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!