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Enjoying the Lord’s Fun Side

My First Week In Thailand

 

The Highlights

Hi!! Apologies for taking so long with this update. Half of my team and I have spent this week in Southern Thailand in Krabi before we head to training and visa application in Cambodia. This week has been a week of memories..both wonderful and some not so preferable. Just a few short highlights.

Our first day, my teammate Ravi,  his dad and I went on a hike and for some strange reason, I wore my Birkenstocks. I think I was focusing on the motorbike ride to get there instead of the actual hike itself. Well, I got by with making it to the top. And on our way back down, it started raining. Hard. And I had a bit of a selfish moment. I didn’t want to ruin my shoes. Luckily, Ravi was carrying a waterproof bag so I took off my sandals and put them in the bag and went barefoot. I said a short little prayer, “Lord, please protect my feet.” So I started following the two guys barefoot, in the rain. And all of a sudden The Lord said, “Don’t forget I can be fun too!” So often I forget that the Father has a fun side. So for the remainder of the hike, me and the Father went barefoot, laughing smiling. Ravi looked back a couple of times and asked if I was okay. I genuinely was having the time of my life. We finished and I had not one single splinter in my foot. They were perfectly fine to be honest. Little things, yall. He takes care of us.

The next day, two of my other teammates and I went to find a beach. The tide was low and so we waded out to where the water was and I sat my flip flops and sunglasses on a rock. We sat for a while (which is another story in itself but that will come in the next section) and the tide got higher. By the time we were done the tide was so high that my sunglasses and flip flops were nowhere to be found. Which was no big deal but also kind of a bummer because well, those two things are essential for beach weather. As we were walking to the shore, my teammate Shelby picks up my sunglasses. Well thanks, Jesus. Before we left, I figured I would take one last stroll to see if I could find my flip flops. Once again, I said a little prayer, “Hey God, it isn’t that big of a deal but it’d be pretttyyyyy sweet if I found those flip flops.”

I looked up and saw one of my flip flops. Then the other!Ha! Man, Jesus. Too cool for school.

Like I said, He cares about the little things. There is nothing too small for this guy and I love it!

A Few lowlights

On that day that we first found a beach with the low tide, I underestimated the strength of the sun here. I put on my sunscreen but that apparently wasn’t enough for my Casper skin. To make a long and detailed story short and to spare a few details, I got sun poisoning. Bad. At the time I thought it was food poisoning because I couldn’t even make it home without pulling my bike over and getting most everything out. I later found out that a sign of sun poisoning is vomiting. Yikes. It took a few days to get over and there was even one day that I woke up and one of my eyes was almost swollen shut. And to be honest, it was kind of humorous, looking like a complete monster.

All this to say that on paper, Krabi has kicked my butt. And circumstances haven’t been as favorable as they could have been, but it has been so fun and the Lord has been faithful with His healing and the little things to make the days better. I have no complaints. I can’t quite explain how more than okay I am.

What’s Next?

Tomorrow we leave for Cambodia for the last little bit of training and to apply for our visas for Thailand. Since Adventures has a base hostel in Cambodia, we will be going to train with their staff to see how to run things and shadowing people in our specific department. My teammate Danielle, who is our outreach coordinator, and I will be pairing up with a girl named Kristie to see how her ministry in the local bars and women’s community works.

After we are done in Cambodia we will go back to Chiang Mai to start language school and to hopefully find a place to live. Guys, every part of me wants to be settled. I’m loving my team and have had some wonderful bonding with them.

Can’t wait to update you guys on Cambodia!

Thank you all for the prayers, the love and support. I love you guys!

 

-Ali