Here We Go Again

Well here we go. As I type this, our entire team (minus Theresa) is sitting in Andy H's living room outside St. Louis. We have had a fun evening of food, games, talking, and movies. Many of us differ on our plans for the rest of the evening...some people are considering staying up all night...in a last ditch effort to begin switching their body clocks to a more Thai schedule...others of us are about to fall asleep sitting up.... Either way, I don't believe that anyone will be getting a full night's sleep tonight. Our flight leaves for LA tomorrow at 8:50am...and we are an hour from the airport...and we are planning to get there 2 hours before our flight.... Yes...that puts us leaving Andy's at about 6:00am. Oh well, this should make it easier for most of us to sleep on our flights I suppose. We are all very excited to arrive in Thailand. It's hard to believe that the trip is already here! It seems like just yesterday that we all met as a group for the first time...but that was over 3 months ago. It's been great to see the friendships develop between the members of our team. The first meeting was fine...but it was not exactly a bunch of friends hanging out together. However, tonight is. I am so very thrilled to have the opportunity to lead these students overseas to experience a new culture and to love on the Thai people. I am anticipating seeing great things happening in Thailand...ranging from relationships being built between our team and the Thais to our team members growing and developing into more complete and whole individuals. Please pray that we will have realistic expectations, that we will build relationships with the Thais, that we will be a blessing to the missionaries, that we will function well as a group, and that we will have a positive impact on everyone that we come into contact with. Know that while we are all very excited, we are also aware of our absence from all of you, our family and friends. We will be missing you while we minister to the Thai people. Hopefully this blog will continue to serve as an avenue for a more intimate connection between our day-to-day activities on our trip and those of you back home that care to know what we're up to. Thanks so much for all of your prayer and support. Happy New Year!

A week and a half in 1000 words or less... kinda

Well, my pizza hut frisbee is dead, but i'll get back to that.

Prayer walking all last week was so much harder than i ever could have imagined. Just trying to concentrate sometimes on a conversation with God was more of a fight than i've ever had, between the noises, smells, sights and on wednesday some heavy spiritual oppression like i've encountered in my life simply finding a single prayerful sylable was a struggle at times. Talking to the monk was interesting. The wats were all the same in principal but so different. From the loudest most crowded tourist attractions, to nearly abandoned and decaying, from hocking coins and various bird types out front, to refinishing a wat with silver walls made from the silver factories opperating inside and just outside, from food being cooked to treest that smelled so overpoweringly beautiful they gave thomas a two hour headache. Im still proccessing most of that part of the week, but that just the stuff off the top of my head. And then every day but one, we would leave downtown to go to chiang mai university to eat lunch with the college students. Also, i forgot to mention that i ran into a friend of mine from SBU, who graduated in 05. As we were breaking up to go eat after the prostitute street walking, my group was loosely gathered and i saw this guy walking down the street, just kind of a glance, and then i double taked because he looked really familiar, and then his name just came to me, so me being me, just blurted it out not knowing for sure if was him. fortunately for me it was. My group had already hailed a sonteaw, so i didnt have time to talk, but we arranged to meet tuesday afternoon to eat at the university. Found out that after he left SBU, he waited on his girl and got married, then they up and moved to Myanmar to do missions (hence the reason im not listing his name because the tend to be less than friendly to other than muslims up there). So that was cool. And over the days I got to meet some pretty cool students and have fun fighting my way through throngs of them to try and order my dang food in ThEnglish. Man did they laugh at me. Anyways, through the week we made plans for this past saturdays sports camp, and then early (freakin 630 am) that morning left to head to maywong (i know its spelled wrong, but its nearly 120 and i didnt get a nap today) village. Once we got there, we met some of the faculty of the school, and then set up for the "camp." I put camp in quotes because basically Saturday was an official Thai holiday, Children's Day, and we were the entertainment for that morning for the the kids. So we set up a tag area where laurie and joel played different taggish games, a musical chairs area where thomas played his guitar and melissa helped him with playing musical chairs and teaching them "waves of mercy" the song. There was an Ultimate Frisbee area where shawn and andrew taught the kids first how to throw the tricky thing, then how to play Ultimate (kinda) and finally a Soccer area (changed from kickball due to space issues) where brad and andy got spanked. Amy, matt, barb and i all stayed with different groups to lead them to each activity, and wonderful, wonderful ekk floated around and helped with translations. See, what you have to understand is, these kids knew english... they could say hello and thank you. So that made teaching and running things fun. Basically it was controlled chaos. But the kids were awesome, and the faculty of the facilty made things so easy on us. They had instant coffee (i know, i know. No WAY on God's green earth could that taste even close to good, but it was liquid miracleness) and fresh baked that morning pastries waiting on us. Cooked us enough food for every meal that even I got full and there was tons left over (BTW fried eggs made with peanut butter instead of grease... words fail me) But as soon as that was somewhat over, we grabbed clothes and climbed into/onto the sonteaw to go play. And by onto, i mean holding onto the back of the thing for thirty min both ways, my forearms are a little sore, but there is no better way to see the country i am convinced, unless its climbing onto the basket on top. So we rode up the mountain to rent bamboo rafts to float down a mountain river. Thats right, 3ft x 25ft rafts made of large bamboo poles lashed together. I floated down a mountain (mountian repeated for emphasiss b/c it was pretty chilly) river on a bamboo raft, steered by poles over rapids and waterfalls, and guided by a 12 yearold in freakin thailand in freakin january. HOW AWESOME IS THAT!!! and then it gets better. Cause we all got off the rafts, me with a battle scar (its just a flesh wound mom, everyone else... you may believe it was a deep gash that i should have got stitches for, but decided to just be a man about it) got back on the S/T to go up in the hills a little ways to ride elephants. Yeah, that was pretty freakin sweet too. And it was so freakin beautiful up there. Just wait till we get some of those up on these sites. I ended up having to ride with amy, and our rider never got off to let me steer like half the other riders did, but it was still amazing despite all that. Then we headed back to dinner, chillin, and then the locals made us a little treat of a bamboo section, crammed and jammed full of rice, sugar, coconut milk and water, sealed, and then cooked over a fire. They cooked it a little long, but it was still tasty. Then to bed, the parade and Bible story as was told of below, and then sad goodbyes. Came back, bummed around the rest of today, and then went to eat as a group and went to the walking street to shop. I finished all mine finally, and with 320 baht to spare (10 bucks US... almost).

But i saved the best for last, just for you faithful few who actually managed to read this far with no paragraph breaks because Blogspot is dumb like that and wont let me put any in.

Quintin and Glenn talked to us when we got back today. While we were at the sports camp, they disapeared. Turns out, some very high ranking government people (didnt really follow what branch, or construct or whatever since glenn switched in and out of Thai cause he is still trying to learn it all) heard about the group of farangs coming in to play with the kids, and wanted to come see what all was going on. Because Quintin and his wife befriended Gowmone, and with Glenn and Janet set it up for us to go to Gowmone's village to do a sports camp, God used it to open doors for more work to be done in the area. Quintin is leading a worldchangers group this summer and they may end up going to the village and helping rebuild a couple of poor elders of that comunity's house, a brother and sister. They will also be able to bring in more groups to work with the children and just be welcomed in the village in general. Part of that due of course to just how amazing this team is (had to brag on us a little), but its just soo cool see God open doors like that. It doesnt really happen that much here, when the majority of the work we can do in two weeks is seed planting, but when you get to see a gi-normous seed like that get dropped... but anyways, i apologize for writing so long, and just think, these are just the highlights, imagine how long this thing could be if i got into the gories. Leave with that though and love - zac

Children, Rice, Bamboo rafting, and elephant fleas.

