I have left Thailand, and I am finally home. I got home on Wednesday, and I have been washing, unpacking, and reorganizing all my things ever since then! It’s been great to see family and friends, but I’ve definitely been missing Thailand!
The last week before we left was a very emotional one. I had no idea how hard it would be to leave all our friends. Naomi and I took our last rides throughout the village and the rice fields, and helped some farmers with their rice. We had a lot of fun and realized how much we are going to miss our Ban Tum village. We ate at Ban Dam or “the Noodle Shop” for the last time and got pictures with the family. We got our hair “de-liced” and packed, packed and packed!
We had a few “good-bye parties;” one being at the Annumai (the medical clinic), another with the Ch body in Khun Han, another with the Compassion kids in Khun Han and another in Sisaket at Mayta and Suan’s mansion . At almost each party, our friends each talked about us in front of the group, and then it was our turn to thank our friends.
We also had our last Word study with our supervisors Mike and Amy, and they both gave us encouraging words and yarped for us. I will miss these two extremely much! The two of them have taught me a lot about love, the Lrd, marriage and daily m life. I will forever be thankful that they agreed to take us on as semester abroad students! We also had said good-bye to our friend Ariel, our supervisor’s home schooling helper and our dear friend right before she left at Thanksgiving time!
Saturday in Khun Han was our last day with all of our C friends and the Compassion kids. We showed up, and each Compassion kid was holding a red rose in their hand to give to us. The tears started then and didn’t stop until we left! They had us sit in the middle of their circle and they sang, “We love you with the Love of G.” Wow, it was powerful. Each child ended up blessing us by putting powder all over our faces! It was a bittersweet event. Our C teenage/college friends all got on the microphone and talked about us. The believers in Khun Han are my brothers and sisters in Chrst and my heart is very sad to not be with them anymore.
We did a lot of stuff with our kids before we left. On Friday, the kids drew numbers and then got to pick out some of our clothes and other household items to keep. You would have thought we just had Christmas morning at our house based on how excited they were! Even to get things like baby powder and hand sanitizer! On Saturday, we took Loy, Yat, Woot (Yat’s brother), Goon and Ayo into the city to buy them new school uniforms. They were ecstatic! The girls all showered, wore their nicest outfit and had Goon do their hair. After getting uniforms, we took them to KFC to get chicken and ice cream. Then we walked around the department store, going up the escalators and using the “automatic flush” squatty potties. The girls had never seen an automatic flush in a bathroom stall and had to have me help them! We also gave each kid a Thai Word Book and a Kuy J Film and another Thai "good news" video. We practiced finding verses with them so that they will know how to do it on their own in the future.
The night before we left, I sat out and cried until about 3 AM with Mae and Pa. All they did was cry and tell me how they didn’t want us to go. They told me that they’ve never looked at Naomi and me as farongs (foreigners), but as their real Thai daughters. On the day we left, we had long good-byes with Kong and our hair stylist friend Ann. Neither of these good-byes were easy. Kong has been a dear friend throughout the entire 6 months. Ann finally confessed what’s really going on in her life and it made it so hard to leave her knowing what she’s going through!
I had anticipated that saying good-bye to our girls would be very hard. I actually started crying about leaving them over 3 months ago! The girls spent the night at our house the last night and they had their own little form of a “good-bye party” for us. They each recited something sweet, and they each said it to Naomi and me. Tears. In the morning they ran home and changed into their new uniforms. We got some last minute pictures of them, surprised them by giving them our bikes, gave them last hugs, kisses, and “I love yous,” and then pushed them up the driveway on their new bikes and then let go. We just bawled. Naomi put it this way: “I feel like I just put my heart on a bike and pushed it down the street.” We just stood there and sobbed. The kids tried to come back 5 minutes later, saying they would ditch school for the day but we made them go back. They never did come back after that.
Before going to the airport on Monday, we messed around with the Bowles boys (our supervisor’s sons) one last time. They are crazy, but I love them like brothers.
At the airport, we had Mike, Amy, Mae, Pa, Nong Few, Nong Fa all send us off. Ajan (Shepherd) Somjai, his wife Pi Duan and Pi Nong showed up and surprised us! They missed some big Christmas program just to see us. I’ll never forget having to walk away from that group of people. It felt like I turned my back on almost everything that I’ve come to care about.
Naomi and I spent a day and a half in Bangkok getting our last minute gifts and debriefing with each other. This time was actually really good for us. We actually spent Father’s Day, also the King’s birthday in Bangkok and so we got to participate in a Thai cultural event one last time. We called Pa to wish him a “Happy Father’s Day.” I thank God that I have had Naomi as a teammate through all of this. We are very different in many ways but we share the same heart for our friends in the village of Ban Tum and in the Sisaket Province. I will miss her a lot as she is going off to Colorado next semester to work for the North American Mission Board. Her walk with the Lrd is genuine and her passion has only encouraged me to run to and worship the Lrd as she has done.
Lots of good-byes later and lots of flying hours later, I am home in Mission Viejo, California. I have been so happy to be here. I’ve missed my family and my hometown a lot more than I thought! However, my heart and most of my thoughts are still focused on my little village in Northeastern Thailand. Since I’ve been here, I automatically start to wai or bow to people because handshakes and waves have become unfamiliar to me. All the funny Thai expressions that I use daily have no meaning to anyone but me. It’s definitely a time of transition, and I’m so thankful that I have such a loving family to help me get used to living here again.
G has used this trip to change me and to show me His heart for people. I don't know if G will ever send me back to Thailand again, but I do know that G sent us there to be a light to Ban Tum and that G will and has already blessed our efforts there. Your yarps truly made a difference in the lives of our Kui and Thai friends and we could have not have experienced what we did without your yarps for us.
This has been a very long email, so sorry about that! Thank you all so much for being so supportive of me while I’ve been gone. I’ve enjoyed getting all your emails and hearing what’s going on in your lives. I’m really excited that I get to see a lot of you here at home in Cali, in Utah in January and back in Missouri at SBU when classes start.
Please continue yarping for the Kui people of Thailand.
Thanks again!
Jenn
P.S. ALL MY LAST PICTURES from Thailand are on this website:
http://sbuniv.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008611&l=9eba2&id=177500365