Ruminations on Our Internship

Well, Luke and I have been thinking a lot lately about our time here in Thailand and what it has meant to us. Here are some of the things we were able to think through while we were away on our vacation. Here is what we have learned:

1. What it means to go through culture shock and how to deal with it. There are so many things you have to go through when you move to a new country. There are a myriad of cultural differences that you must adjust to and incorporate into your lifestyle, such as different weather, food, transportation, etc. We made mistakes at times, but it was so valuable to have the missionaries here to learn from. We’re so thankful that we had these two years to learn cultural sensitivity, to learn how to contextualize and embrace the differences in the various countries around the world.
2. How to set up a home and acquire essential items. We wouldn’t have thought of it before we got here, but setting up a home in a foreign country is very difficult! Simple things like knowing how to rent a home, how to communicate about a contract, how to buy a cell phone and what numbers to dial…it’s all new and different! We felt like the missionaries came along beside us to guide us in these valuable lessons so that we will be able to do it on our own in the future.
3. How to work on a team. Before we came to Thailand we had never worked on a team before because we had just graduated from college. These two years have taught us so much about how to live, work and play with teammates, who become as close as family. We learned much from the missionaries in this area too, as they spent time teaching us about how to deal with team conflict and resolution, as well as having times of accountability and mentoring.
4. The need for spiritual discipline. This team of missionaries that we came to work under provided a context of prayer, fasting and meditation on God’s word like we’ve never known before. They have learned that without these key elements, missions cannot succeed. They have engrained this into our lives as well over these two years and we are thankful that we will take this into the next stage of our lives.
5. The value of strategic planning. The missionaries have been in Thailand for over 14 years and have tried many different ways to evangelize and reach the Thai people. The downside of this is that they feel they never truly nailed down the vision of what they wanted to accomplish, so that in the end, they’ve tried a lot of things instead of strategizing and focusing all of their heart and strength into that vision. This has taught us that we must pray with all our might as well as be strategic in our plans and goals.
6. Our capability of learning a second language. As Americans, we take one foreign language in school and most of us feel somewhat inept when we are finished. This can be discouraging. But after submerging ourselves in the Thai language for two years as well as studying, we’ve found that we really can learn a second language!
7. The importance of not creating your own “subculture”. As a coping strategy, we found ourselves wanting to retreat out of Thai life and only be with the other Americans we knew in our neighborhood, only going to American style restaurants, etc. We learned that those kind of actions cannot produce meaningful evangelism. We’ve learned that it is difficult to build true and deep relationships with the nationals, but we’ve come to realize how important it is.
8. How to be a family away from our family. When we left America two years ago we weren’t sure how we would handle being so far from home. We have learned that God gives us grace to do this and he also provides good gifts to keep us connected with them. We were able to find good phone services, emailing, webcams, and even visits from parents, not to mention the times He allowed us to come home.

As you can see, we feel that our time spent in Thailand has been time well spent. Not only did we learn all of these things, we have also had a lot of fun. It has been amazing to get to know the Thai people and having new friends, setting up the youth center, being involved in the church and the kids lives’, exploring a new country and trying new foods. We wouldn’t trade it for anything.