God of Comfort: Chantaburi, Thailand
The past few weeks have been a lot about transition –
transition physically from Honduras to Thailand
transition spiritually into a new season of growth
transition emotionally from old ministries to new ministries, old friends to new friends, and old teams to new teams
transition across time zones, continents, and cultures.
Needless to say, it has been exhausting… in every sense of the word.
"Not in his goals, but in his transitions man is great." Ralph Waldo Emerson
After many sad goodbyes and final hugs in the airport in Tegucigalpa, we boarded the plane and began our first day of travel. In four days, we flew from Tegucigalpa to Miami to Los Angeles to Shanghai to Bangkok. After three rounds of Starbucks and too many hours spent napping in airplane seats and on airport floors, we finally crashed at the YWAM base in Bangkok at 3 A.M. last Tuesday. The next few days were pretty much bliss. We got to explore Bangkok for a couple days. On Thanksgiving, I missed my turkey, but I was thankful for sushi, a movie, and a long-awaited pedicure… basically heaven. These days passed quickly, though, and before we knew it, we were saying yet another round of goodbyes to our squad for six weeks as each team left for our different destinations around Thailand.
My new team, Karson, Kaci, Arielle, Kaitlyn, and I, arrived in Chantaburi a fews days ago.
On Sunday I wrote this:
Today I basically realized that I don't recognize myself anymore. I haven't showered or worn makeup in several days, and I gave the message at a church service this morning. Everyone who knows me would just laugh because neither of those things are very me… or who I used to be. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy showering anymore, it just means that somewhere in the transition from home to Honduras to Thailand, I've learned to let a lot of things go. Freedom seems to happen more and more each day, and each day I hope God will make me less of me and more of Him. I'm writing all of this from the bed of a pickup truck where all five of us are sprawled out in the ridiculously hot sun, and the breeze from this ride is the only thing saving us from humidity. We are going to our third church service of the day. During our first service at Chantaburi Evangelical Church, or the place we will call home for the next six weeks, Arielle gave part of her testimony, and I gave the message through our translator, host, and pastor. Then we piled in the truck and drove for about an hour to our second church where Kaci gave a short version of her testimony. After eating lunch on the floor with no shoes on, we once again traveled to our third and final church service of the day. While I usually would be drained from all this church-hopping, I am actually more filled up than I have been in a while, and I'm excited for our time here. I absolutely love our contact and his wife. Recently, I have been baffled by daily life, but I love that there is no telling what each day will hold.
So, Sunday was a good day.
Monday was a good day, too.
We went to a national park and got to swim in a really awesome waterfall.
Today, Tuesday, was a bit different.
I honestly don't think I have ever been more uncomfortable in life than I am now. It hit me today hard. We are teaching English to several classes of forty plus kids for four days a week for five weeks. We are visiting prisons where the kids are the same age as me. We are preaching in churches in a country where there are shrines on every corner.
We walked into a juvenile prison this afternoon and went to a room where we were greeted by 42 boys and 3 girls. We played games with them, which was fun. Then Kaci shared the gospel with them. In this room. With an 8-ft. Buddha shrine. It was pretty amazing.
"For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead." 2 Corinthians 8 & 9
It is going to take God waking me up every day and preparing me for things that I can't prepare for on my own.
It will take trust. And a lot of it.
