สุขสันต์วันคริสตร์มาส (souksaan wan Christmas)

That's what you say in Thailand when you want to say Merry Christmas!! That was being said a lot at our Christmas celebration on December 10th.

A lot of planning went into the Christmas celebration. We spent all of November practicing for our program. Me and Terra made a couple day trips into town to buy the Christmas presents for all 130 of our children. We had amazing donators who wanted to make sure our children's Christmas was very special, so me and Terra were able to buy one thing off of our children's Christmas lists. We were able to buy each child a jacket (if they put jacket on their list, some put school shoes, and some put sweatpants) a beanie, gloves, school socks, underwear, and two little toys each.

Two days before our Christmas celebration me and Terra locked ourselves in my room and began wrapping presents. We were in there all day wrapping. We didn't even stop to eat lunch :) Noah, Boon Choi, and Teep would pop in and out and help us wrap when they had time. My room was a disaster. Full of gifts, wrapping paper, trash, and bags. I guess I didn't realize how much went into wrapping 130 packages. It was a blast!! I had so much fun wrapping it all because I knew how special it was going to be for our children!

The night before our celebration me and the kids were up decorating our worship hall. We had so much fun putting up our signs, streamers, decorating our Christmas tree, and cleaning for our Christmas celebration.

I finally got into my room and was ready for bed. I could hardly sleep because I was so excited to see our children's faces as they opened up their Christmas presents.

We told the children we were going to have our Christmas celebration at 6:00 a.m. They were all up way before then, but we kept them waiting in anticipation. As they waited, their eyes lit up as we began to bring the Christmas presents out and put them under our Christmas tree on the stage. There were so many Christmas presents. It looked awesome!!

Me, Terra, and all the staff were ready to start our celebration with our Christmas hats on. Me and Terra bought Christmas hats with lights on them. We all looked so cute!!
Our morning started with worship and singing Christmas Carols. Then Pastor preached about the meaning of Christmas. Then it was time to open up the Christmas presents. We let the staff open their gifts first and we had everyone watch them. It was funny! Then we gave the gifts to our children. We called each of their names, because each package was labeled with their name, making it more their gift. We made the children wait to open their gifts until everyone had their gift, then we counted to 3 and the room went crazy!!

Everyone was smiling and they were all giddy as they opened up their gifts. The boys laughed and laughed and were so embarrassed when they saw that we gave them underwear. It was so cute!! When they finished opening up their gifts and playing with them, it was time for cookies and hot chocolate. We bought cookies and hot chocolate because we thought it would make it feel even more like Christmas. On the cold morning we all sat around and drank our hot chocolate and munched on our cookies.

After lunch our sports day started. We had been playing games (ping-pong, volleyball, soccer, etc.) this whole week leading up to today. Today we had our finals. The kids had a blast playing all the games. While the children played the sports, the teachers from the Huai Bong school and some of the students came and decorated Agape. They made it beautiful. One of the teachers is also a florist so she decorated with flowers, they put up lights and just made it awesome! I just stood there and watched as everyone helped me to make Christmas amazing for the kids and I had to hold back tears. I was just overwhelmed by their love. As a thank you for the teachers, I wrapped up Christmas presents for them. I gave each of them a Thai Bible and another little gift. The next day at school, Krusookit came up to me, Bible in hand, and told me "Thank you so much for my Bible. I love it. I love Jesus!" He had read parts of the Bible and the Lord really just grabbed his heart. This man and his family are Buddhist, but the Lord can do amazing things!! It's so awesome seeing the Lord working and using me to help!!

The children played the games up until dinner time. For dinner they ate really good food. We had enough funds left over to buy the children delicious food for Christmas. They had 3 items of food to choose from (they normally have one). They were all very happy. After dinner, they all had to rush to the showers and get ready for our performance that was happening at 7:00.

We opened up our celebration with fireworks. One of the teachers brought fireworks In our program we started with worship and a sermon then we had the little girls and big girls do a dance, they sang Jingle Bells, Deck the Halls, and some Thai songs, we had a drama, me and Terra sang a duet-Hark the Herald Angels Sing (it probably did not sound like Angels singing, I'm sure :)), and then we had a Candlelight service with the children singing Silent Night and we finished with Joy to the World. The children all did a wonderful job!! It was beautiful hearing them all sing Silent Night, with the lights out, and the room lit with candles. It really felt like Christmas (even though it was only December 10th :))

I hope your Christmas is just as amazing as mine and just as blessed!

