A warm, older man came out, and dismissed the problem, insisting on showing us where we would be staying. All of the beds had bug-nets, the girls had air-conditioning, there were western toilets (hey, the small blessings count too), free coffee, were just a few of the ways the contact there blessed us.
The next day, we started what would be two weeks of teaching English in various schools. It got easy as we went along, following patterns. But the first day stood out, because we didn't really have a model to go off of. We were told to introduce ourselves, teach English, and that we would have three hours with possibly a large group, but maybe a small group, and varying age groups.
So, we improvised.
A few of us would be teaching, and the rest of the team would brainstorm what to do next. It was such a privilege to watch them take turns pitching ideas, and stepping up to make those ideas a reality. It was hard (I have so much respect for school teachers who do this EVERY SINGLE DAY, and have to do something new every day), but it was a lot of fun and rewarding. Mostly everything that we did was related to Christmas, Jesus, or Christianity in some way.
We really began to see the hospitality of Thai culture there too. The teachers at each of the schools turned into waiters and waitresses, serving every need, want, or faint hinting of desire for something. They would serve us food in the library, as if it were a restaurant. Wanted coffee? They would bring it out. Almost done with your food? Here's another plate of food. Thirsty? Here's some water, and juice.
And the hospitality didn't stop with the teachers. After teaching for the whole day, we all went out for dinner (I had some AMAZING pad thai), paying with team money. And then after eating, the pastor decided to treat our team to ice cream. ICE CREAM.
As the days went on, a lady from the church would cook for us, and do her best to cater to our desires. Some days we would get salad, other days spaghetti with french fries on the side. It was crazy, we felt like we were trying to serve, but were instead getting served ourselves.
The Lord used this as a time to continue to bond us together, work in the team, and grow each individual spiritual walk.
My co-leader and I had been telling the team for awhile to prepare for difficult times, and at each turn we instead saw massive blessing. Still, my co-leader and I looked to the next location, and felt sure that it would be a time of trial and testing. Next on the itinerary was a ministry that was described to us as hiking in the mountains carrying medical supplies, and evangelism.
*My team made videos at each location! Here's one that gives a bit of an idea of what we did there
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