Thailand

Hello everyone! For the months of September and October, my squad was in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Our squad has 6 teams and there are 3 squad leaders (including myself) which means we each oversee 2 teams. My teams are Team J-Walkers, the only men’s team, and Team Orah, my favorite women’s team 🙂 . During the month of September, the men’s team worked at the base we were staying at, helping with different construction projects around the hostel. They also went to an orphanage for children with HIV on Fridays where they spent three-quarters of the days doing manual labor and the other quarter playing with the kids. In October, they began working with a different orphanage, and they were able to complete some landscaping and construction projects for them as well. Team Orah worked at what we would call an elementary school during the months of September and October, and they were teaching English to Thai children. They also did some painting and even did a really nice mural for the children. 

-What exactly did I do during the months of September and October? To summarize into one sentence, I would say that my role is a mixture of building relationships with and discipling the participants (“racers”) directly so that they may walk into a deeper relationship with God, as well as taking care of administrative and logistical tasks that will provide the racers with the structured freedom that will allow them to experience life to the fullest in God. Below are some bullet points of what this looks like specifically….

   -Going to ministry with the racers. I don’t get to do “ministry” as much as the racers do, but I do join them as often as I can in their manual labor, teaching English, or whatever it may be. One thing the racers are learning is that “ministry” isn’t necessarily just the work that is assigned to them, it’s how you live your life. One thing I am learning is that this is not my World Race. It has been weird not going to the ministry site every single day, but I have to keep reminding myself that my primary ministry is the racers themselves, not the ministry sites. 

   -14 Hospital visits to Chiang Mai RAM hospital. In making sure that the participants are healthy and taking care of themselves physically, it also provided some great time for conversation over the wonderful, complimentary hot chocolate that the hospital serves. On a side note, I was super impressed by how orderly and efficient the Thai healthcare process was. It was super easy to register, see a doctor, pay, and get prescriptions all at the hospital.

   -Working with the base staff to ensure that the racers were respecting both the place we were staying at and the people who work there. Also planning teachings, different events, and just generally making sure we were all on the same page. 

   -Teaching sessions about Mission (Why are we here? What are we doing?), Intimacy (How can we know and love God on a deeper level?), and Community (How can we love and respect each other well?).

   -Upholding commitments and guidelines in order to make sure our teams and racers are living healthy lives individually and corporately. 

   -One-on-one check-ins with every racer once every other week. We want to make sure they are emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually healthy. These check-ins also serve the purposes of just building deeper relationships with each other and hanging out as friends. 

   -Coordinating a Men’s retreat each month where the guys get to go somewhere different for a night and have a space to hang out and talk with no women present. Yes, this is a time for them to have fun, but it is also a time for intentional conversation to take place, and a time for us to be more vulnerable with each other. In October, we went camping for a night in the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai.

  -One of the most fun parts of the role is getting to tag along with the teams on their Adventure days. In Thailand, I got to go with the teams to Sticky Falls, a waterfall you can climb, and Grand Canyon, a giant floating obstacle course in the middle of an abandoned quarry. 

  -As I mentioned above, there are 3 of us squad leaders. We also are a team that works together constantly, and so I am thankful that the World Race prioritizes our well-being as a team as well. We are required to take one weekend away from the squad per month just to take a breather and have fun together. In October, we got an AirBnB in a different part of Chiang Mai and went bowling, checked out some of the malls, had some great food, and did our best to just have fun, get some rest, and not talk about the squad. 

   -The World Race also prioritizes our individual health as squad leaders as well, and so we are also required to take a “Sabbath” one day a week while the racers are at ministry. This day we have an entire day to seek the Lord and get whatever it is that we need to be spiritually, physically, emotionally, and mentally healthy. Our relationship with God comes before our relationships with our racers, because we cannot lead our racers into a deeper relationship with God if we ourselves are not seeking a deeper relationship with God. 

Overall, I am loving this role as squad leader! As I think about who these young men and women were at training camp in July and who they have become now, I can clearly see all the ways that God has shaped and is shaping them into the men and women he has created them to be. It is truly an honor and a privilege to be able to play a small role in what God is doing in and through them! I really am having a blast doing this, and I love how hungry the racers are to know more about God and how open they are to what we as a leadership team have to impart to them! 

Pictures of my time in Thailand below……

-This picture is of me sharing my testimony with the squad on the roof of our hostel. One thing the three of us squad leaders wanted to model was vulnerability, and so we shared our testimony/life story early on so that the squad would feel more comfortable doing the same with us and with each other. This also helped make us more “human” as the squad could hear about all the things that we have been through, what we have struggled with, and how God has been there every step of the way. 

-This is the guy’s team, Team J-Walkers. They are such a fun group to be around and they are all pursuing a deeper relationship with God daily! All of them are extremely gifted individuals and I can’t wait to see what God does with them on the rest of the trip and in the rest of their lives!

-This is my women’s team, Team Orah, receiving their English teaching certificates on the last day at the school. Not pictured is their alumni team leader, Clarissa. I have seen so much growth in every single person on this team, and I am so thankful that God gave me this group of women to know and to lead throughout this trip!

-This picture is from the day I got to go with the guys team to the orphanage for children with HIV. For some reason, this little girl was drawn to me from the moment I sat down. She would run to the edge of the room and then I would spread my arms open wide and she would come running back to me. It was one of the sweetest things ever! It is so interesting to me how one child can be drawn towards one specific person, and then a different child is drawn towards a totally different, specific person. It is a mystery to me, but if anyone has any thoughts or science behind why that is, I would love to hear it!  

-This hospital visit was with one of the guys (James) who got a palm thorn lodged in his elbow. The doctor had to cut open his arm to remove these two pieces. 

-Sunrise over Chiang Mai at the campsite we went to for the guys retreat. The retreat was a really great time for the guys to be away from the rest of the squad and to have deep conversation surrounded by nature and fresh air. 

-This was at “Sticky Falls” outside of Chiang Mai on one of the squad’s adventure days. It is a multi-level waterfall made by limestone and mineral deposits. Because the limestone provides traction, it is “sticky” enough to walk up without slipping. 

-This was another one of our adventure days at Grand Canyon Water Park. The red arrow is pointing to a platform where we did “cliff jumping”. The platform was about 30-35 feet in the air, which is equivalent to the highest platform dive they do in the Olympics. The people in the water below are the lifeguards (just in case). It took me longer to jump than I would like to admit 🙂 

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We are now in Malaysia, which is primarily a Muslim country. You definitely have to be a little more careful and strategic with how you share your faith, but people are really open to discussion, and most really want to hear what we have to say. As a quick note, I am still fundraising and so if you have read this blog and believe in the work that God has called me to do, I would appreciate any amount of financial support that you are able to give. I would also appreciate continued prayer just that God would give me wisdom and discernment for how to continue speaking into the lives of the racers I have been entrusted with, and that I would see them with the love, compassion, patience, etc. that he sees them with. Thank you! 

Love, 

Cal