สุขสันต์วันคริสตร์มาส

***I've uploaded some more pictures, so check them out if you get a chance.

Happy 80th Birthday!

Thailand's King celebrated his 80th birthday on December 5th. This King is loved by his people, so all around Thailand on December 5th and 6th the King was honored and celebrated. Our children cleaned their rooms, made their beds, cleaned around Agape, and even cleaned the restrooms extra well to honor the King. They set up his picture and flowers in our worship hall. We had a little celebration in honor of the King's birthday. A group with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) came and celebrated with us. There were about 15 people in the group. It was really fun being able to hang out with more foreigners. Sometimes I think if I don't talk to foreigners every once in a while I'm going to forget how to speak proper English. When I'm not talking to foreigners, I sound like a cave man :) After we celebrated the King's birthday me and Terra had to go into town to buy all the children's Christmas presents. We had so much fun making our way through Mae Sot by ourselves and bartering with the people as we bought things for 130 children. When we were on our way back home, after we spent the entire day shopping, we wanted to make a quick stop at 7-eleven. We saw a 7-eleven and decided to drive to it. We ended up going the wrong way down a one-way road. It was so funny. We finally got going the right way and parked our car. When we got out, of course, there were 2 police men standing on the corner. Right when I stepped out of the car I heard them say "Ohhhh Farang". They just laughed at us. It's funny how we can just get away with that because we are farang :)

Terra and I were asked by the Huai Bong School to be part of a parade in the Huai Bong village. The parade was in celbration of the King's birthday. We had the parade on December 6th. That morning we woke up at 3:30 in the morning because they were picking us up at 4:00. We had to go get our hair down and our make up. While we all got ready at the salon, Krudam told me that yesterday at the celebration at Agape one of the YWAM people prayed for her. She said today her heart felt so good. She felt like all her burdens were gone. She told me she wants to be Christian like me and take care of the Agape children. PRAISE THE LORD!! I told her she can be Christian and we can give all our burdens and worries to Jesus. It was awesome!

Anyways, We arrived at the salon and the first thing we had to do was put this little tube top shirt on.

I figured it was so the face make up wouldn't get on my own clothes. But, no, they do the strangest thing here. In Thailand everyone likes to be white, they think it's beautiful. So they took this white creamy make up and put it all over my arms, chest and back. They kept saying how pretty it looked and I thought I looked like a dead zombie. I didn't like it one bit.

Once they completed my zombie look it was on to my face make up. This wasn't any better. They piled the make up on, but at least my face was now the same color as the rest of my deadly looking skin, so it wasn't so bad. I felt like I was about to go compete in a pageant. Once my make up was done, it was on to hair. I was the leader of the parade, with marching baton and all, so I had a big fluffy hair peice put in my hair. It looked really funny.

Once we were all done with our make-up, hair, and dresses, it was time to go march in the parade. Me and Terra were the only farang in the whole parade.

As we walked we had to stop so many times for people to take pictures of us. I felt like a celebrity. It was a blast!! I practiced marching a couple days before, so I had it down. I had so much fun twisting and turning my baton, and I even threw it up in the air a couple times, watched it spin, and caught it. I'm a professional now, so if anyone is in need of a leader for a parade, I'm your girl :)

After we finished the parade, we all had to march in front of the school and government leaders. As we marched I had to salute them. It was funny watching how excited everyone was to see us farang in the parade :) Anyways, it was so much fun and our Agape kids who were in the parade also did a great job too!!

I'M GETTING MARRIED!

That's what Teep and Terra said at their engagement ceremony that we had on December 1st. It was a beautiful celebration! Many people showed up that don't even really know Terra or Teep, but I think it was because they wanted to see with their own eyes the farang who was getting engaged to a Karen person :) The girls spent all morning decorating and preparing for the ceremony. Teep's father came from Chiang Mai to celebrate with them. It's funny how they do a whole big ceremony for an engagement but it was really pretty. Terra, and all of us girls, were dressed in our Karen dresses and Teep, and all the boys, were dressed in their Karen shirts.

