly wanting the adventure, signing up for the most bizarre country I could think of … Thailand. For some reason I was shocked when I got accepted and placed on the Thailand team. I didn’t know anybody going into the trip or anything about Thailand. I didn’t know this would be a trip that changed the way I viewed my future or the way Iviewed my own life.
I recall the things that shocked me about Thailand: having to put the toilet paper in the trashcan, using squatty potties, the smells, the traffic, the street food and not being able to read signs. Thinking about the shock that I experienced I can’t help but laugh. Just 5 months into this trip and I feel like a missionary pro, if that’s even possible. I have experienced smells that have caused me to lose my appetite, sights that break my heart and yes, I think I’m mastering the squatty potty.
More than the cultural shock of Thailand was the spiritual shock. I couldn’t believe the darkness that enveloped the city of Bangkok. My heart broke as we passed the temples and shrines set up all over. I couldn’t believe people worshiped something that is to me so lifeless and insignificant. I know that they fully believe in Buddha and I truly admire their devotion but my knowledge in the one true God makes it impossible for me to see their worship as anything other than meaningless. When I left Thailand I left with a renewed passion for missions, I left with a renewed faith in my Lord and a new desire to serve him with everything that I had.
The past three years haven’t been easy but the truth about perseverance that the Lord brought to me the day of my “breakthrough” has proven itself. Our individual walks with the Lord are not going to be easy and they’re not all going to be “happy” days but having faith in Him and knowing that he is doing a good work in us is going to bring us JOY through all our days. The past three years have led me here, right back to Thailand, yes a different part but back to the place that rocked my world and it’s doing it again. I can’t wait to tell you all about this ministry and more about Chiang Mai!
Romans 8:18
I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Romans 8:35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
