Tonya and I graduated from Union College in 2005 and 2006 respectively. After more than 16 years of education, beginning with putting square blocks through square holes in kindergarten and ending in a black gown and cap, we felt like we had accomplished something. We were no longer students but masters of our domain, ready to go out and take on the world.

When we launched to India with AFM in December of 2007, we quickly realized how small our domain really was. We were no longer masters but students again. Everything that had come easy to us before was now a challenge that took conscious determination to overcome. We were back at square one.

Slowly, we began to learn the language and understand how the culture moved and flowed around us. We got settled in and made a home for ourselves. We helped start an English school and a church. We were contributing to society in meaningful ways. We could understand the people we lived and worked with, and we could impact their lives in positive ways. We were achieving mastery once again.

It was very difficult for us to leave India and then be forced out of Nepal. It’s never easy to begin again at square one, but we know God is still with us and guiding us. He is unmistakably opening doors to a new mission opportunity in Thailand.

One our way home to the U.S. in April, we spent a few weeks in Thailand meeting with the leadership of the Thai Adventist Mission. We discussed our future work in Thailand and attended a retreat for AFM missionaries from all over Asia.

In Bangkok, I had to go to the customs authority near the main international airport to claim our personal items we had shipped from Nepal. I got up early that morning, not knowing how long it might take to clear customs. Tonya and I prayed together before I left the hotel, and I put 10,000 Thai baht in my wallet (about $300). We had shipped some electronics and our mountain bikes along with the rest of our stuff, and I was concerned about how much I might get charged in duty fees.

Using my few words of Thai, I hailed a taxi and told the driver where I wanted to go. As we pulled up in front of the customs complex, I felt intimidated by its sheer size. There were rows and rows of offices and huge warehouses. None of the signs were in English.

My confusion must have been visible, because an older Thai gentleman pulled up next to me in a pickup truck and offered to help me in broken English. I got into his truck, and he drove me from office to office, explaining to the people at each place who I was and what I needed. Then he took me to a cafeteria in the customs complex. He asked me to sit down and wait while he went to find a friend who would help me finish getting all of my things.

A few minutes later, he returned with another man. “Hello Mister!” the second man grinned. “I can help you get everything very quickly. If you go alone, maybe it will take you more than five or six hours, but I can do everything in two hours.”

Realizing this man was a broker, I asked him how much his service would cost. After looking at my shipping inventory, he punched a number into a calculator and slid it across the table to me. I was shocked—25,000 baht. The man wanted nearly $900 to get our shipment through customs!

I told him his price was too high, thanked him for his time, and got up and left. The first man followed me out of the cafeteria, apologizing for his friend and agreeing that his price had been much too high. I was skeptical of the man’s sincerity, but I smiled and agreed with him.

We got back in his truck, and he took me to another office and introduced me to another friend. “Oh, I know that other man was asking too much money,” the new man shook his head. “Too much money. I will help you for a low price. Don’t worry, Mister.”

I wanted to ask him how he knew about the previous broker and his bid, but I thought that might be rude and not helpful in the task at hand. Instead I asked, “How much?”

“Oh, don’t worry, don’t worry. Very low.”

Again, I was skeptical, but I played along as this new broker whisked me off and led me from office to office. At each stop, I had to pay some sort of fee, not really knowing whether it was legitimate or not.
Finally, the broker took me to a warehouse where a young forklift operator brought out our shipment on a wooden pallet. We sat down in the midday heat to wait for a customs officer to come and inspect it.

After about a half hour, the customs officer arrived and asked me to open all the boxes so he could look at the contents. Then he went to a back room with the broker to talk. The broker came back and told me the officer had found certain items in my shipment that were not on my inventory list. He didn’t explain what those items were, but he said I now needed to pay an additional 6,000 baht in customs fees. I opened up my wallet and showed him that I had only about 3,500 baht left after paying all the other fees. The broker went back to talk with the customs officer and came back all smiles. It was just my luck (wink, wink) that the customs officer realized he had made a mistake. My additional fees actually came to only 3,000 baht. So I paid the money and collected my shipment.

In the end, I spent about $280 and four hours getting our shipment cleared through customs. I later talked with some other AFM missionaries who work in Thailand, and they said that, all in all, I had been pretty successful and gotten away cheaply considering how much stuff we had shipped.

We may be at square one again, but we can see how God has prepared us through our experiences in India and Nepal to navigate life in a new country and a new culture and begin a new ministry.

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