It is Brad here. This weekend was pretty fantasic. We went to Mae Wong. It a village about 30 minutes from Chiang Mai. Right as we got there we ate lunch, then we began a sports camp. I played soccer till i couldn't breathe it was pure chaos in the Soccer session, but it was awesome. Some of those children are very good. My team beat Andy's team most of the time (just for the record). They fed us so much delicious food. I cant explain how much rice i ate. Anyways.. after the sports camp we said goodbye and we went to go bamboo rafting and Elephant riding. I must say that Thomas, Ekk and I had the most fun on our rafts. Thomas's camera is waterproof fso we took videos of us going through the rapids. It was so awesome. On one big drop (Thomoas was in front and i was in Back, which means Ekk was taking video from the middle).. so Thomas stuck his stick on the rock to puch us off so we didnt crash, well he pushed us off just fine but hjis stick got stuck and he lost it. So me, without even thinking about it dove foward and grab his stick quickly and handed it back to him just in time to avoid another colollision as well. We did excellent steering the raft. Thomas steerin form the front and me from the back. After this adventure we went elephant riding. It was also great fun, even for my second time. Ekk and I rode on the mother elephant. And got overe the riover and through the woods before any other elephant, even the giant daddy elephant being ridden by Andy and Shawn. This huge elephant got snot on Ekk and i when we had a run in with it while atop mother elpephant. That was pretty disgusting.After this we arrived back at the school were we ate so much dinner and spent the night. This morning we ate even more, then kids came and we had a Farang (that is what they call us white folk) patrade through the village all the while picking up more children. I got to hold a very cute little baby. Then we cam back to the school where we sangh some worship songs, such as every move i make, which all the kids loved so much. They especially like the Na Na Na Na Na Na part. After the singing, Andrew told the story of the good Samaritan and Ekk translated. It went reall well. I enjoyed worshiping Jesus with they kids un ashamedly. We danced and ran around while we sang. It was excellent. It was also good because many morem mature adults heard the story aswell. I felt like Jesus was spoken oif and showed through us at Mae Wong. Thats that. Only a couple more days then we will be back home. Good luck and Good night. --Brad

The Village People

We have returned. Our time in the village was incredible. However, I regret to tell you that I have absolutely no time to tell you about it now. It is 12:21am Saturday, January 11th here right now, and we are leaving at 6:30am to head out to Mae Wong to do a one-day sports camp. Zac is in charge, and we all have responsibilities. We have an hour and a half songtaew ride to enjoy tomorrow morning just to get to Mae Wong. We will be riding elephants and going rafting on bamboo rafts tomorrow afternoon, and then will be staying at a school in Mae Wong tomorrow night. I will gladly tell you all about our many village adventures (for example: "Festus," "Hip-Hop," The Dang Family, "Gary Coleman," Joel playing in a marching band during a funeral procession, how balloons became popular, Simon Says, Sticky Rice out of Bamboo shoots, Fried Bananas, hiking through the mountains in slacks and flip-flops, etc....) when I have more time. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. However, here are a few pictures and a video to tide you over. Make sure to check out the link to Shawn's blog for more pictures.

Prayer-walking team update

Sawadee Ca! I know i said i would be updating for the prayer-walking team but things have been pretty busy. As promised though, i am here now to deliver the report. The boys and I (amy, zac, andrew and thomas) have gone to about 12-15 wats around the city now. Each of them different and interesting in their own ways. Some of them are very large and some are small but overall they are all so so so so so beautiful. As a team we have been praying both for the individual people that we see there as well as for the wats themselves and the area that surrounds them. We have seen many interesting things and talked to some very interesting people while walking. On tuesday i met a girl named nicole from switzerland. She came into the wat (temple) while we were there all alone and kneeled in front of the "shrine." She did not bow or "Y" as they call it to Buddha which led me to believe that she was not buddhist. I asked God to tell me if I should approach and talk to this woman. I didnt want to interupt her but after a few minutes my heart started to pound so hard i thought it was going to come out of my back and i thought "OK GOD! I get it! I'll go!" So i slowly approached her and sat beside here on the mats. I introduced myself and started to ask her some questions. I found out that she is visiting chiang mai and the surrounding countries as a getaway vacation all by herself. She has been in chiang mai for 4 weeks but was leaving the next day. She liked to come to the wats not because she is buddhist but because she says it is peaceful. When i asked what she did for a living she said she used to work for a catholic church in switzerland but quit that job right before she left and she doesnt know what she will do now. That led me to ask, "Are you catholic?" She said no, she is christian. I was so excited to hear this. I told her i was too and that opened up a whole new conversation. I asked what she thought of buddhism and much to my surprise she said she thinks it is good...that is it necessary for the poor country of thailand. She says that in order to be christian all you have to do is follow the new law: "LOVE." I was shocked. We talked a lot more but through our conversation i began to realize that she really thought taht love was the only thing you have to do. Love one another. Therefore, she believed that all buddhist have salvation throught Christ (the thai people are very loving people but they certainly do NOT believe in Christ) Hmmmm.....i was so confused. I didnt know what to say. I didnt argue with her. I just said okm and thanked her for her input. Nicole made me realize that it is not just the Thai people that need saving. There is so much ignorance in the world. Even in christians. Even in myself! After that conversation i was led to pray not just for teh thai people but for all people. Especially christians who think they've got it all figured out. NO ONE DOES! and thats ok! We are all searching. We are all learning. I think this experience made me a lot more tolerant of the people here and just tolerant in general i suppose. Anyway, we have had other experiences with people worth noting at some point but for the sake for a shorter blog i will save that for "when-we-get-home-stories." Or maybe zac will blog about the Monk he talked to. Our team has also been going to Chiang Mai University every day for lunch with the college students. This gives us time to connect with students like ourselfs in a learning atmosphere. We want to build relationships with the students. I have a very good new friend named chompoo. She is beautiful and amazing. SHe and i have spent a lot of time together and we get along great. She is already begging me to come back next year! Thank you again for all of your prayers. You can pray specifically for our team that our relationships would continue to blossom. We know taht without a relationship you cannot expect much. We love you all!!!

