Life is Busy in Thailand!

     Wow, this last week has flown by like a whirlwind. I can not believe it has been a whole week since the Japanese group left Chiang Mai.
     One of my goals before we came was to do aerobics in a park here. We haven't found a good park yet but there is a group that meets everyday in the parking lot of Carrefour that we saw one day and we had to join! We took our friend Dao with us and gave it our best. We stuck out like crazy as the only farangs (foreigners) and we pretty much just jumped around and got sweaty because we couldn't follow very well. It was hilarious! We wish we could do it all the time but its at a time when we want to be available here at the Zone so we are currently looking for some other workout here. We also baked a cake and fed a few of the Thais some fettuccine alfredo.
     This last Saturday Hilary and I had a real Asian experience... we planted rice. The church group here was doing a service project through a group called Compassion International. A whole seasons worth of rice crop is being donated to a group of needy children. We had the wonderful opportunity to go out to the rice paddy and plant rice with the children who will be receiving it this coming December when it is harvested. It was a joy to work beside the Thai people and a few Americans from Grace International School. There were over a hundred people there donating their time and energy to help these kids. Planting rice is not an easy thing to do. After working for four long hours and a few encounters with snails, cock roaches, spiders, crabs and some sightings of leeches, we finished planting in the coolness of an afternoon rain shower. We left there feeling pretty accomplished and satisfied. We slept most of the remainder of the day unaware of what awaited us in the morning.
     We both woke up and could barely move, we were more sore than we had ever been in our lives. None the less, we were able to pull ourselves out of bed to go to a joint church service with the four churches that the team here has planted since they have been here. It was such a blessing to be able to worship with the other churches and fellowship with them at lunch afterwards. Another great even that took place on Sunday, was that Jan's (Robert's wife) mother, who is 75, was baptized in Bangkok. It was a great day to rejoice in what the Lord is doing in Asia. After church we returned to the zone and decided to get massages with our good friend P Wah. She brought us to a place that charges 60 baht per hour... which is $2!!! So we decided to buy the big one and for a whole two hours. Our four dollars were well spent.
    Monday afternoon were were able to travel with Robert, Mark, James, Bon, and Oi to visit a younger mission team in Phayao. On the way we stopped at a beautiful waterfall and were able to spend about half an hour simply enjoying our God's amazing creation. We spent the evening with the team in Phayao, and it was so fun getting to know them. They have only been here one year and spent that year doing research. It was fun to talk to them and make connections through the AFC, Thailand friends, and ACU. It is such a small world! Us girls stayed the night at Haley's house and had a blast talking and playing Farkle. The next morning we ate a wonderful breakfast of jok which is rice porridge  and went over to  Ann and Derran Reese's house for a question/ answer time. It was great to learn about what God is doing through them in that city and just to be able to see the differences between the established mission team here and the team in Phayao that is just getting started. We returned to the zone just in time to meet Aun Aun who was waiting at the door. She was ready and excited to start our very first English/ Bible study. We are going to studying from the book of John and she seems very open and interested in Christianity. We had a great prayer time and are excited to dive into the word tomorrow.

Cooking with the girls

Amanda and Brielle at the five churches worship time

WATERFALL!

Amanda and Haley at Kwan Phayao