Hanna & Thailand!: February 2013

Hello Everyone!

Wow, it’s been awhile since I’ve had access to technology! I must admit I’m going through a little bit of culture shock right now. Three days ago my team and I got back from our main outreach on Doi Inthanon. It was an incredible experience and I don’t even know where to begin!

First off, I will tell you about our living arrangements. When we arrived in Kuhn Wang Village (a Black Hmong village of about 800 Black Hmong people), we pulled up to a cabin that is meant to house about five people—there were 19 of us. To say the least, it was a bit of a squeeze. The idea of “personal space” went out the window in the first hour, and by the grace of God, all of us got through the outreach still liking each other! In fact, being together 24/7 made us grow closer together and caused us to get more creative in how to get away with Jesus, which for me meant learning how to read my Bible while being plugged into my Ipod. We had to boil water unless you wanted little friends in your stomach, and there was no heat except for the wood fireplace that smoked out the house. Since we were on the highest mountain in Thailand, some nights it would reach in the low 40’s Fahrenheit. That was hard for many of the Thais considering they’d never experienced below 50 degrees Fahrenheit in their life!

Our outreach actually did not involve a ton of ministry time but manual labor. We worked with a missionary couple named Bruce and Dia Taylor. Our days were long, but it taught us how to rely on God for physical strength. We would eat breakfast at 6:30, have a prayer meeting at the Taylor’s house at 7:45, and then start work at the tea fields at 8 am. Lunch was from 12-1, then work again from 1-5. Dinner was at 6 pm followed shortly by team time at 7:30. We were exhausted by the end of the day, which was understandable considering many of us were not used to doing manual labor for 8 hours a day. Why we did so many hours of manual labor and not ministry was because, well, that’s what the Hmong people do! All of the Hmong families farm, and most of them would work in their fields over 8 hours a day. By working all day and still finding time to spend with God we were being an example to other believers in the village on how to still make God a priority—despite the lack of time. Being so busy was not easy either. Most, if not all of us left that outreach very different people than we were when we first came. Learning how to live with 19 people and continually being exhausted taught all of us a lot about ourselves, and we had to COMPLETELY rely on God for our physical, mental, and spiritual strength.

My highlight from outreach was probably the home stay. Our team broke up into groups of three and for three days and three nights we stayed with Christian families within the village. My group stayed with a sweet older couple with their son and pregnant daughter-in-law. The older couple welcomed my group and I with loving arms and required us to call them Auntie and Uncle. They treated us like their honored guests; always making us eat loads of rice and giving us lots of time to rest between work. It was so great to be able to continue to visit them and build relationships with the during our free time after the home stay as well. Their daughter-in-law actually had her baby a week before we left and we were able to see their precious little girl when we said goodbye to them all. It was a great privilege to be able to walk with them during that exciting time.

Also, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays us native English speakers got to go and teach English at the local primary school for two hours. I worked with the fourth graders, which was a very new yet rewarding experience. I learned that I actually have somewhat of a talent for teaching, which doesn’t surprise me considering both my mom and grandma are brilliant teachers J. I loved getting to know the kids and despite the language barrier (I’m afraid their English was quite poor) we still got to build relationships and share the gospel with them. I was able to make some very special little friends J.

I feel like I could go on talking about main outreach forever, after all, it was 7 weeks! I enjoyed it so much, and although it was hard; I learned and grew so much through it. This last week at the base is debrief week. We will be lectured by the staff about re-entry and culture shock, and then we graduate on Friday. Less than one week left of DTS! I can’t believe it! Our God is so incredibly faithful; I could not of done this without His grace and your prayers, thank you!

Below are some pictures from outreach! Enjoy!

Blessings,

Hanna