Hello- it has been a while

Well it has been three days since someone blogged. We have started our ministries and Andy is in a village with Joel, Shawn, and Laurie so he hasnt been doing his usual blogging. Anyways Barb, Matt, Melissa, and I have been working at Anubaan Chaing Mai for the last couple of day. It has been very fun. Melissa and I are helping 4th graders learn a skit. We had to teach them motions and everything. i9t is not exactly my forte, but the Lord has used me in awesome ways and today i was so proud of my group when they practiced there performance. We beat Melissa team for the first time. Yesterday we got to see Quintin, an M here. It was fantastic to see him again. Everything is going pretty good. The girls are doing prostitute witnessing on tuesdays and Thursdays. I beleive it is going well. Hopefully oe of them will blog and tell you about it. Miss you all. Good luck and good night --Brad

more ramblings

well, i really wasnt expecting to write everyday, but just everynow and then, but i just needed to today again. It was kinda a rough day. Not bad by any means at all, but taxing. Amy is writing the updates on our group, so i will consider it sufficient to say we went to a couple of wats and then lunch. Lunch was fun though, the group split into 2's to make us more approachable, and i ended up going with Amy, Champu, Baam and another girl new to us to eat lunch in another area of the university that we didnt know. They made fun of me for using chopsticks instead of silverware and learning how to say i am always hungry in Thai. After that i walked Amy back to the girls house and continued on to the guys house only to realise i was locked out. so i took a nap on the porch, which was very nice. Then as Barb said, we went to a meeting with Garden of Hope ministries, a group that is working to help women out of prostitution in Thailand. The ministry is awesome, and the girls that we have been talking with about it, Brittney and Kelly, are pretty much amazing when you realise they are just a couple of years older then me and are leading programs to reach these women with God's love and give them exits from prostitution. But it was hard for some of the guys on the team. Firstly, listening to the stories about the prostitutes they are talking to and helping and hearing the conditions is so angering and depressing. And then we went and walked down a street that had bars on both sides that were some blatently advertising the prostitution, and others not so but since we had just been talking about it you could tell it was there. As we walked down the street, it was soo freakin akward for at least some of us, if not all of us guys as there were girls soliciting us from across the street. We walked and we prayed, and prayed and walked and listened to Brittney tell us about the bars we were by and the things that had been happening in both. The frustration again returned, and talking and listening to some of the guys, we were all on the same page that it was just such a hard place to be. We finally left, and then split up to go eat. I gave in tonight and 5 of us went and got double cheeseburgers, fries, cokes, and one fanta. then we headed back to the house where we had to break in, but now here we are. Between long days, more walking and exercise (curse ultimate frisbee and my innability to say no) than i have done in two years, small cramped spaces, hearts breaking, pouring out in prayers, constantly being surrounded by pointlessness made holy, and the frustration over all of it, more than one of us has expressed being exhausted. physically, emotionally and spiritually. But at the same time, i think not one of us would rather be anywhere else in the world right now when it comes right down to it. We appreciate your prayers more and more each day as we keep seeing how much prayer is affecting this area of the world, and how much even more is needed. well, till the next time i get around to posting loves and latras.

Schooling and Exploitation

Hey, Barb here! Today: wow! Today was our first day experiencing our ministry roles. I greatly enjoyed mine. This morning Brad, Melissa, Matt, Glen and I all headed out to Anubaan Chaing Mai around 8ish this morning. Not so early really, but when you had an awful night of sleep, it seemed earlier than reality. Upon arrival to the school, we met with the what I would call the principal/headmaster of the school. He spoke with us for a bit then took us to the classes that he hopes we would work with. We will be working with two fourth grade classes, and two fifth grade classes. Each of these classes are connected to the English program. Therefore, they have foreigners teaching English, math, and science, all in English. At least that was the case in the fifth grade classrooms. As the headmaster introduced us to the teachers we were introduced as follows: Melissa, Brad, Bob, and Mak. Mind you, all of this was in an hard Asian accent. Matt and I corrected him once. I am now Barbara to the Thai people because it is apparently much much easier for the Thai people to say. I enjoyed observing in the classes today. Brad and Melissa actually got to work with groups of students, helping them to memorize and act out poems that are English. Melissa even taught her group how to high five! After school today we caught a songtaew back to our accomodations to chill out. I was hoping to get a bit of reading in and a short nap, but a few of the boys showed up to spend some time with us. No big deal at all. I really enjoy just hanging out with the team, especially today when they had been elsewhere. It was nice to hear their experiences prayer walking and at Chaing Mai University. Soon enough, it was time for the team to meet back up and head over to the Garden of Hope. The Garden of Hope is a ministry that is based towards the women and children in prostitution. The team went through the short training of the ministry and then we headed out to do some prayer walking in the area that the ladies will be heading out to. Honestly, that was very very difficult. Mind you, Thailand is the red light zone capital of the world. Chaing Mai is the red light zone capital of Thailand. As Mark put it: "When you go out there it's almost like stepping into Hell." I saw exactly why he said that while we were prayer walking. We were there in the early evening: maybe 4:30ish and already many of the women were standing outside the edge of their bar, being exploited. As we walked and stopped and prayed, I was burdened and pained to see the women like this. It makes me angry that people would do this to the epidomy of God's creation. This is not what they were created for! Oddly enough, when I would say hello the women and give them a genuine smile, there was a peace about it. I know God called me here for this: even though I have absolutely no idea why some moments. Tomorrow night the ladies, excluding Laurie because she will be out at Sao Patong village will meet up with the other staff of the Garden of Hope and go and talk with these women. Please pray for us as we do this. Pray that God not only protects our own hearts, but that He is evident, even in the burliest of moments. I look forward to seeing what God has in store for the Thai people and us in the next few days. I thank you all for your prayers and encouragement. You will never know how much it has truly meant for us.

I dont really know

everyone is doin a dang good job keepin up on all the updates so i dont really feel like going into redundancies. the waterfall was cold, my ipod is dead, my passport is fine, the Thai culture/belief system is frustrating, i have a puss pocket forming on my knee, the food is amazing, the best way to see the city is hangin off the back of a song taew (though we are the only people in the city who do it when the thing is empty), the veiws from up on the mountains are breathtaking, and i could go on and on just trying to catch up on the last 5 days. I really didnt know what the heck i was going to be doing on this mission trip. Even back during training i wondered how the heck i ended up on this trip because evangalism is not something i do or even believe in, so how the heck was i going to do anything on this trip? i guess i was still stuck in the fundamental mindset that the purpose of a mission trip was to beat a bible over peoples head till they finally absorbed something of worth, and i despise that approach. i have grown to think that completely overlooks the relational, the ministry side. And up until today i have been dealing with a lot of frustration over how the heck i was supposed to connect with these people. With each day of learning of Thai culture, the differences just seemed more and more overwhelming. Like Any was saying, when you go to the Wats and talk to some of the monks, they dont even know whats going on, or you see and hear such conflicting reports of what it means to be Buhddist or to worship. When we went to Wat Doi Suthep it just confirmed to me the idea that Buhdism is not a religion or even a philosiphy, its simply tradition. Most of the poeple go through the motions because that is all they know, they live in fear because they dont really believe in what they do, but just go through the motions for fear of there being something to it. So today both Amy's bible study and Stu's little lesson were a huge answer to prayer. I know i wasnt the only one really feeling a little or even really discouraged that all we have been doing so far is just fluff, that we want to be out there faster getting our hands dirty and trying to see some results. And from Amy going through John, which i got out of something a little different, more just confirmation and encouragement that i cant do a thing over here. The only thing i can do is let God use me and work through me. And i know that sounds so cliche sunday schooly but its so hard not to try, not to force something when all you really need to do is just sit back and let God work, and trust Him that even thought I'm not seeing any results, God is at work and somehow using me. And then talking, well, listening mostly to Stu and Go this afternoon talking about how American/western cultures foundational focus is honesty, facts and truth that thats what all our worldveiws boild down to, and how that clashes with the Thai culture whose culture boils down to relationships. How coming in and hoping to try and, as he said, dump our load and change the world in two weeks, is a little unrealistic. but that we should more just concentrate on, and these are conclusions he let us as a team come too, encourage the missionaries who are staying here, to build relationships and gateways into the communities we will be affecting for them, and just be a light and influence that the Thai people notice. Starting tomorrow, monday morning, two of the teams will be heading out to their focuses, and the third will be meeting togother to be prepared for the village. The team i am on will be traveling to different wats to prayerwalk and talk to those that collide with (you should prayerwalk with your eyes open), and spending time up at the college with students. Pray for us that we stay mindful of the culture we are in, that we keep our focus on God and not what we are "supposed" to do, and that we continue the good relations and fun that our team has been experiencing amongst ourselves. thanks yall, zac

