Thailand Wonders and Lessons

I’m learning that blogs are hard to sit and complete for me lol- so bare with me as I continue to learn how to balance ministry out here and keeping up with all my updates, blogs, and recap posts for back home.

I did in fact leave Thailand almost a month ago, and I am fully aware this is a bit overdue. BUT better late than never!!! I also had to respect my ministries rules about how much information I could give out while doing my ministry. Now the time of waiting is over though!!  Here’s your THAILAND RECAP!!!!

It was hard to leave behind Cambodia for sure. I had to press into my relationship with the Lord a lot when we left because I was struggling with the fact that I wasn’t going to see any of friendships I made again. That was a bit hard to wrap my head around and come to terms with.

Thailand was a different atmosphere than Cambodia, everyone in Cambodia wanted to converse with you, make you feel welcomed. Even though the spiritual warfare was heavy in Cambodia, especially in Siem Reap, the Khmer people were so friendly and inviting. Going to Thailand wasn’t the same feeling. It was quite heavy with spiritual warfare and living in the middle of the city was like living in a cold shoulder treatment at times. Their hearts were heavy and unpostured to the appropriate priorities. Especially with Buddhism being so deeply rooted into their culture it’s a lot.

The Lord hears our prayers even when they seem insignificant, trust!! The original plan was that my team and I were going to live in a team house that was connected and provided by our ministry we were working with right outside of Chiang Mai. Instead, the Lord changed some plans around and we got placed with two other girls teams within my squad with an organization called Bella Goose, in the middle of the city in Chiang Mai.

A little about Bella Goose, it’s a coffee shop that started in Wisconsin Dells that works with sex and human trafficking victims as a rescue system, and helping the trafficked victims get back on their feet by getting them jobs. They have a location still in Wisconsin Dells and now three locations in Chaing Mai, Thailand. Fun fact, one of the girls on my team worked for Bella goose in The Dells right before the race, so that was cool to see her looking right at home with the little piece of her life she had in a different country!!

It was quite a blessing to live in the hostel attached to Bella Goose and living above the coffee shop. Maybe not for my bank account but definitely my taste buds. I love traveling abroad and trying all sorts of new things but it was nice to eat American food and have a piece of home in a way. And to be able to drink chai latte’s lol.

In Thailand, my team’s ministry was about 40 min out of the city. We worked with an organization called Remember New, a home for human trafficking prevention. The kids that were at potential risk for trafficking would come from the villages around Thailand and come to live at the camp, which was kind of set up like a boarding school except more relaxed. The kids would go to school everyday while we were there and we would leave before they got back, so we never really got to be with them. On Wednesday nights, we would stay late at ministry to play with them and eat dinner with them before they had to get ready for bed. Even though it was minimal, the time we got to spend with them was always so sweet and tender!

Our ministry for the most part was just helping with projects wherever they needed us at. Which looked like pouring cement some days, cutting dragonfruit trees and pruning the gardens, cutting banana leaves off banana trees. Then the majority of our ministry was half my team painting their snack shack like a mini 7/11. The other half of my team was with me baking treats and sweets for all the kids for the end of the week.  We also baked for a huge Christmas party that they threw for the whole organization where all of their campus and their other Remember New locations came together to celebrate the birth of Jesus!! Which is where my team did in fact perform church clap on stage for the whole audience. Where my foot also went through the stage lol- it was quite an experience for sure, 10/10.

As I said previously, Thailand was a heavy place to be spiritually. In complete honesty, it’s where I’ve had the hardest time in my faith. feeling very unmotivated, and hungry for the Word and hungry for the Father but feeling so complacent with actually opening my Bible. Allowing myself to become easily distracted from doing anything and everything besides reading my bible. It was difficult to ever feel filled up especially when I wasn’t fighting for myself. Sometimes though, we have dry periods and seasons in our faith and walks with the Lord. One of my squad mentors told me along the lines of, “you’re just still chewing on the last season and learning still what the Lord just taught you in the last high season”. It opened my eyes to the fact that being a Christian doesn’t always mean being in a high place and constantly never struggling in your faith. That’s not realistic of a day to day faith with the Lord, something I’m still learning.

Thailand is known for its Red Light District, which was a block away from where I was living. In the beginning, I was definitely living with fear when walking the streets of the city, especially at night. For valid reasons, I had fear but I realized that it wasn’t my portion to carry or be afraid of. That I am in fact covered by the blood of Jesus. These people were still just people. Broken and hurt people. I started to look at the hookers and prostitutes, the men cat-calling us, everyone in that district and all over the city that were lost without Jesus, trying to seek the way that the Lord views them. Praying for the Lord to show me how he sees these people and what he wants to heal in them. Praying for them instead of being scared of them.

Thailand needs Jesus just as much as anyone else needs Him, especially with how infested Thailand is with the Buddhist lifestyle. It’s a very quiet society, that is well reserved to themselves and rather remain unbothered yet loud with a spirit destruction within itself and complacency. They need Jesus freaks to come in and pour into them and their lives. To make them feel pushed in uncomfortable ways by challenges of what they believe and what Jesus could do in their lives.

Leaving Thailand made me hungry to share Jesus, I realized how fast this race is going by, how we are only here for quite a short time and can only make an impact as deep as we try and put effort into trying to. I want people to experience the love of Jesus, the awe of the Lord the way that I am. He’s so worthy!!!

After finishing up ministry in Chiang Mai, we travelled down to Bangkok, for full squad debrief. Where our coaches and mentors came and met us at for a week of resting in the Lord and being refilled by spending time in His word and presence before leaving for South Africa to continue ministry. It was a sweet time to be able to be full squad and be in community with each others company after a while of being apart. We also had to make a hospital visit because I did in fact, smack my head on a metal pole underneath a staircase… twice- in the same day- in the same spot on my head and on the same metal pole lol. So I did have a concussion for a hot second the rest of debrief, travel day and a couple days at the beginning of South Africa. I’m okay now though God bless lol.

Prayer request for my team, squad and I!! To keep us focused on what are main goal and reason for being here is! Especially when it’s so easy to get distracted by the tourist events, traveling in foreign countries for a short time period and fast paced lives going on all around us, that we can take a step back and practice resting in the Father’s presence and doing what He wants from us vs. what we are wanting to do.

I love you all!!

Madeline Petry <3