Thailand Team – Update #4
It’s Friday morning. We all got up early to join the Seed of Hope Founder, Lawpa and staff ,on the porch of his home for coffee, fresh fruit and good conversation.
Today’s Adventure : The team is traveling into the mountains to spend 24 hours in the villages where the children of Seed of Hope are from. We were told to bring as little as possible because there would be a little hiking involved and we would be riding in the back of a open air pick up truck.
The drive was roughly an hour and 45 minutes. There were a lot of narrow roads and some places close to being washed out but still passable.It was a crazy ride but the view and the scenery had us speechless. We couldn’t stop taking pictures which was not easy in a moving open air truck. For our first stop of the day, the trucks pulled over on the side of the road. And we all got out, grabbed our stuff and hiked 30 minutes to our first village. We had the pleasure of meeting several of the children’s families at one of their homes. This particular home happened to be next-door to the Community Church, which the whole community is in the process of building. They gave us a tour of the partial construction. We were struck by how the people here have so little, but the whole community comes together to build what’s going to be a beautiful church to worship our Lord in.
After the tour we went back to our host’s house, which is perched on the side of a mountain and overlooks the whole valley. We were all in awe.
We were served a freshly prepared lunch lthat was unbelievably good. After lunch we were treated to fresh ground coffee that they grow themselves. To prepare the coffee, they used a campfire right next to the kitchen to boil the water, ground the coffee beans by hand and prepare some unbelievable coffee pour over style. We sat there for a good hour or so and had some great conversations, even with the language barrier.
Then the time came for us to move on to our next stop. A powerful storm had passed but it was still raining pretty good as we took off by foot for a 40 minute hike up to the Seed of Hope founder’s village and house. We had a wonderful dinner prepared over a campfire.
After dinner, we got to hear his testimony and how he found Jesus through the trials and hardships of living in the mountains of Thailand as a refugee from Burma. His story inspired us all.
After that, we headed up to our pretty rustic sleeping arrangements. It was truly an experience we will never forget.
Next morning we all woke up very early to many roosters welcoming the day and no electricity. It didn’t phase our hosts, and we had a wonderful breakfast. We loaded up in the back of the truck and headed back down the mountains, but of course, it rains a lot this time of year in Thailand and we departed in a pretty major downpour of rain. It dampened our clothes but not our spirits. That concludes another team adventure that we will never forget. Our wonderful Lord has truly blessed us with this experience and the people we have met along the way. We are truly grateful for the grace, love and protection that our Lord gives us.
Thank you for your prayers as we are seeing them answered every day. The language barrier is continuing to lessen and communication has improved drastically. Please continue to pray that the children will be receptive to the love of Christ and the gospel. Also continue to pray for team unity as we seek to serve the Lord in humility. We are so excited by what God is doing in Thailand and we are so grateful for you joining us on this journey.