December 23rd, 2023
Thailand was pretty cool, and even though words won’t do the wonderful experience I’ve had here justice, I’m still going to try and attempt to give you a small taste of what my short time here in this beautiful country was like.
Thailand is a stunning country, and you are overwhelmed by the beauty of God’s creation as soon as you step foot into it. Now, it was harder to experience that living in the midst of Chiang Mai, which is home to over a million people, but you were still surrounded by it. Waking up early to spend time with God in the morning and sitting on the top roof (which is 7 stories up), you could see the majesty of the mountains of Thailand despite the buildings crowded in front of it.
I have to say, the Lord taught me a lot in my first week. He is teaching me deeper every day how to find a healthy balance between being self-sufficient and depending on others. This hit me upside the head when I not only dislocated my knee, but also had a cold and was out of commission for the first week of ministry. That week was hard, but it was good, because I was able to spend a lot of time getting much needed rest and soak up a lot of time in the Word.
At the end of the week, my team received the news that one of our lovely sisters in Christ would be leaving the Race. We all knew it was for the best, but that didn’t make it any easier. So, we spent the weekend soaking up all the time we could in the joy of her presence, and then said our goodbyes early on Monday. We all miss her, but also love her deeply and we hope she is able to look at life with hope and joy again, so please be in prayer for her!
After our goodbyes were said, we loaded up in a truck and had the opportunity to help clean up a basketball court by weeding and scrubbing the court, and paint some soccer goals.
You know, sometimes you just have a sense that something is going to happen and you don’t why it’s going to happen, but you know can’t do anything about it. Well, that happened the same morning. I went to grab our typical lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and just envisioned somebody sticking their finger in the jelly and spreading it on their bread with their finger. I thought, “That is absolutely not going to happen on my watch.” So, like any level-headed person would do, I got a knife and put it in our bag for lunch.
Fast-forward to a break in between painting and weeding. Let’s set the scene. The guy we have been helping this morning graciously invites us into his nice, air conditioned house, that is beautifully decorated for Christmas. We all sit down at his dining room table to make our lunch.
Per normal, we take out the peanut butter, jelly and bread, and start making our sandwiches. One of my lovely sisters starts making her sandwich, and spreads the peanut butter on her bread with the one knife we have. Somebody else takes the peanut butter and one knife, and my lovely sister, being left with the jelly and her imagination, sticks her finger in the jelly and starts spreading it on her bread with her finger. The guy looks over at her and says, “You’ve officially achieved full missionary status.”
I have to redeem my teammate and tell another part of our ministry and a door God opened for us. Now, said teammate was in charge of team time (where we all gather to reflect on our day and give each other feedback, this time varies a lot) one night, and decided since we like boba, why not get some for team time? So, she looks up a place and we walk there. Little did we know what a blessing this place would be to us.
We got our boba, and then got to know the owner of the little shop. Her name was Eve, and although she was Buddhist, she went to a Christian school and is familiar with Jesus. We were able to tell her why we were in Thailand, and promised we would go back.
That week got busy with painting houses, going to a children’s home and building relationships with the kids through Google translate, going to a Christmas party for said kids and having a blast, and we didn’t have the opportunity to go back.
But the next week, and last week of ministry in Thailand, since our hosts didn’t have any ministry for us, we ATLed. ATL=ask the Lord, which basically means just asking Him what He would have for us to do that day for ministry.
So, setting out the first day, my team decided to go worship in a park in the morning. We did some other things and then thought, Eve. We had never went back and thought we would go back and bless her.
After our first experience with Khao Soi, and my hilarious endeavor with chopsticks, it was decided we should go back to see her.
We went back, had a good conversation with her, and prayed over her and then she blessed us with some free boba to bring back to our leader, and kindness. The Lord is still able to shine through people who are missing out on the beautiful relationship one can have when you walk with Lord.
We continued that week with ATL, and were able to have some good conversations, and blessed people by praying over them and handing out art with Bible verses and encouraging words on them to various people we met.
One day we split up and half of my team felt that the Lord had highlighted a restaurant, so we went there and then prayer walked. The other half of our team had the wonderful experience of getting to share the Gospel through Google translate when they went back to the same park we had worshipped in. That is not my story to share, but God is moving in Thailand.
We finally made it back to Eve, accompanied by one of our lovely brothers in Christ, the Canadian. It was a bittersweet time, but we were very blessed by our time with Eve, and we prayed over her one last time.
The Lord shows us that though we may never see the fruits of our labor, we can plant seeds, and rest in knowing that the Lord works in powerful ways that we can never understand, and that if we only listen earnestly to His voice, our work is never in vain.
I will never forget the glorious beauty of Thailand, the lessons I learned there, and the kindness of the people, it will always have a piece of my heart-and I will really miss the 75 cent coffee.
Blessings in Christ,
Grace Yoder
