Sabbath
Hi everyone! I once again have been able to get onto a computer that is not having any issues. I hope that everyone is had an amazing Fathers Day, that everyone took time to think about and share the love with their Dad. I have been spending the last few days with some of our Thai friends; we went and played “slider” out by a power plant in Lampang on saturday, which basically means that we went out to a really steep set of hills and slid down them on pieces of cardboard, so much fun! It took us much longer to get there than it should have, but it was the most fun I have ever had on a six hour road trip; we played cards in the van and a few other Thai games, stopped and met up with the family of a Thai intern (Neung) and traded our van for their truck for the day. It then reminded me of Peru in that we had about ten people in the back of a little toyota truck on the highway! Our day was full of sweat and laughter, we all ripped or stained our clothes as we slid down the hills, and we looked amazing as we went to Neung’s Mother’s job to say hello. She was the cutest old lady, very nice, huge smile, and she was just incredibly happy to see us all. She works at a silk shop; so as I was glancing around at the different colors, types and pieces of silk with Neung, I asked her how much a silk scarf was, she said 100 baht (about $3), so as I went to pay for it, she interrupted me and told me that it was a gift, that I could have it for free. I was so impressed by this woman and the Thai culture in general, it truly is amazing. I will be teaching my girls again this week and I hope to get them to come to our Friday night live (food and fun based event) or maybe even our english camp that we will do this weekend, however I cannot say that I have a ton of hope for their participation this early in the game. I have been playing soccer with different groups of Thai’s this past week, both at the english camp and over at the Payap University, tonight I am hoping to get to play with the guys over at CMU too!Oh! This past week, I was talking with one of the ladies in the church about myself and she told me about a trip that a friend of hers is putting together to Cambodia; it will be a soccer and english-camp based ministry at one of the military bases there. The spirit of the Lord has been moving in the cambodian military for a short time now, and we would like to do all we can for them. I am still waiting on more details and contacts, but it looks like July 4-9 we will be there, the whole trip I am told will cost $200 and I am just thrilled at the idea!Last night we said goodbye to Kyle, one of the ACU graduates who was here to visit his brother for a month, I definitely wish he was staying, if it wasn’t for some wedding he had to go to I think he just might have stayed. Oh well, those of use who went to see him off hung out in the Airport parking lot for a while afterwards just talking and learning new Thai games. It is interesting to me just how the size of a group changes the way people interact. In large groups everyone seems to mill around and not really do much with anyone specific person, and yet as soon as the group is down to about ten, everyone opens up, the group typically separates into different conversations or activities, and everyone has a blast. Needless to say, we enjoyed our time last night. Today is our “sabbath” our day of rest, so there is nothing planned. I would love to go out to the markets or shops and just wander, but I am enjoying the quiet; I spent all morning on Gahn’s office computer looking up the HDR photography and looking at the new uploads. I just wish I could afford to get all the programs needed to do that to my pictures… I wish. I have figured out how to get all of my pictures available online for everyone in a free and highly accessible way! I got an account with www.flickr.com and my username is “abrowning” I will finish it up and get a link on here for everyone shortly. I am off for the waterfall with the other interns, I will do my best to get more pictures of us this time!Much love and God Bless!-Adam
