Prepping For Thailand

12/26/11

Final preparations and packing for my move to Thailand. Excited about the journey/new life ahead. Praying for God to do amazing things in my life and the lives of the people in Ban Pong. Praying God uses my life, willingness to serve, and sacrificial heart to touch the lives of many friends, family, and strangers so that they may see God in a new way, draw close to Him, and seek His will in their lives and be inspired and encouraged to live a sacrificial life in obedience to God’s will. That they may all rest in the peace of God’s saving grace and choose to live a life honoring Him and striving for the utmost purity. I pray for the Venture Expeditions community and all those who are impacted by them. I thank God for bringing me into this family and giving me the opportunity to give of myself in serving the people of Thailand. God has blessed me in many new and unexpected ways in the past month and am very thankful for that, especially for all the new friends/encouragers/supporters he has put in my life and blessed me with. It is always refreshing to meet other believers. I expect God to use these new relationships to do mighty things for His kingdom.

12/27/11

Checked in my two bags weighing 51 pounds each and my bike box with no problems, just a $200 bike fee. Made some last minute phone calls in the airport prior to take-off and prayed for the journey. 14.5 hour flight from DFW to Seoul, South Korea, a few hours of lay-over, then another 6 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand. 9 hour overnight lay-over in Bangkok with about an hours sleep on a wooden bench in a long corridor and then a 1 hour flight to Chiang Mai. I set three alarms to make sure I wouldn’t miss my flight, but I ended up waking 30 min before they were set to go off because I was so nervous about sleeping through them. As I went through security one of the alarms went off in my backpack as it was being scanned in the x-ray machine. Probably the worst time for an alarm to go off. They gave me a funny look and asked what the noise was. It sounded like something about to detonate. I explained it was my alarm and reached in my bag to turn it off. No problems, fortunately. As I sat and waited for my plane I ate a bunch of food I was carrying so I could lighten my bags a bit because I was scared my carry-ons would be too big for this domestic flight. Mark and Aaron picked me up from the airport and took me to my new home where I will be staying with P. Doi, the director of the Community Center. I took a nice refreshing shower and played with the two dogs, Felix and Pik Thai while I waited to be picked up and meet the rest of the team. Sam and Nate came with them and dropped their bags off here. They stayed with us for the two weeks they were here. We headed to the Ban Pong Community Center and met with Charity and Erica, who will be joining our team for the next two weeks, for our orientation. Met up for dinner with Mark and Aaron’s families and another missionary family from Bangkok who were in town visiting. We ate at a Thai restaurant where you sit on the floor and watch traditional Thai dancers. Erica and I got pulled up on stage by a couple of the dancers to show off our sweet Thai dancing moves. I remembered a little bit from what I learned last year, but it was still rough…and I was falling asleep due to the weariness of traveling and jet lag.

Our table at the Thai restaurant

12/26/11

Final preparations and packing for my move to Thailand. Excited about the journey/new life ahead. Praying for God to do amazing things in my life and the lives of the people in Ban Pong. Praying God uses my life, willingness to serve, and sacrificial heart to touch the lives of many friends, family, and strangers so that they may see God in a new way, draw close to Him, and seek His will in their lives and be inspired and encouraged to live a sacrificial life in obedience to God’s will. That they may all rest in the peace of God’s saving grace and choose to live a life honoring Him and striving for the utmost purity. I pray for the Venture Expeditions community and all those who are impacted by them. I thank God for bringing me into this family and giving me the opportunity to give of myself in serving the people of Thailand. God has blessed me in many new and unexpected ways in the past month and am very thankful for that, especially for all the new friends/encouragers/supporters he has put in my life and blessed me with. It is always refreshing to meet other believers. I expect God to use these new relationships to do mighty things for His kingdom.

12/27/11

Checked in my two bags weighing 51 pounds each and my bike box with no problems, just a $200 bike fee. Made some last minute phone calls in the airport prior to take-off and prayed for the journey. 14.5 hour flight from DFW to Seoul, South Korea, a few hours of lay-over, then another 6 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand. 9 hour overnight lay-over in Bangkok with about an hours sleep on a wooden bench in a long corridor and then a 1 hour flight to Chiang Mai. I set three alarms to make sure I wouldn’t miss my flight, but I ended up waking 30 min before they were set to go off because I was so nervous about sleeping through them. As I went through security one of the alarms went off in my backpack as it was being scanned in the x-ray machine. Probably the worst time for an alarm to go off. They gave me a funny look and asked what the noise was. It sounded like something about to detonate. I explained it was my alarm and reached in my bag to turn it off. No problems, fortunately. As I sat and waited for my plane I ate a bunch of food I was carrying so I could lighten my bags a bit because I was scared my carry-ons would be too big for this domestic flight. Mark and Aaron picked me up from the airport and took me to my new home where I will be staying with P. Doi, the director of the Community Center. I took a nice refreshing shower and played with the two dogs, Felix and Pik Thai while I waited to be picked up and meet the rest of the team. Sam and Nate came with them and dropped their bags off here. They stayed with us for the two weeks they were here. We headed to the Ban Pong Community Center and met with Charity and Erica, who will be joining our team for the next two weeks, for our orientation. Met up for dinner with Mark and Aaron’s families and another missionary family from Bangkok who were in town visiting. We ate at a Thai restaurant where you sit on the floor and watch traditional Thai dancers. Erica and I got pulled up on stage by a couple of the dancers to show off our sweet Thai dancing moves. I remembered a little bit from what I learned last year, but it was still rough…and I was falling asleep due to the weariness of traveling and jet lag.

Our table at the Thai restaurant