To put it simply, it has been a rough week.. we had two of our girls spend the last 6 days at the hospital. One just got back yesterday and the other is still in Chiang Mai (2 hours away) getting treatment for her eye. All week, I have been fighting a cold, I think it was due to the pollution, honestly not sure but the air quality here is not great. Now, with it being the first day of our Trail to Life Camp, I have no voice. I have been band from even trying to speak which is the hardest thing in the world for me. I’m a talker. I talk all day long about everything and anything under the sun. It’s even harder for me around the girls, so I am here trapped in my room to avoid temptation. Especially since we have camp I need to be at my very best. The weather is supposed to scorching hot all week and we are very busy with activities and such. However, I realize I have been making clear the frustrations of this week, yet I have failed to bring God unto the picture and describe all of the many blessings and, though tough, important lessons I have been learning.
Well, to start off, while three members of our team were missing all week, the girls and I that are here were able to spend not only a bunch of time with the girls here at the orphanage, but also with each other. For our team time one day we had a girl’s “spa day”. Some much needed TLC. We had a movie night and danced and talked. We made face masks, our own dinner and ate here at the house, and also died our hair. Some girls just touched up the color they already have, and others.. well, others put purple in their hair.. I was also one of those who died their hair purple. I did not do my whole head, but I do have a little purple strip of hair on top of my head. Was it it really a needed or important thing to do while on a “missions trip”? No. Probably not. But that wasn’t the purpose. The purpose wasn’t to change our look because we were overwhelmed or simply didn’t like the way we looked. The purpose was simply having fun. We were able to create for ourselves a beautiful distraction from all the chaos. We laughed and sang songs. We simply spent time with one another. Hair dye will grow out over time. But the memories made and love invested into one another will never fade.
The very next day, we had some new people from America arrive to help set up for camp. We had a team of 6 guys from Ohio come and one of their 16 year old daughters also joined us. It truly has been a blessing to have her in my room. This was her very first plane ride.. 13 hours! Whew! She is so sweet and soft spoken but it’s been so encouraging to see her even only been her one day just embracing everything. In my time here in Thailand it has been very laid back and we had a basic schedule to follow. After their arrival though, everything changed. We went from having 10 girls in our house to almost 20 people, and our schedule changed drastically. Yesterday was their first day here, we had our normal church service at ten. But even that felt crazy, and all over the place. Everyone at service had different things, the girls recited their memory verses, we lead some worship, Pastor Dave Atkins gave a sermon, and then all the kids had different songs to sing. All the girls wore their native tribe outfits to show us who was from which hill tribe. It was very cool to see… After that we..
To see what happened after church stay tuned to read my next blog post!
Thank you all for your love and support.
-B