(Me, the happy couple, and all the kids)
I was the official photographer of the engagement ceremony. I'm getting pretty good ;)During the ceremony Pastor Winai talked about what being engaged means, and then both Teep and Terra exchanged rings. Then Pastor Watchina, the Pastor from Hope Church in Mae Sot, came and preached a message. After the ceremony, we had an awesome meal. It really was beautiful. The funny thing is though, Teep and Terra spent like a whole day looking for rings, and the best ones they could find looked like the ones you get from Peter Piper Pizza with like 15 tickets. It was really funny. But oh well, it's not the ring that matters, it's the heart :)

(Me and the newly engaged couple)

Sweet December

I can't believe December is already here. With December comes my fifth month of being here. It's crazy for me to think I've been here for that long. It seems like only yesterday I left. With December has come a new experience for me. The Christians in Thailand celebrate the coming of December. Just like we celebrate New Years Eve, they celebrate December's Eve.

After a full day of teaching at the Mae Ramat Witthyakom school (that's the high school), I came home with just enough time to put on some warm clothes and jump in the truck to make the 1 hour drive to the village we were going to be celebrating at. My day at school was a fun filled day. Malee's (one of the girls at Agape) teacher asked me if I would edit and read her Electronic English books. She wanted to record my voice and use it when she teaches her children from her E-book. I told her of course. My morning at the school was spent doing just that. It was pretty funny. She kept telling me I had a beautiful voice (I think the only reason why she thought it was beautiful is becaus along with my voice comes an American accent ;)). It was a pretty official ordeal. After I finished the book I had to critique her book, and then sign the page I critiqued it on and write my qualifications (B.A. in education). She had to send all the paperwork into the Head of education.

Anyways, after we finished with the book, I went to teach her class. For class today, the students were cooking Thai food. They had to prepare the food and write all the ingredients and step-by-step cooking instructions in English. My laborious (;)) job was to sit at the table as the children brought me their food that they cooked. I had to ask their group leaders name, the name of the food and they had to tell me how they made it. Then I had the privelige of tasting each and every one of the dishes they prepared. There were 10 groups, so let's just say I had 10 lunches that day ;)

After my delicous lunch(es) I went into another teachers English class because she wanted me to teach her class. All the students asked me to sing a song, so I told them they had to sing me a song and then I would sing them a song. They sang the Thai national anthem and I sang my National Anthem. It was pretty intimidating singing in front of 35 high school students, but I made my way through the whole song :) After this lesson, I just got to play some scrabble with a couple of the girls. It was a lot of fun! As the day came to an end, I got back in the truck and made my rounds to pick up all the children from school. I had to go to 3 different schools to pick up all the children, but I was greeted at one of the schools with a lovely cake that Bybooa made for me, so it wasn't so bad. We hurried home so we could get back in time to go to the Sweet December celebration.
I had my scarf, beanie, long johns, sweat pants, gloves, and my beautiful afghan my grandma made for me on as I rode in the back of the truck with all the kids. It was freezing and the cold wind was making it even worse. But the cold weather didn't seem to bother any of us as we sang songs the whole time we drove (English and Thai- the kids love to sing the English songs). We got to the celebration and Somoo and Eja had to hurry up and run close to the stage. They were both singing in the singing competition. Eja was playing the guitar and singing and Somoo was playing the drums (well it's actually just a box seat thing that you hit with your hands and it sounds like drums :)). I walked around with Kawee and saw the village and some of our Agape children's bamboo huts in the village. It was so dark as we walked to some of the homes. Kawee held my arm and directed me. I really just had to trust her because I really couldn't see a thing. For all I knew my next step could be off a cliff. We made it to the house safely and back to the celebration just in time for Eja and Somoo's performance. They did such a good job! I was so proud of them. As they stood on stage I gave them roses and put little necklaces around their necks. It was so much fun!! They won first place!!

Me, Terra and our children went on stage and sang Jingle Bells. Me and Terra had the microphones so I'm sure it wasn't as pretty as it could have been ;) There were a couple more performances, including dramas, dances, and the grand finale performance was a Karen Christian rock band. It was really funny because when they first came out they started singing and it was like heavy metal. Heads banging, screaming and everything. Me and Terra were like "what the heck?!". We totally weren't expecting that at all. Then they finished their song and it was all a joke. They don't really play like that. They ended up being really good actually. Anyways, the night ended with fireworks and everybody welcomed in Sweet December.

Poo-Ping

I hurried up and ran outside my room as I heard May's voice. I knew she was getting ready to leave. I'm not very good at getting up early, so I had to hurry up and get ready and run outside and catch her before she took off. This was the last time I would see her with a baby in her belly. The next time I would see her that baby would be in my arms. So I took one last picture with pregnant May, told her I loved her and watched the future parents of a baby girl drive off to the hospital.

