torn feelings

Last week on wednesday, we decided to have a time of solitutde. We went to a place called the 7 Fountains. When you enter, you are not allowed to talk to anybody. There are many places to go inside of here. There are chapels and fields, gazeebos out on the grass, or a prayer walk. We were spending 3 hours alone, so I brought my bible and journal. I sat at the gazeebo where it was really peaceful. I would recommend everyone to take time to spend in solitude. It helps guide your focus on things above. The time I spent alone was very beneficial. The following Friday, the Thais decided to put on a "goodbye/thank you" retreat. We drove up the mountain on Friday afternoon and set up about 5 tents. We cooked ourselves chicken and such a fun time just spending time with one another. As we went to bed, we were instructed by the Thais that we had to get up at 6 AM on Saturday to start our day of fun and games. Who knew they actually meant 6 AM!! They banged on drums to wake us up, and we got into lines and started doing aerobic excercies with them... at 6 AM! then, we ate breakfast and broke up into teams. They Thais did such a good job at organizing this retreat. The games they created were so unique. One game we had to hike up the mountain, and this was not easy. We came to a waterfall and Bon climbed up to the top and dropped about 50 different colored small balls down the waterfall that we had to catch and throw over to our partners in a different spot. This was just one of many games that took up that day. We ate lunch together, played guitar, fellowshipped, played in the gorgeous waterfalls, and just enjoyed each others company on our last weekend there. We came back and went to Church on Sunday. On Monday we went out to eat with David Allen, the missionary at the other church associated with Payap church. That night all of the girls got together and went out to eat at a nice restraurant, so we all dressed up. We also did kareoke that night together, also a lot of fun. Going to bed that night I did not feel so well. I woke up at 2:30 AM tuesday morning throwing up. I threw up every 30 minutes until 10 am when i went to the hospital. I stayed all day and overnight, coming home wednesday. I had either food poisoning or a virus but i had reacted really violently to it. Its one of the worst feelings i've had, and definitely the least pleasant day, but the hospital took care of me. Wednesday i finished up packing and thursday we left at 1:30 pm for the airport. we had a lot of people come to see us off. they prayed for us at the airport and it was soo hard to leave. i have never felt so heartbroken to leave this place which i have come to love so much, and know that i will no longer be with these thai people whom i have built such deep relationships with. Even as i write this my heart is sad, but that is only normal i guess. Melanie and I flew for the next day until we finally reached or destination of Brisbane, Australia this afternoon. What a wonderful place so far! We are staying with a couple who leads up the church here. We have only been here one afternoon but we had a bonfire tonight (it is winter here, so very cold). I love everyone's accent. I could fit in here until I open my mouth to talk and then they would recognize me as an American. I am excited to see how the next 2 weeks in Australia are going to go. I will keep you updated. I appreciate your prayers as I go through another culture transition!
Katie

