Celebrations in Asia!

Wow in Thailand for Christmas and Cambodia for New Years. Who would have thought? Not me! 

For Christmas my team and I got up bright and early, almost like a Christmas at home… excpet this reason was a little different than usual. This time we got up early to go to an island to spend the day laying under the hot sun and playing in the cool water. Instead of having to bundle up we got to put on our swim suits! Andrea and Tracy surprised us with Christmas presents and little clues to where they were. How sweet 🙂 We opened them under the festive Christmas tree. Then we ran out the door to catch our ride to the docks to catch our ferry to the island. From 8 am to 5 pm we layed out on the beach and soaked up the sun. It was fabulous! After we had gotten back to dry land we went out for dinner and didn’t have turkey but italian food. So delicious. Our next mission was to track down our dear friend Bell who we had met a few days prior. Originally we wanted to take her out for dinner with us but because we couldn’t get a hold of her we decided to just go down there. Unfortunately she was with a customer, but none the less thrilled to see us. We got to hug her and wish her Merry Christmas. As we started to walk towards home I had this feeling that we needed to go back. I tried to ignore it. We had already left and I didn’t really feel like going back, I knew the other girls were tired as well so I didn’t want to mention it. BUT God had bigger plans and didn’t let me ignore it so I voiced my feelings to the group. We headed back towards the bars and wished all of our other friends we’d met Merry Christmas too. They were equally as thrilled as Bell and welcomed us with open arms. What a blessing. I really felt God’s love and presence with us and was so happy that He didn’t let me ignore what He was telling me. I didn’t see the girl I felt like I was supposed to go back for but that’s okay. God knew what He was doing, as per usual! Even if we hadn’t had presents to open,  or gone to the beach, or even if we hadn’t had italian food for dinner; if the only thing we did that day was see the girls and lady boys at the bars it still would have been an absolutely wonderful day!

2011 what?! On New Years Eve day, I couldn’t even believe that it was about to be 2011 in a matter of hours. For some reason when I came on the race it didn’t really register that I’d be getting home in a different year than I’d left. Hellooo! Anyways it was a very exciting evening. Another team who is doing ministry close by met up with us and we all went to the riverside. First we ate dinner at a cute little cafe and then hung around until firework time!! 

The kings Palace… well the gate to his palace!

Yes that is a Canadian flag only a few flags away from the Cambodian flag 🙂