Gratitude

There have been many moments over the last three weeks where I have thought, What is my life right now? being so amazed by the Lord’s goodness and love that He would give me an opportunity such as this. I will summarize my first three weeks below. Feel free to skip around the headings or read the whole thing… whatever your heart desires 🙂

Team: Our team consists of Jessie (squad leader), Ava, Mandy, Alex, Areonah, and myself. At training camp we had to come up with a team, and we chose AMALA. The word AMALA is a combination of all our initials and, in Arabic, means hopeful and expectant. I am going to briefly describe each one of them. Jessie is full of love. Her personality radiates love onto others, and it’s so evident that it comes from the Lord. She has also been a great support system for me as I have been learning what it looks like to be a team leader. Ava has a caring heart. She is attentive to the feelings of those around her and does anything she can to make sure that people are happy. Mandy is selfless. Before we left to go overseas, she wrote each of us a note with a Bible verse on it. She finds joy in helping others without expecting anything in return. Alex has a huge hunger for the word and sharing the gospel. When we are at ministry and have spare time, she will read her Bible or ask if we can worship. She also is always trying to find ways to evangelize to those around us. Areonah sees people really well. Whenever we are walking as a group, she is looking around to make sure we are all together. She is also good at reading people’s emotions and coming alongside them. I have adored getting to know these girls and am excited for what’s to come. Unfortunately, on February 7th, Jessie left our team to go be a support system for another one of our teams who didn’t have a squad leader. We both felt a lot of peace about this decision which was sweet to have that mutual feeling. Over the last couple weeks I have enjoyed getting out of my comfort zone, relying more on the strength of the Lord, and getting additional opportunities to step into my leadership role.

Ministry: We spend three to four evenings (4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.) and Saturday mornings (10 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.) at an after-school program called A-Mane where Thai students from grades 1-12 learn English. A-Mane was founded by our ministry host Benz and her husband Golf in March of 2006. The vision statement for A-Mane is “while we provide the service of teaching and mastering English education, our students will encounter and experience the love of their Savior, Jesus Christ.” Our first week at A-Mane we introduced ourselves and played games with the students. The following week Ava taught the students a lesson on environmental sciences. The students learned all about recycling. We have started to build relationships with some of the students, which has been really sweet. Last week we spent Monday at the Association of Parents of Intellectually Disabled Persons of Thailand. I taught a lesson on Noah’s Ark, and we played games with them. On Thursday and Saturday we were at A-Mane. Areonah taught a lesson about different laws and the court system. On Friday we went to Rangsit University and shared the gospel with Thai students. We had help from church staff that we are connected with to translate for us. Yesterday we began our fourth week of ministry at A-Mane. Alex taught about the difference between social norms in the U.S. and in Thailand.

Church: The first Sunday we were in Thailand, we went with Benz, Golf, and their 4 kids to their church. It’s an international English-speaking church, and there are 70 different countries represented. It was very similar to churches back in America. The next Sunday we went to an only Thai-speaking church. During worship I had no idea what words were being sung but could still feel the presence of the Lord. It was a good reminder that the Lord’s presence is everywhere that His name is being praised, no matter the culture or language. We all got on a Zoom call, and a member of the church translated the message for us. This last Sunday we were in Lopburi, which is a province in the central region of Thailand. I unfortunately missed out on church because I had a stomach bug. The other girls had great things to say and enjoyed the hospitality of the people at the church.

Free time: During our free time we do a combination of different things that includes reading our bibles, sharing our testimonies, praying, playing games, going for walks in the park, having intentional conversations, and spending time in each other’s presence. We have one day a week called ATL (Ask The Lord) and one day for sabbath (a day of rest). On these days we don’t have ministry and have the freedom to do what we want. Our first week for our ATL day, we went to the Grand Palace and on a boat tour down a canal. Last week we took both our ATL day and Sabbath to spend intentional time with each other and get some much-needed rest. We did this by doing a 48 hour phone fast. The amount of laughs we shared and things we did without any distractions was so good for our team.

Food and Accommodation: I love food, and we have eaten lots of it!! For breakfast I eat either a croissant and fruit, yogurt with granola, or drink a smoothie. For lunch most days we go to 7-Eleven or find a restaurant near A-Mane and for dinner we frequently walk to the evening market. It has a lot of food vendors to choose from and a big variety. A couple of my favorite things to get are mango sticky rice and fresh made-to-order garlic bread. Some things that I have tried that I won’t be eating again are chicken butt, which is made from the fatty, flavorful parts of the chicken that are usually used in stock, and pork balls, which are made from minced pork, starch, and seasonings. The chicken butt and pork balls were too fatty for my personal liking. We have the luxury of living in a hotel right now. When you think hotel room layout that’s exactly what it is. The beds do feel like a brick so I put my sleeping pad on the floor which has been a lot more comfy for me. We are all taking advantage of the A/C, close proximity of the bathroom, and warm water because we know this luxury most likely won’t happen again.

I will try to do a better job at posting more frequently but no promises.

With love,

Lillie McQueen