I wrote the last blog only a few hours before we left for Thailand. I did not sleep that night. It definitely reflected my time in Malaysia to just not sleep before travel day. There were probably six or seven of us who stayed up the whole night just because we had to get up at 4:00 anyway, so what’s the point of getting like two hours of sleep? Obviously there’s no point, so we just didn’t. 😉
So I started my travel day on zero hours of sleep. We woke up and finished the cleaning and packed up our beds. PT got us curry puffs for breakfast, so we gobbled them up, prayed for our hosts, they prayed for us, and we said our goodbyes and got on the bus to Thailand. We drove maybe four hours to the Thailand border, where we stopped to go through customs. Praise the Lord because there were no major issues at customs. Well, one person did forget there passport on the bus for the passport check, but I got through first and ran to the bus to grab it and pass it over the fence so they could get through. So not a major issue. We continued the bus ride to Hat Yai, and this time Jackson traded seats with me so I could sleep across two seats. We sat at the train station for a few hours before we said our goodbyes to team Summit, who would be on a later train than us.
The train ride to Bangkok was a total of 16 hours… I think. The train was set up with benches for two people facing each other. There were big windows on the sides that were open, so there was great airflow, but it was also very loud. It was quite a struggle to get all of our giant bags on the train. They did not all fit on the overhead racks, but we got it figured out one way or another. Not only was there not enough space for the bags, but there was not enough seats for all of us. I’m still not sure what the mixup was, but myself and two other girls on my squad were stuck standing for a good ten minutes probably before the train people figured out how to get us seats. After that I was in the same seat for the rest of the time and various strangers sat next to me between different stops. I talked to the first one a little. Most of you probably know that I don’t love striking up a conversation with random people I don’t know, so it was definitely stretching for me. Everyone after her was quiet, which didn’t bother me. Then at some point there were no more strangers and I slept off and on for the rest of the train ride.
We got to Bangkok at around 7:30am, and we started off our day with goodbyes to team SNL (Gabi’s team), who headed off to their ministry in Bangkok. So then it was just the MOGs and team Radiant for a bit while team Summit was still on their train. We grabbed waffles for breakfast and bought our tickets for the train to Chiang Mai. We hung out at the train station in Bangkok, got lunch, slept a little bit, and got on the train to Chiang Mai at 2:00 pm.
The train ride was 14 hours long. I didn’t really get to sleep except for a tiny bit at the end. I finished my book and then I switched seats and ended up having a really long conversation with Jackson. It was good! But then I wanted to sleep and there were people lying across most of the seats and people on the floor between the seats, so there was not still room for me to lay down anywhere. I was stuck in my one seat next to Jackson. So I tried sleeping a little, but it didn’t go super well.
After we got off the train, we said the rest of our goodbyes and then we didn’t see any of the other teams anymore. We picked up some breakfast at the 7/11 and headed to the bus station. Once we got on the bus, we had about a two hour bus ride to Chiang Dao! Maya and I saw water buffalo and an elephant from the bus! Our new host, Wanida, picked us up at the bus stop and we finally made it to our new home! We showered and took naps and enjoyed a hot breakfast. It was perfect! Since then we’ve spent our time on garden work around the house and learning how to cook Thai food. Last night we made Pad Thai, and it was delicious! We get hot meals three times a day, and there’s fresh fruit and vegetables at pretty much every meal.
I am not in lack
One of the themes God has been teaching me is that I am truly never in lack. I’ve been reading through the books of the law, and there are several times that it mentions that the Israelites were not lacking anything. I’ll share…
Deuteronomy 2:7
For the Lord your God has blessed you in all that you have done; He has known your wanderings through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have not lacked a thing.
Deuteronomy 8:6-10
At this point I’m just taking you with me on my chronological trip through the Bible. I feel like it comes up pretty much every week.
As the people of Israel were preparing to enter the promise land, one of the things that God reminds them is that He had provided for them so that they had “not lacked a thing.” However, they were not living in fancy houses with running water and cozy beds and five course meals. They were wandering in the wilderness. That’s not exactly what you would expect for God’s chosen people, but yet He still remains truthful in saying that they were not in lack. They had everything they needed because the Lord was still their Provider, even in the wilderness.
