Saturday, April 18, 2009

well, yeah

Since my last update, a ton of nothing has happened.

Well, that's not entirely true, but you'll see what I mean in a second.

The Wednesday after I updated, PiiThumb and I went out to the prison together. The two guys from his church bailed on us, and I hadn't been able to get together a solid lesson the afternoon before, so we were a little nervous going out there. But, once again we couldn't get to our classroom so we sat outside and they talked about God. We've hit the point where they have a good amount of information, but they are asking the same questions over and over so something isn't sinking in, it can be a little aggrivating. So pray for us that we would have the words and patience needed, and also for our kids that they would gain understanding. That their ears would be opened to hear and their minds opened to understand and accept.

After that, I basically hung around BK the rest of the afternoon. My student cancelled again.

Thursday we had our prayer time. The rest I the day passed pretty quickly, I don't really remember what we did.

Friday, went to BK to have our language lesson, then got set up for fantastic friday. Beca had a load of games to play and activities for the night. We made ressurection cookies, had two different Easter egg hunts, pin the tail on the bunny, and whatnot. It was awesome. We had a blast and got to talk about it being good Friday and about Easter as well.

Saturday da3, ken, and dew all went out to Borsan to do some shopping and check out the umbrella factory. There were a lot of cool things that you could find cheaper than at the walking street. Then at the umbrella factory they will paint on. Whatever you would like them to paint on, so I took a pair of my jeans and got the legs painted on, and then got the back if one of my shirts painted on. It was really cheap too. So we played around there and then started heading back. A random guy picked us up and gave us a ride to Kad Luang which was nice, except for when he was telling Ken about how Christanity is a Farang religion, and that we believe in the same final destination as Buddha, just taking a different route to get there. Pray for Ken as the enemy is putting up a big fight for him, weird things like this keep happening. Pray for me and beca and Lili as we hang out with him, that we would be lights to his life. But after we got dropped off, we caught a ride out to Dews familys house and had a SongKhran celebration dinner with them. That was a lot of fun.

Sunday we woke up and went to a little waterfall and had an Easter morning celebration. It was all believers that morning so we worshipped and had a great time of fellowship. Then we were going to go to a swimming at 700year stadium, but it was closed so we went to Kim and Quintins little village and swam there. We went back to St, then I went to walking street, back to hang out for out friend Where's birthday, then back to walking street for a massage with Ekk. Then went to bed to prepare for SongKhran.

SongKhran is the Northern Thai new year. Back when the country was called Siam and made of 3 kingdoms, the northern kingdom, or Lanna Kingdom, celebrated the new year around April 14th. For the tradition back then, they would perfume water, pour it on Buddha statues to cleanse them, and then pour on each other, kids on parents then back around, to give and recieve blessings. Also the water represented the cleaning off of all the bad stuff of the past year and starting over clean for the new year. Well, over the centuries it has evolved a little.

Now for anywhere from 7 to 10 days around the 14th, cities all over Thailand celebrate SongKhran by having citywide waterfights. The number one city to play SongKhran in is Chiang Mai. So people come from all over to this city for the festival. This year the 13-15th the whole city shut down (except for like malls and resturaunts and whatnot) and everyone came to the middle of the city to the old moat, and threw water at each other.

It's impossible to really explain the scope of this, even pictures don't do it much justice, though I wouldn't really know since my camera busted. But that's what we did for three days. Well, two for most of us but different two days each time.

Thursday we finally got to go to 700 year stadium and go swimming. Well, basically just jumping off the Olympic sized diving platforms. It was awesome.

Went to a used bookstore on Friday morning, had language then went to Kim and Quintins for a party. Grilled out and hung out with most of the BK team. Came back and then went to the North Gate with our new friend Kathy and Lili (oh yeah, I can also drive with three on the scooter now. I'm a little proud of that). Slept in late on Saturday and read most of the day, then went and watched Race to Witch Mountain with Ekk, Maew and Kathy. Then slept in this mornig and headed to worship at four thirty.

The main reason I updated today is for this.

This coming saturday, the entire BK team as well as our Thai friends are going out to Mae Wang. We will be sharing with the majority of the village the story of the bible from creation through Christ through a movie called the Hope Video. The movie is in Thai with Thai actors. It's going to be a minor event. It's also going to be under major attack by Satan. Things have already been going rough with getting this all going, we are expecting a major, major spiritual battle this weekend. So please make this one of your major prayer concerns for this week. For Gods protection and blessing and the strength and ability to carry out His will. This is a huge opportunity. We need everyone we can get praying for us. Especially during the time of the event. If you happen to be awake from like 4-8 am CST, next Saturday the 25th, keep us in your prayers. Thanks to all of you. Love you.

