After getting out of our comfort zones in the North, we could not wait for some relaxing beach vibes in Phuket. Everyone knows about the island’s amazing beauty and vibrant culture making it an ideal all year round holiday destination. This of course was not our focus and we were excited to be serving our new host: Roeline Muller (fellow South African) who is ‘not a missionary, only a Christian worker’.
This amazing woman has started a NGO called Asia Center Foundation that provides education and support to both children and parents from lower social-economic backgrounds in Phuket. This people group consists mostly of Burmese people from Myanmar who are not accepted into the Thai communities or schools. The foundation has many different legs including kindergarten, scholarship programs, a safe house and the JumpStart learning center, where we lived and served. The center provides education to Burmese children who are refused at Thai schools. The most beautiful little faces ever.
As I said, we came to serve and on arrival Roelien already made a list of things we could help do. Some of the things on the list included replacing the bathroom doors, building a new garbage rack, putting up a wall to section off the school office, change some classrooms, painting walls, making educational posters to decorate the classrooms, gardening, getting their hydroponics system up and running again and building 2 Lapa-like structures to provide shade for the children to play under. With some hard work we got all the jobs done in our 5 work day period – WOW! As our team is relatively young with little experience, the planning went something like this:
Q: Okay, what would you like to do?
A: Hydroponics (example)
Q: Do you know how?
A: No?
Q: Okay, just google it and come ask if you have any questions
This is how it went for everyone. I am pretty sure no one ever felt completely comfortable in their job at any point. But the job needed to be done and we came to serve. Being of the modern technologically advanced generation, we know how to use google as a teacher.
Elske and I were in charge of the hydroponics system. People, this is the future!!! It is a gardening system where plants grow without soil and only in water with the nutrients added to it. This method takes gardening from merely horizontal to vertical as well! It was probably one of my favourite projects this year and I am motivated to build one back home in South Africa. Learning new things is always fun.
Some of our other activities included visiting the beaches (amazing!!!), game night, prayer evenings and jogging (yes, all of a sudden the team became very fitness aware). With Thailand being one of the leading countries in prostitution we decided to learn more about the situation by watching a documentary on modern day slavery. It spoke of young girls being kidnapped, orphans tricked into slavery and parents selling their daughters. Once again, if you don’t know what to pray, pray for Thailand. The problem is real. After watching this and most of the team wiping their eyes, one of our men commented on how it motivated him to treat all women better and not judge someone based on their circumstances. And a few days later He put his words into action when all our men held a special dinner for the ladies in the team, honouring us just for being women. They served us dinner and organised a sleepover for us with movies and everything! We are truly blessed to have them.
When South Africans meet each other abroad, there is only one thing to do: braai. And so we ended off our time with Roeline with a good old ribs, potato salad and braai broodjies dinner around the fire (aka gas stove).
Things I have learned:
- 1.We don’t pray enough
- 2.Science is cool!!
- 3.God can be found all around us in nature. Just open your eyes.
- 4.Obedience is more important than sacrifice
- 5.If your spiritual life is comfortable, you are doing it wrong
- 6.I really really like scooters
- 7.Adventurous eating continues: this time the menu included crickets, worms, beetles, and cockroaches. Not so yum…
- 8.It is important for believers to be in community. That is how we grow. We need others to help us get closer to God – belonging to small group is important.
- 9.If you don’t pay attention to the little things, it could cost you everything
- 10.Our world is very broken…
And so our month in paradise comes to an end. With a heavy hearted farewell and a very long bus ride to Panang, Malaysia, the next leg of our journey is soon to being. Excitement waits!
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