Hello,
We are just getting settled in Thailand, so I figured I’d share my experience for training camp and travel. This is the first consistent wifi that I’ve had, so I’ll be able to start blogging more. The number of blogs will depend on the access to wifi.
1. Our squad appears to have gotten addicted to making string bracelets. There is a girl who has been on a mission before and she made string bracelets in her free time. A majority of the squad is doing it, but I wanted to wait until it wasn’t so cold outside. When I was inside, I was reading the Bible, because I’m currently trying to get through the entire thing and notate my experience. I took a couple of days off because I’m about to start Job and it seems appropriate to start that one once I get going in Thailand. I started the string on the first plane ride, which made that ride good. My team leader actually requested one from me at some point, so she’ll be next on the string bracelet list. It’s a nice activity to do on bus and place rides.
2. Training camp was a mixture of theological sessions to make sure we had a firm foundation and scenarios for overseas. The people who are done the trip before and were running it did a very good job acting depending on the scenarios. Scenarios included an overseas airport, a house visit with a family of different faith, street evangelization, a market visit, having to stay up overnight on shifts, and working with kids. One very good example of how well that they did was the person running TSA started a frisk and pointed out that my pants were fairly loose. I explained that they normally had a belt but I had to put that with TSA, and he said that in this country many of them use rope rather than belts. It didn’t dawn on me until later that he was giving me a tip because he disguised it with security guard bater so well: use rope just in case you get frisked at TSA, also wouldn’t hold up the line by having to take off the belt that way. I also wasn’t expecting to have to be deceptive at the airport.
3. Unfortunately, the street evangelization scenario got derailed because Georgia was not prepared for snow. Instead of going to the planned mall, we went to places like target and hobby lobby while people were shopping. The group I was with wound up encouraging a couple of Christians who were in the store and trying to discuss the gospel with a deaf employee who really didn’t want to be interrupted from work. It sucks that the scenario didn’t work out as planned because talking about the gospel with strangers is an area which I really need to improve. In the market scenario, I was with my future leader and she was doing great by giving some food to the homeless and praying over the drug addicts while I was still in unsafe city mode trying to make sure that my teammates were safe and no possessions were being messed with. Not a bad inclination, but I do need to be more in evangelization mode. I did take over a bit to argue with a Jehovah’s witness at the market and during the different family of faith scenario talking to a Muslim man, but I just wish I would’ve gotten more practice. There is a mall that is great for evangelization in Thailand right next to where I’m staying so I hope to go there and get better in the first country.
4. I am actually in charge of the social media for my entire squad. I made and will be running the following accounts for Instagram, X, and Tiktok:
https://www.instagram.com/worldracessquad
https://www.tiktok.com/@worldracessquad
5. I really like my squad-mates and how they configured the teams. There are seven boys and nine girls in the overall squad. We were told that there was going to be three smaller teams, so I figured the boys were going to be arranged 3-2-2. But what they actually did was 4-3-0 for the boys. My team is led by a very high energy girl, with a laid back girl and laid back boys. The other mixed gendered team has a lot of high energy and funny personalities, led by probably the most laid back and dependable boy. The all girl team seems pretty laid back across the board, led by a former teacher. I think the personalities blend together really well.
6. After it appeared during the team activities they were closing in on an all female team, I guessed that the all female team was going to be working with female sex trafficking victims, because Thailand is apparently full of prostitution and sex trafficking. The boys were actually told that we were probably going to get cat-called more than the girls, so that will be interesting. Turns out though, my team is the one going to work with a ministry helping sex trafficking victims. We aren’t going to be working with direct rescues, but will be helping with rehabilitation by helping with their temporary living conditions and teaching them skills to get a job. The other mixed gendered team is going to be working on a farm, while the all girl team is teaching english. The all girl team is in a different part of the country, while the other two teams are about an hour an a half apart.
7. Not going to say where I am or who I’m working with due to the nature of the work, but I will say that the city I’m in is very famous for coffee and we are living above a very nice coffee shop/restaurant. The city seems super nice and safe too. Once we got there, our team was all on the same page to remain vigilant to remain focused on the mission and not let this turn into a vacation vibe, because that could very easily happen. We are actually going to watch a serious movie about sex trafficking tonight to help stay on target.
8. Travel day was a complete disaster for me. We had two three and a half hour flights, a 16 hour flight, then an 11 hour bus ride. The first two flights each got delayed a bit, which was a problem because we only had an hour layover scheduled between the two flights. We have to get through the Vancouver airport very fast to make the 16 hour flight. Customs and the airline were very accommodating, which is good because if they weren’t we would’ve missed the flight. I also want to point out how well the girls did who were in charge of the logistics did with what they were given. One of them is one of the youngest on the team, and the other is very quiet and had barely ever been to an airport, yet they did a great job staying in control despite the challenges. But then the 16 hour flight is where the fun began for me. I started the 16 hour flight with two hours of sleep. I woke up with a pretty bad wound on my arm because I was apparently rubbing my arm on the seat. The dude behind me was taking care of a crying baby so he was drilling into my back. But the real killer was I had a severe stomach reaction to something that they gave us to eat (I think was the tuna sandwich) I pretty much sat there for 14 hours watching my wound heal with severe stomach pain. When we got done, our team was to take a couple of trains and hike three and a half miles to get to the bus station. I was hardly couscous because I barely got any sleep across all three flights and my stomach hurt so badly I couldn’t even feel the weight of my packs on my body. When people realized how bad I was my packs got taken for a bit. Once we got on the bus, I passed out for about five hours, but my stomach didn’t recover until I got a chance to lay down that night. I’m feeling a lot better now.
That was a lot of thoughts so I’m going to leave it there. I’m having a blast, despite the challenges.
