Friday, May 18, 2007

To Thailand I Go.

I have always liked ducks. And Geese.
I have fond memories as a child of going to the lake and feeding them all the stale bread that we had saved in our freezer for them. In the springtime there would be scores of little baby ducks, and we would watch them grow. Autumn would then come along and those little ducklings who were now all grown up would take flight and fly south. As I would see them fly overhead, something somewhere inside of me would say "take me with you".

I live rather close to an airport. Countless times throughout the day you can hear the thundering roar of the planes overhead. You eventually get used to it and stop noticing. But every now and then, when all else is quiet, you will hear that familiar rumble... and something somewhere inside of me wishes I were on that plane.

I bought my plane ticket today.

The title of this post pretty much says it. On June 4th I will be boarding an airplane, flying off to the other side of the world. I will be teaching Grade 1 Thai children at an English school in the suburbs of Bangkok.

I was at this same school last summer with a group of students from my college, helping out with an English camp. Ever since the time I was first there, the thought of coming back full-time was tucked away into the back of my heart. When I recently heard that there was a need for teachers this year, that thought was pulled out. Soon, it was all I could think about. In my heart I knew what I had to do, but I allowed other thoughts sneak into my head causing me to have fear and doubts. It was clear where God was leading me, but suddenly I wasn't ready to say yes. I felt like that little duckling who didn't want to fly south because even though everything inside of him was telling him to go, he was being fed all sorts of yummy, stale bread and was content to stay where he was.

My main hesitation to go was the thought of the things I would be leaving behind. As some of you know, my father is currently going through treatment for cancer. T
here is always the fear of "what if something happens to him, and i'm not here?" But he seems to be responding well to the treatment and I have loads of encouragement from him that if this is where God wants me, than this is where I need to be.

I don't know what the next year of my life will be like. Full of adventures, joys, challenges... I know that I will be stretched further than I've ever been stretched, but I am ready for it. I am so excited about the things that the Lord has in store. It's time for this little duckling to board that plane and go.

1 comment:

Heather said...

i'm very excited for you elizabeth. :)

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