 |
8.5 months, 20 airplanes, 7 countries, and 2 continents later, I am back home! Yes, I arrived home on Sunday morning May 1, about 13.5 hours later than expected and without my luggage, but I’m just happy to be home! The last two months have gone by so fast and I apologize for never getting out my April newsletter. I will try and make up for it with this edition without making it too long.
I cannot possibly begin to put into words all I have seen and experienced in the last two months. I will do my best to give you a glimpse of what life has been like in southern Thailand….quite a whirlwind.
Arrival in the South
We arrived in Khao Lak on the afternoon of March, 1.We spent the next day touring the area and seeing the damage that was caused by the tsunami as well as many restoration and rebuilding projects. Words cannot even begin to explain the thoughts and feelings that I experienced. I’m not sure that I even knew what to think and feel at times. Some of the devastation was incredible even 2+ months after the tsunami. We were able to see areas where at one point amazing resorts lined the beach for miles which are now empty sandy areas where the rubble has been removed. A swimming pool surrounded by nothing else is a strange sight. You know at one point it was surrounded by a lot of buildings. We also saw the hardest hit area in Thailand, Ban Nam Khen, where around 3000 local Thai people lost their lives. What a tragedy. The good news is that slowly little stores are starting to pop up and are open for business.
For most of our time in the South we lived in a small one bedroom bungalow up on the mountain. It was a beautiful and very jungley location, much more so than Ubon. You never knew what was going to come crawling out of the jungle. Fortunately, we didn’t have too many encounters with wildlife, although a large scorpion made his way to one of our worksites. We had to eat out every meal since our bungalow didn’t have anything to cook with or a refrigerator, but we managed just fine. The weather got increasingly hot until the day that I left. I have never been in nor worked in such intense heat. Not only was it hot but it was unbelievably humid. The “feels like” temperature everyday by about 10 or 11 AM was 100 – 105 degrees. Just standing around you were dripping sweat! It has been nice since coming home to not be sweaty all the time, but it could be a little warmer….I am cold all the time!
I really enjoyed living and working in Khao Lak, Thailand. It was quite a change from anything that I am used to or have done before, but it was great. Who knew that pouring concrete could be so fun?! It was great to be busy all the time and know that I was a part of something so big. The best parts came when we would be working and then realize that we were working alongside the person whose house we were rebuilding. Most of the time we were unable to speak to each other because of the language barrier, but it made everything so much more real to have a picture of an actual person whose life was being built back up one cement column at a time. We were giving hope to people who have been through so much! Now that’s worthwhile!
Mercy Foundation Rebuilding Project
Most of my time in Southern Thailand was spent working with the Mercy Foundation who contracted to rebuild 50 homes in the town of Bang Sak I did everything from twisting wires, building forms, pouring concrete, and much more. I’d have to say that out of all of it my favorite was working with concrete. Of course, they don’t have large cement trucks like in the States, but we did have a cement mixer at least. Once the cement was mixed, it was dumped into a large bin where small buckets were used to scoop it out. The buckets were then passed down a human bucket line to where the cement was to be poured. Quite a process involving a lot of team work. Out of the 50 homes, 31 had been started and were at various stages when I left on April 29. The process of completing one house is rather long since the entire structure is made of concrete and you must wait for each step to dry before beginning another. A few of the houses were almost completed and I am excited to see pictures when they are finished.
This was also an excellent opportunity to meet people from all over the world. Every day I worked with different people, many of them from America, but also people from Britain, Australia, Wales, France, Germany, Singapore, Canada, and many other places. By far the biggest number was from the US, which is awesome.
The Mercy Foundation has also started a church in the area, which is amazing since this is an area where no church has ever existed. There are also two other churches that have been started. God is definitely working in this area and it is cool to see how He is bringing about good things from this tragedy! I am so humbled and thankful that He used me in this place and time!
English/Work Camp
On March 18, we loaded a bus with 37 people and made a 23 hour trek from Ubon to Khao Lak. Some of our students from Ubon were given the opportunity to come to Khao Lak for an English/work camp. We squeezed a lot of activities into 5 days and it was very exhausting but also a lot of fun. The students were excellent workers and asked to stay later to work building houses rather than come back for English camp! They were also given some free time on Sunday afternoon to play on the beach or swim in the pool at the hotel. Many of them had never been to the beach, seen an ocean, or stayed in a hotel room so it was quite an experience for them! Many of them also had the opportunity to attend church for the first time in their lives. Good stuff! One girl accepted Jesus into her life too!
