My husband and I recently returned from a mission trip to Thailand with more than a dozen other volunteers from multiple organizations. We joined the Whitworth Swim Team, current members and alumni, and coaches (we’re alumni), Paladin Rescue Alliance, A21, and Krupayu Swim for this trip; and altogether we were called the Kilo Team.
We taught swim lessons to children grades K-12 at Sangwan School in Mae Sariang, Thailand, so that they could use the skills they learned if ever found in life-threatening situations involving water. Drowning is the number one cause of death in Thailand, so helping them learn basic water survival skills was the priority while we were there. We also helped in the classrooms with English learning, while A21 provided the anti-human trafficking education component. We spent a total of eight days in Mae Sariang, and then returned to Chiang Mai for the remaining four days of our trip to enjoy some tourist attractions before returning home to the United States.
At the beginning of the trip I had no idea what would be in store for us. All I knew was that I had just spent over twenty-four hours traveling to a country that was hot, sticky, and the most green place I had ever seen in my life. You could feel the humidity so tangibly, it was like drinking air. And if you know me, you know that humidity and I do not mix well. I have super curly, dry hair, and the humidity is not its friend. I was anxious about the following two weeks in a foreign country where I didn’t know the language very well (we all crammed in some Thai during layovers and on our multiple long flights). And I had to remember to not drink the tap water, and learned very quickly to always carry toilet paper (a.k.a. tissue paper) with me at all times because you won’t find any in Thailand.
But I was also excited about what God had in store for us. I hadn’t seen the school yet, and I hadn’t met any of the other team members aside from those I knew from Whitworth. I knew that something great was coming, I just wasn’t prepared for how good it would actually be until I was in the middle of it.
Our first day at the school was a bit awkward. We split up the team, half in the water and half in the classrooms, and then we switched after lunch. And throughout the whole day, we tried to introduce ourselves, figure out what was expected of us, do our best to lead a classroom full of kids that constantly laughed at us for the countless ways we mispronounced things in Thai, and make it all interesting and fun at the same time. I can’t speak for anyone else on the team, but I can say that I found it mildly terrifying having a classroom of 60 or more high school students staring at me, laughing at me, and sometimes straight up looking at me like I was crazy. And that was only the first day. But I promise it got much, much better after that.
Once all the first-day jitters had gotten out of our systems, we quickly fell into a routine. We each found the classroom that we were most comfortable teaching (mine was occupations), and we ran with it. We connected with the students more and more each day, and we were constantly asked for selfies and pictures to the point where we felt famous.
The swim lessons went really well. Most of the kids learned how to blow bubbles, float on their stomachs and their backs, and some even learned rudimentary freestyle and backstroke. By the end of the week we felt pretty confident that they could survive in water if they needed to.
On the last day of the week-long camp, there was a sports day where we were all assigned a team color, and we competed in the most ridiculously funny games. One game that I participated in consisted of strapping a papaya to my hips and trying to swing it and hit a ping pong ball across the asphalt court. Needless to say, it was quite embarrassing, but I was not alone in doing it, which made it super fun. Everyone was choking with laughter the whole morning. And in case you were wondering, the Blue Team (my team) won sports day by a landslide 😉
After sports day, the team went back to our hotel and got ready for the evening dinner party with the teaching staff, where some of the students would perform traditional Thai dances that they had been learning in their classes, and we would also perform a dance for them. The girls on our team danced to Single Ladies and the guys busted some moves to Save a Horse Ride a Cowboy. The staff and students loved it, and it made them laugh, which was our goal. After our dance, the school surprised me by singing happy birthday (yes, it was my actual birthday) and one of the teachers presented me with a cake that she had made. It was the most wonderful surprise, and I felt so blessed in that moment, because I had not openly told anyone that it was my birthday. The director of the Paladin organization saw my birthday on my passport at the beginning of the trip, and planned the whole thing from there. The cake was also the best cake I have ever had in my life (thank you, Mary!)
The next morning, we went back to the school for the formal closing ceremony with the whole school before hitting the road to go back to Chiang Mai. Everyone cried, and about a million photos were taken. We didn’t want the trip to be over. We didn’t want to say goodbye to the kids, and they felt the same way about us. We were each presented with a folder of notes that the students had written to us, and they all expressed love and gratitude for not only what we had done for them and taught them, but also for the friendship that we had provided.
And we not only impacted the lives of the students, but of the faculty as well. We became friends for a lifetime in that one week. The teachers were also taught how to swim, and we got to spend lunch with all of them each day, as well as enjoy a beautiful hike together to take in all of Thailand from a bird’s eye view on one of the days we were there. We all came home with hundreds more Facebook friends than when we had left on this trip, and none of us could have predicted the kind of love we would encounter in such a short amount of time.
Throughout the week at the school, I couldn’t stop thinking about how this must be what God meant by worship through service. The ability to share the skills that you have with others, without the expectation of any kind of reward in return, actually results in the best reward of all. It results in abundant love that cannot be contained. The love that we all felt for each other during that week of serving together, and the love that we received in return from those kids, is a feeling that I can’t accurately put into words. I’m tearing up right now just thinking about how it felt, and still feels, to hold that amount of love in my heart.
To say that this trip changed my life would be a gross understatement. This trip not only changed my life, but it changed my heart. Since coming home, I have viewed serving in a whole new light. It isn’t something I feel I should do because it is expected of me as a Christian. It is now something that I desire to do from the deepest parts of my being. Seeing the smiles on those kids’ faces every time they succeeded in their swim lessons or in the classroom was so amazing. The laughter we shared, the tears we shed, and the love we exchanged all contributed to the making of a moment that will never be forgotten. I find myself wanting to experience that feeling, again and again, for the rest of my life. And I urge you, if you haven’t already, start serving. Find an opportunity where you can get plugged into your community, or your church, and see where your skills are needed. I promise that you won’t regret taking that leap of faith and putting yourself out there in vulnerable and uncomfortable situations. The outcome of one act of kindness, especially one seeped in the love of the kingdom of God, can forever change the trajectory of your life. So what do you say, will you join me?