May had her C-section planned the next day (December 4th). She was nervous, but she told me she couldn't wait until that baby was out of her.

Noah came home on December 4th and told us that he had a healthy baby girl and they named her Tanpraporn. What a beautiful name! Her nickname is pretty funny though. Her nickname is Poo-Ping. That's right. In Thai it means the ground where the queen would plant her flowers. In English, well let's just say we for sure wouldn't name our kids that :) Me and Terra jumped in the truck and went to welcome our new Agape baby into the world. She was gorgeous. I didn't want to put her down.

She was so tiny and looked just like a little Poopah :)

So, we have welcomed our new little Poo-Ping into the world. May and Noah said that if she goes to America, she's just going to have to tell people her name is Ping :)

Roygatone Festival

The Roygatone Festival is a buddhist holiday celebrated November 24th. It's celebrated all over the country. I celebrated it in Mae Ramat. Me and Terra took the truck to drop off about 10 of the girls at their school and then we headed to Mae Ramat to see the happenings. We had to drop the girls off at their school in Mae Jaroung because they had to get ready to do a dance. They were all going to be part of the parade that was going through Mae Ramat for the celebration. Once we arrived at Mae Ramat we got to see everyone setting up for the parade. A couple of our Agape children were already there. It was so exciting seeing them all there. I was so proud of them. I found out I'm going to be that annoying mom that embarasses my children. As we saw the kids I was hooting and hollering for them and hugging them and kissing them and telling them how proud I am of them and how excited I am to see them in the parade and that they're going to do an awesome job. They kept laughing at me. I told them I was going to yell their names when they walked by me in the parade. My kids are all going to be embarrased by me, but at least they'll know how much I love them and how proud of them I always will be.

Anyways, as we waited for the parade to start (we got there at 4 and the parade didn't start until about 8) we learned what the festival is all about. The buddhists celebrate Roygatone as a way of letting go of all the bad things in their life. They make little flower boats and they put money into them and send them down the river.

As they send their flower boat they send all the bad things in their life right along with it. It's like a new beginning for them. If they only knew all the bad things could be forgiven and forgotten forever with Jesus. They wouldn't only be gone once a year when they're put into a flower boat, but they would be gone and erased "as far as the east is from the west" every day.

As we waited for the parade to start we walked all the way up and down the parade line. Everyone was standing there ready to start the parade. It was awesome because we got to stop and look at all the floats, talk with all the people, and get some great pictures. We wouldn't have been able to take such great pictures or anything while the parade was in motion. It was a blast! A couple of the teachers from the Huai Bong school met me and Terra in Mae Ramat and we all watched the parade together. It was so funny because as we watched the parade, the parade seemed to be watching me and Terra. So many people that were marching in the parade came up to me and Terra and asked to take a picture with us. Here we were admiring them and they were admiring us. It was really funny! As the parade continued on we began to see our Agape children and there went me screaming their names and cheering for them and taking tons of pictures and videotaping them just like any proud parent! They did such a good job!

After the parade finished, the teachers took me and Terra to a lovely dinner in a restaurant alongside the river. As we ate we began to see some of the flower boats floating down the river. They put candles inside the boats so they looked beautiful as they lit up the Moei River. We finished dinner and we went and got our own flower boats to send down the river. Kruhawm made me and Terra our very own flower boats. I really enjoyed sending my flower boat down the river. All I sent was my flower boat because I already have a savior who doesn't reside in a flower boat. A couple of the Agape girls also sent their boats down the river. It was fun watching the river fill up with more and more flower boats.

After our flower boats were out of sight, we walked to the big celebration. It was like a fair. They had rides, games, shows, and it all ended with the grand finale of fireworks. It's funny how different they do things in Thailand. The fireworks were lit practically 1/2 a mile from where I was standing and exploded right above my head. I think I could even feel the heat from them. I think in America we have laws for how far away the fireworks have to be lit, and I'm sure we were breaking that law here :) It was a really pretty firework show though.

After the show we all piled back into the truck and made our way home. We were all exhausted, the girls more than us as they walked for two hours and danced. They all looked beautiful though, even with being so tired. As we drove home the girls chatted and sang beautifully in the back of the truck. The perfect ending to a wonderful day!!

*****I uploaded some pics from the festival, check them out if you get time!!!

There's no pilgrims in Thailand?