A Day of Worship

Today was good. I learned...or realized, rather. We led a church service this morning, where the only other attendees were Glenn and Janet Newcomb, their daughter Jennifer, Ekk, two Christian teachers from Annubaan Chiang Mai (where one of our team's will be working this week), and one other Thai lady who came in late. Thomas and Joel did an excellent job of leading worship. And then Amy led a fantastic Bible study on John 15:1-17. It is Jesus' very familiar parable of the vine and the branches. But it was delivered in a new way. Amy did a great job of picking out some interesting and important parts of the parable. One thing that stuck out to me was the actual question of what is this "fruit" that we are to produce. I had gone through my whole life just assuming, for some reason, that this "fruit" meant that we were to be having other people come to Christ. That's a nice thought and goal, but I also don't think it is true. I thought of it in the way that a real branch simply cannot produce fruit without nutrients flowing through and out of it from the vine. Without the lifeblood of the vine flowing into it and then out of it into the fruit, the branch would die. It wouldn't be that a branch that doesn't produce fruit would be chopped off, it would fall off, because it would die. To produce fruit is to be alive. Fruit that is a continuance of that nutrition that we get from the vine. And if the overflow of the vine is love and compassion, among other similar things, then our "bearing fruit" would be us sharing these same things with other people. I believe that not bearing fruit doesn't incur death, it is death. If we are alive in Christ, as we are, then we should be spreading that life. The distinction that I made for myself today was that we are not called to make people become "Christians." We are told (I actually very much dislike the word "called," especially after all of the distortions I think it has gone through) to love people. To love them in a way that they know that there is something real about our love that doesn't exist in other people, that there is something beyond us wanting to feel good about ourselves for following some religious precept. Strangely enough, this is exactly what Jesus mentioned next in His parable. Verses 9-17 read as follows (in the New Living Translation): "I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. And here is how to measure it--the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends. You are my friends if you obey me. I no longer call you servants, because a master doesn't confide in his servants. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father has told me. You didn't choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. I command you to love each other." I could say so much about this, but I will not. I will just say that Jesus draws some very clear parallels between his relationship with his Father and our proposed relationship with Him. He also follows every statement by showing exactly how it is to be enacted. We are to obey, in order to be in His love. We are commanded to love each other. We are told that the greatest measurement of said love is to lay down our lives for our friends. This just happens to be exactly what Jesus was about to do. He was telling us that He loves us the very most that is possible. He said "...for our friends," and then goes on to tell us that we are "...(His) friends if (we) obey (Him)." But what does it mean to obey? What is the command? He commands us to "...go and produce fruit that will last...." He commands us to "love each other." So simple, yet so profound. He loves us, we love them. This may be an example of scripture speaking directly to me, and meaning little to others who read it, but it did impact me. The point isn't convincing people that Christianity is right. The point is to love them for the sake of loving them, to love them because God loves us. To love them to the point that they KNOW that there is something supernatural going on. Is that possible? Yes. We went from the church service (which was held in a house-type structure) to Big C, a mall type place, where we had lunch. It was fairly normal. From there we returned to the Guest House. Shortly thereafter, Stu arrived. Stu is from New Zealand. Stu talked to us about Thai culture, Buddhism, and Christianity. It was stunning again. He took our "key" Christian verse, John 3:16, and showed how it made absolutely no sense to a Buddhist, and therefore a Thai. To them, "God" means next to nothing. There are gods all over. To them, "gave his only son" means only that their attempts at holding on to nothing and giving up everything, a core Buddhist idea, are worthwhile. To them, "not die, but have everlasting life" means that they would have no chance of reaching Nirvana, and would instead be forced to continue there endless reincarnation cycles with no hope of escape. To them, John 3:16 would sound worthless, at best. In order to really get them to understand about our God, and how great He is, will take more than shoving a Bible under their noses and trying to prove truth to them. Americans hold truth above all else. Thais hold relationship above all else. To reach a Thai, to reach a Buddhist, is to build relationship. To build relationship generally takes more than 2 weeks. Stu left. We were all provoked to much thought, and brought down to reality a bit. But the thoughts were nowhere near complete until Glenn shared with us from his heart immediately following the departure of Stu (who in no way was trying to tell us that our time here was pointless, only that we needed to have focus, and more realistic goals). Glenn shared from Matthew 25:35-40, another familiar passage. "'For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.' Then these righteous ones will reply, 'Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison, and visit you?' And the King will tell them, 'I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!" That is how we can share the gospel with the Thais. Not by forcefeeding them something that they won't understand, but by loving them in a way that they cannot ignore. God doesn't need us, but he uses us. And we are here, and we are willing, and God will use us. Pray that we will be open, pray that we will be mindful, pray that we will be focused, and above all, pray that we will seize every opportunity that we are given to love these people.

