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I’m moving to Thailand!

Surprised? I know that some of you might be a bit shocked, but this happy news has slowly been spreading through the friends and family grapevine, and I wanted to let everyone in on the news.

You might ask why am I going, or when am I leaving, or even how is this possible?

Well, there are a few reasons really.  It’s a mix of faith, family, and finances all lining up at the right time when my craving to see the world kicks, but let’s be honest…it’s because the Lord opened the door and made everything fall into place perfectly in His timing. I won’t go too into detail here on the why’s or how’s of coming to this decision, but I will say that a great deal of thought and prayer went into making it. It’s something I wanted to do four years ago, but I felt like the timing was wrong back then.

Many people would say that the time is wrong to leave right now. I have a great job with amazing coworkers, and I’ve finally found a home church with a young adult group that I absolutely adore! Core Church LA has been such a blessing, and I feel like I’ve grown in my walk and found some amazing brothers and sisters there.

But sometimes the Lord puts a burden on our hearts, and he always equips us for the task ahead. And working with youth is both the burden that’s always been on my heart and one that I feel he’s challenging me to tackle full time.

If you know me, then you are probably aware of the fact that I’ve worked with youth for over 12 years…yes, you read that right, 12 years! I started teaching a Wednesday night “Sunday school” class with my mom back when I was a freshman in high school , and we started working with the 3-5 year olds. I continued to work with the students all through all of my high school years,  then I volunteered during summer and winter breaks throughout college and then again after graduation. The tiny tots who used to fight to hold my land and be line leader,are now driving themselves around town (scary!) and looking at colleges to apply to in the fall (they’re waaay smarter than me!)

It saddens my heart to think of leaving these kids behind when I leave the country, but I know that my small group girls are the best pen pals, and that facebook, skype, and email will make it easier to cope with the distance.

I’ll be leaving here at the beginning of May, to fly to Thailand where I will live at the Ban San Faan children’s home in Chiang Mai. It mean’s Home of Fulfilled Dreams. I will live at the children’s home and teach English at the school nearby where the children attend classes along with children from another nearby orphanage. Both the school and the home are Christian based programs, which provides us the opportunity to live out and share the gospel in a predominately Buddhist culture.

I’ll be living there for one year, and my greatest fear right now is how I’ll cope with the homesickness. My family and I are very close, and I know it’ll be heartbreaking to be so far from my dad who I sit with and talk about things ranging from the seriousness of faith and life to the silliness of great youtube videos we’ve found.

But being away from my mom will be particularly difficult. She’s by far the best friend I have.  I’ll miss the way she grumbles when I ask her to play with my hair J  and how we can turn a quick run to the store into an “oh we definitely need to go get an iced coffee!” moment. But perhaps even more than how easily we get along, I’ll miss the way she corrects me when I’m out of line—with gentle words, but heavy truth. In the last few years, I’ve come to admire her strength of faith and her dependence on the Lord and His word to see her through the toughest of times. She and my dad are people of true wisdom. They don’t just speak to be heard, they speak to shine truth. And my prayer going into this next step in my life is that the Lord will speak wisdom into my soul, that my actions will be a reflection of his truth, goodness, and love.

So please…for me!! Love on my parents while I’m gone and send me some great emails with awesome stories of everything that’s happening back in La Crescenta and at The Calling!

I’ll need every ounce of home I can get!

My excitement for this trip is pretty overwhelming right now. Knowing that I’ll soon be spending time with children (full time!!) makes the stress of the pre-planning bearable.  I have 2 months to get quite a lot done, but I’ll be working at my current job up through April 4^th, so everything is really going to get done in the last 3 weeks of April. Honestly, I’m looking forward to the whirlwind of change that’s in store.

Please, please, please let’s get together and visit before I leave because I want to get caught up with everyone before I go! I want to hear about what’s coming up in your future, so I can add it to my prayer list and take it with me when I leave!

All my best,

Lauren