So this is the first time since I've been born that I haven't celebrated Thanksgiving. But this is the first time since I've been born that I feel I truly understand what it means to be thankful. I have so many things to be thankful for I can't even begin to list them. When I look at the 100+ children that surround me who don't have much, I know if they were to write a list of things they were thankful for it would be huge! They don't have much but they'd give it all away in a heartbeat to help another. There may not be pilgrims in Thailand, but there sure are a lot of people here who remind me what Thanksgiving is all about!

"Praise the LORD, I tell myself; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. PRAISE THE LORD, I TELL MYSELF, AND NEVER FORGET THE GOOD THINGS HE DOES FOR ME. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. HE RANSOMS ME FROM DEATH AND SURROUNDS ME WITH LOVE AND TENDER MERCIES. He fills my life with good things. My youth is renewed like the eagle's! THE LORD IS MERCIFUL AND GRACIOUS; HE IS SLOW TO GET ANGRY AND FULL OF UNFAILING LOVE. He has not punished us for all our sins, nor does he deal with us as we deserve. FOR HIS UNFAILING LOVE TOWARD THOSE WHO FEAR HIM IS AS GREAT AS THE HEIGHT OF THE HEAVENS ABOVE THE EARTH. He has removed our rebellious acts as far away from us as the east is from the west. THE LORD IS LIKE A FATHER TO HIS CHILDREN, TENDER AND COMPASSIONATE TO THOSE WHO FEAR HIM. FOR HE UNDERSTANDS HOW WEAK WE ARE; HE KNOWS WE ARE ONLY DUST. Our days on earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die. The wind blows, and we are gone — as though we had never been here. BUT THE LOVE OF THE LORD REMAINS FOREVER WITH THOSE WHO FEAR HIM. HIS SALVATION EXTENDS TO THEIR CHILDREN'S CHILDREN. Praise the LORD, everything he has created, everywhere in his kingdom. As for me — I, too, will praise the LORD." Psalm 103

I will continuously praise the Lord for all that He does for me. For everything in my life that I'm thankful for. Not only on November 22nd will I celebrate my thanks and my giving, but I will praise the Lord and celebrate every day because I have so much to be thankful for and I can't help but continue to give because of all that's been given to me! Happy ThanksGiving to you all! I pray that you see all the things that you have to be thankful for, from the sunrise that woke you up this morning to the turkey that sits on your table. I love you all!







*So in honor of Thanksgiving I bought some pumpkin pie in Mae Sot (there is a restaurant owned by a Canadian man and he was selling pumpkin pie). The pumpkin pie was delicious! Yet another thing to be thankful for.....good ol' pumpkin pie :)

Girls, Exercise....Puuying, Oklumungai

It's funny as you walk around Agape Orphanage you'll hear the boys and girls saying "Girls, Exercise" in the exact same tone and voice that I say it every time I call the girls for exercise. Every day at 4:30, I open up my mouth and yell (if you know me, you know I have a very, very loud voice :)) "GIRLS EXERCISE". They all rush into the worship hall and we have exercise class. They love it, and I love it too because it forces me to exercise every day :) Today I decided to do exercise class a little differently. I yelled "GIRLS EXERCISE" and I heard little voices all over Agape repeating it. One little boy named Nowah loves to run up to me say it, put a huge smile on his face, and then run away. It's so cute! I told the girls that today we were going to go jogging. I had my running shoes on and I was ready. As we all lined up outside I said "Prom rian- Are you ready?" I heard a lot of yes's so we began our jog. As the cars drove past us the passengers faces turned from solemn looks to precious smiles. I'm not sure if they were smiling because they saw a foreigner or because of how funny we probably looked. Here's 4o little girls running down the road, half with shoes on (and most of the shoes were flip-flops that were way too big for them) and half without shoes on (most of the children don't really like shoes...it's strange) and there's one girl who's the tallest of them all who totally stands out leading the pack. It definitely had to of been a funny sight. The girls had a blast! We ran about 2 miles down the road, had our stretch time and then ran the two miles back. As we ran back we were running right into the sunset. It was beautiful! One of the best jogs I've ever been on. The Thai air going into my lungs, the mountains and sunset filling up my sight, and the sound of 40 girls laughter and voices speaking to me and to eachother filling my ears. I've decided exercise class is going to have more days of jogging filled with more sunsets, more of God's creation and more laughter filling the Huai Bong Village!



