Khap Kun Kha, Thailand!

A lot has happened since my last update! I wrapped up ministry in Thailand, our squad had our first debrief in Chiang Mai, we carried out ministry in Sungai Petani, Malaysia, I was selected to become a raised up Squad Leader to take over for our alumni Squad leaders that served in the first half of the trip, we had our mini debrief in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, we had team changes, then my new team did ministry in the Philippines in a town called Angeles, and now we’re in Ethiopia! I’ll start from where I last left off, wrapping up ministry in Thailand. 

Thank you, Fountain of Hope, for welcoming us in and treating us like family! I miss you all so much! 

During our final weeks of ministry at Fountain of Hope, we were able to celebrate the graduation of two of the kids from high school! We also served through farming more cassava and through building a retaining wall, which has been needed for awhile. The retaining wall that was there was not strong enough and was beginning to break, so we prepared for building a stronger retaining wall that would be built right next to the existing one to reinforce it. We dug holes for the posts to be placed into, we made posts by bundling four pieces of rebar together with rectangular pieces of metal and wire. We placed these posts in the holes, mixed and poured concrete to hold the posts in place, and then we strong pieces of rebar horizontally through the posts and tied it in place with wire. We also cut bamboo to size, which would later be used to hold the forms in place when the concrete for the wall would be poured. The rest of the wall was finished by the family after we left. We weren’t able to complete the wall while we were there because we also helped execute an English camp, where over 60 kids came to learn English. Some of these kids were believers already and some were not. 

For English camp, Alex, the English teacher who comes every Saturday to teach the kids, planned out a schedule for English camp which included a circuit of varying topics to cover for the kids that they would rotate through. My topic was music, and I taught the kids a few songs in English, like Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, He’s Got the Whole World, Jesus loves me, etc. We also played games like giant scrabble. 

It was such a lovely opportunity to pour into these kids and show them the love of Jesus, and it was so great to be able to help carry out the vision that Aaron and Wanida had for English camp! It was their first time doing it, and they hope to continue to do it, and use it as a way to reach and minister to kids, while providing an opportunity for them to have some fun and learn some English. 

Putting on English camp was a great way to finish out our ministry in Thailand! We said goodbye to everyone and Aaron and Wanida drove us to Chiang Mai for our mini debrief. It was such a pleasure to do ministry with Fountain of Hope. They are doing such amazing things by taking care of these kids along with additional outreach. They so beautifully exemplify what it looks like to fully trust in the Lord and follow Him in obedience. I love everyone there so much and I miss them so much, but I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to serve with them and build relationships with them! 

Please keep them in your prayers, and if you would like to continue to support them, check out my previous post for ways to do that! 

Debrief

After serving in Chiang Dao, all three teams met up in Chiang Mai for two weeks for a teaching week and a debrief week. Our squad mentor Hannah flew out to join us. You can check out a tour that I took of our AirBnB here. During teaching week, Stephanie, who is the director of the World Race, and Ricardo, her husband who provides support to men on the race, came out to teach us on various topics along with Hannah on things like the timeline of the Bible, spiritual warfare, listening to the Holy Spirit, etc. It was a busy week jam packed with a lot of teaching, worship, freedom sessions, and more, which was all very enriching and beneficial. The AirBnB we stayed at had an electric organ which I got to play for worship, which I was really excited about. I never thought I would use my organ playing skills I gained in college on the World Race! We also had the chance to all go to an elephant sanctuary and follow them around in their habitat which was really cool.

The second week, our squad coaches came out to join us for teachings and one on ones. The second week didn’t exactly go according to plan, though. We had to extend our visas for Thailand because we would be staying a few days beyond what our original visas allowed, but there were issues with trying to get paperwork from our AirBnB host, and it ended up taking a few days of us hanging out at the mall while this got all sorted out. Our logistics team and leadership did an amazing job of rolling with the punches and getting our visas figured out!

During our second week, we had some one on ones and a teaching as well, and we explored a waterfall. During our last full day we experienced an earthquake that we could very clearly feel. We also found out that two of our squad mates would be going home. We had our world rocked both physically and metaphorically. It was really hard lose members of the squad that we had gotten to know. 

We then began our long travel down to Malaysia. We took a 10 hour bus ride to Bangkok where we spent most of the next day. Some of us explored, some people stayed in shops. I played tourist for the day and checked out the Grand Palace and some of the temples and prayed over them. We then took another bus to Hatyai, then a couple of trains down to Sungai Petani, where we began our ministry there. 

Things to pray for: 

That God would bless Aaron and Wanida and the kids at Fountain of Hope, and that funds would be provided to continue to support them in their ministry as they seek out government certification, along with their daily needs.

That God would bless the squad mates that went home in this next chapter of their lives.

That God would provide funding for my squad mates that are still actively fundraising to allow them to continue to do ministry on the field.  If you would like to support them, check out this link.