The biggest challenge that I have faced while living in
community has been the constant refining of one another. Since we are
constantly around one another we are able to see the characteristics that God
has changed in each of us and what God is still working on. It is often
difficult to want to call people out when they are not representing Christ. But
we would not be showing love towards each other if we didn’t call each other to
a higher standard. One of the team norms that my previous team had was “Love
each other enough to not leave each other where we are at”. I think that
statement really hits home what loving one another means. It’s not just kind
acts of service or words of encouragement; it’s about wanting the best for each
other. It’s about pushing one another into the destiny that God has for each of
us. I’m not going to lie it sucks at times because this way of life reveals my
faults, but where I’ am weak the Lord is strong. He has promised to complete
the good work he has started in me. In reality this way of life has brought me
closer to the Lord because it identifies the areas I need to lay at His feet
and allow Him to work in.
My favorite country so far has been Thailand. Thailand is
incredibly beautiful. I loved spending time in Chiang Mai, which is a small
city in the northern region. Chiang Mai has the original moat that surrounded
the city way back when it was established; the city has a real ancient feel to
it. But it has modern conveniences like: malls, car dealerships, A/C,
McDonalds, etc. It also has the coolest night market I have ever seen on the
race, at night some of the city streets are closed off to cars and TONS of
people come out and sell their goods. It’s like walking into Walmart lol, you
can get anything you could ever want there. It’s also cool because they have
people who do traditional Thai dancing in the streets, or play Thai music on
stages they set up. Then there’s Bangkok, which I loved hanging out in, it has
subway systems and decent city bus systems so it’s easy to get around. I
wouldn’t live in Bangkok but it’s fun to visit; it has an IMAX movie theater in
the Paragon Mall and some really good restaurants. It’s kind of like an Asian
version of New York City. For debrief we went to Hua Hin which is a beach town
that was originally established for the King. It’s a tourist attraction so you
can do all sorts of things like: horseback riding, Jet Ski, rent scooters, etc.
I couldn’t do any of those things but it was just nice to lay on the beach with
my family. I can see myself going back there and possibly living there. There
are tons of Toyota dealerships for me to work at and earn an income. The people
are rather friendly. I found that I have a heart for the women who are
entrapped in the Sex trafficking industry, so I could do ministry there. I
would definitely go back to Thailand out of all the other countries.
