My first ZOE outreach!

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Selah Mae

Contributor at Our Paradoxology

When Selah Mae looks at her world she sees beauty. When she steps in to a new adventure, she dances. As she goes about her day, she sings a song. Selah sees promise, potential, and opportunity always within reach: and when it turns to gold in her hands, she is eager to share it. As a blog contributor, Selah invites you to see the world through her eyes: full of beauty, wonder, glory, and grace.

Latest posts by Selah Mae (see all)

• Setting and Crushing Goals - December 18, 2024
• My first ZOE outreach! - October 18, 2024
• Grandma and Grandpa in Chiang Mai - July 10, 2024

A few times a year a short term team comes to Thailand to work with ZOE International. Whenever a team is in Chiang Mai they go on an outreach with the ZLT (Zoe Leadership Training) students to share the gospel and spread awareness about child trafficking. My dad has gone on just about every single outreach because he works with the ZCR (ZOE child rescue). I didn’t realize that I was even allowed to go for a while but as soon as I heard that I could go on a ZOE outreach I told my dad that I would love to go with him. But before I got the chance to go I broke my foot and Josiah got to go instead. I was really bummed that I couldn’t go so I told my dad that I wanted to go on the next one. So as soon as the next one came and finally I got to go on my first outreach with my dad and Josiah!

ZOE Outreach Day #1

It was about a three hour drive to the Hmong village. The Hmong village is on Doi Inthanon mountain which is actually the tallest mountain in Thailand. When we got to the village I went with Chome (my roommate) to our room and unpacked a little. Then we headed off to dinner and when we finished eating we played some fun ice breaker games with the team and ZLT. My favorite game we played was the game my dad was in charge of. Basically about 10 people from each team (we split into four teams) would get in a line and would hold a long skinny pole with only our two pointer fingers. Then as a team we would all have to lower our pole to the ground with out letting any of our fingers off of the pole. If on person even slightly lifted their finger off, the whole team would have to restart. The first team to get all the way to the ground wins. It’s actually a lot harder than it sounds! After we played a couple more games we headed off to our hotel rooms and went to bed.

Zoe Outreach Day #2

We woke up kinda early to go to breakfast. I believe we had fried rice with ham and eggs which was really good. Then we went to the Hmong church. We didn’t stay for the whole service because the preaching was in Hmong and if we were to stay they would need to translate it into Thai and then into English which would have been to much of a hassle. It was still really cool to go to a church service in a completely different language that I have never heard before. We then went back, had lunch and listened to a couple testimonies. After that we split into little groups and started walking around the village. We would go up to peoples houses, talk to them, give them goodie bags, pray for them, and invite them to come to our thing at the school that evening. I think we went to around 3-4 houses and even though I didn’t understand most of what they were saying it was a really cool experience. Many of the people in the village have a much different life style than I do and lots of them are very poor. It was really cool that I got to go and pray for them and help them out even with just a goodie bag and an invitation.

When we were finished we headed back for dinner and then we went to the school and started to set up. Then people started showing up. There weren’t that many people but that’s ok. We started with prayer and worship. Then the ZLT did a drama and we helped with one too. After that we gathered around some people who wanted prayers and prayed for them. Out on the street there were even some people who were stopping and sitting on the curb to watch. Then we distributed the rest of the goodie bags and went to our hotels to get some rest for tomorrow.

Zoe Outreach Day #3

We again woke up bright and early for breakfast and some worship. After that we went to the school to get ready and set up. When the kids came out of their classes the ZOE staff welcomed them with games and prizes to get the kids in a fun mood. One of the STM (short term mission team) members dressed up in the iconic ZOE elephant.

But it soon became more serious when the ZLT did their drama. You could hear the room go more quiet and the expressions on the kids faces started to become a bit less goofy. The drama drama showcased a trafficker manipulating, and abusing children. The things that some children have gone through are unimaginably horrible. There were no words in the drama only a scream. Out of everything I did and saw through out the whole outreach I think that drama was the most impactful for me.

We had the kids split into little groups and rotate through stations. The stations were about the different types of child trafficking and one about the gospel. The children rotated through the stations learning about each one and playing different games. We had the older kids in one big group staying in the main area and the younger kids rotating throughout the classrooms. And then when they had gone through all of the stations the kids switched. The older kids went through the stations and the younger ones stayed in the main area. Then when our help wasn’t needed, my dad, my brother, and I went back home.

I had so much fun on this outreach. I learned things I didn’t know before, I had experiences that I don’t think that would have anywhere else, and it was definitely something I would love to do again!