*I put up a couple new pics :)

Frogs aren't just for hopping

That’s right, frogs just happen to be for eating too. It’s actually quite a delicacy.

Well, once again I resorted to thinking “I can’t come all the way to Thailand, live here for a year, and not try _______ (insert any strange/disgusting food you can imagine here).” So as I sat with the female teachers at one of my favorite restaurants, Gnow Pi, eating lunch the male teachers who sat at the other table called me over to their table. They kept saying “Gope”, which means frog in Thai. I stared at the plate of frog sitting in front of me and inside I worked up the courage to try frog. They gave me a huge frog leg to try and were telling me “Andrea arroy (delicious)”. I’m not quite brave enough to try a whole frog leg, so I took a little piece of it off. I dipped it in the chili sauce (I’m not sure if that’s cheating, since I kind of masked the flavor, but just a little I promise), snapped a picture and then popped it into my mouth.

The idea of eating frog was disgusting to me, but the taste was actually pretty good. It kind of tasted just like chicken (it’s funny how all strange meats seem to resemble the taste of chicken). It was really, really chewy though and it took a while to finally break it down enough to swallow it, but all in all, I hate to admit that I actually think frog is tasty. Although, I don’t want to eat frog ever again just because of the thought of it, I would definitely recommend it to anyone who wanted some.

Tonight in English class we finished writing our letters to our pen pals. The past 2 weeks we have been focusing on learning how to write our letters and learning the information that goes in it. The kids really enjoyed doing them and I think it made it more exciting knowing their letters are going to friends in America. One of my amazing teachers (my 8th grade teacher) is having her students write letters to my students. I took pictures of all my students and printed up their pictures so they put their letter and their picture in their envelopes and got them all ready to send off. Some of them included pictures of their houses, of their family, and some drew pictures for their friend. It’s so cute! They really loved it! I can’t wait until my students get letters back. It really makes them want to learn English even more!!

After English class, I had the awesome opportunity to lay out on mats in the field with about 10 of the kids. It’s not the rainy season anymore so the clouds have left our Thai sky, leaving only stars to fill the sky at night. There are no city lights or street lights or anything to block our view of seeing the stars. We all laid there singing Thai and English songs and spoke to each other in the blend of English and Thai that we know and lifted our laughs up to the sky. One of the songs we sang had this line in it “And I’m so happy, so very happy, I’ve got the love of Jesus in my heart”. I truly am so happy. Not only do I have the love of Jesus but I have over 100 kids love as well. I can’t even explain what that is like. What it’s like to simply lay in a field with 10 of my favorite children as I look up at the sky that is almost white with stars, and as if the night wasn’t already amazing enough, God blessed me with a shooting star to top it all off! He’s so good to me!