A team from Hershey, PA came to help build houses as well as to help us with our English camp. They were such a blessing to have! They were so encouraging, brought us treats from home that we were missing, and paid for us to stay in a hotel with air conditioning for a while. Not only that, it was just great to make new friendships and connect with people from back home. God definitely used them to keep us going.
Fun on Days Off
I definitely had some time to experience God’s creation on my days off. On two occasions our team was able to take a 1.5 hour boat ride to the Similan Islands for some snorkeling. It was the most amazingly beautiful blue water that I have ever seen and was unbelievably clear! I was amazed at the beauty of it all including the white sand beaches, whiter than I have ever seen. Besides our two snorkeling trips, we also were able to drive down to Phuket, about 1.5 hours away, a number of times to shop, eat American food, and watch movies. On one of those occasions it happened to be a Thai holiday called Songkran where the entire country of Thailand participates in a 3 day long water fight. I’m not kidding! From the moment we got to Phuket until we drove home that night, we were wet. People fill tubs with water and put them in the back of their trucks and throw it on people. People walk around with super soakers, have bins filled on the side of the road, and have hoses to drench people with. It was one of the craziest things I have ever experienced and a lot of fun (until you just want to be dry). Of course, we were living right near the beach in Khao Lak and took advantage of that a few times on Sunday afternoons. Life was definitely not dull!
Australia
I had a wonderful opportunity to visit a friend in Australia at the beginning of April. It was a great time of relaxation from all the building and working in the intense heat. I headed to the beautiful area of Brisbane for six days to experience the outback of Australia where I held a koala and petted kangaroos, the Sunshine Coast, a cruise down the Brisbane River right through the heart of the city, and much more. Ishara and her family made me feel so welcome and it was great to be in a place again where everyone spoke a language I understood!
Debrief in Krabi
Just before we left Thailand we had our team debrief in beautiful Krabi. It ended up being my favorite place in Thailand! It is so amazing. Besides debriefing our time in Thailand, we had the opportunity to go sea kayaking around Krabi and snorkeling at Phi Phi Islands, which was also amazing snorkeling. The water was a very clear green instead of blue like at the Similans. It was also beautiful and the best snorkeling to see coral was there. The debrief itself went well and we were able to wrap things up as a team, prepare to come home, and give our suggestions about the program.
Prayer Requests
1. Continue to pray for the Thai people, that God will open their hearts to Him and they will see the truth of Jesus through the remaining volunteers.
2. Pray that I will continue to readjust to life in the States and that reverse culture shock won’t be too bad.
3. Pray that as I seek God, His direction will be made clear to me as far as where to live, what kind of job to get, where to go to church, what sorts of ministries to be involved with, as well as how to make an impact in my own city in the States. Pray that I will take what I have learned and how I have grown and apply that to my life in the US.
4. Pray that ultimately everything I do will glorify and honor God! That people will see Jesus through me.
5. Pray for accountability in prayer for me. I sometimes feel hypocritical asking all of you to pray for me and then I fail to pray for these things myself. For some reason, I find it easier to pray for other’s issues than my own. Pray that I will lift my own needs up to God. (I am seeing some progress in this, praise God!)
6. Pray for safe travel this summer as I will be visiting friends in various parts of the US.
7. Pray that God will meet my financial needs until I find a permanent job. I am looking for short-term temporary jobs between my trips, including house/dog sitting jobs as well as others.
Praises
1. Two safe trips from Ubon to Khao Lak.
2. Great English Camp
3. Hershey Team
4. Meeting many new people from all over the world.
5. The chance to be used by God
6. A loving and supportive family who supported me through this experience
7. Safe travel from Thailand to Utah
8. Great friendships that were made
Words of Encouragement
Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the Lord.
Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)
“For I know the plans I have for you” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Well, this is the last of my newsletters. Thank you to each of you for sharing this journey and experience with me. I couldn’t have done it without all your thoughts and prayers and support. Each one of you will have a special place in my heart and life for many years to come. I love you and appreciate you!
|
|
This page has been visited
times.
This page created using the webpage creation facilities of Webspawner.
Copyright © 2005 . All Rights Reserved. |
|
8. March/April 2005
