Hello from Thailand!
Last time I posted a blog, my head was swimming with the thought of making breakfast for 43 people, every morning, for an entire month. It sounded like a long long time, and I didn’t think we’d survive. Well I’m here to say that we did survive and only have a couple days left as Serve Team! Not only this, but serve team has actually grown on me and I think I’ll miss it…..
Tomorrow is the last official ministry day for a while because we’re going to another city this Tuesday for month one debrief! I don’t know exactly what to expect, but I assume that debrief will consist of Squad time, discussing ministry, and recharging for the next month of ministry here in Thailand. As much as I’m dreading packing (I’ve made this place home:), I’m actually kind of excited about going to a new place! We’ll serve breakfast until Tuesday, and then start a new adventure!
After debrief, most of us will come back to Zion Hostel (a couple teams will go to different ministry sites) to begin our new ministries. The boys’ team (BOZ) will be in charge of breakfast and I have been informed that protein—in the form of eggs—will be served in abundance. It’ll be an interesting month! Thanks, boys, for taking on this daunting task! I’m counting on y’all for some hardy food ;P.
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Please keep reading!
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Even though serve team has grown on me, and I’ve learned to love it (#blessingsfromthelord), I am so ready to interact with the Thai people! Well God, being completely aware of this desire of mine, has actually given me several random, very unique opportunities to interact with the natives!
I usually come out to the coffee bar on the ground level (pun completely intended) to journal, spend time with the Lord, blog, and call friends/family (in fact I’m out here right now!), and I’ve actually had some pretty interesting interactions with people walking on the street right in front of me. Most people walk straight by without acknowledging me, some people turn to greet me, and others actually start conversations with me!
Rewind back to our first few days of ministry (refer to the “My New Home” Blog where I talk about our ATL ministry). During ATL (“ask the Lord”), we literally walk the streets of Chiang Mai and go wherever the Lord leads. Before setting out on our adventure, we prayed for God to show us specific things to guide us along the way. As soon as I closed my eyes, I vividly saw an elderly man sitting on a rock ledge, holding a snow-white and fluffy spherical object that looked like a massive cotton ball. My teammates saw several other vivid images too, and so we set out looking for those specific things.
After several hours, we walked back home feeling quite discouraged. Not only did we not see any of these images, but we didn’t see anything even similar to the images. I thought the image was from the Lord, but I began to second guess myself since He hadn’t shown me anything. My leader encouraged me and told me not to lose heart, because the Lord is always faithful. She said that He might reveal the meaning of my image in a couple weeks or months! But in frustration, I dismissed this possibility.
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The very next night while I was outside on my computer, an elderly man came up to the side of the street and started rummaging through our garbage bags for food. My heart hurt as I witnessed him searching for a bite to feed his hungry stomach. He occasionally glanced up at me and so I returned the favor with smiles of compassion. Eventually, he approached me and asked for a drink of water.
With haste, I grabbed my laptop, ran up the stairs to the kitchen, and came back down with a bottle of water. He was drunk out of his mind, bloodshot in his eyes, and mumbling for the right words to say. Given his very limited English, we “talked” using mostly hand motions. I couldn’t understand much, but I did gather that he doesn’t have money and his three children died after his wife left him. I didn’t know what to say because he couldn’t understand me, and so I told him goodnight in Thai and went inside, heavy-hearted.
The next night, I was Face Timing my friend on the stairs when one of my teammates comes rushing by saying, “excuse me, excuse me! Gotta get some water for this homeless man!” No sooner had she uttered those words then I was running downstairs to see who this homeless man was. Sure enough, the same man was back! Excited for another ministry opportunity, I kinda took over the situation and handed him the water. We got to talking, but the conversation was pretty much the same as before: no money, no food, no children.
Within a couple of minutes, the conversation actually became a little sketchy, but there were other Squadmates hanging out so I felt safe (that clarification was solely intended for my concerned parental and grandparental units:). He started saying/inferring some wacky things that I tried to look past—I wanted to see him as a human being made in the image of God, instead of a man defined by his circumstance. Sure enough, I was able to look beyond these things and love him as a fellow human being.
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After a few minutes, I had an epiphany! This elderly man–although not holding a white spherical object–had a clean-kempt snow-white beard resembling that of a cotton ball. This might not sound strange since a lot of guys have beards, haha. But this was no ordinary beard. It looked EXACTLY like the object I saw in the vision. I know that anyone can make connections with anything if you try hard enough, but there’s something that makes this scenario unique: I didn’t find a single thing when I was searching during ATL, yet I found this when I wasn’t searching. This is how I know that the image was indeed from the Lord and that this man was the man in that image! Once I had that realization, I couldn’t help but continue talking and loving him, despite his ragged appearance, lack of speech, and state of mind.
All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit told me to pray for him. He had no idea what I was doing or saying, but I just began to pray out loud. I caught him smiling out of the corner of my eye and felt like the Holy Spirit was doing something in him. I prayed that God would give him more coherent speech and give me the ability to understand him. Sure enough the Lord granted these things, and the man began speaking more clearly.
He hasn’t come back since. It was as if God gave me a second chance to realize that this was the man he put in my mind since I was too blind to see so the first time. There’s no telling how much he understood (if any), but if nothing else, I planted a seed in this man’s heart and brightened his day. I was doubtful; the Lord was faithful (surprise, surprise); my eyes were opened. Moral of the story: wait on the Lord!
Gotta get some rest so I can teach English in a Monk Monastery tomorrow!
Love,
-Samantha