Like the Israelites, I’m also transitioning to a new country. I also have the opportunity to look back at what God has done during my time in Malaysia. The Lord highlighted to me that I am not in lack when I don’t have physical things. I wasn’t in a five star hotel, but I still had everything that I needed from the Lord. I’ll offer some examples so you get what I mean.
I am not in lack when…
- We run out of toast.
- Two pieces of broccoli is my total fruit and vegetable intake for four days.
- I get three to four hours of sleep per night regularly.
- My neighbors take over some of my sleeping pad and I have 14 inches of width to work with.
- I can’t go for walks because it might attract the police’s attention.
- I have zero personal space because I live in basically two rooms with 34 people.
- We run out of toilet paper.
The Lord is absolutely enough when I don’t have what feel like basic human needs. If I had been operating on my own strength, I would not have operated at all in Malaysia. I’m an introvert. I need space. I should not be able to function when I’m around 33 other people plus the locals 24/7. But the Lord sustained me. I didn’t get sick (at least not enough to need to go to the clinic), I didn’t miss a single day of ministry, and I even started scheduling one-on-ones to connect with people more. Naturally, I would have been hiding with a blanket over my head and doing my best to avoid people, but I was truly running with the joy of the Lord as my strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
I’ve moved out of that season of being sustained by the Lord in physical struggles and into a new season where my relationships are changing. I believe that the Lord is going to continue to show me that He is enough even when I have only my nine teammates for community.
Deuteronomy 8:6-10
Therefore, you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land where you will eat food without scarcity, in which you will not lack anything; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
As the Israelites looked forward into the promised land, the Lord promised them that they would not lack anything in the new land. He would be their Provider, but this time, if they chose to be obedient to the Lord’s commands, they would live in abundance. He describes the beauty of the land, and it honestly kind of reflects my new home in Thailand! Really just the mountains and the food, actually. We’re not mining any copper that I know of. 🙃 We do get fresh fruit every day, sometimes straight off the tree! It’s the best. And we are so satisfied in all that the Lord has given us.
We have all our physical needs, but we are still in a learning curve of learning to work together and love each other well. It’s a new challenge that I know that God will teach us many lessons through, and I’m already seeing the fruit of choosing to love and choosing to have patience. I can’t wait to see how our love for each other grows! I was listening to some of my friends giggling together last night after lights out, and it just brought me so much joy! I love my team.
GiGi and I have been appointed as worship coordinators for the time that we are separated by teams, so we had a meeting this week to create a worship schedule. We are so blessed to have the evenings open every day! We are taking advantage of that and having team worship or team prayer every night. So far it’s the best! I really think it will help our team a lot to be looking at God together every night.
Leaning in
If I’m being completely honest, I do miss my new friends from the other teams. I miss my family, too. I almost cried looking at pictures of my sister Joanna today (nothing against Abby and Ethan, but Google pictures decided to compile Joanna’s photos today 🙃). I’m used to having my other friends from the squad around 24/7, so it’s a big change when the people you spend 90% of your time with for two months suddenly aren’t there. But I have peace with the Lord that He has put me here with these nine other racers for a reason, and He wants me to lean into my relationships with them and my relationship with Him.
So that’s what I’m going to do. Even though it means loosening my grip on contacting the other people I love and miss. I’m making a commitment to myself and to the Lord that I will only use WiFi once or twice a week on specified days. That means that those are the only times I will hear from all of you guys. The rest of the time I will spend pressing into my team and digging into my Bible and prayer.
This is day number one of being WiFi free (it’s Wednesday right now), and it’s already hard. It was really tempting to go to the coffee shop with everyone else and use the WiFi to at least see what days my friends are most available so I schedule to use WiFi on those days, but I’m trusting the Lord that if He wants me in touch with people, He will open the doors. I’m sticking to my commitment and waiting until Saturday to use WiFi so I can post my blog on time. Or I might switch to Monday, which is my first Sabbath. We’ll see how the Spirit leads. I know that I am not in lack relationally when I have the Lord. He was enough in Malaysia and He is enough in Thailand. He will always be enough for me.
