A Retreat...

At the beginning of March Michelle, Jasmine and I joined The Garden of Hope (the ministry we work with) on their annual retreat. It was so much fun to just hang out and relax with our friends but we also had some awesome times of worshiping the Lord and planned for the next year of ministry. The week was a good opportunity to practice my Thai too :). Here are some photos and videos... This is Michelle with a couple of the Thai staff she works with in the Children's Drop in Center.

We drove south of the city to a little resort near the mountains. There was a lovely view of mountains, rice fields and elephants.

What's a retreat without a hamock? Or a lovely pond with tropical flowers?

But the scenery doesn't compare with the lovely ladies we shared the week with. Worship times with were some of my favorite parts with them...here is a video of us worshiping in Thai...

Thai people love singing...not only in worship but karaoke is very popular here too... Both nights of the retreat I fell asleep to the the sounds of my Thai friends singing their favorite songs in Thai and English :).

A true Thai party isn't complete without lots of food. The last evening we had a traditional Thai barbeque. Basically it is a ceramic pot with hot coals in it and a metal pan on top for boiling and grilling various meats and vegetables.

We sat around cooking, eating, talking, and of course singing more karaoke.

I was so blessed and refreshed by the entire retreat. I was great to hang out with my co-workers outside of work and get to know them and their culture better. Keep us in your prayers as we continue serving the Lord reaching out to the lost and broken women and children here in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

My accident...a very different Christmas

I planned on my first Christmas away from home being very different but I had know idea that it would be this different. In the season leading up to the holiday I anticipated missing home. And I expected that it wouldn't really feel like Christmas because it isn't a holiday widely celebrated in Buddhist countries. But what I didn't plan on was spending the holiday on the couch, in pain but learning so much from God.

Two days before Christmas my teammate Michelle and I were in a minor accident on our moter bike coming home from ministry. This sounds awful but God's hand of protection was completely on us. Neither of us were injured severely and the bike only had a loose mirror. Michelle had a broken toe that ended up needing surgery and she pulled a ligament in her knee. But God healed the ligament as someone prayed for it a couple days after the accident. My foot was scrapped pretty badly, enough that I had to see a Doctor and have my life shut down for a week and a half.
I know it sounds like a terrible thing and it definitely was the worst experience of my time in Thailand so far. But it changed my life.
My first reaction to the accident was

WHY???

Why did you let this happen God? Why didn't you protect us? Why did you let us get hurt? Why before Christmas? Why, why, why?? I felt like God had abandoned me. Like He had taken away His hand of protection. Maybe I was doing something wrong and He was trying to get my attention. Maybe this, maybe that... I wasn't angry with the Lord, I just didn't understand. I wasn't sure I could continue trusting Him.
But I started talking about how I felt with my teammates, being honest with the Lord about my feelings and reading His word. I read the last 3-4 chapters of the book of Job where the Lord answers Job and reminds him that He is God and is worthy of our worship no matter what our circumstances are in life. God also showed me how much His hand actually was on us. The timing was as good as can be expected for something like this. As I already mentioned, both of us and our bike were protected from serious injury. God used it as a time for me to rest, which is something I haven't done much of lately. Over and over He has shown me that He has not and will never leave or forsake me. Life is hard sometimes but He wasn't lying in Romans 8:28 when He said that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him.
This whole thing has been a journey that I will continue to share with you about. I just wanted to start by praising God for His faithfulness! God is GOOD ALWAYS!!

Decorating for Christmas in Thailand

Since my entire team will be here in Thailand for Christmas we decorated our house for the season.

This is the front door...way to go Michelle and Mindee!

Making Snowflakes

Stringing Popcorn

Decorating our little tree!



The finished product!

Merry Christmas from Thailand!!

Transition!

Oh dear...my blog has been neglected again I'm afraid. Life in the last month has been rather busy. We made two week long trips, one of which was out of the country, we had a class in cross cultural communication and a week of touring eight different ministries that the Lord is working in here in Chiang Mai. This week we are transitioning into the second phase of our internship - ministry! We are all very excited to join with the Lord in what He is doing in this city and believe me, He is doing things in this city! In almost every ministry we visited my heart burned with excitement. There are several ministries that are based here but are reaching literally to the ends of the earth with the gospel through media. A couple ministries have things like coffee shops to reach out to the massive college community here. And of course there are those that the Lord has called to rescue and minister to those enslaved or are at risk for human trafficking. These ministries only scratch the surface of what the Lord is doing in Thailand. Pray for our entire team this week as we seek the Lord about where He would have us join His work.