A word from Brad

God is so amazing. I am going to be honest with you all. I have been a way from home for a very long time and was beginning to feel a little weary and frustrated that I was stuck in Thailand for 18 days. I have had a great time so far and i love Andy and our group a lot, but a was having a hard time putting my heart into the ministry aspect. If that makes sense. This is something i have been praying about since I got to Thailand on December 31 becaused I didn't need to let this effect what i am here for. Today my prayers were answered. We Met with a guy after church today who was named stew. He brought Go with him. Go is a Thai who used to be a monk but is now a Follower of Christ. He told us his testimony about how he had a dream, his dream was that there was man who said "come follow me" he was on a green hill, Go said he wanted to come follow him but was hesitant because right in front of him was a giant cliff and it seemed he would fall off if he stepped foward, then he woke up. Then he started getting Bibles from all kinds of people, even monks, then a man told him that God wanted to know him which shocked him because people dont ever say that to monks. He struggled with this for a long time and had to a draft sort of thing. He draws a card out of the box. If he draws a black card then he doesnt have to go in the army, if the card is red he is drafted for two years. He was so scared he would be drafted. All his relatives had given him relics and went through all the rituals to help him have luck and not get drafted. Right before he was about to draw he started praying to God. He says he didnt know why but he prayed and sayed "God if i can draw black i will go back and follow you." The pieces of paper were in a bag and also wrapped in a straw soi you could look in the bag and still not see what you were drawing. He reached in to draw and also looked in the bag, he said that he saw that one of the straws said black on it. He said it was a miracle that he saw the word black. He drew that one and sure enough it was black, all the others in line with him drew red. So, He follows God, now he still hangs out with the monks and sleeps at temples with them. He talked about how other monks are having dreams also, but they are scared to be outcasted from there family if they follow Jesus so they go to the temple and do the Buddhist things then they goi off to a friends and study the Bible. He also told us that he doesnt call himself Christian, He believes the Bible and follows God. He believes the word Christian has been turned into a word that turns people away. All this to say that this showed me that it doesnt matter if we don't see thousands of people come to know Jesus while we are here. It is not about us at all. God will work in the lives of the Thai people. God never promises that we will always see results of our presence in a place before we die, he just promises that his Word will not return void. So now, what is our job here? We are only here for a short time. Well i came to find out that I just have to be obedient and trust that as long as we allow Jesus to work through us while we are here in whatever way He chooses, results will happen and we should be priveleged to have this opportunity to work for our King ang it shoudl continue when we are back at school. We won't see results i can almost gaurantee but the Lord's Word will not return void. That is what i got out of today and most of it i had heard before but i needed to hear it again. The most encouraging thhing was that God made himself known to Go, but then used others to water. God doesnt need us, but he has chosen us to carry His Word. This blog may be all over the place but i feel better after righting it so, i hope you can see something of what i am talking about. This is my first blog so there is a lot of mistakes and i never capitalize "i" unless it is a school paper because it saves time and energy. Thank you, Good luck and good night --Brad Vyers

Saturday

I realize I've been a bit long-winded. While wanting you all to feel as though you are experiencing all of this with us, I also don't want to overwhelm you or give you so much that you hesitate to read it all. For this reason, I will attempt to limit myself. And with others blogging too, we should still cover a lot. As Amy's post reported, today was less relaxing than it was expected to be, but it was also a lot of fun. Wat Doi Suthep on the mountain was certainly an impactful experience. It was today at this wat that the reality of the meaninglessness of these peoples' religious practices really sunk in for me. Seeing all of these people praying to golden statues of deceased monks, or to golden statues of Buddha...quite sobering. It was perhaps the worst to see the children following their parents...with a innocent, child-like faith in something so worthless. A golden statue...really? The place was beautiful, and very peaceful...but...not in a happy way. Anyway, as Amy mentioned, we did play ultimate frisbee with Ekk and his friends today at Payap University. It was fun, but very exhausting. Afterwards, we split from the girls, and Ekk went with us to a different kind of night market known as "the Walking Street." It was just another long stretch with vendors of all kinds, food and merchandise. All of us guys had quite a good time together tonight...male bonding I guess you might say. Our evening ended at a coffee house known as "Doi Chaang Coffeehouse." It was tasty, but we were probably a bit louder than we should have been. However, the only two girls working there took it all in good humor and were even smiling and giggling when we all left (some of the guys had been trying to help Ekk out relationally...). By the time we left there it was already 11:00pm. Now it is 12:22am here. I am about to go to bed, as several already have. Oh! That reminds me of news that is quite good for me, and probably only slightly good for you. I randomly found out today that by some miracle we actually have wireless internet in our guest house, from somewhere around here. So, I will be blogging from here on out from our house. This is good news for you all because I will hopefully be able to throw some pictures in with the posts. Anyway, tomorrow we will be leading a worship service at a small church. Thomas and Joel will be providing the music, and as Amy said, she will be leading the Bible study time. I hope you are all doing well. We know you are praying for us, but know that we are praying for you all as well. Take care and God bless. (The following images are: our first experience with a Songtaew leaving the airport, a large chedi at some Wat, Amy and Shawn hanging off the back of a Songtaew, many people being "blessed" by a monk at Wat Doi Suthep, and a man praying to a statue of Buddha at Doi Suthep)

A Day of Physical Exertion!

Hello again! Our day is coming to an end so again it is time to report. Our day was supposed to be a day of mostly relaxation but it did not turn out that way. We started our day by going to Doi Suthep. This is a temple on the top of Suthep mountain. This is a very famous temple in the area and let me tell you, it is a big deal. We climbed 306 stairs to the top, which began the not-so-relaxing-day. I had to take a breather when i got to the top! Then we took off our shoes (as you do before you enter any wat) and we were on our way. There were several differnt "wats" where the people would go to pray and in the middle there was large golden chedi (jetty) with bells around it on a fence like structure. People would walk around the chedi 3 times ringing the bells and holding flowers as offerings to buddha. It was an interesting sight. As we have said before, it all seems so meaningless....in fact...it is incredibly meaningless. When I asked some Thai people why they do some of these things they specifically said, "i dont know." I DONT KNOW? Again i was perplexed. Beginning to see a pattern? I am. Moving on. After we went to the the wat we went down the mountain a way and split up for a quick lunch. Then we went home only to get ready to leave again. Ekk ( a young man who is helping the missionaries here in thailand/ also our new friend) invited us all to play ultimate frisbee. So we did! It was a great time. We met some new friends, got a little dirty, and got some much needed exercise. OH! I fogot to mention my other new friends. Some college girls came to spend some time with us today to. Their names are Champu, Baam, and Yao. They all go to Chiag Mai University where my team will be having lunch every day. They are wonderful girls and they have taught me a LOT of thai. I feel i am learning pretty quickly. We all are considering the difficulty of the language. The girls are staying with we girls on the team tonight. It should be a great time. They dont speak much English but we had a great time today even without speaking much to them. They are very fun girls. We i must go. I am leading a Bible study for the house church in the morning and i need some time to prepare. We hope all is well in the states. Goodbye for now...

Swadeeka!

So as not to be reduntant, I will not be highlighting my day because well, knowing some of you, you will not want to read all three of our blogs that are likely to contain much of the same information. I have to agree with Amy right now that the culture is beginning to tear me apart as well. The inconsistency of the beliefs of the people is terrible. Please pray that our hearts are protected as well as pray for the Thai people. Pray that they are open to what they are going to hear. I, Barb, will be blogging for the Anubaan Chaing Mai team. This team consists of myself, Brad, Melissa, and Matt. There we will be helping to teach English as a second language (ESL) to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders. It shall be a grand adventure!!

Some adventures...

