Swaddii Khrap! Hello friends & family! I bid you all a fond hello from Selaphum, Thailand! A wonderous & glorious place that feels as close to heaven as it gets after coming from rural India. But, before I tell you of our delightful tales in Thailand I will update you all on our travel dayz! We departed back in August from Ongole, India and made the 8 hour bus ride through the night to Hyderabad, India. We arrived at the airport before it opened (since when do airports close right?). We boarded our flight in the wee hours of the morning to fly 1.5 hrs to Dehli. Here we had a nice 5 hour layover, allowing for copious amounts of dominoes pizza to be consumed! Finally, we took off in the afternoon on a 4 hour flight to Bangkok, Thailand where we stayed 2 nights at the YWAM base!
Bangkok was awesome! We had Thai orientation during the first part of our day and the rest of the time we were able to explore! Orientation was very helpful as Thai culture is very polite and honoring of others. For instance, if you would like to bargain and receive a good price in the market simply be impressed by the product offered, smile a lot, and respect the vendor. And Boom, you receive a nice little discount!Also, you must never touch the head of a person as it is the most honorable part of a person, as well as, never direct the bottom of your feet toward a Thai person as it is very offensive. When you say hello here, bow with hands together and elbows in! So simple & honoring!
During our exploration we pigged out at Thai vendors on the street (Thai food is the absolute greatest), “bargained” at the markets, had our blizzards at Dairy Queen, and enjoyed slurpees and the numerous 7-11s! To top it all off, we had fried crickets! 🙂 Not only was my belly satisfied, but my heart for cars was too!!! They have sharply modified cars in Thailand! Everybody is rocking Brembo brakes, aero-kits on their cars, and modified exhausts. Everywhere I walked my ears were being spooled up by all the Turbocharged cars around me! I even saw my pride and joy, a Subaru WRX, all decked out! Thailand is just magnificent, I could not think of a better place to spend a month and be the hands and feet of Jesus!
Currently, we are in the far Northeast part of Thailand in the Roi Et province at our ministry location. Our hosts are some of the greatest people around. We are staying on church grounds with the Pastor’s family. We have already begun to call the Pastor’s wife, Mom. It was at her request, but how could we deny such an over-loving, caring, and sassy mother that request! She spoils us on a daily basis. We receive beef, chicken, or pork at every meal. She even walks out with Ice Cream and Soda for us in the afternoons to take a break from the construction we are doing. To boot, we have a western toliet, ice cold filtered water, and wifi! See SO SPOILED! God has definitely heard my cries from India!
Our ministry thus far has consisted of a lot of construction. We are currently sifting sand for cement to make bricks from a machine press. We have worked the past few days on building a church on the premises! Our goal is to have it all walled off before the end of the month, so please pray for physical strength as we build! Just before the weekend we had the opportunity to work out in the rice paddies! We hopped in the back of a 27 year old truck and drove a ways out to the rice fields. We came upon another little treasure. down the small dirt drive (which we were forming with new dirt) to a cool little bungalow in the middle of the rice fields! It was a stilt house with a hammock and bamboo chairs all around. We hoed all day, widening the rice field and form the little dirt road. It was immensely hot, and we got to a point were we had to take lengthy breaks every 15 minutes! Luckily they had a watering hole to swim in and cool off!
This past weekend we made our way to the Mekong River (the border between Thailand & Laos). We sat in the back of a truck bed for 2 hours, it rained once, but other than that we got a nice tan. We saw a big Buddhist temple, went shopping in the markets, and was able to swim at a cool waterfall on the way back. Overall, Thailand feels like a little piece of heaven and you can see why! Praise God for answered prayers! Though, we are doing mostly construction this month (preaching on Sundays & English teaching on random afternoons) pray that God will still show up and work in our lives and those around us. This month will be focused a lot on personal growth and blessing our host in any way we can!
I have faith that God will continue to grow me, stretch me, and use me in this month. May He do the same for you this September! Have an ear out for the prompting and conviction of the Holy Spirit!
P.S. sorry for the late blog, and the information overload on this one. The next one will be from the heart, promise! 🙂
WR Fun Facts:
– Grasshoppers & Crickets are basically your popcorn here
– To be polite men must say Crap (spelled Khrap) at the end of most sentences or greetings.
– 7-11s are like churches in West MI, on EVERY corner!