elephant camp

Sawatdee ka (hello). Let me start with my day on Thursday.  We had equipping time like usual in the morning, reading through John, having quiet time, and going through a spiritual discipline. I've started running in the morning, so I did that afterwards. The campus is really beautiful so I usually run once or twice around the campus. On the days they have school, I always see the students walking around, eating, or going to class, and I really enjoy watching that as I run. I also listen to a Christian speaker, Ray Vander laun, as I run too. Well Thursday and Friday were Buddhist holidays so the school was not open- I had to run around just looking at the empty buildings. The beautiful scenery always makes up for it though. What we did later on was go to the "Umbrella Factory". They do not make umbrellas, if that was what you were thinking. They sell all sorts of items (including umbrellas) such as t-shirts, canvases, toys, purses, etc. You can also bring anything of your own, t-shirts, hats, wallets, purses, gamboys, cellphones, etc. They have a section outside where they have painters that will paint on any item you buy/brought. A lot of people get their bibles painted, with a verse on it and with a picture. The pictures they draw are amazing, they draw beautiful scenery pictures, of waterfalls, mountains, elephants, houseboats, canoes, and anything else. We spent a few hours there and then came back to the zone to start preparing dinner for cell group that night. It was the interns turn to cook again. We decided to cook rice and yellow currey, along with macaroni and cheese, and brownies. (The Thais mostly just wanted the rice and currey, but I really enjoyed the macaroni). P'Gahn taught cell group tonight. He is leaving on July 24th for Houston, Texas where he will study there for 2 years, he will be greatly missed by the church here though. During cell group we spent a lot of time praying for other countries in Asia and for the persecuted Christians there. So on Saturday we did some pretty amazing things. We woke up early to go to an "elephant camp" at 9:00. This was by far one of the coolest things I have ever seen. There was probably 15 trained elephants in this camp and they sure did have a lot of talent. Some of them played soccer. They had a huge goal with an elephant as the goalie. As 2 other elephants were standing far, the trainers would roll out big soccer balls to them and they would run up and kick them straight to the goal. some were deflected by the elephant goalie, some made it in. It was amazing. Then, a lot of elephants came out playing harmonicas. They would simply hold it in the trunks and play music (and it sounded good too). At the same time they would be dancing. What was really neat was at the end where they all had their own canvas and got to paint a picture. They would use different colors and painted mostly just pictures of flowers. What was most impressive was those pictures were probably better than something I can draw! After that, we ate lunch and headed back over to the leprocy village. We enjoyed it so much the first time that we decided to go back. There was only about 8 of us but we split up and walked around to the huts/houses where they lived. We would talk to them, see how their day was going. We would sing songs to them, in Thai and English, and then, they would pray for US. They are amazing, sweet people and sometimes I wonder how people who have nothing and have no one to care for them can have such big hearts. We are going back there again this week. Later that night all the Thai girls and us had a girls night at Casey Allison's house. She made us queso dip and cake and we bonded some more playing games over there. Saturday=Great day. Sunday (yesterday) we had church here at the Zone. P'Yut, another one of the guys in the church preached, and we had to have it translated in the back for us. Right after church we got a phone call from Chung Duoy telling us to meet up the mountain at the waterfall, a girl in their church decided to get baptized! So we drove up the mountain to this beautiful waterfall and we all watched her get baptized. We all ate lunch together, and then some of us decided to go to the zoo. It was the biggest zoo I have ever seen. We spent 3 hours there and didn't even see half of it. It was so big they have roads in it with a bus system AND  monorail that goes through it so you don't have to walk. Well of course, I thought it would be a good idea to walk and get exercise, but that was before I realized we kept having to walk up hills and hills to see the animals. It also started pouring about 30 minutes into our time there. We figured it would pass since it does everyday, but this is the one day it never stopped pouring rain, so we ended up walking around just getting soaked, but enjoyed watching the animals in the rain anyways. Since it was Sunday, we went to Walking Street again last night. There was one girl, Amy Greek, who is a missionary from Africa visiting with us here and she got to come with us. I got a pair of house shoes because you can wear those inside. I'm not sure what makes house shoes different from sandals but all I know is I'm allowed to wear house shoes inside and not sandals or any other shoes, so I bought a pair of house shoes for 20 baht (about 60 cents). Cheap I know. Today is our day off so I have been relaxing and re-rejuvenating. Thank you for your continual prayers as this internship is wrapping up. Pra-Chow oiye pond (may God bless you).

soot soot leaw!