Adventures in everyday life

When you live in another country often the simple tasks of everyday life become adventures and take much longer then they would in America. Shopping for a simple garden rake for example. On Thursday Jasmine and I needed to go buy a rake for our yard, so after having coffee together we decided to go searching for a rake. We weren't quite sure where to start looking (they don't exactly have Home Depot or Lowes here) but decided that the shop where we bought the weed whacker would be a good start. So we went to this store on the north end of town that sells weed whackers...and guitars...and jewelry...which is right next to the store that sells washing machines and refrigerators...and bike helmets. Not seeing any rakes in plan sight, we attempted to explain to the man in the store what we were looking for. But between our broken Thai and his broken English we weren't getting far, in spite of our incredible skills at drawing pictures of rakes. With some help from a lady that spoke a lot of English he was able to understand what we were looking for and told us where a couple places to look would be. But rather then just give us directions and send us on our way - he proceeded to jump on his bike and lead us to two different stores, neither of which had a rake. By this point we were ready to give up but he drew us a map for one more place to try. Following his map, we ended up discovering a giant garden center and a rake! Hallelujah! So that is my story of rake hunting in Thailand. I love how eager these people are to help and the randomness of a third world country.

Up and Down...Up and Down....Up and Down

I find myself at the end of another week already. The last couple weeks Saturday mornings have surprised me with how quickly they show up. Time is defiantly going quickly here, and I'm not even that busy yet.

This week has been another week filled with ups and downs. I say another because the past couple weeks have been this way. Life here in Thailand is beginning to feel more normal, but there are still so many things that are so new. Deeper then the physical and obvious differences, I'm talking about the new relationships, new ways of thinking and the deepest difference, religious beliefs. And not all of these come from being in a foreign country and a different culture. Several of the new experiences come from relationships with team mates, family and friends back home. And even though life is beginning to feel more normal here, there are still lots of things that are challenging and often frustrating. Things like finding a church, learning a language, and living on a budget.

I'm not listing all of these things to complain. I love life here and don't in any way, shape or form want to leave or even change much of anything about life. I am just facing a lot of new and challenging experiences and because of that finding a lot of ups and downs in life. Like on Tuesday, I was so encouraged and excited about life because of a good morning in language class, good times with the Lord and some awesome connections we made with other missionaries here in Chiang Mai. However on Wednesday night, I found myself extremely discouraged because of language study, relationships with team mates and missing my family. I knew coming into this internship that it would be one of the hardest things I've ever done but one of the best. And that is so true. This is an extremely challenging season of life but it is one of the sweetest because I'm in the center of the Lord's will for my life. I knew that during this time I would learn to depend on the Lord in deeper ways then ever before and that is exactly what is happening. I'm clinging to Jesus and learning more about Him then ever before in my life. He is the constant when everything else is up and down. Praise the Lord!!

Pictures of Life

I haven't put up very many pictures yet so I thought I would give you a taste of everyday life in Chaing Mai with a few pictures:
This is my corner of the room I share with two other girls on my team. The matteres is made of bamboo with very little padding - I think it's because of the heat but it's not the most comfortable thing to sleep on...I'm getting used to it too. Also notice the lack of blankets - I couldn't bring any with me because I was packing so light and haven't seen the need to buy any because of the heat. Don't you love my pink curtains? Colors like pink, purple and yellow are very popular for decorating over here - our house is pink and all the curtains throughout it are as well.

This is a street in our neighborhood. From almost anywhere in the city, there is a view of the mountains that almost surround it. I think they are beautiful and I'm realizing what I missed not growning up around mountains.

This meal is called "Kaw Soy Gai"; it's a soup kind of dish made with coconut milk, boiled chicken and rice noodles. This is one of my favorite meals here in Thailand - it's a little bit spicy and very rich. In Thailand they don't eat with thier forks - they only use them to push the food onto a spoon or eat with chopsticks. This meal is a challenge with any utinsil and is messy no matter what you do. One of the best parts about it is that we can buy it for 25 bhat...which is about 70 cents American.
and the resterant that makes it the best is just down the road from us - about a 5 minute walk.

But we don't walk as much anymore since we recently aquired a small fleet of motercycles. When I say small fleet I mean six - everyone on our team has one, except for me. So I hope on the back of someone elses. No worries Momma - we all where helmets. This is not only a really fun way to get around town but it is also much cheaper then public transportation or buying a car.
Here are a couple pictures of the streets we drive through daily.

The red vehicals you see in the picture are called "Soung-taos". They are like pick up trucks with the back covered and little benches to sit on. Although not expensive compared to American prices, we are still saving a bunch of money not paying them for our daily transportation.

Mango Stand!

Flower Market!
Buddhism is the prominent religion here in Thailand. This is a larger version of the spirit houses that are in front of nearly every home and business. Buddhists believe that the evil spirits will live inside of these rather then in thier homes.
Chiang Mai has more then a hundred Buddhist temples so monks are nothing out of the ordinary here.