Hello from Chiang Mai! Thank you all so much for your support. We are so pleased to hear of the prayers that we are getting from all of you back home. I am going to start adding to the blog to elaborate on some of what Andy says as well as tell you about the individual team that I am on for ministry. Firstly, I will tell you a bit about our time here so far. Let me start out by saying that i am so so so so so so pleased with the way things are going here. The missionaries are wonderful. I definitely feel that i have made some new friends. Our team is growing so close and clicking so much better than i could have ever imagined. Hmmm...Andy sure wrote a lot so i will try to mention the things that he didn't. Last night we went to the "night bazaar" or "night market." This is a street full of vendors selling everything imaginable....seriously...everything. There are no set prices either. You have to barter to get what you want, which is difficult when you dont know Thai. I bought two of...something...(i wont tell because it is a gift) for 160 B= $5 , but when i turned around to leave i saw the same items for only 50 B each. I got played!!! Melissa did too. It is a game here. They see us (white people or farangs as they call us) and they see money so they try to get as much from us as they can. Anyway, they won! But melissa and practiced today and we are ready to go back and stand our ground! Today we went on a scavenger hunt. I could talk for hours about today. It was fantastic. Andy will tell you a lot about it i am sure so i will tell some of the highlights of my day. First we went to a Wat or Temple to learn about what goes on there. I decided the only way i was going to find out was to ask so i asked a group if they knew english and one girl did. Her name was Fa and she was so nice. We talked for about 20 minutes. She taught me several things about worshiping at the wat. Later we went to another Wat called Chedi Luang. I must admit i had quite an experience there. Not such a good one in the grand scheme of things. What you must know is that Budhism is centered around doing good deeds and offering things to the monks and spirits. I already knew that this was a silly thing to do from a Christian standpoint because we know of the one true God. We know that we have salvation and that he gives grace. The Budhists worship both Budha and monks who have passed. I can explain this more thoroughly when i get home but i will give you an overview. We went into one of the wats and directly in front of us was a large glass container. Inside this container was a monk...made of wax! He was very old and looked incredibly real (look at the pictures when we get home). When I saw this "statue" I was heartbroken to say the least. I couldnt take it. I left the Wat in tears. At first i didnt know what had come over me. I didnt know why this bothered me so much. it only took me a moment to realize that I am just so appalled at how they are worshiping something that doesnt exist. Something fake. The man in the glass really existed one day and was famous for something. But now people come to him and pray to him. As Christians we know that he was just a man. Just a man who probably went to hell because he didnt believe in our savior. This culture is really beginning to tear me apart. I am struggling with the inconsistency. It is hard to elaborate here. Please ask when we get home. Today was very important to me. I will never forget the realization that I had today. Anyway, i have written a lot but not about a lot. I will save you the time and finish by telling you that along with some of my other comments i will also be blogging about my ministry team for next week. My team (Thomas, Zac, Andrew, and I) are going to be prayer walking in temples and having lunch with the college students at Chiang Mai University. I will tell you of our experiences there. Judging by today, they should be quite interesting. I will go for now. Thank you for your ongoing support! Love you all!

Crickets, Monks, and a Lap Full of Noodles

Today was quality. The scavenger hunt today was incredibly wonderful. Ah, and just to let you know, Barb and Amy are also able to post to this blog now, and will likely start doing so very soon, possibly today. This will be helpful in many ways, as it allows you all to hear different takes on what is going on here, and also as it will allow you to hear about what is happening with each of our three teams when we are split up next week. I hope you enjoy this change. Anyhow, as I was saying, today was quality. We met this morning at 9:00 and split into 4 teams. Team 1 was composed of Brad, Joel, and Barb. Team 2 was Shawn, Andrew, and Amy. Team 3 was Thomas, Melissa, Ekk, and myself. And Team 4 was Zac, Matt, and Laurie. We all had very varied experiences, so I will try and highlight ours and as much of the others as I can remember. Oh, and for those of you that have been keeping up with the comments, Zac was the one that fell in the waterfall the other day. He soaked himself from the mid-abdomen down. He evidently was astonished that I forgot to mention that in my first blog. So there it is. (Goodness my mind is running around tonight) Back to today. Our teams set out in different directions to go to the same places, but in different orders, so as not to be all together or right on each other's tails. My team set out walking down to Canal Road, right by our guest house. Immediately upon arriving there Thomas saw fit to load up the bottom of his shoe with a treat that a dog had left just for him. We all enjoyed the pleasant aroma for most of the rest of the day, or at least until lunch, but I'll get to that later. We did manage to catch a Songtaw (and I'm becoming more and more certain that that is a very incorrect spelling). Oh wait, Ekk is here and says it is "Songtaew." So, as always, Thomas and I rode on the back of the Songtaew, which Ekk later informed us was not something that Thai people hardly ever do, unless the Songtaew is very, very full. He also mentioned that not a lot of foreigners do it either...but that's okay. (Not alot of foreigners wear elephant pants around either, but that isn't stopping any of us) We went first to Wat ("Buddhist Temple") Chedi (large spire shaped brick structure next to all of the wats, said to contain some piece of Buddha) Luang ("large"). While there we saw a very tall tree that is believed to house some important spirits and to provide protection to the people. The people often will give food offerings, tie ribbons around the tree, or just but lit candles at the base of the tree...in order to bring themselves under the protection of these quite fictitious spirits. It is one of many sad examples of people giving honor and respect and service to things that are 100% fake and of no lasting value. We also noted that Wat Chedi Luang is the largest wat in all of Chiang Mai, and maybe of all of Thailand. While there we saw many large statues of Buddha. Before leaving we talked with a monk to learn about some of the history of this temple. It was very interesting to talk with the monk, and also convenient that he spoke English very well. It was also the first time that I actually experienced the requirement that monks do not touch women. I experienced this as we were leaving the monk and he shook hands with Ekk, Thomas, and I, but merely bowed to Melissa. From there we walked to the 3 Kings Monument a short ways away. It was an interesting place, especially for a history lover. For behind the monument was the cultural center, or museum, of Chiang Mai. We went in there, and learned a bit about the history of this city. We likely could have been in there for hours if we had the time or wanted to. However, we only took about 1 hour and then headed to lunch. This is where we...or at least I stopped noticing the smell of Thomas' shoe so much. Ekk took us to a ramen noodle type restaurant where we got to pick our own kind of noodle, and were served said noodle with some type of vegetables, soup, morning glory, tofu, and some various kinds of pork and fish balls. It was okay, not my favorite, but more than edible. As I had finished and was relaxing at the table waiting for the others, I brought my arms down from my head, quite swiftly. After a short bit of clanging and heads jerking around, I had the bowl back up off the floor and was dabbing madly at myself and the table with napkins. It was to no avail, I was soaked to the bone from my belly-button to my knees with soup smelling of fish. My first frustration was this was that it looked like I had just wet myself...badly. My second and longer lasting frustration was that from then until right before dinner (when I finally got to grab a fresh shower and change into my elephant pants), I smelled fish everytime I was sitting down. Not pleasant at all. However, it didn't stop our adventures. We even got some iced coffees before leaving the restaurant. We grabbed another Songtaew and headed to Wat PraSing. This was a very large temple complex with a monk school and a large garden area with many tall, shady trees and sidewalks. It was a very, very peaceful place that I much enjoyed. We talked with another monk here who knew less English, but told us more about the school and his own experience as a monk than had the monk at Wat Chedi Luang. He told us that he became a monk because that is his culture, and that his family wanted him too. Doesn't seem like much of a reason to choose a religion to me, but he certainly seemed at peace, although that sadly won't last. From Wat PraSing we went to the Chiang Mai Gate, where we wandered around the market and bought some different kinds of treats, which we ate later at the coffee shop that concluded our hunt. From Chiang Mai Gate we moved to the Warorot Market, via Tuk-Tuk (tewk-tewk), a three wheeled little vehicle with a small canopy thing over it. Strange contraption indeed. We didn't spend very much time at the Warorot Maket, but we did notice that they were selling an amazing variety of things there, from all sorts of fruits and vegetables, to cooking utensils, cleaning supplies, and shoes. We bought some fruit, ate some Rice Sausages (which looked and smelled like regular sausages, but were full of rice, pork, and noodles, and had a very mush texture), and headed off. We stopped by Tha Phae ("raft landing) Gate, where we met Shawn, Amy, and Andrew and climbed up on the old city wall. We then scurried quickly over to the Wawee Coffee shop just down the road. It was just like a coffee shop in America, except that my large Mochacino tasted more like really strong coffee with whipped cream on top. However, the sweets that we picked up from the market, made the experience a bit better. We had crispy rice balls that tasted a lot like the Quaker Rice Cakes in the States. We also had some cake with red beans in it that tasted alot like sweet cornbread. After we had rested there for a while, we headed back to the guest house. By the time that we arrived there, it was probably about 3:45. By shortly after 4:00 all of the teams had arrived back at the house and we had a formal time of sharing from our differing experiences of the day. One highlight of the other teams would include Team 2's (Zac, Matt, and Laurie) experience with a cab driver that offered to drive them around for a few hours for 50 baht a piece (exchange rate of 33 baht= $1). They accepted and soon realized that they had probably been scammed into a fishy deal. The cabbie didn't take them to very many of the places on our list, but instead took them to "factories," which were actually just big shops where they made things, and asked them to stay at each one for a minimum of 5 minutes, because that was enough for him to get gas coupons for having brought them there. (I know, doesn't really click well with me either) They did have a good day, but just didn't get to all of the same places that we did. Another highlight, or sadpoint, or both, would be the experience of seeing all of the people worshipping so many things so hopelessly. I would say more, but Amy was one that seemed most impacted by this today, and she is blogging as I type this, just two computers to my left. She also got to feed pigeons from her hand, quite a wonderful experience I'm sure. (Although Melissa didn't seem to think so...something about birds....) After we had completed our sharing time, I grabbed a quick shower and then we headed off to dinner at one of the most interesting and fantastic places I have ever been to. It was a big open-air warehouse of a restaurant, with many long tables everywhere. Up at one end was a stage with a live band, and a variety of different singers from time to time. On one side was an incredibly long buffet-type area of many types of vegetables, noodles, and raw meats. Once we picked our table, we all went over to the food and grabbed far too many plates of far too much food. We returned it to our tables where they had an almost indescribable contraption. There was large bowl at every 4-person section, filled with hot coals, a strange dome shaped metal piece with slits to let hot air through and a moat around the rim was placed over the entire bowl. We then threw some pieces of fat on the middle of the dome, to drip it down and grease the rest of it. Then we tossed on our raw meat and filled the moat with hot water. We then put our noodles, vegetables, and some of the other meats in the soon-to-be-boiling water/fat mixture. That is the experience, but the variety of the food was what made it so vastly intriguing. We had things ranging from very normal steak/beef pieces all the way to boiling our own live shrimp. We also had some boiled squid, octopus arms, and egg-rolls full of bugs. Oh! Speaking of bugs, one of our assignments from the scavenger hunt was to buy a bag of fried bugs and eat some. Most of us couldn't find any today, but one team did. I can just tell you that the grubs look too gooey to even try, the cockroaches are big and equally scary, and the crickets taste quite a bit better than the mealworms (no powdery, flaky after-effects). Anyway, dinner was a grand experience and afterwards we piled back in the trucks and headed back home. We were only there for a short time before most of us headed back out, either here to the internet cafe, or to the Night Bazaar again. Most of us went to the Night Bazaar last night, and it is quite a busy and large shopping area, full of farangs (fuh-rongs), or white people. That would be where Shawn, Brad, Zac, and I got our elephant pants yesterday. So, that was our day. I think I will head back to the guest house shortly, maybe read a little, and then head to bed. Tomorrow is to be mostly a day of rest, as our only planned activities are: going to Doi Suthep (a wat way up on top of Suthep mountain) for prayer and lunch, planning for our worship service on Sunday and our sports camp for the following weekend, and playing ultimate frisbee with Ekk and his friends in the afternoon. I am appreciating all of your comments and look forward to seeing them continue and increase. I hope you all are managing to stay warm and are having quite a wonderful beginning to a new year. I'm sure you already know we are. ;)

