True North Blog

Here’s the latest from Anna Macukas:

Hello Everyone!!

Just wanted to send out a much-belated email update on how things are going on this side of the world!!

At this point, we have finished our lectures and have been on an outreach trip to the south of Thailand for the past two weeks to an area called Phang Nga. We worked with this awesome tribe of people called the Sea Gypsies, or the “Mokan” people, who are fishing people and are very poor.  We worked with pre-schools there that have been set up by an organization called Step Ahead to take little kids out of vulnerable family situations during the day so that their parents can work and they can be safe.  The kids went from extremes of being totally terrified of us “farang” (foreigners), to jumping all over us and basically destroying us.  Needless to say, they were awesome.  We also planted gardens for these people and trees…lots of trees; thousands, actually! This was the area of Thailand hit the hardest by the 2004 tsunami, so these people are still undergoing a lot of re-development.  They now have a special place in my heart and I hope they will be in your prayers as well.

This very morning we are leaving again to go to central Thailand to a place called Ratchaburi.  I don’t know that much about it, except that we will be working with a local church, teaching English, and possibly working with the Burmese refugees that live in the area.  Please pray that I will be flexible and will be able to be prepared, as we don’t know a lot ahead of time here!  Also, my health has been pretty low due to pushing myself pretty hard and also due to my asthma.  I really want to participate to the best of my ability, so please pray that these things won’t hold me back!  You can also pray that the hearts of the people we work with will be open to what we do, and for the unity of our team, since we are bilingual and it is often hard to function with a lot of information lost in translation.

As of right now, unless anything changes, I will be home November 7th!  Our team will be returning to Bangkok the first week in November for debriefing, and then that is the end of this whole she-bang!  I thank you all so much for your prayers and continued support.  They have made all the difference in the world, and as amazing/challenging/eye-opening as this all has been, I can’t wait to be home with you all again!

God bless you all,
Anna