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)