Training Wheels

We trained alot today. We ate a tasty breakfast this morning of baby bananas shorter than my index finger, plain white bread, little oranges, and some nori seaweed and inter menu kimshi hot plate flavored potato chips. The bananas were incredibly tasty, the oranges were good, although seeded, and the potato chips...well, they were interesting. And no, I have no idea what it means for something to be "Inter Menu Kimshi Hot Plate flavored." The spicy squid potato chips that Matt got this afternoon weren't bad either. Either way, breakfast was tasty. After we ate, we had Chris and Jen lead us through Prayer Walking training. We concluded the training by setting out in 3 groups to 3 different nearby areas and prayer walking. After the prayer walking, it was already time for lunch, so we had some. Quintin and Kim's houseworker made our lunch for us and Janet brought it over. It was also quite tasty, some kind of fried rice dish with chicken...but the fish sauce was spicier than we all expected. I think Amy cried a little. During our lunch break, but after we had finished eating, we all went to the nearest 7/11 (yes, they have those...lots of them) and shopped around. We all left with some little goodies. I especially remember this item that Andrew got that said nothing in English on the package other than "Corn Cheese," it ended up being little cracker-like things that tasted like popcorn crackers with a dusting of cheese. A team from The Garden of Hope ministry came over after we returned from the 7/11. They led us in training about the problem of prostitution and child exploitation in Thailand. And now that you are all thinking, "Yes, that's right, I've always heard all that nasty stuff about what they do in Thailand," let me inform you that there are children prostitutes in America than in any other country in the world. Let that sink in a bit. Ouch, right? In our own backyard, yet none of us probably even know it was an issue. Any way, after the Garden of Hope team left we relaxed for a little while before heading off for dinner. I suppose this is a good place to interject a bit of information about what it is like here, aside from our hour by hour activities. It is busy. The people are extremely nice, Thailand is known as the "land of smiles." If someone in America smiles at you randomly on the street, you wonder what you did, or what they did. If someone smiles at you on the street in Thailand, you smile back, or leave them wondering what your problem is. There are lots and lots of people riding around (on the left side of the road, mind you) on motor-scooters. We spend lots of time riding in the back of a songtaw (Song-tao), which is basically a modified pick-up truck with bench seats in the bed facing each other and an add-on thing on the back where up to 3 more riders can stand to ride. Riding around on the back of one of these is quite the convenient way to get around. Up till now, we have had a driver working for us specifically, but starting tomorrow we will be riding the common songtaws that roam around Chiang-Mai looking for customers. They basically act as taxis for the people here. We have also spent quite a bit of time walking around. The distance we walk from place to place is a bit farther than I had imagined that it would be, but it is actually quite easy to manage. I am, however, still trying to figure out my way around our area by foot. But, we are beginning to figure it out. Anyway, back to today's story. We went to Chiang-Mai University, intending to eat dinner with the students there at an open-air cafeteria type place, but most of the food vendors were closed for the day...or at least for the afternoon. So, we ended up going to a food vendor/restaurant on the side of Suthep (the main road nearest to our accomodations) that Shawn and Brad remembered from last year's trip. We had some Papaya Salad, grilled chicken, sticky rice, fresh cabbage, fresh cucumber, and some rather spicy, but nice sauce. Dinner was quite tasty, and unique. We ate with our hands, rolling up some chicken in a piece of cabbage and dipping it in the spicy sauce or making a small ball of sticky rice and dipping that in the sauce. After we had paid, said our "Kap kuhn kaps/kas (depending on our gender)," we headed over to the market. Shawn, Laurie, Amy, and I had gone there this morning during our prayer walking exercise. It is a very interesting place with a wide variety of sights, sounds, and smells. I went there with one thing in mind, worms. I had seen them there this morning and knew that I had to get some. I did succeed in finding a nice little bowl of mealworms, which I promptly bought and put in my bag, but our market adventure did not end there. We continued to shop around and bought some more breakfast type foods for tomorrow morning, including some very tiny apply-pear type things, some more baby bananas, some regular bananas, some dragon fruit, and some fresh strawberries. After we were fruited up, we went to the Lotus express (imagine a full grocery store the size of a convenience store) and finished up our purchasing with some more white bread, apple juice, cran-grape juice, orange juice, and some pineapple and strawberry jam for the bread. Finally done, we headed back to our houses. We split up a bit on the way, as Thomas and Joel headed off towards the internet smoothie/coffee shop on their own, the girls went to their house, and Brad, Andrew, Matt, Shawn, Zac, and I headed back to our house. When we got there, we opened up my bowl of worms. Shawn and Zac headed out again before we got to try them, but the rest of us stepped up to the plate. Those mealworms are an interesting bit of food. They are a bit crunchy, hollowish, salty, and leave a bit of powderiness and flakes in your mouth after they are gone...quite interesting indeed. Luckily I had my hot dog bun full of chocolate mousse and chocolate chips from the 7/11 today to wash them down with. We all drank a bit of water to rid our mouths of powder, and then headed out to this internet cafe. It's a dandy place, but I'm about done with it. Some of us have already left, and Thomas, Brad, Barb, and I are about to. We are headed to the Night Bazaar, to buy some fun things, probably souvenirish style. So, I will bid you farewell for another day. And tomorrow should leave much to tell about, as we are splitting into 4 teams of 3 to do a scavenger hunt around the city. I'll certainly let you know how that pans out. Please continue to pray as we are shortly about to engage the Thai people on a bit deeper of a level. Oh, and have a nice day.

