A few of my favorite things. . .

In just 3 days I'll be getting on a plane to go back to America. It's happening so soon! I'm SO excited to go home, but I'm also very sad to be leaving Thailand. Throughout the past few weeks I've found myself repeating the phrase "I'm going to miss _____ when I go back to America." Thailand has become my second home and I will truly miss it. I love it here. So in reflection of my time here, I would like to share a few of my favorite things (in no particular order) from the last 16 months. Some are serious, some are silly, but all have played a part in making this a great internship.

The Beautiful Scenery

Sometimes I feel like I live in National Geographic. There are so many beautiful places in Thailand! I'm going to miss the mountains, the waterfalls, and the abundance of beautiful flowers!

Cheap and Delicious Food

In Thailand there are small restaurants everywhere where you can eat delicious meals for about a dollar. This is definitely one of my favorite parts about Thailand!

Ice Cream

My team and I have eaten A LOT of ice cream on this internship. It's (usually) super cheap and available everywhere. One of my favorites is the ice cream sandwich. It has coconut ice cream, sticky rice, peanuts, and sweetened condensed milk inside two pieces of white bread. It sounds weird, but it's actually delicious. And it only costs about 30 cents. It's the best.

My Kids

I LOVE the kids I work with at ministry. Even when I was having a terrible day, they always made it better. I loved it when ChoFah would call me "Memmy", or when Nida would run into my arms. I loved it when Hanni, who is very quiet and shy, started sitting in my lap and playing with me. I loved seeing ChinJang start to have fun with other kids instead of crying for his mom like he used to. I loved cuddling with Abao and blowing kisses with Grace. A huge portion of my time on internship was spent with these kids, and I will miss them so, so much!

Santi

Like I said, I love all my kids from ministry, but this one has a special place in my heart. Santi is 6 or 7 and he has cerebral palsy. He is one of the sweetest and cutest little boys I have ever met. It was my pleasure to take care of him. He would get the biggest smile when he would see me every morning and even though walking was hard for him, he did his best to run and give me hugs. I watched him grow stronger and gain new skills. Some people saw Santi as a burden, but to me he was a huge blessing. I love this little boy!

My Bike

When I first bought my bike, I was terrified to drive it. It took me a long time to get comfortable, but now that I am, I love it. I love being able to cut through traffic and park wherever I want (well almost). I love the freedom my bike gives me. I love the adventures I've had on my bike. This has become one of my favorite things.

My Team

My team has had our share of struggles and conflicts, but we've grown to love each other through them. I love this group of women. I love our times of prayer and our late night McDonald's runs. I love cooking together, doing art, or playing games. I'm very thankful for the many hours of laughter I've had with my team. They're great.

My Leaders

Jasmine and Kayla are the best. Seriously. I would not have made it through this internship without them and I am so incredibly thankful for them. They've spent so much time praying with me, listening to me, crying with me, and laughing with me. They put up with my stubbornness, showed me grace in my weakness, and brought joy in my sadness. They have been such an important and wonderful part of these 16 months.

I could keep listing things, but you get the point. My internship has been challenging, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. There are so many things that I love about Thailand and my time here. I'm going to miss these things a lot.

But that being said, I'm ready to go home.

There are so many other things that I've been missing, that I'll soon get to enjoy again. I can't wait to be back with my family and cuddle my dog and sleep in my comfy bed. I'm so excited to wear winter clothes and to drink chai tea. I'm looking forward to libraries, granola bars, and snow. I'm excited to go to church and worship in my own language. And I'm excited to get to know my nephew who was just a tiny baby when I left. I'm told that he's quite the character :)

I'm sad to leave Thailand, but I can't wait to be home. I'll see you in 4 days America.

Fears and Friendship

When I first came to Thailand, I was so scared. I was scared that I wouldn't like the food or the weather. I was scared that I wouldn't connect with my team and leaders. I was scared to drive my motorbike in the chaotic traffic. But one of my biggest fears was that my quietness would hinder me from building relationships with Thai people. Being such a shy person, I have a hard time building relationships even in my own language, so building relationships with people of a different language and culture sounded so intimidating and impossible.

