Faith in the Adventure

Location: Ayutthaya, 2 hours north of Bangkok (Chantana House)
I read Thomas Merton this morning and received a gentle conviction to accept all things with love and joy because they are gifts. The will of god is fulfilled in my joyful response. if I am to complete a task it is to be purposeful, diligent and joyful. There is no place for hurried or frivilous work. I need to accept with joy situations that are not optimal to my plan or normal, routine way of life. I think this is what has been so enlightening about Thailand, it is so far from a routine way of life. By sticking to normalcy, I limit myself to a faithless life characterized by the shackles I bind myself with. Yesterday was such a situation in which a choice had to be made, normalcy or adventure. We travelled to Rangsit in hopes of meeting the missionaries there and renting a room for a night at an apartment complex. We travelled to Victory Monument in northern Bangkok via water taxi then Skytrain, at which point we boarded a minibus with our packs on our laps for 45minutes to Thammasat University where KJ (a friend from Milligan College) and the other missionaries are. We were welcomed by KJ but only to be frustrated by the unwelcoming message from the others that we were not allowed to stay in Rangsit and were to keep away from the ministry. After much frustration and deliberation, we thought we'd stay in a local hotel, only to be dissuaded by the 1400 baht (appx. $40.00) pricetag. It was late in the evening at this time, we were both tired and frustrated. Our only option was to backtrack to Bangkok or head north to Ayutthaya, which we thought we'd travel to today. I was willing to go ahead and stay, give in to normalcy for fear of difficulty ahead and no place to stay had we departed for Ayutthaya. We did, however, decide to partake in the unknown adventure. We sent a motorcyclist out to find us a taxi, the driver to whom we'd offer the destination of "rot meh" (bus) at Future Park mall. He repeated Future park, thus giving us assurance of agreement. Through feeble attempts at conversation, we shared that we wanted to take a bus to Ayutthaya tonight. How much of that he got, we are unsure, but when we drove into Ayutthaya, with no signs of buses, I repeated "rot meh"
to which he answered "bus meh."
"Yes, bus meh to Ayutthaya."
"Ahh, Ayutthaya. You go to Ayutthaya?"
"Yes."
"Oh, no taxi to Ayutthaya."
"rot meh?"
"Bus meh to Ayutthaya?"
"Yes. Do they run tonight?"
"Oh, ok. nooo."
And we drove through and then past Future park. Or faith increased in this moment, in both God and the taxi driver, that God would provide and the taxi driver would take us to the bus stop. Now our former assurance that we could get to Ayuttaya by bus was shaken. Five minutes later, "taxi to Ayutthaya 400 baht."
"Oh, no."
"bus meh, 35 baht," he replied with a smile and a nod.
"yes."
"ah, ok." (whatever that conversation meant.)
Sure enough, he dropped us at the bus stop, a dirt shoulder on the side of the highway with a few food vendors. As buses stopped, we would point and ask "Ayutthaya?" only to hear "no no" with a shake of the head. One man holding a megaphone, when asked, held his hand up as if to say "wait here, I will take care of you. I'll get you on the right bus." We sat and waited. We waited long enough for me to struggle with and accept the peace that comes with faith of God's will and provision. Sure enough, he pointed to a bus that just arrived. We jumped on for 35 baht and rested, passing in and out of sleep, relying on the bus attendant to wake us, and knowing it would be interesting trying to find a place to sleep at 9-10 o'clock at night. I had faith, but also began accepting that it might mean sleeping on the ground with our packs as pillows in an alleyway. The bus attendent indicated our stop- "Ayutthaya!"
We pointed toward the door, "Ayutthaya?"
to which he nodded and repeated what he had just said.
We deboarded and began walking down the main road, making the gesture to the locals with our hands to the side of our head as if to say "sleep." They pointed down the road and gave us directions, in Thai of course, but I caught the hand motions- left at a road past the flashing lights. We walked from one full guesthouse to the next... until we found BJ's. 160 baht (appx. $4.50) got us a rickety double bed with a fan. We were definitely the only Americans there, which is has actually been the case most of our trip thus far. One guy came out of his room in a speedo. Interesting. The place had character. You should see the bathroom. Neither of us took showers. Deke woke up in the morning and set out to find another place to stay while I tried to sleep a little more to balance the failed attempts from past nights. Sure enough, here we are now at Chantana House, wich is very nice and only 350 baht (appx. $10) a night. I'm learning how to fight back complacency, normalcy in search of adventure and freedom. It requires faith and a joyful response to situations, whatever they may be, to carry out God's will.