Hello everyone. It has sure been a busy week so I am sorry for not being to update this earlier. Every morning we continue to dig deeper into the word of God as we continually go through the book of John. Occasionally we will have another missionary here come and teach us in the morning. We are constantly meeting new people everyday. Today on campus I made friends with a Chinese student who is in the International Program at Payap Christian University. He knows Chinese, Thai, and English- pretty amazing!! It is very neat to meet these people, and when we go back to campus and see them, we always have conversations. Cell group this past week went well. One of the Thais who is back visiting from going to school in New Zealand, named Eddie, taught our lesson. We played a bible trivia game that night, I was surprised to see how much the Thais new about the bible! On Wednesday night we went over to a couple's house (Chris and Casey) who have been staying here in Chiang Mai and working with us as well. They are missionaries in Cambodia but are here for now. They had us over for some worship time (in English!!). Sometimes we just need a break from speaking Thai all the time. It was great, they taught us some new songs they have learned since being on the mission field. I borrowed a book from Casey called "Irresistible Revolution". It's a very inspiring book and makes you think how comfortable we are in our Christian walk. Instead of just believing we need to act on our beliefs and live our lives in service and submission to God. I continue to teach these 3 precious girls English every week. They are all 19 years old. It makes me feel good that they continue to show up for class, I guess that means I'm teaching pretty well. They speak very little English, so sometimes it's difficult for me to explain what words mean when they don't understand me. But since I have learned some Thai I can do a good job explaining things. One thing I like about church every sunday is they do not have only one preacher. All the guys in the congregation take turns preaching, whether you are 19 or 35. They actually thought America churches were odd for only having one preacher. On Friday night we headed up a lock-in for the students and for the youth. It was lots of fun. We had a ping-pong tournament, relay races, and we watched Meet the Robinsons. I know you're supposed to stay up all night at a lock-in, but I definitely went to bed early! On Sunday after church I did the bravest thing I have ever done, and that was bungee jumping! I had avoided it for weeks but finally got talked into going, and I am so glad I did. It was an awesome experience and I would love to do it again. I did not go by myself though, I went with one of my Thai friends. If I was standing up that high alone I probably would not have done it. This Saturday we are returning to the leprocy village to take them some food and just to visit with them. We are trying to soak up everything here in Thailand before we plan to leave in a few weeks. This summer has been a blessing in every way. 

Wanghi!

Good evening/morning! I just wanted to write a post about today and talk about the great things that went on. I taught our women's bible class this morning. I taught on setting goals for ourselves, how God put us in a physical world, so it is important to have physical goals, but more importa

ntly we need to set spiritual goals. We cannot grow in our relationship with God if we are not consistent in practicing the small goals we set for ourselves spiritually, and as we mature, so should our goals. I taught for about 25 minutes, and I received compliments afterwards. It was my first time teaching a bible class but I wasn't nervous at all, in fact I was really calm and ready to teach. After church, we met up with one of our sister churches, Chung Duay, and went to an orphanage today. We arrived there and all of the kids were between the ages around 4 to 11 maybe. They all Wii'd us when we arrive

d and were so precious. We sang songs with them, read them bible stories, and played games with them. There were 31 kids and before we left we gave them all a basket that included soap, toothbrush and toothpaste, a toy, etc. They were so grateful and kept thanking us over and over. It was so sad when we left because you could tell they had such a good time with us, and would cling onto us when we were there. We were all very moved and want to go back. I am teaching another lesson this week on service, and for my service project Iwant us to go back to the Orphanage and spend more time with those children. That is mostly what went on today, we also went to Walking street again tonight and hung out there for a few hours. I have my thai language class tomo

rrow morning, my day off, so I am excited about that! Thank you again for your care and support and prayers =)

