On July 3rd, we arrived in Thailand!
We left Siem reap, Cambodia at 3pm on Monday, July 1st. Hopped on a bus for three hours to the Thai border. Walked across the border, hopped into three separate vans. We all met back up to say our goodbyes to team valor whom we don’t see for three weeks. We arrive at the airport at 1am where we slept and waited for our train that was at 2:30pm the next day. Took a 13 hour humbling train ride to Chiang mai and arrived at our hostel at 5am the next morning.
Our ministry hosts in Thailand who will be housing us and feeding us two meals a day is located above a cute coffee shop. All staff is so kind! All 11 of us girls get to share a hostel room together. There are two cute rooftops, one air conditioned communal room, two bathrooms and 5 showers for 15 people.
We also got to meet with our ministry partners this week who we will be working with and for on a weekly basis. While sitting down with him; we got to share a warm cup of coffee and listen to some powerful testimonies! All of which made me cry. We then got to learn more about the company of ActsCo and what we will be doing during our time here. This will include sorting, organizations, and lifting heavy boxes full of books and bibles shipped from the United States into Thailand so that they can distribute them to other ministries to help send them across borders of Unreached populations throughout Asia.
Each morning before we start ministry we get to pray over the day, the books and bibles that we touch, and just any additional prayer requests. It’s a simple yet sweet way to start our day with a reminder to put our trust in God. Just this week we have moved around 1100 boxes out of a 20 foot shipping container onto a pallet loading zone. We have to go through each box of books and sort by different genre/ Bible versions. From Tuesday-Thursday we have already sorted around 40 boxes of at least 50 books. It is so cool being able to see all these different Christian books that are out there. I really didn’t see myself as an avid book reader but I now see my self having an entire book shelf dedicated to christian books👏🏼.
ActsCo also has a BookHouse that we have access to that has many books they’ve received from LovePackages and organized. There is a bookshelf with bibles that date back to the 1300’s. The last group that was here found many things in old books and pinned them to this storage container door. There are many more but some of these just include photos, scriptures, book marks, letters/notes, etc…
On the 4th of July we got to have a little party, we all had to look through our nooks and crannies to find red, white, and blue outfits for it, one of our leaders even carried USA decor across his arch border until we got to Thailand for this very occasion.
We have already got to eat a lot of Thai food (my favorite cuisine), take many trips to the night market, this last weekend a few girls on the team and I went to a waterfall outside the city which was fun.
The culture here in Thailand has its similarities and differences in comparison to Camdbodia. Buddhism is still the number one religion, it is not customary to use your fingers to point, oh and the lines on the road in both countries—— yea those are optional and just recommendations.
We are in the city now so there are actually many differences; they do not take their shoes off when entering into homes or shops, no one takes USD, we actually see people speaking in English here, since it is more touristy you really don’t need to learn Thai. Of course being me, I had to learn a few customary greetings
Hello- swadee-Ka
Good morning- swadee don chow
Good afternoon- swadee bon bye
Good evening- swadee bon bien
Thank you- khop Kun Ka
We are so fortunate to be living in a very nice location with great living spaces. God has opened my heart and eyes for certain things I was struggling with in Cambodia and I am so thankful for this. I am still working on it but I am thankful for the the perspective change God has given me. It has been a little over one week in Thailand and I have been loving every second!
A few words from the famous Patrick
“Without God I have nothing, with God I have everything, Thank you God”