For my first few months in Thailand, it seemed like this fear might come true. It took me quite a while before I had any strong relationships with Thai people. I had many acquaintances, but not friends. But then I met my friend at the coffee stand and I got to know him and his family. I was not able to spend as much time with them as I would have liked, but even so, they have become good friends. They have helped me learn the language and the culture. They taught me how to cook Thai food. And they treated me like one of the family. Getting to know this family has been one of my favorite and most significant parts of my internship.

A few months later, some new moms came to live at Home of the Swallow. One of the moms had a son and was pregnant with another. I started to teach English and spend time with her and the other moms. It was fun, but nothing special. But one day I went to teach English and everyone else was busy. This mom also had work to do so I sat down and helped her and we spent a few hours talking. I asked her how she came to know the Lord and she shared her testimony with me. It was beautiful. Later I asked if I could practice Thai and share my testimony with her. It was messy and I needed a lot of help, but I did it. And that changed our relationship. We became friends and then we became sisters. We were able to encourage each other and speak truth. I grew to love her baby as if he were my own. I don't know how else to describe our relationship, but it is so special to me. And I am so sad to leave her.

After 15 months in Thailand, I still don't have many deep friendships with Thai people, especially  in comparison to some of my teammates. But I do have these two relationships that I just described, as well as a few others. To me that's a victory. These relationships are so valuable to me, and I wouldn't have been able to go nearly as deep if I had a large group of friends. Right now I only have two weeks left in Thailand and I am so sad to leave, mainly because of these beautiful friendships that I've made. It's amazing to see how the Lord has answered my prayers and how he has met me, and used me, in my weakness.  

The Love of a Child

Like every other month, August has been quite busy. At the beginning of the month we had a short term team from Bethany come to visit us. They were definitely a blessing and encouragement to our team. It's always nice to see some new faces, and we were pretty excited when they brought us some of our favorite treats from America :) It was also great to meet them so that when we return to Bethany in January, there will be some familiar faces among the students.

I was able to spend a lot of time with the team as they went to help out at different ministries. Over the weekend I joined them on a trip to an orphanage about two hours away. I really loved being at the orphanage! We were able to hang out with the kids and put on an English camp. Our camp was about different careers and I was a musician. Basically that meant that I wrote a song to the tune of "Let it Go" and I sang it over and over as the kids came to my station. It was fun, but the song didn't leave my head for days :)

When the English camp was done, we were able to play with the kids and spend time building relationships with them. I don't know how it happened, but I ended up befriending a 9 year old girl named Gan. She was so sweet! Both days I was there she wouldn't leave my side. We would play games and talk a little bit, but a lot of the time we simply sat with each other. Words weren't necessary. Before I left, Gan wrote me a few notes and drew me some pictures. It was so adorable and encouraging!

Gan was such a blessing to me. I was supposed to be there to show God's love to her and the other kids, but she was the one who showed love to me. I was having a hard time when I was at the orphanage, especially since I had just received some really bad news about my upcoming survey trip. But Gan made it better. Simply by grabbing my hand as we went for a walk or laying her head on my shoulder as we sat in church, she brought so much comfort to my hurting heart. And she had no idea that she was doing that. It's amazing how God can use anything, including a little 9 year old girl, to show us that he still loves us and that he hasn't forgotten us. He used the love of a child to bring healing and life to my broken soul. I'm so thankful that I was able to meet Gan, and I hope I can visit her again before I head back to America.

Me and Gan


 

 

June Update

I am now 9 1/2 months into my internship which means that I only have 5 1/2 months left! Time is going by so fast! It's been a long time since I've posted an update of what I've been doing so let me catch you up on the last few months. . .

May marked the half way point of my internship. At this time, we had a two week break from ministry and class so that we could rest and reenergize before going into our second half. I spent my break visiting friends in China! I had a great time exploring the city I was in, biking around a giant lake, and catching up with friends I hadn't seen in months. I also greatly enjoyed the cool weather in China! It was a wonderful break from hot season in Thailand! My trip to China was really fun and relaxing, but after two weeks, I was very excited to return "home" to Chiang Mai.

The scenery in China was BEAUTIFUL!

I got to see one of my best friends!