Sa wat dee kah

Sa wat dee kah! (Greetings!!). This past week has been another awesome week. One night we set up candles up on the third floor and mats and we just had a time of worship. We all prayed together, sang songs in English and Thai, and had a time of reading scripture. It is encouraging to take time out of your busy day to spend time worshipping God. During church on Sunday the speaker was Thai. Usually we have an English speaker and somebody translates for the Thais, but this time the English people had to go to the back and have the lesson translated for us. It was very interesting but neat at the same time. Cell group last night was also very good. Our lesson was on diligence and we should always persevere and not give up. I also got 3 new Thai students that I am going to be teaching last night. They stopped by because they saw our sign "Christian zone" and new we taught English. It is 2 girls and 1 boy, all 3 are 19 years old. One of the girls is a Christian, so I am hopefully that God can work through me to get the others interested as well. Today is the 4th of July! Happy 4th of July everyone! I wish I could be in America on this day and celebrate with everyone. Yesterday the American Embassy here held a big gathering, so all of us interns went to that. We walked in and everything was covered in red white and blue. They sold hot dogs and hamburgers. It made us feel at home. I entered a watermelon eating contest as well as an egg cracking contest. We had a good time. Tonight we are going to the mountains to teach another English camp for our students. We have gotten lots of compliments saying we are doing a great job with building relationships with the Thais and that they enjoy being with us very much. My time here is already half way over and that makes me very sad. Sunday we are going to an orphanage to help out as well. One thing I've noticed while being here is that Thai's love to watch movies. Whether it is going to the theater or renting a movie, they just love watching movies. I think it has to do more with being together socially. Thai's are very social people, they love having fun. We try to incorporate things they like to do with with talking about God, or else the non-Christians probably wouldn't initially be interested in doing anything with us. For example, so many of the Thais here love to play guitar, so one night we started singing worship songs and they joined in playing along with us on the guitar. I am teaching our Sunday bible class this Sunday, so I am very excited about doing that. It will be my first time teaching a class. I will be sure and let you know how it goes. Thank you so much for keeping up to date with me. Our schedules here have gotten so much more busier with activities to plan, trips we go on, etc, so I am trying to update this as much as possible. Thank you for your prayers =)

Daily routine

During the past week, all of us interns have pretty much gotten into our daily routine here in Chiang Mai. We have a few hours of equipping time in the morning. This consist of studying a chapter in John, watching the Gospel of John, then each of us discussing it. We go into an hour of quiet time after that, and come back to go over one of our study books on Spiritual Disciplines. Each one of us interns leads a lesson on it. My lesson I will be leading is on service. We usually end around 12-12:30, and then head over to the Payap campus for lunch. Even if its strange or awkward, we eat with the Thai students who we haven't met. This has actually been really productive. They love having us come by, and are very invited for us to talk to them. We invite them to come study English with us, and to come to our cell group where we sing and have a devo every Thursday night. We have actually had a lot of new people show up, which is very excited to see our efforts pay off. Each afternoon we all have English classes to teach. A lot of the students are at different places in their Egnlish. We also have fun activities that go on during the week that we invite these new students to so they will feel comfortable being around us. Every Wednesday we have just a time of singing praises for whoever is in the Zone, and every Thursday we have cell group, where we all cook and eat together, sing, and have a lesson. It is a blessing to see new people be apart of this.

Last Sunday all 5 of us interns stood in front of the congregation and recited John 1:1-18. I have never memorized a scripture this long, but I am so glad I did! It is amazing to look back and see how beneficial and powerful it is to memorize scripture. As I read through the rest of John, I can relate what I have memorized to the scripture I am reading. Its a really neat new concept to me. Today for church I taught the youth class with another intern, Terri. We taught them on prayer, one of the spiritual disciplines we have learned about. There are a lot of opportunities for us here to be a leader and teach. Each of us teaches a spiritual disciplines lesson AND teaches the girls bible class one Sunday. This has really challenged me because I am not much for one to stand in front of a lot of people and teach, but God has really helped me through those fears and has helped me to be bold and speak out. It's amazing what God will do when you ask Him to help you =) I am also taking Thai classes here to learn the language better. I have learned so much already, and it really helps being around students who speak Thai all the time. I am at the point where I can have a small conversation with somebody. It's different when you learn a language in school because you don't really want to learn, but when put in a situation where you really have no choice but to learn the language, it really makes a big difference on how much you will try to learn. For me, I love languages, and Thai language is something I have come to love very much. I have had great experiences here in Chiang Mai so far, and cannot believe that I am already half way done. I pray that I will be able to come back here sometime in the near future.

Hilltribe village

This past weekend is full of stories and fun adventures. It was our last weekend with the Aggies for Christ students here. The plan was to wake up Friday, take a raft down to a hilltribe village where we would spend the night, wake up saturday and take the raft to Chiang Rai where would ride elephants, and come back to Chiang Mai.