The Sun Didn't Set

It didn't. But that's later. We all climbed out of bed bright and early on the morning of December 31st, and made it to the airport at almost exactly 6:00am. Thanks so much to my brother, Steve, my roommate, Jonathan, and my friend Michael for helping us all to the airport. Thanks also to my parents for allowing us to use their house. Anyway, all of our flights went as scheduled, but it has indeed messed with our internal clocks a bit. We left Springfield at 7:40am, 12/31/07. We left Minneapolis sometime around 1:00pm the same day. We then flew for a long, long time. Somewhere towards a third of the way through our flight, the sun had apparently begun to set on the West of the airplane. Two hours later...it was still apparently setting on the West side of the plane. Shortly thereafter, it was back in the sky again, bright as ever. It actually didn't ever get dark for us on what some might consider to be the night of the 31st. Instead, we left Minneapolis at...let's say 1:00pm, we then moved through time zones that technically brought us to earlier and earlier times, we probably experienced 3:00pm a few times, and then arrived in Tokyo about 4:00pm on January 1st. At the time that it was 12:00am January 1st, 2008 in Central Time, we were somewhere up West of Alaska getting served teriyaki pork and rice for breakfast. When we landed in Tokyo, it was only about 1:30 or 2:00am on the 1st in the Central Time Zone. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all that happened.... Either way, we eventually made our way to Bangkok, after a flight that we, for some reason, thought was going to be 3 and 1/2 hours long but turned out to be 6 and 1/2 hours long. And, 11:45pm January 1st, 2008 Bangkok time. We should have slept in the airport...logically...as it was nighttime.... However, our bodies hadn't figured that out yet and only a few of us slept. Matt, Thomas, and Zac decided to take the opportunity to get authentic Thai massages ($9.00 for 45 minutes) in the airport. And we all ended up eating a lunch type meal between 1:00am and 3:00am local time. Our final flight left Bangkok around 8:00am January 2nd, 2008 and arrived in Chiang Mai just after 9:00am. By this time...it did feel like night, as it was 8:00pm on the 1st back in good ol' CST. But, we couldn't sleep, that is where our day actually began. Moving on from our confusing time experiences, our Thai experiences have thus far been fantastic. Today we went to the guest house that Joel, Matt, Andrew, Thomas, Zac, and I will be staying at and got settled in. The girls got to go to the townhouse a short ways down the street that they are staying in. Brad and Shawn are staying in an apartment building-type place next to our guesthouse. All of our accomodations are far better than we could've hoped for. We have beds to sleep on, running water, and actual porcelain-bowl-style toilets. (However, there seems to be no toilet paper, and instead an awkwardly placed hose with a spray nozzle next to the toilet...) After we all got settled in, we went to lunch at the Lemon Tree restaurant. We all got traditional Thai dishes ranging from Fried Rice for Amy, to Stuffed Squid for Joel, to Glass Noodles for Andrew, to Pad Thai for myself. Lunch was delicious, and afterwards Glenn and Janet took us to a beautiful waterfall area up in the mountain by the city. There we prayed, separated, meditated on our spiritual and emotional geometries, and then regrouped to discuss. We enjoyed the opportunity to empty our minds and to share our thoughts, fears, and anticipations with one another. After the waterfall, we moved on to a brief walking tour of our area of Chiang Mai, to help us get accustomed to our surroundings. That was a lot of fun as we saw all sorts of different street vendors offering fried pork, fried fish, and a tasty looking waffle and coffee combo of some sort.... After our tour was dinner, at an even nicer, outdoor, overlooking-a-rapidly-trickling (sounds wrong, but I promise, that's what it was doing)-waterfall restaurant. This time, Ekk ordered for all of us, we got 3 or 4 sets of the same 3 dishes plus a coconut milk soup for all of us to share. It was delicious once again. The tomatoey, spicy, sweet, spicy, fruit-shrimp dish was very interesting, and suprisingly tasty. The ground chicken hit the spot again as well. And it seems that stirfried cashews with chicken is already becoming a frequent meal. After the restaurant we headed back to our houses, our scheduled plans for the day completed. As we are all quite tired, most of us have stayed back at our houses to make it an early night, however, Brad, Shawn, Thomas, Joel, and I thought it might be better to be out on the town for a bit to get some fruit smoothies (ranging from Watermelon to Linchee), some coffee, or some fried chicken bowls. Our first stop, however, had to be the internet cafe. How else would everyone back home know that we had made it and had an incredible first day? Well, I've likely written too much already, but I must go now as the guys are ready to head out. But, thanks for your continued prayers and support, and please feel free to add your comments, we would love to hear them.