Beach Trips and the Red Light District- Weeks 3&4

I can barely believe it but my month of training with ISM is up, I’m moved into my new place, and I officially start at NightLight on Monday!

Training was one of those times that seemed to last 50 years and five seconds at the same time.  I just met these girls, we were together constantly for four weeks straight and now some of them are onto other parts of Asia for their internship placements and I didn’t realize until this morning when it was happening how sad it would be to say goodbye to them.   Even though goodbyes are never fun, I try and always be thankful for the hellos.  I’m now living with three other girls from ISM- Kate, Leesh, and Liv. We are all working at organizations that work with victims of the sex industry here in Bangkok and Liv will be at NightLight with me until late April.  I can hardly wait to see what sharing life with these women brings!

Since my last post, so many awesome things happened during training.  One highlight was our highly anticipated beach day.  We loaded up a giant van and drove 2 hours to Ko Samet, a lovely island beach with bright blue water and palm trees and white sand.  After having class or outreach every single day it was a much needed refreshing day!  My favorite part of the day was parasailing.  As I was casually flying through the air surrounded by blue ocean and sky, it sunk in a little more deeply that I am really here, that God really did call me here.  His glory was oh so abundant in that beautiful place, such a sweet reminder to have. 

On a more sobering note, we did a prayer walk in the red light district.  It was surreal.   I can’t believe all of the events, big and small, that have led up to that moment.  Who would have imagined that I would be here in Thailand, spending a year of my life?  I had many, many, thoughts and feelings about it.  The heaviness was palpable, yet so was the hope.  More than any of the sadness, anger, or disgust that I feel, burns my passion to see these women know who they are in Christ.  I know that I’ll have much more to say about all of this once I start my time with NightLight. 

I appreciate all of your prayers and kind words to me so far.  I would especially love your prayers as I begin this new phase of my life here, for my work at NightLight and for my new little home here.  Pray that our adjustments to our placements would be smooth.  Thank you so much!

Ko Samet I love you

Love these girls so much!

Old Friends and the Best Food Ever- Week 2

I can't believe its been 12 days since I last posted.  Oops.  Time is flying!  This week I rode on my first motorcycle taxi, decided that my new favorite food is mango sticky rice, and accidentally blew out half of my friends birthday candles while I was giving him his cake.  Double oops.

One of the most notable events of the past week that a friend of mine from Hope, Chris, was in town for a few days (including his birthday involving the partially extinguished cake).  I think I exhaled too much or something.  Anyways.  I hadn't even been here for two weeks when already another time in my life intersected with my life here.  It was so great to show him around with my still very limited Bangkok knowledge and for my ISM friends to meet him.  We had some great conversations and Chris and I discovered not one but two amazing coffee shops here in the city.  Coffee shops are somewhere that I love to be and that help me feel at home.  I'm thankful to have already found some places that can be that for me here!  I love how diverse the international community is.  There are all sorts of people from all over the world here at the YWAM base, and one of my ISM classmates had some friends visiting from Sweden who  have been with us for the past week.

On Saturday, we went to Thai cooking school and it might actually have been the best food I have ever eaten.  We made tom yum (soup), pad thai, spring rolls, green curry, and mango sticky rice.  The recipes were pretty easy and so delicious!

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to NightLight's church (the ministry I will be working with starting next month).  It was incredible.  Even though worship was in Thai, we knew many of the songs and God's presence was heavy in the room.  We sang "Break Every Chain" which took on a deeper meaning than it had for me before.  I'm so excited to begin serving with them!

God has been answering my prayers for more of Him this past week.  It was our "Spiritual Week" and we had some awesome teachings on a variety of topics.  I'm thankful for a deepened desire for His presence and for a community around me that is running with me towards more of Him and His glory.  He is worthy and He is worth it!

Glory be to the God who breaks every chain!

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Only some of the delicious things I get to eat here!

Sawatdee kha from Thai cooking class!

Yes, I'm Alive and in Bangkok!

Well here I am in Bangkok.  I arrived on what here was Sunday night, while all you at home were starting your Sunday mornings.  I just wanted to give a quick update to let everyone know that and how my time has been so far.  I jumped right into my Impact School of Missions classes on Monday morning.  So far we’ve talked about culture and contexualizing and sharing the Gospel in Asian cultures.   Yesterday morning we had a basic intro crash course in Thai language which was super helpful.  I can already more clearly recognize some of the sounds that I hear in speech and I have a better idea of how to pronounce the Romanized Thai words that are on street signs or whatever.  And it may be too early to say this, but I think that my limited study of Chinese may be helpful in learning Thai as both languages are tonal and the tones are actually quite similar.  I’m also much more motivated with language this time around since I’m starting out immersed, I know my need to communicate.

In my training group are eight other girls ages 18-25, representing the US, Canada, the UK, Thailand, and Australia.  Out of nine of us we will be heading out to serve in Thailand, Cambodia, India, and the Philippines at the end of the month after training.  I’m enjoying getting to know everyone so far and I know that we will have many more adventures together!  

One question that I got a lot before I left home was what my living situation will be here in Thailand.  We are staying at the YWAM base here in Bangkok for the first month (shout out to all my YWAM friends!) and I share a room with three of the other girls.  After that I will be living with three other ISM students who are doing internships here in Bangkok.  That will change again in April as some of the girls head home at that time, and I’ll decide what to do from there later on.

Thank you all so much for praying!  I'll have more to share soon!