We left Friday morning and took a 4 hour bus ride to the river where the rafts were. Now, you can't just go to the river and rent a raft, they have to know you are coming in advance because they build you a raft completely from bamboo. The rafts are not very big either, they fit about 6 people in each one, plus 2 oarsmen to steer the whole way. We had somewhat of a roof above our heads incase if it rained, but it never did. My raft was Melanie and me, 2 aggies, and Sarah and Kelly Davidson, their leaders. It was a 6 hour raft ride to the hilltribe village. We got to know each other all very well, told stories, and learned new things. Kelly has been a missionary in thailand for a long time, so he informed us a lot about the Buddhist culture and Thailand history. We rafted straight to the hilltribe village, it was very remote, only this year did they get a dirt road leading to their village. We arrived around 7 I think, and we ate outside there. After dinner we circled up, sang some songs and was having a devo when we heard drums beating. The village wanted to sing and dance for us. We wrapped up our devo and went to watch them. It was nighttime, and they only have solarpower electrivity, so they had heated up this big light all day so it would last through the dancing this night. The dancing they did was more like line dancing. They walked around in a big circle and did steps with their feet, with some clapping here and there. They wanted us to join them so we did. This was a Christian tribe as well. After dancing, they sang us some Christian songs in the language that they spoke. Thai is not their first language. One girl from the tribe had written a song about Jesus and about all the people of the world coming to know him. It was a beautiful song. We were split up to sleep in their "houses" based upon raft. The houses were kind of like big huts raised to a second level. All 6 of us squeezed in our house. It was really hot that night so we didn't really need blankets. They sleep with the door open so bugs are crawling everywhere. I did sleep with a pokima (small blanket) over me to keep the bug off. The first rooster crowed at 2:19 AM. I quickly ignored it. Later on, I kept hearing this noise, probably around 5:30 AM, and it was the lady of the house sifting rice. They wake up extremely early because they have so many things to take care of. They had cows, bulls, geese, dogs, and chickens just walking around outside. Suprisingly I slept pretty well that, probably because I had taken some benadryl.

We left on our rafts about 7 AM down the river. They had breakfast for us on our rafts- toast, hard boiled eggs, oranges, bananas, coffee, and tea. This raft ride was about 3 1/2 hours long. It got really hot around 10 so I jumped in the river and swam along next to the rafts with some other people. That was really refreshing. We got to our next stop with the elephants soon after that. We quickly ate lunch, grabbed a partner, and loaded up on our elephants. We sat on this metal bench that is right on the back of the elephant. It is definitely not comfortable at all. One leg has to go over a metal bar and the other leg goes on the neck of the elephant. I tried some different ways of sitting but theres really no way around that. The elephant ride was also VERY bumpy. There was not a time I was not holding on afraid that if I let go, I would fall right off the elephant. We walked throught the jungle, in streams, and on the side of mountains. At one point our elephant was going around another and walked straigt up to a cliff. We thought we were going to fall straight down, but our elephant managed pretty well. We had a guide who sat on the head of the elephant giving commands and everything to the elephant. I aksed if I could switch with him during the ride and he let me. So I sat on the head of the elephant trying to get it to listen to me. It didn't listen to me as much as it listened to its owner/trainer, but it was fun anyways. After the elephant ride the Aggies went their separate way to another village, and all the ACU interns and robert took a very nice airconditioned bus back to Chiang Mai. We had bought pizza for dinner and it was delicious.

Today at church was really good. We have a few visiting couples who are wanting to be missionaries here, and Jordan, one of the husbands, taught te sermon on salvation, while Robert translated it to Thai. For communion we all gathered in a circle again to take it. We stand for Gods word and sing a lot of songs in Thai. Today me and the other interns stood up and quoted John 1:1-18. I actually was not nervous because I had it all memorized. If you haven't memorized any long passages like that, I would recommend it because it is a blessing to be able to quote scripture like that. I know this is a long post but it has been a few days since I have given any updates. Hope you enjoyed!