An "ordinary" example

This post was written by Missionary Lauren Braatz, Chiang Mai, Thailand. As we roll out our new tagline, we find ourselves reflecting on ordinary stories just like this. The gospel reaches one person at a time through one person at a time. Once I moved into my first apartment in Chiang Mai, I started exploring my immediate community. In the first few days I stumbled upon Elm House of Coffee, tucked away in a large parking lot off a busy road by the airport. The greenery and plants outside (pictured below) and the cozy interior pulled me out of the busyness of the world outside and into a calm cafe. This is where I met Eed, the owner. Eed loves what she does.

For nearly a year now, going to Elm has become part of my life and my routine. I've gone at least once a week, sometimes more. This friendship simply started by showing up and chatting. I would practice Thai and Eed would practice English. Simple conversations turned into longer and deeper ones, ranging across all kinds of topics. Eed loves learning new things and trying new things, which has led to lots of taste testing: different baked goods, kombucha flavors, teas, and more. She even made dish soap once and gave me some. I help her too — drawing and decorating coffee sleeves that she puts on customers' drinks.

As this friendship has grown we've been able to do more things together outside of the cafe. She has come to craft nights that some of my teammates and I have hosted. We've played basketball with her 9 year-old nephew Thai, who I was also tutoring in English. (Yes, I was tutoring Thai in English.) After tutoring sessions we'd usually do something together, like go to a local market or grab food somewhere. One night Thai's parents met up with us to eat, which was really great.

The shop itself has become a little community. There's a group of guys who come in three or four times a week in the mornings, workers from nearby businesses, regulars of all kinds. Real relationships and conversations have developed.

That's kind of been the theme of all of it, actually. What started as small talk turned into something deeper.

Eed would consider herself Buddhist, though she doesn't practice consistently. Thai goes to a Christian school, but his family isn't Christian. And somewhere in the middle of an English tutoring session, Thai and I ended up talking about Christmas — who Jesus was, what makes him different from any other human being. We got into Easter too. With Eed, conversations have slowly opened up across all kinds of topics, including faith.

It's been really cool to see how simply showing up and being consistent has led to this friendship and everything it's brought with it.