Parks Mission Report

Parks Family in Thailand:
How We Saved & Why We Took the Toddler

By Davonne Parks

My family of five went to Thailand for a two-week mission trip! This included my husband and I (both in our 30s), our teenage daughters, and our two-year-old son. We receive a LOT of questions about the logistics of our trip, especially about traveling there with a toddler.  This trip was very impactful to my family, and going together was an experience that we’ll never forget (except, maybe the two-year-old). Even though it would have been less work to leave the youngest with a grandparent, we have zero regrets about taking all three kids, including the toddler!

My family originally started saving and planning for this trip in October 2019. Before that, we’d talked about various places to visit, but we lacked connections, and there wasn’t anywhere that all four of us really wanted to go to work. That all changed when Michael Mayo, a missionary who our congregation supports, visited our church. We are always interested in hearing about his work, and after the worship service, we were invited to have lunch with him and a few others. Little did we know that one sentence during lunch would have a significant impact on our family!

I lucked out by sitting across the table from Michael, and I asked him several questions about his ministry. I’ve been interested in mission work since I was a teenager, but I’d never actually been on a mission trip. Michael answered my questions, then looked me straight in the eye and said, “You all should come to Thailand.” I was stunned at the words, and he repeated his invitation. The second time he said it, I knew he was serious. On the way home, my family had an animated conversation, and, for the first time, a specific location was a Yes for all four of us.

We started saving that week.

We didn’t have a travel date in mind, but we started setting aside any extra money we could. I set out a mason jar, and Lily and Grace voluntarily placed pet sitting, babysitting, paid chore, and birthday money into the jar. When we’d go to restaurants, we started ordering water instead of soda and placing the saved $10 into the mission trip jar. Nathan set up a savings account called, “Thailand Mission Trip” and had $50 automatically transfer into it every month. This account earned a little interest each month. Sometimes, I’d get cash from the ATM and toss a random $20 into the jar. Nathan did the same. When Lily got her first “real” job, she placed most of her tip money in there.

We went through seasons where we saved more quickly than other seasons, but slowly the money added up. In 2021, we finally set a date as a goal, and we ramped up our efforts to fully fund our Thailand Mission Trip account. Nathan increased the monthly transfer amount and sold things he didn’t need any more. Lily and I sometimes babysat for free, but when a friend insisted on paying, we said yes so we could keep filling the jar. Grace ramped up her paid chore efforts and regularly requested to do without something she wanted so we could put the money toward our trip, instead.

During this time, I had a very surprise pregnancy! While I was pregnant, we decided to proceed as originally planned and leave the baby with a grandparent while we were gone. After he was born, we changed our minds! It didn’t take long after meeting the sweet little guy to know there was no way I could leave him for three weeks (two weeks in Thailand, plus travel days).

Another reason I wanted to take him was because at this point, none of us had ever traveled overseas. With our oldest daughter being 17 at the time of travel, I knew it might be our only opportunity to go overseas or do mission work as a family of five. Sure, she might be able to join us on another trip when the toddler is older and easier to travel with, but we knew that wasn’t a guarantee. Plus, it is almost guaranteed that once she’s an adult with her own work and travel schedule, the opportunities to travel together will decrease.

We purchased our tickets to the Land of Smiles in July 2022 and boarded the plane on December 28 that same year. By the time we left for Thailand, we’d been saving and planning for a little over three years! I will share about our trip preparations, travel days, and Thailand mission work in upcoming articles. If you want to listen to the lessons Michael gave the day we decided to go on this trip, you can click here to listen to the adult Bible class, “How We Work Together” and click here to listen to the Sunday Morning sermon titled, “What Can You Do?”

Mission Report Video: