Hello

Hey everyone! Just wanted to send out a quick update. Life here is going well--busy as always, but quite good. Been spending a bunch of time with the kids, which is nice! It is strange to think that I'll be leaving them in just under two weeks. Exciting cause I'll be going home, but sad because I'll be leaving everyone here. Transitions are always complicated. Anyway, that wasn't the reason I'm sending out this update. Just wanted to ask for some prayer for this weekend: we are holding a youth camp for about 50 kids in the area. Lots of games and singing and fun is planned, so it should be a good time! Just pray that all goes well and that God provides everything we need! Thanks so much! See you all soon. :)

Thai New Year

The morning dawned with an air of anticipation that you could almost taste. The children ran around after breakfast getting ready: taking showers, doing dishes, putting on bright Hawaiian shirts, packing backpacks of extra sets of clothes and towels. To an outsider it might look like preparations for a day at the beach. But the real answer was on everyone's mind: it was the first day of Songkran!
By about 10:30, everything was ready. Lunch had been made, bags had been stowed in the truck, buckets and cups had been gathered. The truck was soon filled with Thais and their American cohorts. Most of the excitement was contained in the back of the pickup: this was where most of the festivities would take place on the way to town. The first 15 minutes or so of driving were relatively normal despite the excessive excitement: the group was passing through the forest and so there were few others around. Once on the other side of the forest, however, there was the first episode of water-throwing. Up ahead on the side of the road someone sighted a child next to a large water barrel. Evidence of earlier wettings was clearly shown in the darkened pavement across half the road. The truck slowed as the child flung his bucketful of water with all his might, soaking those sitting on the edge of the truck. And so it began.
No one in the back of the truck was spared: by the time they arrived in town all were drenched with water. Some had spots of white and pink adorning their clothes as a result of sprays of colored water. The wet did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm that permeated the group. They piled out of the truck and began to set up. The big barrels were set on the sidewalk, the hose was dragged out and put to work filling the largest barrel, and everything that needed to stay dry was put either in the cab of the truck or inside the building. Everyone ate lunch while waiting for the barrels to fill, and then the real party began.
Armed with plastic cups and bowls, the group headed for the sidewalk where the barrels of water were waiting. As trucks or motorcycles passed full of soaking passengers, the water bearers closest to the road threw water high in the air attempting to drench the passer-byes. Most of the action, however, took place when there were no cars passing by. This was the chance to dump bucketfulls of water on whoever was standing closest to you. An afternoon-long waterfight took place on the sidewalk, including the passing cars in the fun.Eventually, the water began to run low as the children threw it on each other faster than the hose could refill the buckets and barrels. This lack of water gave them time to refill their stomachs on a second lunch or on ice cream from the store next door. Soon there was enough water to continue play for a while, but when the water ran low a second time there was a bigger issue than a slow hose. The town's water tower had begun to run low. Since everyone was pumping water as fast as it would come, the town's water supply could not keep up. Slowly the group accepted the fact that the day of throwing water was coming to an end. After the last bucketfuls of water were dumped on people or cars it was time to head for home. The truck was loaded once again and the homeward journey began. This time, when water was thrown at the riders in the back of the truck they had some to throw back. So the day out was concluded with a friendly exchange of water with the residents on the side of the road as the truck rolled by.
Upon arriving home, the crew climbed tiredly out of the truck and sought out showers and dry clothing. Although the excitement wasn't as palpable as in the morning, you could still feel it. An outsider might not know why so much excitement was still in the air. But the answer was on everyone's mind: the next day was the second day of Songkran!
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ps...day 2 of Songkran was also a success! we spent the time driving around, not stopped in one place like the day before. This was a lot of fun as we got to throw water at a bunch more people. We also saw a bit of the ugly side of the festival: lots of drinking and a bit of dirty dancing and stuff in a couple of the towns we drove through. For the most part though, it was just good clean fun! I think the US should start a holiday that's just a weekend long water fight. :-D

Hello everyone! It has been a while, so I figured I might as well write an update for you all...A lot has happened since I last wrote, so I'll do my best to summarize everything. :) But before I do that...Happy Easter! I hope you all had a wonderful one! (Ours here was good--had a couple egg hunts, some Easter cake, a good church service, fun English class, and saw a few elephants to top it off! :)
So where to start...I guess I've been doing mostly three things: traveling, working, and playing. So I guess I'll start with the traveling cause I happened to put that first in the sentence. ;)
Since I last wrote, I have done a lot of traveling! (sorta normal at this point.) Been to Pattaya a couple times and Bangkok once. But we also went on a pretty long road trip! Rodney and Phimpha know a lady who lives in Pattaya. She was sold into the sex trade when she was 8 years old, escaped, married, and then since her husband died has lived at a church in the city. Because she was sold at the age of 8, she has no ID card or identification papers of any sort. In Thailand, this is a very bad situation to be in. If you don't have papers you're considered to not be a citizen--you can't prove that you are! So you can't get a job, get a license, or anything like that. If you are stopped by the police and don't have papers they can send you back to your hometown or home country if you're an illegal alien...So even though she was born in Thailand, she was scared of traveling b/c she might be stopped by the police, and she's never been able to have a real job, etc. You're probably starting to wonder what this lady has to do with traveling and road trips, so I'll let you know. Phimpha and Rodney decided that they would help her to find her family so that she could get ID papers. She remembered what town she was from, so we drove to Pattaya (about 4 hours from where we live) and then drove with her up to Chang Rai province in northern Thailand (about 12-15 hours from Pattaya). Once there, we did a lot of driving up and down mountains talking with random villagers to try to figure out who this lady was and where her family was. Long story short, we found many people who knew who she was and found out that her mother moved about 10 years ago. So we got enough info to get her temporary papers that will be good enough to work until she can get permanent ones. Overall, a pretty successful trip! (and a trip with lots of beautiful mountain views! I'll try to get some pictures up at some point...)
Item number two: working! We have spent a lot of time, particularly in the last week, working over at the shelter house. It was sort of pushed to the side for a week or two because we weren't in the area, but we have been going ahead full steam to get it ready! So I've been doing some painting and sawing and helping fix irrigation pipes, and lots of other random things. It's been lots of fun! I always have enjoyed that sort of thing; it's definitely rewarding stuff! We've also been doing English classes still, which is fun! We got to do an Easter egg hunt in class this past week, which the kids enjoyed a whole lot. It's strange to think that we only have two more weekends of classes...
Finally--I've been doing some playing! As always, the kids love to play! They are all on summer vacation, so whenever I'm around there are kids who are ready to hang out. The young ones are content to run at you for a hug or be carried around upside-down or throw cups of water on you when taking a bath or random things like that. Then I've been playing lots of card games with the older ones, and some checkers, and some soccer...It's so much fun to get to know all these kids and see their different personalities and how they grow and change. The young ones especially have grown so much in just the few months that I've been here! It's neat :) oh and another note on playing: the end of this week is the Thai new year or "Songkron" festival. So lots of playing with water is in my near future! Exciting!!
Well, I'm sure you're all tired of reading by now! Sorry it got so long---if I were better about updating this I'd have less to write in each update I guess! Thanks for your prayers--they are definitely appreciated! Please continue to pray for safety for us all, and please pray for a youth camp that we'll be running from April 28th-May1st!
Thanks so much! (ps...I'll be home in a month! Isn't that crazy? Can't wait to see you all then!)

some pictures...