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

Thais Trying Mexican Food

        We had our first official meeting today with Robert and learned a lot more about what we are doing while we are here and asked a million questions. And it all just made me so excited for the next 8 months! We finished teaching the judges today and we all went out together for a last meal at Miguel's the Mexican restaurant. It was the first time for most of them to try Mexican food and on one hand some of them loved it and on the other, as one lady at my table said, "I only like Thai food." We had a great experience getting to know them all and hopefully we will stay in contact with some of them. We will now prepare for teaching the students English and getting ready for the LST (Let's Start Talking) group that is coming in September.
        We took the Japanese group to the airport on Wednesday morning and we were all so sad to see them go. They were so much fun and I had a wonderful time with all four of them. I will be praying especially for Takumi who told us he was not a Christian ... yet. But he is very curious and is spending a lot of time with the church in Ibaraki. He  One of the girls, Saki, shared her testimony on Tuesday night and it was so encouraging to hear how the church family from all over Asia has helped her to grow and how the cross-cultural fellowship was instrumental in her decision to give her life to Christ. They were such a blessing to us here and we will all miss them.
       Wednesday was James' birthday so we went out for moo-gata which is where you pick your own raw meats and vegetables and cook them on a grill on your table. It is so good and a lot of fun. You also use your chopsticks a lot which is sometimes an issue but we are all getting better at it. We met lots of people that James used to work with and enjoyed spending time with him on his birthday.

Hilary

Saki and Takumi

Happy Birthday James!

Teaching Directions to the Judges

Eating Mexican Food

P Tada didn't like it at all and P Aon loved it all!

Welcome to Thailand

This was made by our new friend Mark Foster.

Camping in the Mountains

        Right now in Thailand it is 12:50 in the afternoon and we just got back from spending a wonderful night camping in the mountains. We left yesterday afternoon and headed to Doi Suthep, which is a huge temple on the side of the mountain. After a long hike up about 200 stairs we were finally at the top and we were able to go inside and see the ornate carvings and beautiful golden buildings. Most of us had been there before, but it was fun to be there again with our friends from Japan who had never been there. We then headed farther up the mountain into some monsoon rain, but finally made it to the top where we stayed at a coffee plantation. We had a wonderful meal together of Robert's famous "Pasta de Pollo" soup and ended in the night with a time of worship and fellowship. We sang songs in English, Thai, Japanese, and even threw in a bit a Spanish. We shared the stories of our spiritual walks and laughed together until the electricity was shut off at 10:00pm. The night was cold, but we were all able to sleep on mats on the floor. It was a blast camping with all of the interns, Robert, James and the group from Japan. We will miss them a lot when they head back tomorrow. 

        This past Sunday was also a blast. The lesson at church was in Thai, but with the help of our good friends James we were able to get the main points. The singing was amazing! Joel who is the missionary who brought the group from Japan is a singer, and when I say singer I mean this man can sing! He led worship and it was so mush fun to worship with the Thais. After church Hilary and I taught the kids class... well kid class. We only had one student named Ong Lee, who was a ball of energy! We taught him to sing "Jesus Loves Me" (HYPE/ Camp of the Hills style) and "In the Beginning." Then we went over the story of creation, and although there was a language barrier, I think he understood the main idea of the lesson. After we finished the lesson, Ong Lee sang Jason Maraz's, "I'm Yours" to us and it was hilarious! That afternoon we had another driving lesson and we are greatly improving in out stick shifting abilities, although we are still struggling with the blinker. We always manage to turn on the windshield whippers. We are learning how to do everything the opposite way. After a bit of practice in an empty field we drove on the access road of the super highway. It was an interesting (scary) experience. We all survived and are ready to try again! We ended our Sunday with a trip to walking street, which is a huge open air market where everything is super cheap. Hilary and I both purchased some fisherman pants. Both Sunday and our camping trip were tons of fun. I don't think we had done anything yet in Thailand that we have not enjoyed. We are looking forward to Cell Group (Dinner and Bible study) tonight. 

