Travel Days
Our time in Indonesia came to sweet and fitting close. My last week was spent in Doctor’s offices with sick racers and villages with kids eager to play. My leadership team and I prayerfully placed teams for Thailand sorted out last minute details. Nights were spent in prayer and praise over what God has done and is doing.
Early Wednesday morning, we piled into grabs (Asian uber) and boarded a short ferry to Singapore. There we spent the day exploring the small nation before regrouping at the airport for a sleepover. In the morning, we took a flight from Singapore to Bangkok. During this flight, I accidentally ate sesame, a mild allergen of mine. Unfortunately, due to sleep deprivation and stress, my reaction was heightened (but not at all life threatening) resulting in me being miserably sick and visiting the airport clinic in Bangkok. Half our group left the Bangkok airport to catch the first of two trains to Chaing Mai, where our girls will be living this month. The other half went out to explore Bangkok while I visited the clinic and rested. The Bangkok explorers quickly learned what our mentor meant when she said Bangkok is not for the weak. Seven racers were stuck in traffic 1.5hrs from the airport, and were set to arrive over an hour late to curfew. The turnaround was a bit chaotic, with a few of us attempting to load over 20 huge backpacks into vans that repeatedly tried scamming us while those in ubers attempted to reroute straight to the train station but got dropped off at random locations.
Some moments in the Singapore airport!
But God showed up as always, providing a luxury van for half the price of the ones on upper floors, and everyone made it on time to the train station to grab snacks and change clothes before we boarded. After a 14 hour sleeper train that shook like an earthquake and a short truck ride, we arrived at the coffee shop/hostel where the girls will be staying. We spent the next day debriefing Indonesia and setting goals for Thailand, before the boys and I hit the road for Chiangdao. It was a hard transition leaving all the sweet girls on my squad and my close friend and co-leader Caleigh, and step into the unknowns of Chiangdao but ready or not, it was time change.
My goodbye to Caleigh!
This month I am supporting our team of men at their ministry called Fountain of Hope. This is a children’s home and farm, where the kids are welcomed into a Christian family and given a safe place to land. This month we’ll be teaching english, working in the cassava fields, digging trenches, and praying over the local village of unbelievers. I will also be discipline a women’s team from afar through calls and visits. They are working with a ministry called whispering willows that serves marginalized women.
My Word for this week is trusting.
On our last day in Indonesia, two of my racers and I visited the grand mosque in Batam. It is architecturally gorgeous, with beautiful art and massive pillars around every corner. Over the past year and half, the Lord has continually grown my heart for Muslim people. This opportunity stoked the fire in me to share the good news of the gospel to the devout and loving people. My racer Alex and I entered the women’s prayer area. It was a small section, maybe 1/6th of the room that was blocked off from the rest of the space. We had to don garments that covered everything except our faces, while the men were free to occupy the other portion of the room in whatever clothing they desired. The women were incredibly kind and welcoming. Instantly we met the lovely Sri and her sister. They helped select the right garments and made sure that everything was adjusted correctly. They explained the functions of the mosque to us and showered us with questions about America. Within ten minutes we were invited into their home for dinner.
We took photos with nearly every woman and child in the room, as two young Americans in the prayer room in Batam was quite an unusual sight. I was taken aback at the hospitality we were showed and the kindness with which everyone treated us. It wasn’t just warm reception, but above and beyond kindness. As we walked out of the mosque, I was encouraged yet burdened for these people. They were so kind, so devout, so devoted, yet they give their lives to a God who cannot see or hear. They steward their bodies in a reverent way, yet miss elements of the freedom of Christ.
I wanted desperately to visit Sri’s home and fellowship with her family, but the long to-do list for our travel plans early the next morning forced me to return back to our home. I wrestled with the Lord on this for days to come. My heart for these people is so great, yet my opportunities to love them directly felt so little. I don’t fully understand the Lord’s purpose in the way things unfolded. Maybe it was for me to understand what laboring in this culture is like, that there are many times you wish to share the gospel yet must wait and pray. Maybe it was to keep me hungry to continue to follow God into new places. Maybe it was a different reason altogether. All I know is that his ways are higher than mine, his thoughts greater than mine.
Similarly, as I write this I’m sitting in Chiangdao, a small community in the mountains of Northern Thailand. During our time in Thailand, I’m leading a team of men through manual labor and teaching projects for a Children’s home and farm. I adore the heartbeat of this place and the beautiful children in it. The scenery is breathtaking and my team is incredible. Yet I still wrestle with my purpose in being on this team. I question what I have to offer to these men or what I’m even supposed to be doing here. Even today, I was asked to rest after being “on” for 4 days straight through travel rather than visit a far away village with the boys. This left me alone with God, the mountains and thirteen children who speak limited English. I’m still wrestling with these questions. All I know is that he’s “brought me here to rest and given me space to breathe. So I’ll stay still until it sinks in”.
I have a long list of things I want God to do in me and my time during our time here. There’s freedom I want and revelation I need. I know my father is good and wants to give good gifts to me. Not just good gifts, but timely gifts. He’s going to honor my obedience even if I can’t see or feel it right now. He’s transforming me from the inside out, even if I feel the same as when I started. I’ve not been asked to understand or even to like what I’m doing. I’ve just been asked to be obedient and continue to seek his face.
“You have said ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, LORD, do I seek’”
Psalm 27:8
Prayer Requests:
A-Squad:
~ Peace and vision in the transition
~ Fresh fire and focus on where they are
~ Desire to press in and soak up these last few weeks together
~ Unity and holiness
Pinky’s Pals (my new team):
~ Vision and buy in for ministry
~ Unity and relational depth as a team
~ Stewardship of the time and space they’ve been given
~ Radical transformation, that like Moses in Exodus 33, we would be radically transformed
~ Honesty and accountability
~ Healthy boundaries between a male team and female leader
~ Endurance and discipline
Me:
~ Encouragement and vision for this time
~ That I would look to the Lord to comfort me and meet all my needs
~ Peace and desire to be where the Lord has me
~ Revelation of parts of God’s heart that make me fall in love in new ways
~ Healthy emotional processing
~ Wisdom and anointing to lead this team well and in a way that honors them
Kailey, thank you for this. Your continued surrender to the Lord in things that challenge you and look differently than you thought is something we all can resonate with. Your courage to share so openly and honestly reminds us all that this is part of every believer’s journey: to abide, to trust, to walk by faith and not by sight. It reminds us that when it’s hard or different or challenges come that we didn’t expect, or when the dreams we have of how we want to serve look differently than the ways we actually do, that He is still working. He is still the treasure. He is still able to work and move and have victory with any hand dealt. You might not “feel” like or “see” that you are “accomplishing” much, but let me tell you that we see it. We see surrender and trust that encourages us in our own places we need to bravely trust the Lord and walk by faith in who He is and not just what we see. God is always at work and always doing more than the thing in front of us and so much more than we know or see. We love you and we are cheering for you as you press in and press on. We believe in you and the work God IS doing in many hearts and lives through you and your team-the ripple effects that will be for years and generations to come. All we ever have is jars of clay, but man, His surpassing glory is surely showing!! I love you forever and always and I am proud of you!
“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;”
2 Corinthians 4:7-8
Kailey,
I am praying for you and your teams! Thank you for showing us the real and raw parts of your journey. I am so proud of you and all that you are doing in the name of our Lord. I love how you are living out Philippians 2:3–4:
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”