Volunteers Assemble

Written by Steven - Serving in Thailand

Between distribution events, there are always a variety of tasks to be done in the warehouse. You’ve seen some glimpses of us preparing for them, but one of my favorites so far has been assembly line days! The majority of patients will receive standard wheelchairs from our distributions, and one of our biggest partners is the Free Wheelchair Mission (FWM). They donate hundreds of boxes of unassembled wheelchairs each year, and every now and then, we must build them in preparation for a big event! These assembly line days give our team the opportunity to work on our teamwork, speed, efficiency, accuracy, and communication, since different stations may need to be adjusted, or people may need to switch back and forth. Especially early on in the year since we are all relatively new to everything. This last build week, we built 202 wheelchairs over 3 days, and they will go to supply a new hospital plant in a nearby city, along with other equipment we have repaired/built, such as hospital beds and rollators/walkers.

I mentioned before that we have a number of Thai workers in our org, and the one who has invested the most in getting to know all of us new interns/volunteers is Pii Puk, who is in charge of the sewing room (where we create or fix cushions, backrests, straps, etc). We call her Tante, meaning “aunt” in German” because she is always feeding us with snacks and fruit or even full meals. She is one of the few Christian Thai workers in the office at our hospital, and she has shared with us her mission and efforts of showing Jesus to our non christian coworkers over the years, and she’s also taken us to Chiang Mai University to prayer walk for the students there!

One of the reasons I am telling you about Tante is because she introduced me to her niece, Nuna, whose mother passed away when she was just a kid. She is in (I think) middle school now, and she really wanted to learn how to play guitar. She doesn’t speak much English, and I don’t speak much Thai, but I’ve been able to visit their house once a week to give some lessons and it’s been a blast. I’m hoping once my Thai gets better we can connect more, and I can minister to her and her father in more ways than just through music!