Sa Was Dee Khrap

Hello from Thailand!

I apologize for the delayed post but we had some internet difficulties our first few days here. The connection is pretty slow but its a huge blessing just to have access at all!

Our first days here were such an experience. We had a chance to do a lot of cultural immersion and spend a lot of time in the city practicing our Thai (right up there by Manderin in difficulty), so you can imagine the comic relief that must have been. We loved interacting with the Thai people though, they are so helpful and understanding and many of them know a few words in English and are eager to practice on you to see how you think their English is. I really have grown to love this city and its people. One of my favorite times so far was getting to go around the city in groups of three on a "cultural scavenger hunt". We were forced to use our Thai as we had lunch at restaurants on the streets, flagged down our own song-taows (Thai pick up trucks with benches in the bed that serve as taxis), had to buy certain things from street markets, and had to learn different things about the city. One of the most interesting experiences so far was when a sang-taow I was riding in rear-ended the one in front of us giving us a... small jolt in the back. Both drivers acted as though nothing had happened and went about business as normal, meanwhile I'm in the back thinking, "Wait don't we have to exchange insurance information!?" :).

Today we made it to an orphanage that we will be helping to paint in the next few weeks and had an opportunity to scope out our upcoming projects and play with the kids. The love that they showed us as soon as they came home from school was really touching. It wasn't thirty seconds after they walked in the door and they were jumping all over us, tickling us, and wanting to play. We were able to play with them for the next hour or so and the fact that we spoke different languages never crossed either of our minds. It was great to see how much fun we had with each other and any cultural or language barriers were never even an issue. Our God is so good.

Keep praying that our team will continue to experience such blessings as we have to this point and that Christ's light would shine through so brightly in this dark place. Pray that our teams would continue to function as one unit without any dissention and that the Devil would have no foothold in our time here and our ministry.

I miss you all and can't wait to see you all again. Here are two pictures from our trip so far.