dare you to move

Boy have I been busy. Those farangs being here was definitely a blast, but we really had our days booked :) We prepared a fun-filled weekend for the kids. We called it our Halloween/Fall Festival. We explained to the children that in America many people celebrate Halloween and we also talked about Thanksgiving and the Fall season. It's really hard for them to grasp the Fall season because they only have 3 seasons here, but a couple days ago while I was teaching at the school I saw yellow leaves falling off the trees and the ground was slowly turning from green to yellow as the leaves painted it. It was beautiful. I actually get to experience the Fall season. I think it's hard for us Phoenicians (not sure if that's what us Phoenix dwellers are called, but oh well it sounds good :)) to understand the Fall season as well because we really only have 3 seasons too- cold, pretty warm, and "oh my gosh I'm sitting in an oven and baking". Well, anyways our Fall festival was a hit! We went bobbing for apples, did a cake walk, played pin the nose on the pumpkin, carved pumpkins, did a mummy wrap, made masks, and so much more! We split the kids into four teams and they had a blast! They loved the games and they did an awesome job carving the pumpkins especially considering they've never done it before. And considering they looked at us like we were crazy for wanting to do anything with the pumpkins other than eat them :) The kids also did an awesome job making their masks. We had each of the children model their masks and then we sat at the front like professional judges and picked 15 of the best masks to win a prize. We all wore our masks (our costumes) the whole night and really had such a good time. The children loved it! We finished our night with cookies and punch and even with all that sugar the children were exhausted!
The next morning we woke up super early (well it was like 6:00, but that's super early for me :)) and put on our lice killer faces. We scrubbed all the girls bedding and hung it out to dry. It was hilarious because the girls are awesome at hand washing their clothes, whereas us lazy Americans have our washers and dryers, so me and Dee Dee looked like fools trying to ring out their bedding, which were huge blankets. It took us forever and it took them about a minute. We decided we would let the girls ring out the bedding and we would hang them up. We could for sure do that, right? Well, me and Dee Dee carried the tub with the blankets in it through the field to the bamboo rods we were going to hang them on. The bucket was heavy and we dropped it then we bent down to pick it up and when we came up we bonked heads, all the while this is happening the girls are staring at us, probably thinking "crazy Americans". We almost peed our pants we were laughing so hard. And let me tell you they already think I'm crazy, so everything I do just adds to it. They all told Dee Dee she's "crazy like Andrea, but Andrea's crazier" :) I always have them all laughing. Being crazy is fun :) Once we finally stopped laughing we finally were able to start hanging up the blankets to dry. Then we attacked their hair with the lice medicine. We had our rubber gloves on and sleep still in our eyes from waking up so early but we were ready to kill some bugs. We coated their heads and then covered them with plastic bags. It wasn't the most pleasant smell, but atleast we knew it was killing them. The girls laughed at us as we coated their heads. We felt a little bad because the girls had to keep the medicine on their head until nighttime so we had about 35 girls sitting in church Sunday morning with plastic bags on their heads. It was so cute! That night, at the girls relief, we told them it was time to wash the stinky medicine out of their hair. We had a salon set up for the girls. We called it Andrea's, Dee Dee's and Terra's salon. They started with me where I shampooed their hair. I scrubbed those suckers out of their heads, and they kept saying "Sabai" (nice in English). I gave them little head massages too :) Then they went to Dee Dee to get conditioner in their hair. Then the children went to Terra so she could comb their heads with the lice combs. After they were all combed out they came back to me so I could spray their heads with Listerine (this is a little secret from good ol' Grandma....it's true, lice don't like Listerine.....don't you love grandmas....thanks gram :)). It was so funny when I put some of the Listerine in my mouth because the girls thought it was a chemical. They started freaking out, but then I told them it was ok to gargle with and they all lined up to try some. They didn't like it at all :) They can enjoy the bugs, but Listerine, now that's just disgusting :) Every night now I go around and comb their heads and spray them with Listerine. The girls like it though because combing their hair feels really nice. I had one fall asleep while I was combing her hair to make sure she's clean. It was so cute :)
I started back to teaching this week. It was so nice to see all the children at the school after having a break for a month. We had really fun English lessons and Dee Dee came to the school one day to see all the kids. It was really fun! Krudam shared with me that I'm going to be teaching Friday at the school. They are having a huge buddhist celebration in Thailand on Friday and at the school. Celebrities are coming to the school, and the news, and the head of the department of education. I am going to be teaching a lesson, with microphone and all, to a class in front of the head of the Department of Education and in front of the news cameras (you can keep that in your prayers :)). May also told me they're going to have me play the sports games with the children and they're going to put me on TV. I'm going to be famous here ;) It should be really fun tomorrow. It will be an awesome opportunity to share Jesus' love with even more people!
Last night our wonderful Dee Dee went back home. It was so sad to see her go. The children gave her gifts and sang a song for her and as she bawled her eyes out I bawled mine out too. I just knew the girls were going to miss her a lot. They all loved her and it made me sad to know they would miss her. I wasn't even the one leaving and I was bawling my eyes out. We took Dee Dee to dinner at Khao Mao Khao Fang for dinner. I love that restaurant. I ate enough to last me weeks :) It was really fun because it was just us girls who went out for dinner- me, Dee Dee, Terra, and May. We had so much fun! After we finished our wonderful meal, we rushed back to the orphanage to do our drama and allow the children time to all say good-bye to Dee Dee before she had to rush to the bus station and get there by 9:30 (Pastor told me this morning she did catch her bus, but he had to drive behind the bus and stop it. Nothing like freaking out about not catching your bus :)). We had an awesome drama planned for all the children and staff and Pastor Jack and his wife Jo (who are staying with us for 2 weeks from Australia). Our drama was about serving. We did it to the song "Dare you to move" by Switchfoot. We basically were daring the children to move and obey Jesus when he tells us to serve. I was the poor person in our drama and we had a rich person, an old person, a tourist, a selfish person, and Jesus. I gave the short little message after and explained our drama. I shared the scripture verse 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.....read it :) In our drama Jesus first served us and then we all served each other and in the end it finished with us serving Jesus. We made the point that when we serve each other we are actually serving Jesus....."as you do for the least of these you've done for me". We also had black hearts on us and when we served someone Jesus came and removed our black hearts and gave us a big red heart. If I do say so myself, we were pretty amazing. But what our drama represented is so true. We are dared to move. Are we going to obey and allow our heart to become a big red heart or just sit there and always just be served and allow our heart to stay black? In 1 Corinthians, Paul talks about how he became like the Jews to win the Jews, he became weak like the weak to win the weak. Are we becoming hungry like the hungry to save the hungry, poor like the poor to save the poor? Jesus is daring us to move........are you going to move?