       Miss you and and love you bunches! 

Happy birthday P Robert!

     The last two days have been really busy and really fun! Friday morning a group of 4 people from Japan came and we picked them up at the airport and got to have some good bonding time over french toast at the Todd's house. They have been traveling all over Asia and learning about the different churches and seeing how they are different but also all full of the same Spirit. They are very fun and I'm so glad that we got to be here at the same time! Friday night was F4 here at the Zone with the Cheung Doi church. Its a big party and we helped buy and cook the food which was super yummy. At the party we played crazy games and had worship and James was baptized! Everyone was so excited and James was so happy and we all took a million pictures. It was great!
     After working hard on Friday preparing for the party, we had a really fun and relaxing day today. It was P Robert's birthday and the mission team, the interns, and the Japanese group all went to a nice Chinese buffet for lunch. I ate some really fun but weird stuff like duck feet and fish heads and jellyfish. The only one of the those I liked was the fish head. But everything else was awesome. And then the moment came we had both been waiting for since we came to Thailand, a Thai massage! I can't tell you how wonderful it is. Amanda's lady told her she was too tense and had a bad back so its a good thing we went to get her straightened out! Later a lot of us went to get dinner and go bowling. Amanda had the very lowest score and I wasn't too far behind but we all had a lot of fun. Our friend Mint came again and seems to be connecting well with the Christians here. I got to help her with her English homework today and I must say that I need to brush up on my grammar skills if I'm going to be helping people.
    I completely forgot to say that Mark Foster finally got here today! He is another intern here and will be doing everything with us. He is probably reading this right now because he already knew everything we had done when he got here because he has been reading this blog. Yay for our readers!...that's you. We are so excited that he's here and he seems pretty cool and I think we will be best friends and do amazing work here together. Good night!

Teaching and Learning

       Yesterday was our first experience teaching English. The government made a decree that the judges and people that work at the courthouse need to learn better English. We were invited by the judges here in Chiang Mai to come for 10 days and teach them useful phrases and to just practice.  One of the judges is a member at the church here so we are helping him and getting to meet some very influential people in the city. They picked us up in a big fancy van and brought us to the courthouse. The people were all very excited to see us and were so friendly. We met in a big conference room with a microphone at every seat that you had to push the button on to talk. We introduced ourselves in English and they tried to introduce themselves. Some people, like Rung from the church, spoke very good English but some spoke hardly any. It will be a challenge to teach them all at the same time. Amanda and I had prepared a little conversation for them to practice with and they did splendidly! Most of them time Robert and James, who are both fluent in Thai, were answering questions about us and asking about the court system and generally getting a feel for what they want to learn. Afterwards,one of the ladies said she wanted to take us out on our off day and show us around Chiang Mai. They all seem to want to practice their English with us.
        James has been coming to the zone for a while now and wants to strengthen his faith and make it his own and so he has been studying the Red Book with Robert and Marvin and Bon and is going to be baptized this week. Last night we filled up the baptistery on the third floor and it took all of the water so we couldn't take showers. O the life on the mission field!
        We have had two Thai lessons now with P Bon who is an intern here too. He was starting lessons with a Japanese man who knows some English and wants to learn Thai so he said we could come too. So far we've learned greetings and question words and how to order food and days of the week. Its really funny because Ichiro has a Japanese accent and is learning Thai but is being instructed in English and it is just hilarious for all of us. We laugh a lot!
        Yesterday we went to a Mexican food restaurant, Miguel's. I never would have thought they would have Mexican food here but it was pretty good! We just spent a while talking to Robert and getting to know each other. For dinner I had some sort of rice with shrimp and it was a whole shrimp with the head still on. Amanda was a little freaked out but it was really good! And we are both trying to learn to like spicy food. It is pretty necessary here. Everything is hot!

Hilary

On the plane

We had no idea that we were going to stop in Tokyo. We were so confused! 

Amanda's Room! 

Hilary's room

The front of the zone