Ministry in a Nutshell: Thailand

Ministry in Thailand looked different than it has in previous months. Being squad leaders, our main ministry focus is the spiritual and emotional health of our squad. We visit teams throughout the month and serve alongside them as they do ministry. This is exciting, because we have the opportunity to see more of each country and experience more ministries.

We traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand from Cambodia with Jeremy, our squad mentor (who is based in Gainesville, GA), our alumni squad leaders Hana Beth and Charmagne, and our other two raised up squad leaders, Shannon and Amy. For a week, we had training every day and time to spend together as a new team. Since we will be traveling to visit teams throughout the months, Amy, Shannon, RJ and I will not get to actually be together very often. It was important that we have time to really get to know each other and spend time together before we split up and serve our squad. We also learned all about being a squad leader – performing soul care sessions, budgeting, how our personality type affects our leadership, travel logistics, planning LDW and Debriefs, and more! It was a full week of learning, fun, and fellowship before RJ and I headed off to visit a team and shadow Hana Beth, while Amy and Shannon went with Charmagne to a different team.

Hana Beth, Amy, Shannon, RJ, myself, Charmagne

Week 2, we were in Mae Chaem, Thailand. We worked with team “Table Turners” as they partnered with The Haven Project. The Haven Project is an Australian non-profit that supports churches and ministries all around northern Thailand. In Mae Chaem, we worked with a pastor as they were building a church building. We painted playground equipment, cleaned out the sanctuary where they had been doing construction, washed windows, etc. In addition, we traveled to a remote village to visit the Karen people for a night. We worshipped, shared testimonies, and one of the team members shared a message. They do not have a pastor in their community, so the pastor we were working with travels there regularly to lead them.

Sweeping up dust from the massive sanctuary

 Where we stayed while we visited the Karen village

Week 3, we were in Chiang Khong, Thailand, right on the Laos border. We were with team “Groovy Crew” as they partnered with the Hmong Quality of Life Foundation. This amazing foundation goes into Hmong villages and sponsors kids who want to continue their education but cannot afford it. They provide housing and food for the kids, while also teaching them about the love of Christ. During the day, we worked on the church, pouring concrete and carrying loads and loads of sand down very precarious steps. Every afternoon from 5-6pm, we would hang out with the students and practice English with them. We played games, sang songs, and laughed a lot.

RJ, Carolyn, Wendy, and Hana Beth transporting sand down the stairs

Jenny, myself, and RJ playing human rock/paper/scissors with the Hmong students 

While with Groovy Crew, RJ and I had the opportunity to visit a school one of the days. We didn’t know any information, except us and two other team members, Cristina and Jenny, would need to be ready to go at 8:30am. The principal was waiting to pick us up and drove us to the school. Once we got there, he took us to his office and asked what we had planned for the day. We asked him a few questions, like “How many students are there? (50) What are the ages? (4-12) How long do we have? (3 hours)”. Then he said, “we start in 5 minutes!” We scrambled to list all the games we could think of, songs we could sing, and really anything we could do to fill 3 hours on very short notice. We were taken to the gymnasium, where 50 very well-behaved Thai students, ages 8-10 (a much more manageable age range) sat anxiously awaiting us. The three hours FLEW by, as we played game after game – Red Light/Green Light, Four Corners, Human Rock/Paper/Scissors – sang Disney songs, and finished by teaching some English words like numbers, colors, animals, etc. When it was almost time to leave, we asked if we could take a group picture. Everyone lined up for the picture, and the students brought out a huge poster they had made…ENGLISH CAMP. So the entire time, we had been facilitating an English camp, and we didn’t find out until we were literally about to leave. It was such an amazing day, and reminded me why I wanted to come on the World Race in the first place. The principal was so grateful to us for coming that he took us to lunch and coffee. We explained multiple times that it was absolutely our pleasure, and we were so blessed to have been there to spend time with the kids. 

 Cristina, Jenny, RJ, and myself with the students

At the end of the month, our Squad Leader team hosted a Leadership Development Weekend (LDW). This is a chance for the entire squad to come together and grow and learn from each other. This was our first big task as new squad leaders – planning the schedule. We were so excited to empower our squad and see them leading in their spiritual gifts. I led a devotional on Psalm 103, RJ helped facilitate teams setting goals, and we had members of our squad leading breakout sessions on everything from Cooking on the Race to Prayer Life. We also had a time called Bangkok Takeover, where small groups went out into Bangkok to use their gifts – they visited hospitals, markets, coffee shops, and temples to pray and engage with people in the community.

Our squad sharing testimonies from their time interacting with the community in Bangkok.

We are now in Belgrade, Serbia and it is our first month as full-blown squad leaders. Pray that the Lord would use the momentum of our squad coming out of LDW to love the Serbian people exceptionally well and that he would use us to bring lift spiritually and emotionally to our big squad family!