A New Adventure September 14, 2008

Well, I’m off to Thailand in just a couple days now… I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing specifically, but I know it will have to do with helping people in the refugee camps with their different health problems and teaching them how to live more healthfully. It will be a great experience for me, and I’m sure it’ll help me figure out what I should do with my life. I don’t know how often I’ll have internet access over there, but I’ll try to post something every once in a while.

These past couple weeks have been pretty hectic since I only decided about 2 weeks ago that I would go to Thailand. Previously I’d been planning on going to Souls West in Arizona. I colporteured this last summer and the summer before and had heard a lot about that school. Meanwhile, on their way to Southern University, my dad and brother, Mitchell, met up with one of his friends, Emily, who told them of her plans to go to Thailand this year. My dad was really interested and came home and told me about it. The more I thought and prayed about it, the more it seemed like the right thing to do. After all, I’ve done LE work for 2 summers and I think I at least need a taste of other forms of evangelism to see what God wants me to do. Last Friday, my dad and I went to San Fransisco to get me a new passport (my other one still has yet to be found). Fortunately we were able to get it that same day, and my grandpa was able to take it with him to L.A. to get me a visa two days afterward. We were hoping for a non-immigrant visa but were only able to get a visitors visa with 2 entries. In other words, it’ll last me 6 months. I’m hoping to be there 9 months, so I may be able to extend that time on the visa while I’m in Thailand. I got my Typhoid shot on Wednesday and also malaria pills that I’ll need to take while I’m over there. God has really blessed me as I’ve been trying to get all these things done last minute…

My flight leaves Sunday afternoon at 1:35. It’ll be an 11 hour flight to Narita, Japan, where I’ll be meeting up with two other people in my group (the group I’m with is from Southern Adventist University). Then we’ll take a 6 hour flight to Bangkok where we’ll spend the night. The next morning we’ll fly to Chiang Mai, which I believe is where I’ll be staying for the time being. We will have a month of training on different health issues before we actually go out into the refugee camps. It’ll definitely be an adventure!