Volunteering is an interesting position. This is the second time we have done volunteering as a family where we left our home to do it. Although the first time, I was pregnant with Davis, so we were all there but not in person quite like we are this time. That first time was when we were helping at the medical missionary training school for John and Wendy Skeet, in Lady Smith, Wisconsin, back in 2000. It was there we met the Rawlings family: Steve, Lynette, Allyssa and Micah. What a fun surprise it was to learn they are here in Thailand doing language study of Thai as they prepare themselves for whatever or wherever God wants them to work. Now while we have been here in Chiang Mai we have gotten to do several things together which has been a lot of fun. It is always so special to get to be reacquainted with friends from the past.
What are some other volunteering I have done? I sat in for my friend Cheryl Null, (before she was a Null), at her cosmetology class. They were needng someone with naturally curly hair to demonstrate how to cut it and since I had (have) curly hair, her teacher wanted to demonstrate the technique using my head of hair. I was a college student and it was a free hair cut. It worked for me! A different volunteering experience was when I was 13 -14 years old and again with Cheryl. We were candy stripers volunteerering at St. Lukes Hospital in Cedar Rapids, IA. That was interesting. It was there I first started leaning toward therapy of some kind as a career, but I think it was Physical Therapy back then. Remember those days Cheryl?
Another time was when Miles was just a little guy and I was in for my regular check up with a Pap smear. My Dr. had a PA training and asked if she could observe during my procedure. Why not? There were already my Dr. and the nurse present. What was one more? Besides having been a student myself, you have to start sometime. It is nice when someone is willing to be learned on.
There have been lots of volunteering for various church positions, school positions throughout all my school years and work related volunteering. When Miles and Lexi were little and my 2 nephews were living with us we saved our money to sponsor having a Belarus boy for a summer. He was one of the many who had been affected by the melt down of Chernobyl. He was 10 years old. His father committed suicide, his mother was an alcoholic, his brother was a solider and his sister lived at home but worked out of the home to help support the family, but looked very, very sad in a picture that Denise brought with him. Not a very happy sounding family. But what a sweet boy, Denise, was. There were several times when he was very homesick for his mom. He would come sit down by me and we would attempt to communicate with one another, he trying English and I Russian. He would cry a little and I would hug him and soon he was better and out he would go to either play or do his chores. I have often wondered what has happened to him. I wish we could find him again, he would be around 23 years old now.
It has been quite an experience volunteering for the Thai massage teacher here in Chiang Mai. The young woman learning Thai message, Leah, is originally from Belgium, but now lives in France only 12 kilometers from Spain. She said she lives in the mountains and anyone visiting her home gets there e by walking the last 30 minutes or by riding a horse to get there. There is no road for a car or motorcycle. She is here alone in Thailand to specifically learn this massage that she can take it back and use it in her village. She is 34 years old. The Thai teacher and I both agreed we would like to go together to visit her someday. The Thai teacher spent 30 years teaching in the primary schools in various places here in northern Thailand. Seven years ago she quite or retired, not sure which, but it was at that time that she leaned Thai massage and has been teaching it ever since. She is a very fun, happy person 58 years old with 2 sons, ages 32 and 35. She has 2 grandchildren a boy aged 3 and a girl 5 months old. What fun it is after the massage is over, to sit together on the floor, where the massage took place and visit, laughing and learning from one another. Leah speaks little English, the Thai lady, I haven't yet learned her name, has fairly understandable English. I am thankful they are speaking English as I know neither of their native tongues. I pray for both of them, I believe they are both Buddists. Wouldn't it be wonderful if all the people we interact with could meet together in heaven with us? They have asked me to continue to help as a receiver of massage this coming week, not sure how my schedule will mesh with the class, but what fun it has been to be a part of something very interesting and unexpected.
Please keep all the friendships we form in your prayers as we work here in Thailand. Many are looking for something different, something more out of life, but do not know what that is.
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