We went dancing with some local women in the park. So much fun!
 

Once I got back to Thailand, normal life started back at full speed. I returned to HOS to find many changes. While I was gone we had two moms graduate the program and move out. We also had four new moms move in! Two of these moms are pregnant and another just had a baby at the end of May. All of this is very exciting, but it also means that things have been a bit crazy.

 

Most of my time at HOS is still spent taking care of the kids in the nursery, but now that these new moms have moved in, I will hopefully have more chances to be involved with that part of the ministry as well. Lizzy and I were recently asked to teach the moms English every week. Although I'm a bit intimidated to teach, I am so excited to have this opportunity to build relationships with the moms. Please be praying that I actually will be able to teach the moms. We often have things come up (crying babies, meetings, sicknesses, etc.) that prevent the English classes from happening.

 

 

 

Earlier this month I turned 23! My team and I celebrated a few days early by going to a beautiful botanical garden where we had a picnic, walked around, and went swimming. Later in the evening we were even able to have my favorite ice cream cake. Yum! On my actual birthday I went to HOS where I was blessed by the staff and kids. They sang to me, prayed for me, and made me some delicious food. Later that day, I dressed up all fancy and went out with a few of my friends to have high tea. It was sad to be away from friends and family on my birthday, but I'm thankful for my friends here who made sure I had a great day.

High Tea!

At the botanical garden.

 

 

 

The week after my birthday our team took another break from our usual routine to go on our mid-internship retreat. Two Bethany staff came from America and then we all flew down to the beach in Southern Thailand. Throughout retreat we had several meetings, both as a group and individually with our leaders, discussing how internship has been and how we can finish strong. It was a really encouraging time that was much needed!

 

When we weren't in meetings, we had free time to relax and enjoy the beach. We went swimming, explored the beautiful areas nearby, and treated ourselves to a lot of Western food. One day our whole team took a boat trip to Monkey Island, which is literally an island that is only inhabited by monkeys. We also went to another island where we hiked to a beautiful cave. It was so much fun!

Monkey Island!

 

All of the Bethany interns in Asia during retreat.

 

On our way back from retreat, we decided to spend one night in Bangkok since we were already down there. Bangkok is a huge city that can be kind of overwhelming. Thankfully though, one of my teammates had a Thai friend living in Bangkok so we didn't have to figure out the city on our own. This friend acted as our tour guide for the day. She took us to church, on a water taxi, to the Royal Palace, and to a market. It was a great day exploring Bangkok but by the end of it I was so exhausted. It was so nice to fly back to Chiang Mai and get some rest after a very busy week.

Part of the Royal Palace.

 

A very cute market in Bangkok.

 

So now I'm back in Chiang Mai and life should be a bit calmer for a while. Here are some things you can be praying for in the coming weeks. . .

• For ideas and opportunities to get to know the moms at HOS better.
• Lately life has been very busy which has caused me to be somewhat stressed and overwhelmed. Pray that I would know how to manage my time well so that I can get everything done but also have time to rest.
• I'm starting to plan a survey trip in the fall to check out future ministry opportunities. Pray for opportunities and wisdom on where I should go and that the planning would go smoothly.
• If you read my post in March, I mentioned a baby that was sold by his mom. We are still trying to find a long term home for that baby, but it's very complicated because he does not have citizenship so adoption is not possible. Please pray for this sweet little boy and this very complicated situation.

Thank you for all of your prayers and support!

 

-Emily

Faithful to Scripture. Relevant to the Culture.

A few weeks ago I had a class called Evangelism and Discipleship in Context. The class was about how to take the gospel into different cultures without mixing our own culture into it. Maybe it sounds simple, but this is actually an incredibly hard thing to do. There are often things that we consider biblical- such as the way that we do church- which are actually cultural things. One specific example is prayer. We are commanded in the bible to pray. That is absolutely biblical and universal. But there's no mandate in scripture about whether we should pray with our eyes open or closed. That's cultural. Sometimes it's very hard to distinguish the difference.

It's very common for missionaries to enter other cultures with great intentions to spread the gospel, but in reality they end up spreading their culture instead. This is bad because the local people start believing that they have to give up their culture and traditions in order to become like the missionary. Most people don't want to do this, so it ends up hindering the gospel instead of advancing it.

