I was sitting here trying to put myself in the shoes of everyone back home and I realized it is probably really hard to imagine what life is like here. So I decided I would write a blog describing what life looks like at the moment.
Since being on the race I quickly learned that this is very different from an ordinary mission trip. We are living “normal” life, but just in another country. We eat meals, go to work, laugh, cry, get tired, get lazy, get excited and sleep just like everyone else. The difference is the food we eat, our job is going to ministry, sometimes we sleep on the floor, we live out of a backpack and we just happen to live with a lot more people than we are used to.
Living situation-
My team of 8 is separate from the rest of the squad until the end of February. We are living in a small village in Chiang Dao, Thailand. This place is straight out of a movie. My team and I live in a little log cabin in the middle of a jungle, surrounded by mountains. IT IS SO PRETTY. Our backyard is full of coconut, mango, banana and a million other fruit trees. It is super cold in the morning and nights, but hot during the day. There are dogs and cats everywhere. According to our bff (we call him B), there is a cave with 30 evil monkeys close by, but luckily we have yet to meet them.
The house we live in is owned by a local family, whom is now our family. All the neighboring homes are owned by all of their relatives, so we live in a village of their whole family. They are so unbelievably loving and kind. It hasn’t even been a week and we are already calling them Meh (mom), Pour (dad), Na (auntie) and Yalee (Grandma). Don’t even get me started on Yalee, seriously she is the cutest woman to ever walk the planet earth. None of them speak English but B, so a lot of the time we just laugh at each other and make funny noises. I wish everyone could experience the absolute Joy that fills the room when we all worship together, singing the same song at the same time but in two different languages. JESUS KNOWS NO LANGUAGE BARRIER PEOPLE!!
We all sleep in one room, on the floor, on our blow up sleeping pads we brought from home (mama, we picked a good one). It’s basically a slumber party 24/7, who could really complain? We have a western toilet which is blessings all around considering most of Asia only has squatty potties. We have one stall that we share with a bucket shower on the inside for showering. The water is pretty cold but don’t worry, if you time it right it feels pretty good. Our hosts make us 3 meals a day, authentic thai food. It depends who you ask but I personally love the food and can never get enough of it. Snacks aren’t really an option which is a blessing for my wallet. Last but not least, we don’t have wifi anywhere within reach besides at the schools we teach at. We spend most of our free time painting, writing and jammin’ out on the guitar (yay for socialization!!!).
Ministry-
On Monday, Wednesday and Friday we hop in the back of a pick up truck and ride about 10 minutes to teach at a primary school from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. On Tuesday we drive about 20 minutes to teach at a highschool from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm. These schools are Buddhist schools that have never been reached by missionaries or Americans so we have a really amazing opportunity right in front of us. We are stepping in as English teachers for these 7 weeks. It’s challenging because quite literally no one speaks any English, but it’s been amazing to learn the things that surpass language barriers. We are all split up into pairs for our classes.
Madison and I have a class of about 15 six year olds in the morning and a class of 6 nine year olds in the afternoon. Then on Tuesdays we teach the highschoolers. When we aren’t teaching, we work together to create lesson plans, make worksheets and think of new ways to somehow make English seem fun. Shout out to all my school teachers, lesson planning is NOT the easiest thing I have done in my life time.
On the weekends, we will get to spend lots of time with the family, going out and exploring or maybe just staying in. This is the first time our team has lived with a local family and it’s amazing to have the opportunity to minister to them all the time, not just our “set” ministry hours. It’s really sweet getting to know them and being able to teach each other little parts of our languages. My personal favorite part is we have 2-3 meals a day together, family styled. We sit and eat at a long table together and pass the dishes around, serving one another. After dinner sometimes we will bring out the guitar and worship. The neighbors always end up coming and joining us once they hear the singing. It’s so pure.
On Sundays we will get to go to the local church, share our testimonies and teach the people of the church american worship songs. B will be our translator. My team and I are going to try to learn a song in Thai to perform, we will see how well that works out. B says that our local church is primarily new Christians who converted recently from Buddhism. Christians are the extreme Minority in Thailand so it’s beautiful to get to first hand see the Christian population growing. I’m excited to be able to share my testimony in front of the church body knowing a lot of them can relate it back to their personal life.
Jesus has been really good to my team for giving us this place. All of us prayed for something special and we all agree that this place is special. I’m excited for the stories and testimonies that I know are coming. I hope this gives everyone a little bit of insight on what life is like right now. If anyone has any questions I would love to answer them, just let me know!!
Fundraising update– I’m only $2,300 from being fully funded!!! I’m so close!! Praying big prayers!
Samantha Barnhart
