like a child: opportunity to depend

Welcome to a world of different. Almost everything here in Thailand is exactly that, different. The food is different, the people are different, traveling and traffic are different, the beds are different, the climate and the creatures are also, you guessed it, different. I could go on and on, but no need, I'm sure you get the picture. We're not in America anymore. And it's a pure blessing. We're just over a week in and in the words of one of our team members, we are "hitting walls" with some of the differences. It's getting tough for some of us to eat rice for every meal, tough to go to campus everyday with a smile on and new questions on our minds to have new conversation with the same people we've been having small talk with all week. It's exhausting for some to carry on conversations with people who don't even speak our language. And yet, a pure blessing. In these times of exhaustion and plain discomfort we are being stretched. We are growing. In perspective training this morning we learned that this summer is going to be tough. But that we already knew. What he pointed out that I found to be a nugget was that this summer our comforts will be taken away and the sin in our hearts are going to start bubbling to the top out of a lack of depression. If we were at home we could go to the nearest coffee shop and wind down, we could curl up in a nice cozy bed and have a "me" day, go out with some friends to our favorite restaurant and order our favorite dish, or even just call up our bff and have a chat. Whatever comforts we have at home did not follow us here to Thailand and it's in having these comforts things go unnoticed. There's not much chance to be alone here either; just one of the many things our hearts are going to have to sift through. Transparency, anyone? Normally, I would say no thank you, but here that's not an option. We will learn as the Body and grow as the Body.

Going to campus this week has been an awesome experience. I've had the opportunity to everyday ask God to be my smile, my words and to give me questions and boldness. I've loved it! He has been faithful in each day.

The Thai people have made me consider how I treat others. They don't know us from the man in the moon, but they have a genuine interest in each of us. My ministry group goes everyday to make friends in a department known as the TESOL. These young men and women are learning English and how to teach it. Because of that, a great number of them speak very good English, and since we can't speak Thai, communication is made possible. This is not exactly the case for other ministry groups, but they are seeing fruit of their own. The girls we sit with will share their lunch with us and even buy us some food now and then. I've had them buy me an ice cream cone and some fruit. They have such goodness in them. I'm looking forward to knowing some of them better and definitely excited to hear, maybe years down the road, about who God has called to Himself. The opportunity to depend has made me more like a child.