Monday, April 6, 2009

fun times ahead

Well, let's see what I can remember from this last week. Tuesday after prayer I printed off a load of stuff for prision on Wednesday. Then Lili and I rode out to Quintin and Kims house where Beca had prepared and awesome Mexican feast. We ate and talked an played games, then I ran over to Airport Plaza mall to meet up with people to watch the movie knowing. I still haven't made up my mind whether or not I enjoyed it. But it's deffinitely worth seeing.

Wednesday woke up and headed out to the prison where we didn't really get much accomplished, but I think Richard and I have some good solid plans for what we really want to get done before we leave. Most of it involves getting everything organized so that as people rotate in and out of this ministry, we can have good records of who is in the class and what not so there is very little of the akward transitions. Also we want to raise the stakes for the kids coming to class, find some way to get them invested into it.

Afterwards I met up with Glenn and he and I had some Pizza Company for lunch, and chatted about all the stuff going on. Then went back to BK to hang out for Kanoon club. We had quite a few people come over late, and then my student cancelled. I'm racking my brain but I honestly can't remember what we did after that.

So Thursday we met up for a lunch netting at The Dukes for Robs birthday, the big 25, had our meeting, and then Beca and I headed to Rim Phing Plaza, big computer store, so I could look for some connections for various things at BK. But only could get one of the 3 items I was looking for there. By the way I hate Steve Jobs.

Went from there back to ST, then I went and grabbed some dinner and went to meet up with Chang. He and I hung out for a good while, and got started on the interview, and had some good conversation. Then he headed out and Ken and I got started on ours as well. Then we got interrupted because he had loaned his scooter to a friend who got sideswiped by a truck. She was fine but Ken still had to go help get things settled. Then I worked on Lili's compy for a while trying to get some programs put on there (I hate Steve Jobs) and then gave up and went to bed.

Friday I woke up and scouted out some movies for Fantastic Friday and then went back and did some more work on Lili's compy, but it was too late to try and stuff downloaded, so we went with the DVDs. Got BK all rearranged and set up and had a slumber party theme night where we watched classic Micky Mouse and Goofy cartoons, and ate unhealthy snacks and sat around in our PJs. We also played Mafia and some other group games. It was a great night and we had a really good turnout for a non major event night. Afterwards we cleaned up and headed home to bed.

Saturday I woke up and taught my two students, and then was feeling a bit worn out so I took the rest of the day as a personal day.

Sunday, we woke up and met down at BK to go traveling for church. We drove about 40 min out to ObKhan which is a national park where there is a river running down through where you can swim and cliff jump. So we did. I think it's funny that this is the second park we have gone to that we have taken pictures in front of danger signs. But we got there, set up camp a bit an then headed down to swim. Climbed around and found a good little spot to jump that had like an 8, 14, and 20 foot spot to jump. So we had spots for all ages and experience to jump from. Then we went back, and played some ultimate frisbee, and hung out waiting on food. Got our grub on with amazing grilled chicken and fish, pico de gayo, sticky rice, fruit, brownies, ambros con leche (Mexican rice pudding). It were tasty. So we ate and fellowshipped and talked and then cleaned up and sat down for some worship. We sang and then Ekk taught about Mary annointing Jesus's feet, getting the young donkey, and the triumphial entry. Then we all got to act out a scene from the stories and that was a blast as well. Ekk did a good job putting it together. Afterwards we did some more swimming, a local guy showed us a good place to jump from about 35 feet, so of course I went for it. But by the end of the day, everyone had gotten to jump that wanted to, we had got to fellowship with friends who don't generally come to our worship time at BK, and got to worship with them as well. We got back to BK and some of us went to dinner together, then Ekk and I went to chill at walking street and get massages. So it was an awesome day.

Woke on up on Monday morning and got ready, and then went with Ken and Dew and Beca and Lili to the zoo. We had a good day walking around being together, Ken and I found a place that can get us really good airsoft guns for good prices (if I had a job and my own money I totally would, they had a fully auto M-4 that was remarkably accurate, and a bolt action sniper. It was awesome). Then we all headed to a market to get ingrediants, and on over to Dews parents house to cook dinner. So we had homemade Thai food and after we sat an got to talk to Ken about some deep stuff, then came back to ST and stayed up late watching Will Smith movies with Ekk and Meaw.

And todays prayer time got moved to Thursday morning, so I slept in and then woke up and decided to update. Gonna get stuff together for tomorrow, if you get this in time, please be praying for that. Richard is on vacation since his son has a two week break from school for Song Khran so it will be me with PiiThumb and a couple people from his church. So that will be interesting.

I'm also not sure of the details yet, but I think Beca is doing and Easter themed Fantastic Friday, so pray for us there as well. And also be praying for April 25th. The BK team will be going out to Mae Wang for a big event. I'll give more details as I can.

Love you all. Ttly.