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.