Interview with Nice
Meet our friend, Nice. After each of us dropped our kids off at school, Melody and I met up with Nice for coffee. We asked her what it was like growing up in Thailand, then living in England, and all the cultural challenges she has faced. During our interview, Nice shared about:
Her relationship and thankfulness for her parents
The cultural tensions between Northern Thailand and Bangkok
How she learned to trust God and deepen her faith
An amusing story about chips and salsa that highlights the challenges of cross-cultural living.
Why she hung a wet towel on the radio!
And how she is using her difficult experiences to encourage the next generation!
Anyone who knows Nice can attest to her outstanding character. As her name suggests, she exudes kindness partnered with a tender confidence. One of my favorite parts of her story was her experience moving from Northern Thailand to the capital, Bangkok.
Like anywhere else, there are stereotypes people in the city hold about farmers or even perceived farmers. During our interview, Nice vulnerably shares her experience as a young college student and her response to the prejudice she faced. She then describes how she found her confidence in God. She now uses her story to encourage other young women in similar circumstances.
“For me, the big shift is to become knowing who God is and know who God made me…
When that happened, I realized, you know, this is who I am, and God is OK with me, and He loves what I do and who I am. And that’s it. I think it’s a process. It takes time for that.
It's not just like one day everything shifted, but I think my journey has been on that kind of starting point of realizing: Oh, OK. This is what God created me, and this is what He is calling me to do, and this is who I am, and this is what God said who I am.
And If I start believing that, I just feel like that’s a freedom for me.
So after that, looking back at all that time in Bangkok, I was just like: ‘Who was that person? I was so immature. Why even act like that?’
But for me, I feel like, right now, when I see young girls I’m mentoring or discipling, I can see all of those play out. I just realize, guys, come on, this is not where you are supposed to be walking into because I experienced that, and it was really awful.”
