day in the life

HEYO!

It’s officially the end of month five, and I’ve been living in Chiang Mai for about three weeks now. It’s been such a whirlwind of beauty and grace and peace since living here, and despite all of the pollution and darkness of this place, I love it. If the Lord calls me back here, I will be on the first flight!!

This month my team is working at a Wildflower Home, which is a rehabilitation center for women who have been victims of abuse or trafficking. We work alongside the mothers there, and we get the privilege of encouraging them and taking some of the workload off their backs. I’m not usually a huge gardening fan, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the work we do! Their home is completely sustainable, and the women eat everything that they grow! My favorite thing about Wildflower is that the women are not only taught to farm and grow their own food, but they learn English and crafts such as making shampoo or journals that they can sell to earn money. It is such a beautiful ministry of women empowering women, and I’m here for it. 

Let’s get on with the day(:

I usually set my alarm for 7:30 so that I can get ready and eat breakfast before I go downstairs. There is a coffee shop attached to the bottom of our hostel, and I love having my quiet time there in the mornings before ministry. With about fifty people living in the hostel, all of the common areas get pretty crazy, so it’s super nice to have my quiet time all alone(: (Sidenote: World Race uses the buddy rule, so alone time is really hard to find – BUT because the coffee shop is attached to our hostel, we can go there BY OURSELVES! My introvert self has gone a little crazy the past few months.)

We take Asia’s version of taxis to ministry at 9:00 every morning. It’s about a thirty minute drive out of the city, depending on traffic, to get to Wildflower. Our ministry doesn’t start until 10, so we have some downtime to spend with the sisters, who run Wildflower.

The first three weeks we were at Wildflower, we were filling in a HUGE ditch (fifteen ft wide and about as long as the width of a football field & eight to ten feet deep) with dirt. The women were trying to start another garden, so we shoveled and wheelbarrowed dirt every day to fill it in. Now that we have girlpowered our way through it, our days look a lot different. We might be hoeing in the banana fields, pulling weeds in the gardens, laying brick down, or raking. We work from 10-12 in the mornings and then from 1:30 to 3:30 in the afternoons. 

Because our weeks are really physically exhausting, especially when we were doing everything with the dirt, the sisters are so sweet and they give us an hour of rest after lunch. Sometimes that looks like taking a nap, working & planning, doing quiet time, or watching netflix. We are so blessed by the way the sisters take care of us and make sure we are all doing ok. It means so much to be welcomed in, with so much hospitality, to their home. 

Fridays are my favorite day of the week because in the afternoon the women get to learn new skills!… which means we also get to learn new skills with them! Last week we did yoga so that the mothers could learn how to stretch their bodies and learn new workouts, and this past week we made shampoo from scratch! It’s so fun to come alongside the women, encourage them, and learn from them. It’s also given my team and I such a beautiful opportunity to connect with the missionaries that come in and teach them. 

We get home from ministry anywhere from 4-4:30, and the rest of our evenings are free aside from team time. There’s always a long line for showers and a little debate about which night market we’re going to for food that night, but it usually ends up being 7/11 because of our food budget. I’m not complaining though. Their ham and cheese sandwiches are bomb, and their thai tea is the cheapest I’ve found. 

This has seriously been my favorite month of the race so far. After doing kids ministry for three months, I realized that it’s not really my thing. I love kids, but it’s so hard for me to continue when I can’t see the fruit of anything I’m doing. At Wildflower, we literally get to see our progress on the farms every day. We get to see our relationships bloom the longer we’re there. It’s such a beautiful environment to be empowered and encouraged every day, and I am so thankful that the Lord has my feet here for the next month!!

I’ll have a photo journal coming in a few weeks so you can see a little bit more of the farm and some of the women that never fail to make me smile!

Thank you so so so much for all of your kind comments on my last post. I’m always reminded how blessed I am that you’re all in my corner. Thanks for praying for me and making me feel so loved. 

Please let me know if there’s any way I can be praying for you! I would love to come alongside you in prayer and worship(:

In other news, some plans for next year are starting to fall in place as the Lord leads, and I would love some prayers for continued confirmation and affirmation. The pollution mixed with allergies has also been really hard on my health, and I am doing a lot better than when I first got here, but I would always love some extra prayers for healing!

THANK YOU!! I love you guys a whole lot!!

all my love, Kate