It’s easy to get comfortable in the place we call home. Sometimes we take for granted that we have the privilege of calling a place home. Here in Thailand, we have a house, and we’ve made a home for ourselves, but we’re always mindful of the fact that we are only guests here.
Tonya’s mother, Patsy Current, came to work as a kindergarten teacher at our school in January of this year. She will stay until the end of June. She came because we really needed another teacher right away to help us meet the demands of our growing enrollment.
After Patsy’s first 30 days in Thailand, we had to take her to a border crossing between Thailand and Laos to get her an extended visa. On a Friday afternoon, we drove about an hour and a half to the little town of Chong Mek. We saw trucks piled high with goods (some looking like they might tip over!) waiting for customs checks. Groups of men with sun-darkened skin stood waiting with their pull-carts to ferry travelers’ baggage across the border. A steady stream of people moved through the immigration checks between the two countries. Several border guards kept watch at their posts.
Accompanied by a Thai staff member from our school, Patsy navigated her way through several offices on both sides of the border. About an hour later, having paid the required fees and gotten her passport stamped, she and her escort returned to Thailand where I was waiting to meet them.
As we walked down the dusty pavement back to our vehicle, I thought about how, even though Thailand is our home now, it’s not our permanent home. We can’t just stay as long as we want. Every year, we have to travel more than 1,300 kilometers round-trip to Bangkok to renew our visas. Every year, we have to get permission to stay in this country. And someday, we will have to leave.
As followers of Christ, we’re also mindful of the fact that we’re only guests in this world. This isn’t our permanent residence. The good news is that someday soon we will leave this place and go to a better country where we have permission to stay forever. It’s our hope that our students, our neighbors and all the friends we’ve made in Thailand will also take that trip with us. “For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come” (Heb. 13:14 NLT).
Are you interested in serving God and reaching the unreached here in Thailand? If you have teaching experience, or you simply enjoy working with kids, you could be a missionary, too! We are currently looking for a first grade teacher for the Ubon Adventist International Mission School. Also, we need ESL teachers for the Ubon SDA Language School located on the same campus. Please email us at jwomega@gmail.com for more information.