In Thailand this is a big problem. There have been missionaries in Thailand for about 200 years, yet less than 1% of the population knows the Lord. Something is wrong with this picture. I'm sure there are many factors contributing to this problem, but I think a big one is a lack of contextualization. Most Thai people think that Christianity is a farang (foreigner) religion. I can understand why. Nearly everything I have seen in Thai Christianity is done in a Western way. They sing worship songs that were translated from English into Thai. The style of their sermons and church services are exactly like America. It's even common for them to use pictures of white people, rather than Asians, on power points in church. Through all of these things, churches are unintentionally communicating that Thai people must adopt Western culture in order to be saved. It should not be this way!

So why is this happening? I often hear the phrase "To be Thai is to be Buddhist." Buddhism is deeply rooted and intertwined with Thai culture. It's nearly impossible to distinguish what is Buddhist and what is Thai in the culture because they are so mixed together. Many Thai Christians want to be very careful not to do anything that appears to be Buddhist, but because there's no clear separation, they end up rejecting their entire culture.

However, one beautiful thing about the gospel is that it was designed to work in every culture, even in Thailand. Many things in Thai culture, and even in Buddhism, are not actually bad or sinful. What if we could redeem and transform some of these practices to be used to glorify the Lord? For example, a common way for Thai Buddhists to worship and pray is to burn incense. Incense is not inherently bad. For us Western Christians it may seem weird because we're not used to it, but it's not necessarily a sin to burn incense. So what if Thai Christians were able to take that cultural practice and use it to worship the Lord instead of idols? Personally, I think it could be a wonderful and beautiful thing. Maybe more people would be open to the Lord because they could worship Him in a way that they already know. Maybe it could start changing the mindset that Christianity is only for farangs.

Obviously things like this need to be approached very carefully. We never, ever, want to compromise biblical truth in order to be relevant to a culture. So there are certainly some practices in Thai culture and Buddhism that we should not attempt to adapt to Christianity. However, like I explained before, I think there is often more flexibility than we realize in how we can worship and express our faith. We should not be quick to assume that something is wrong or bad simply because it is different than what we are used to. Different cultures should have the freedom to worship the Lord in different ways. In the bible, Gentiles were not forced to be circumcised and become Jewish in order to be saved. In the same way, other cultures should not be forced to become Western as a requirement for salvation.

There is definitely a problem in how the gospel has been presented in Thai society, but it is encouraging to realize that missionaries and churches all over the country are starting to recognize and change this. Little by little, adjustments are being made to try to make Thai churches truly Thai. For example, in April there was a major Thai holiday called Songkran. Although this holiday has a lot of ties to Buddhism, I know of a few churches who decided to have simple Songkran ceremonies during their service. The ceremony itself was not Buddhist. It was about young people honoring their elders and the older people blessing the younger. These churches performed the ceremony in a way that honored the Lord as well as their culture. It was wonderful. I am hopeful that more things like this will happen in future years. I pray that Christian workers in Thailand will have wisdom on how to present the gospel in a way that stays faithful to scripture yet relevant to the culture.

Songkran ceremony at my church . . .



 





Real Ministry

In the last few weeks, I've learned a lot about what real ministry looks like. This is going to sound super obvious, but there's a lot more to ministry than holding babies and teaching English. I think I knew that before, but I never experienced it firsthand. Up until recently, the majority of my ministry experience has been quite pleasant. Occasionally there was a hard situation thrown in, but most of the time it was just fun and enjoyable. However, through some recent situations, I'm realizing more and more that sometimes ministry is messy and hard. Sometimes you invest tons of time and love into a person only to have them throw it all away and go back to their ungodly lifestyle. Sometimes you will witness gross injustices involving people you know, and there's not a lot you can do about it. Sometimes it will be extremely hard to love or show mercy to someone because you've seen the terrible choices that they've made. Real ministry isn't always pretty.

You're probably wondering what happened to bring on all these realizations. I want to respect the people involved, so I'm not going to share too many details, but here's a brief summary. . .

