SoccerMom

You know SoccerMom — the mother (or father … I should say SoccerParent) with an extra-large vehicle driving around too many kids to too many events while only having time to grab dinner at the drive-thru, and loving every minute of it.

Whenever a team comes into town to help me at TLC, I feel like I turn into SoccerMom.  Ok, so maybe I don’t grab dinner at the drive-thru (though there actually is one drive-thru in Chiang Mai now! but that’s another story…), but I do drive around The Enormous Missionary Van Of Amazingness with lots of people packed in to lots of different places, and it’s always a lot of fun.

I don’t make a habit of taking pictures of vehicles, so here’s a bad picture of The Enormous Missionary Van Of Amazingness:

The Enormous Missionary Van Of Amazingness… yes it’s amazing

Lily holds the record for smallest volunteer team member

My own personal passenger record is 17 adults (including myself) and 3 children, plus a guitar and a stroller, and I think there was a djembe drum floating around back there somewhere.  I couldn’t see it through all the bodies.  Well, that was fun.

This trusty van has had a lot of adventures, from picking up teams at the airport or bus station (lots of luggage on the top!) to taking students to Quest events and camps.  Thank you to Speed the Light for providing us with vehicles!  The Enormous Missionary Van Of Amazingness that I drive is shared by a few missionaries and churches in town, and thankfully we are able to use it frequently for the English Center.

Maybe it’s funny to blog about a van.  I think the van is Enormously Amazing not because it’s a cool vehicle to cram a lot of people and stuff in (which it is!), but because it represents so much more than that – the people, community, and ministry that uses it to share God’s love with others.