"A glimpse of Heaven" - Thailand Team Member Testimonial

Hailey Hagerty, a student at Corban University, traveled to Thailand with a team of fellow students in May. She shared the ways God met her in Thailand, the relationships she formed and the lessons she has brought home with her.

“I was immensely blessed with the opportunity to partner in ministry with Mae Sot Evangelical Church (MEC) and Grace Boarding House (GBH) in Mae Sot, Thailand for a two week mission trip with a team of students from Corban University. 

During our time there I was greatly impacted by the hearts of service and cheerful giving that I encountered through the children. Every morning, when our team would arrive, the girls would run up to us having spent their free time making us gifts from the minimal supplies they had (bracelets, rings, crocheting, etc.). I was greatly impacted by the way the community generously gave out of their lack. They were some of the most loving and welcoming people I have ever spent time with. 

I built amazing relationships with the children in such a short amount of time, which is the abundant blessing of being family in Christ! It was hard to say goodbye, but also an immense privilege to know we will spend eternity with one another in heaven. The main highlight I had from time with the community of believers was worshipping together and experiencing a small glimpse of the sound of heaven. You could hear their love and passion for Jesus Christ in the way they praised Him through worship!

Most of our days on the trip were spent at GBH leading VBS in the morning and teaching English lessons in the afternoon, and then doing outreach with MEC in the evenings. The days were very long, but were full of abundant blessings from the Lord. All in all, I left Thailand the most exhausted I think I have ever been, which thankfully caused me to rely on the Holy Spirit with 100% dependence.

Our team was left speechless by some of the extreme suffering and poverty we witnessed. Many Burmese refugees are living in the garbage dump in Mae Sot. I have never seen such an impoverished group of people. MEC does their best to provide the refugee community with clean drinking water and large bags of rice. However, they can only realistically afford to do this so often.

The first experience I had at the garbage dump was spent doing Sunday school ministry with the children living in the community. I was shocked by the amount of children living there; there were over 50 children that showed up for Sunday school.

Heading there, I was expecting the people to be very disheartened and discouraged because of the environment they were currently living in and the suffering they have experienced in Myanmar due to the ongoing genocide. However, many of the refugees were joyful and expressed gratitude to be living in the dump because at least they are safe from persecution now.

There are a lot of memories and experiences I am bringing back with me from Thailand. I am coming home having built amazing friendships with my brothers and sisters in Christ faithfully serving the Lord in Mae Sot. 

Overall, I am incredibly thankful for the lessons the Lord has begun to teach me. There are many, but I will share one with you. I was abundantly blessed to be reminded that lasting joy comes from Christ alone. Due to poverty, these people did not find their joy in their possessions or privileges, rather they lived with contagious joy because of salvation in Christ and the promise of eternity with Him. Further, they displayed the joy of the Lord through extreme suffering. The Bible says that suffering produces endurance, character, and hope. I was blessed to see living examples of this biblical truth during my two weeks in Thailand.”

“Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5