Fail at updating.
;) Where did I leave off? I had just come back from Suphanburi & the two week holiday in Central Thailand. Well, in the little more than a month since I've blogged tons of life has happened as I'm sure it has for you! I basically hung out with the kids and got to know them more! For someone who's love language is quality time, it's not such a bad deal! ;) Week to week it's always a bit different but we would go to their after-school things, play a ton of games, and just share with each other!
Spiritually, the Lord has been teaching me a lot! I remember Him teaching me a lot about not taking myself too seriously. If you know me, you know I can be very silly! I find joy in the littlest things & I'd much rather laugh like a kid then grow up :) But when it comes to the way I think, I think in terms of feeling (phlegmatic) & depth (melancholy). I have come to learn that I go deeper with a person if I feel that I can give my trust to them. But that's another lesson entirely. ;D Anyways, because I tend to think deeply, I also tend to take MYSELF too seriously. If I'm failing in an area I tend to be too hard on myself and all I can see and think about is my weaknesses. He has been showing me that the joy I see in the world can also be seen in my weakness! The little quirks that I find annoying or weak, others find humorous and love me for them (ex: no sense of direction). Plus, His strength is made perfect in our weakness, right?! :)
The other huge lesson He's been teaching me is about selfless love. As I've looked over my life and my friendships, I have realized that when I was a child, I acted like a child. Hah! 1 Corinthians 13 is where I'm going with this! The verse continues to say, "but when I became a man I put childish ways behind me." The part earlier in the passage that says, "love is not self-seeking" was brought to me through a fiction book I was reading. It really stuck out to me and has been sticking with me since. Love that is not self-seeking is looking for the other person's benefit more then their own. They would rather the other person be happy or have God's best or whatever you want to call it then anything else. To me, selfless love means not thinking about myself first but rather for the good of others. I pray that I would be able to have that played out in my friendships from this moment forward.
So that is somewhat of what the Lord has been doing in me. I've been having such a great time here in Chiang Mai! It's going by so fast! Today, as I type this, is graduation! It is such a bittersweet time! I love these kids so much and I will have to say goodbye to them very soon!
Tomorrow at 2pm I leave to join with the other volunteers for the Mekong Reunion! The Mekong Reunion is basically this week where all of the tribal OMF Ms come together and go to classes and sessions and enjoy each others company after being away for a year! We will be doing some team building exercises like going Elephant riding and river rafting! We'll also be cooking a thai meal so that will be interesting! :D I'm in a team of three and we will be teaching the 3s and 4 year olds at the Reunion.
After that I will have a day to gather everything together and then the next morning Emma, Peter (the dorm assistant at the other dorm) three others, and I will fly out to Vietnam! We will be backpacking, p***er-walking, talking with the Ms, and helping out where we can! I will truly learn what roughing it looks like! (ESOAL was a bit more than roughing it in normalcy ;D) We will be traveling through north Vietnam all the way down to south Vietnam in a time period of two weeks! So a lot of it will be traveling and walking but I'm excited it!
THEN, I come home on the 30th of June and then fly out THAT NIGHT and come home! It's so crazy to think that this time next month I will be flying up in the sky watching my third movie or conked out. =P
This has been such an amazing experience. If I would have known what it was going to look like, I would have been here ages before I did. It just goes to show you how much harder living forward is in faith. Thankfully, He is gracious and merciful!
I pray you guys are doing great! See you soon!
In Him,
Amanda
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