A Little Piece Of My Heart

Well, its just like I predicted.... Thailand has stolen a little piece of my heart.

To be honest this experience has come close to one of the hardest things I've ever experienced in my life. Living at the Changed Life Centre has been lonely sometimes. Its tough not knowing the language and not being able to communicate with the people around you. Its hard to live with 7 other people, and not just live with them but they are also the only people around you for 3 entire months who you can communicate with without a great deal of effort. Thailand has been really hard. However, Thailand has changed me. I remember writing in my first blog that this trip would bring me "a passionate new purpose." and in a lot of ways that didnt come as I had originally expected. It came through challenges rather than blessings, but thats just another thing I have learned. That God will use whichever paths he chooses to grow you and stretch you, and even if its difficult the most important thing is that it is not wasted. That you allow God to work through the things that you least expect.

This week I am saying goodbye to Thailand. Im saying goodbye to people and places that I didnt even expect I would need to say goodbye to. Today we went to a place that we have gone to at almost twice a week since coming to Thailand for the final time, Pae's Coffee Shop. The young lady who owns and runs it is Pae. She is so so sweet, however she doesnt speak english. We communicate with this lady as much as we can but it has been limited. However even with this limited communication I feel like we have developed a sort of relationship, even friendship. Today when I was saying goodbye to her I suddenly became a shade of desperate. I needed to share the gospel with this lady who is so lost in false beliefs and I didnt cause I didnt know how. I didnt have the tool of speech to share the good news with my friend and that broke my heart a little, it also brought me some awareness. How many coffee shops in Abbotsford do I drop by at least once a week? and those owners and workers speak english. Am I sharing the gospel with them? Cause even though their false beliefs are different than Pae's false beliefs, they are still false and they still need to hear about Jesus. Today, once again, God gave me a fresh purpose to move forward with: Be a missionary in Abbotsford.

To get to Chaing Khong we go down this windy beautiful road the runs along the Mekong. My favourite time in Thailand is right before the sun sets and my favourite mode of transportation is being on the back of the Song Theow. Tonight was the perfect blend of all three things and I realized that despite how challenging it has been for me up here. I love it. I have fallen in love with the people and the scenery and even the weather. I love the food and the flowers and the Mekong and I will miss this place dearly. Thailand has taken a small piece of my heart, and I am ok with it, because I will always remember this place, and who knows, maybe one day God will even bring me back here, but whether he does or does not I will remember the lessons I learned here and the people I met and I will pray for this place that has a little piece of my heart.

Thank you for your prayers, they have been felt. Only 4 more days till I board a plane for home! I will see you all soon!

This is Pae in her shop! 

The ride home tonight, one of the last ones! 

Our Mekong! 

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

Hello All!

So I just wanted to give you guys more details about what we've actually been doing out here so Im just going to post some pictures with some stories! Enjoy

Lol. This was taken before the lice spread, when only one person had it. Now half the girls do. We have to joke about it or else we loose our marbles :) rockin the oil in the hair and plastic bags. 

The whole Group at Nan! 

This last week our team went to a village called Nan which is 4 hours away. We stayed there for 2 nights. After we ran kids clubs for the day we all went swimming in a stream near by! It was so fun! At one point the boys started having chicken fights and Wan swam over to me and motioned for her and I to try. We went into combat with two other teams of boys and we won!! This picture caught us just as we beat our final opponent! 

This is Wan and Cream! They are interns here at the centre. That means they are doing some pre bible studies before they head off to Bible College in June. I am so proud of them, and they have become such good friends to us. Cream and Wan have been out primary Thai teachers and I love spending time with them. I will miss these two more than I can even say. 

These three pictures were taken at the preschool that us girls go to twice a week. The second picture is what all the walls looked like before we painted. This last one is the exact same spot on the wall as the second one was taken but after we painted. The place looked pretty cool after we left! We were pretty pumped about it.

These girls from the preschool have my heart. Nim and Pream. Nim comes from a abusive home and I am not sure about Preams situation but Chris (our missionary) often talks about the culture and how often once a child is old enough to care for themselves they are left very much to their own. It breaks my heart so as much as I can I spend time loving on these kids each week. Arent they beautiful? 

This was a Khmu Wedding we went to! It was so funny because they dressed us up in traditional clothing and brought us to this wedding but we were literally the only people in Khmu garb! Anyways we ended up taking pictures in front of the ceremony with this couple. It was super random. It was pretty cool to go to a wedding in another culture though! Another funny thing was that they had rented a sound booth thing for the ceremony but then the DJ would just randomly play random noises or parts of songs in and out of order. I think it was more for looks than actual use, at one point during a round of prayers the DJ played the disney opening film sound.

This is Cain. I have a soft spot in my heart for Cain. Him, his older sister Cream, and his mom Moe, live here at the Centre. Cain understands a lot of english but speaks relatively little yet he is one of my favourite people to hang around with. He is always joking around and he is so fun to be with. I love watching God work in Cain, as he is a new Christian its cool to see how God is transforming him. Cain is going to be a strong leader and man of God someday and I will miss this kid immensely. Also if you noted the baby powder its quite a norm around here. Thai and Khmu people use baby powder on their bodies to cool off and absorb the sweat. Cain helped us out a little by dousing us in powder :) 

This is my church. Huay Gok. I go to this church every Sunday. It is about 30ft x 10ft and made entirely out of bamboo. The floor, walls, and frame is made of split bamboo, the roof is made of woven grass. Each week the people get to this hut and roll out the floor matts (which you can see) and we sit in a circle and do church. This picture was taken during our monthly potlucks. Once a month everyone in the church brings a dish and we all sit in a circle and eat Khmu style, which is taking sticky rice, rolling it into a ball with your hands, and using it as a spoon, and we enjoy community. My roll at this church is to prepare a craft each Sunday for the 4-6 kids who come regularly. Unfortunately we dont have a translator to teach the sunday school so we just do a craft for sunday school with no lesson. We do however have a translator, Pung Gaoew, for the actual service so each week another role I have is to share in the church gathering about what I have been learning that week. 

This is Gamone (one of our Khmu interns here at the centre) and I doing some work around the Centre.  Some of the guys cut down these banana trees and threw them on the truck. A few of us went down to the river and tossed them in the Mekong to get rid of them. 

This picture was taken at the sports camp that we ran a few weeks back. For the final event of the day we handed out these white shirts that the MEI team brought with them to each of the kids. We then split them into teams and played sticks but instead of tagging, each team had a big bucket full of coloured water and sponges that they could throw at opponents. This was the after math. This was such a fun day for us. 

SONG KRAN! This is Thai New Year! the Song Kran celebration lasts anywhere from 6-10 days in Thailand and is played to greater degrees up North where we are. It originally began as a Bhudist tradition, the younger person would pour water on the older persons hands as a form of blessing. Now, years later, it has turned into a nation wide water fight. You cant go out during Song Kran without getting wet. Business's close down, people put their important things in plastic bags, and everyone jumps on the back of someones truck with a giant bucket of water and some water tools to douse whoever comes past.