Howdy Y'all! I'm Back in Kansas!

Sorry it has taken so long to post. I have been traveling for many hours, and jet lagging for many days!! Here is some more of my trip! It was amazing! I hope I am able to convey the magnitude of the trip through the pictures and anecdotes.

Picking up from where I left off - the elephant park...

This is the Abba House in Chiang Mai, Thailand. This is a safe and happy place in which about 30 girls live.

It is customary in Thailand for everyone to take their shoes off before entering homes. So, here are all the girls' shoes!

One evening, the girls in the Abba House performed for us. It was so neat to see them worship with all of their hearts, inspite of the difficult lives they have already lived. These girls have found joy and refuge in Jesus Christ, even in the sinful world we all live in! Halleluia! They did a great job singing songs in English, as well as signing.

We split up into groups and worked with the girls on their conversational English. We spent about one hour each night just talking (in English) and getting to know each other. At one point in time, I noticed that they were working on their English homework, so I just helped them with their homework. The girls were so kind and welcoming, it was easy to feel comfortable - even though there was a language barrier!

One morning, we went to worship with the people living in a Christian drug rehab center. We sang and played games and had a great time! It was an awesome moment when I recognized the tune to the song they were singing in Thai. "This is the Day That The Lord has Made" - All the way around the world, they are praising the very same and uncontainable God that we praise in America! With the very same song! Wow! This is a clip of another song, praising God, in Thai.

While we were still in Chiang Mai, we visited the University and ate lunch there. Then we visited the Buddhist Temple up on top of a mountain. I felt such a feeling of sadness as I watched people bringing offerings, bowing down to, and worshipping empty idols.

After a few days in Chiang Mai, we took 6 hour van ride to Chiangklang, which is a city very close to Pua. We stayed in Chiangklang, and drove just 15 minutes into Pua to work with the Pua Baptist Church. We led some disciplship classes and games for the children attending the weekend retreat entitled, "The Joshua Camp".

Pua Baptist Church

My friend, Nut, and me!

This is a clip of some of the girls performing (in Thai) for Sunday morning worship.

One night the English and Life Skills Class took us out around town for a field trip. My little group went shopping! Then we went back to Nok and Saman's house for dinner. The students prepared dinner for us! It was fun and yummy! They have great hospitality skills!!

Toon and Kathy enjoying the chicken/egg/noodle/leafy vegetable dish!

Mindy and Tak enjoying the chocolate cake!

Some words and phrases I learned in Thai:

Sawadikah - Hello (from a female) Kopkunkah - Thank you (from a female)

Sawadikop - Hello (from a male) Kopkunkop - Thank you (from a male)

Numbers- 1= neung, 2= song, 3= sahm, 4= see, 5= hah, 6= hok, 7= jet, 8= bad, 9= gao, 10= seep

That is all for now - I promise there is more to come!!

Mindy