Thailand!!

The letters have been sent, prayers are being solicited, teambuilding is being conducted, appointments are being made (for shots!), paperwork is getting processed… I’m going to Thailand. I thought about putting an exclamation point at the end of that sentence, but I guess I’m still processing the whole thing myself.

The year started out simply enough. My daughter had just gotten married. I was taking time to recover from all the excitement. I was taking stock, looking back, moving forward, making plans for the year. I was planning to go back to Hume with the high school group from church. It had been several years since I’d gone to camp and I thought it would be fun to go back with this group. The bonds you build are incredible. Hume Lake is such an amazing place. (www.humelake.org) I was even considering going BACK to Wildwood! After all, I was turning 50 this year. And my birthday would fall during the week we would be at Wildwood. What better way to celebrate my half-century milestone than at Wildwood? I could prove myself again, or so I hoped. I thought it was going to kill me then, but I had survived. I had the red bracelet to prove I had persevered to the end. Why not try one more time?

I really wanted to go back to Israel. I was looking at a couple of agencies planning trips to the Middle East. I had also just started a class called Encountering the World of Islam, a Perspectives class to help me understand Islam and how to engage and converse with the Muslim. [My desire to go back to Israel has not been diminished by the latest conflict in that region. Quite the contrary, my heart aches to go back all the more. Pray for peace in Jerusalem (Psalm 122).]

I was even looking all the way out to Urbana 06 in December. I took a group of college-age young adults three years ago and it was an incredible event. I was talking to a new group of young adults about this conference and was getting excited about going and watching this group catch the fire for missions that Urbana stirs up. My daughter’s wedding was a pretty awesome way to welcome the New Year, but even it falls short compared to bringing in the New Year with 20,000 others all singing songs of praise and worship to God. Now THAT is awesome!!

I was making plans, knowing that God is the one who directs my steps. I was putting vacation requests in for the weeks that the kids were going to camp and for the end of the year when I was planning to go to Urbana. I knew Pastor Paul was talking about taking a group to Thailand. I knew he was pushing to go to Thailand and I thought “That’s fine, go to Thailand. I’ll pray for you and your group.” I had no desire to go to Thailand. My heart was focused on getting back to the Middle East and Israel. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I was going to be at River Oak much longer. Things had gotten so tense and painful that I was ready to make a break for it.

I’m not really sure just when I started considering going to Thailand with Pastor Paul. I can’t really remember when I said I would pray about going, but I was praying about it. I remember going to Pastor Chad and telling him that I wasn’t going to Hume this year after all. I was going to Thailand. Even then, I wasn’t fully convinced until I was at Pastor Paul’s house with a group of others for a barbeque. We were sitting around talking about all sorts of things and someone asked me if I was going to Thailand. Before I could respond (I was still enjoying my dessert), Pastor Paul blurted out “Yes!” Everyone started laughing, but I realized then that , yeah, I was going to Thailand.

So, here I am, preparing to go to Thailand. The team has been meeting regularly now for five weeks. We’re getting to know each other and prepare as much as we can for the culture shock. I’ll share more about the team in a later blog, but I’m excited about going with this group. We’re bonding!! Now I just gotta go and get my shots…