In the last three weeks, a lot has happened at my ministry as well as with some of my Thai friends. We've had 2 girls run away from HOS with their children, even though they've been there for several months being discipled. Because they're adults, there's really nothing we could do to stop them. I also have a Thai friend who has been mentoring someone for the last year, only to have him make some poor decisions and hurt her deeply. Finally, there's a baby that I've helped take care of whose mother sold him because she didn't want him anymore. Praise the Lord, the baby was rescued and is now safe and cared for (not with his mother) but still, this situation was absolutely heartbreaking!

Like I said, real ministry can be messy.

It could be really easy to get discouraged when situations like this come up. It's easy to start questioning if it's really worth it to keep investing so much time, energy, and love into ministry. The answer, of course, is yes. It is worth it. There will always be some people who reject our message and love, but that does not mean our efforts were in vain. Even if we never see results, I  wholeheartedly believe that God is still working through our actions. And sometimes, people will embrace the message of the gospel and have their lives transformed by God's power and love. What a privilege to get to be a part of that!

Real ministry isn't always fun. Sometimes it's messy and complicated and heartbreaking. But our job is to be faithful, even in the hardest of times, and trust God to work in the hearts of those we're ministering to.

 

 

 

 

"Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness."

-Psalm 37:3 (ESV)

February Update

Next week it will have been 6 months since I moved to Thailand! Time is going so fast! As always, this last month was quite busy with ministry, class, and just living life. Here are some of the highlights of what's been happening lately.

Ministry
I've now been working at Home of the Swallow for a little over a month. Most of the kids have started to get comfortable around me and I'm getting much more comfortable with them too. I love getting to know each of their personalities. They're so great (and cute)! I'm also really enjoying getting to know my coworkers. I've been able to teach English to one of them by singing worship songs in English that she knows in Thai. That's become one of my favorite things to do! I also really enjoy laughing with my coworkers (HOS has some funny people!) and hearing their stories of what God is doing in their lives. They are such a fun and encouraging group of people!

I went out with some of the HOS staff to play
games and eat dinner. It was so much fun!

Playing legos.

Nap time is great because it allows me to spend time
 with my coworkers and the moms who live at HOS.

 

Class
Last week my team was blessed to have Paul and Elizabeth Strand come from America to teach Cultural Anthropology. I loved this class! Paul spent a lot of time telling us stories and sharing wisdom from their years as missionaries in Indonesia. We also spent time discussing problems that missionaries often face in other cultures. For example, we discussed how a missionary can help those in need without creating an unhealthy dependence on the missionary. It was really good to start thinking through issues like this so that I can be better prepared when I go out in the future.

My team with the Strands

Fun Times!
A few weeks ago, my team leader had family come visit from Canada. This gave us the excuse to be tourists for a day! We joined her family and spent a day visiting a Karen village, going to a waterfall, riding elephants, and my personal favorite- bamboo rafting! It was so fun! I've been wanting to do these things ever since coming to Thailand, so it was a pretty great day!

 
 

 Time with the Lord
 "Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically." -Romans 12:9-11 NLT

Over the last month the Lord has been challenging and convicting me a lot and much of it comes down to these verses. I haven't been doing so well at living these things out. In many ways I've just been going through the motions. Like with my team, I try to act in love toward them but a lot of times there's bitterness in my heart. My love isn't genuine, it's pretend. That's not okay. Now that I'm aware of this, I'm trying to change it. I want to love people in a genuine way that will draw them to Christ. If I can't even do that with my team, how will I do it with Thai people or anyone else I encounter? That's what the Lord is challenging me in right now. My prayer is that God would change my heart and mind so that I can start living out these verses for real.


Prayer Requests
Here are some specific ways that you can be praying for me and my team:

• Pray for unity and love to be strong in my team and that the Lord would continue to restore relationships that have been broken in recent conflicts.
• Pray for continued motivation in language study! Even though we all realize that learning Thai is important, most of my team has been struggling to find motivation to keep studying even when it's hard or boring.
• Pray that I would be able to build deep relationships with the ladies at Home of the Swallow. Because I'm such a quiet person, this can be a big challenge for me, even without the added language barrier.

 

 

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and for all your prayers and support! You truly are a blessing and encouragement to me!

~Emily