hello!! this next blog is for all of the people out there who are wondering what our day to day agenda looks like. waking up is a free for all kind of occurence. everyone wakes up at their own time to get whatever it is they need to get done. we have devotionals starting bright & early at 7 am. we gather in one room but take time to spend with the Lord on our own. it ranges from 45 minutes to an hour & is a wonderful way to start off our mornings. from there we go to the kitchen in our hostel & our lovely serve team (one of the team of girls on my squad) gives us our breakfast that they have personally taken the time to prepare. we then have around an hour of free time before ministry which I have been using as time for myself because as I mentioned in my last blog, I am not very good at that. I am learning & I am growing & it’s so exciting!!
from there we all go & gather outside around 9:15 where we wait for our songthaew to pick us up. a songthaew is similar to a taxi system but is a truck with benches that hold up to 10 people. my teammates & I pack into one everyday to ride to & from ministry. it is one of the highlights of my day because I get to enjoy the presence of my teammates & with each day we get to know more & more about each other. along with a beautiful view of thailand that we can see out our windows (you seriously can’t get enough of the views here). we arrive to ministry by 10 which is an explanation that deserves its own paragraph.
here we are in the actsco warehouse. by warehouse I mean four storage crates with books & boxes piled to the tippy top in the middle of a random field. also in this field is our homie Karen. she is a precious lil cow we befriended & that belongs to our neighbor at the ministry site. after a lot of hard work we reward ourselves by going to pet Karen. hard work which entails us taking the books & sunday school material out of the crates, setting them on wood palettes to be organized & inventoried, then back into the crate they go. as the self-proclaimed title of “inventory manager” I have a spreadsheet on file where I record the brand or author of each book or Sunday school resource, a description of it, & the number quantity. thanks to my dad’s girlfriend, I have experience working with her where I took inventory on the daily. with that I am happy to contribute in this way, despite the fact I didn’t think I would ever do something like this again, especially having to do with missionary purposes. in fact, it was something I struggled to accept right off the bat. it’s hard thinking that we were coming here to serve people when in reality we are only with each other as a team and our ministry host. David!!! The freaking man. David is scottish but has lived in Thailand for 18 years out of his 30 years living in Asia. he has only been with this company for about two months but I am positive he has made a wonderful addition. he is incredibly caring, always reminds us how appreciative he is for our help & brings us ice cream at the end of the day. also last week I was craving a salad real bad & then he brought us all salads for lunch a few days later so that is the kind of guy he is & it really is a privilege to work with him for our first month. and truth is, even though the packages & books are incredibly heavy & we sweat buckets every minute, it’s an experience I will remember forever. it is not easy or glamourous by any means but has taught me that even when we feel like we aren’t helping the community or see the fruit, we are still expanding the Kingdom of God. sure we don’t see the books, bibles, & sunday school material given to the people but we can pray over each resource & ask the Lord to use it to change someone’s life. to know that we are facilitating the process for people to access & understand the gospel… that is something to be pumped about. also a HUGE shoutout to my teammates for bearing with me when I lost a some papers containing our inventory from our first couple days, when I have mental breakdowns as packages are being thrown at me to inventory, & for making legitimately any situation or circumstance enjoyable.
enough about ministry but just wanted to share a glimpse of how we have spent six hours of our days this month. after ministry we come home to shower because like I mentioned before, we sweat. so. much. after I feel even the slightest bit less disgusting, I have been devoting time to reading a book. yes mom & dad, you read that right. I am reading an actual book. at the moment the book I am reading is called Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper & it is INCREDIBLE. I am not that far into it but it is already teaching me a ton so stay tuned because I will most likely right a blog about it.
once I am done spending my much needed alone time after ministry, I get back with my team for dinner & team time. we are required to go out for dinner every night since every team has a different schedule. there are markets up & down the streets so it’s not hard to scrap up an easy & delicious meal. after we eat we go back to our hostel that we are staying at to have team which looks different every night. this is another highlight of my day because we are able to be vulnerable, encouraging to each other, & really press into what the Lord is doing here. for real, I am a big fan of team time & all that comes with it.
to conclude my day, after team time I will hang with people if I am willing but in reality, sleep calls my name most nights.
days are long, and often not super easy, but they are good. so so good. God is definitely on the move in this place & I am so glad He chose me to be a part of it all.
sorry this was so long & probably quite boring but it will save me a lot of time when people are actually interested about what a “day in the life” looks like. as always, thanks for taking the time to read this & for continuous support & prayer!!