*I put lots of new pics up, so check them out when you have time. Some are pretty funny :).....you can see me as a lovely poor person :)

Nung Farang, Song Farang

Whew! I finally have some free time and it happens to be at 12:00 at night. The children are all asleep, exhausted from traveling back to the orphanage from their villages. The children start school tomorrow so their night consisted of ironing clothes, getting their socks and shoes ready, and then hopping into bed. My night consisted of a lot of hugging, telling them how much I missed them and love them. Really I just couldn't get enough hugs. I wanted to just take them all in my arms! So after I smothered them with my love, they started their evening of school preperation.

Life has slowed down just a little bit, which has been nice because it's just about to speed right back up. The English camp that I taught at was a blast! It was definitely a different scene then I am used to because it is a camp where the parents have to pay for their children to attend. So there were no refugees or Karen children attending this camp, just the wealthier Thai kids. They were great kids. It was really funny though, because so many of the children spoke English really well. One boy lived in America for a year and he could basically teach my lesson. Some other children spoke fluent because they have been attending an English program since they were five. Here I am teaching transportation (bus, car, truck, etc.) and these children could have full on conversations with me. There was definitely a lot of modifying I had to do to my lesson. It's making me a better teacher....learning how to adjust my lessons on the spot :) The English camp was held at a beautiful resort. The food they fed us was delicious. I have decided that shrimp is one thing I will not eat in Thailand because they leave the peels on them (the Thai people eat the shells right along with the shrimp) and if you do decide to peel it to eat it, the poop is all still in there. It's quite disgusting. Anyways, this shrimp was peeled, clean and delicious. I really got to live it up for a day. I was actually eating shrimp....I love the simple things that bring me joy! I also got to meet foreigners that were teaching at the camp as well. I met Fiona from Canada and Paul and Stan from France. It was really fun!

After camp, they drove me to Hope Church in Mae Sot so I could do my last practice for our dance that we were doing at the Hope Church Conference (this is where all the Hope churches in Thailand come together. There were 2000 people who attended). When the girls got dropped off at the church they just brought my luggage with them because we were sleeping at the church that night and leaving for the conference early the next morning. We all laid out our mats on the ground in the room. You couldn't even see the floor because it was covered with mats. We got to have one big slumber party and it was a blast!! The girls are so precious!! We had awesome bonding time! God continues to give me more and more love for these children. Eleven of the older girls went to the conference with me. I am constantly praying that I am a good example for them. I'm not old and wise, but hopefully God transfers my love and some wisdom to them :)
The conference was a powerful time. We had amazing worship and they put on dramas and presentations. We had anointed pastors who gave the messages and I met many wonderful people. My two favorite people I met were two old women. I was washing my hands in the bathroom and these two little old ladies were just about walking out of the bathroom. I was the only foreigner at the conference so they just stared at me and kept talking to me in the sweetest voices. I could only understand a little bit of what they were saying, but one got on either side of me, grabbed my arms and we walked arm in arm back to the worship hall, as they continued to smile and try and talk to me. It was wonderful walking with those two precious women.
Saturday came and it was time for us to do our dance. We went backstage, put on our dresses and all the ladies sat around and did all of our hair and make-up. When I finally got a chance to look in the mirror, I looked like a doll. Everyone kept telling me, "Soy mak mak" (very very beautiful). I'm sure I was blushing, but you couldn't tell because my cheeks were already so pink from all the blush they put on. We all peeked through the door to see what the crowd looked like and our excitement grew as we saw all 2000 people staring at the stage. We all walked out there and everyone did a wonderful job. All the girls looked beautiful and I was so proud of them. I was told I did a good job too :) It was so much fun!!

When the girls and I returned from the conference we were told there was a foreigner at the orphanage. We have a girl who is staying with us for 3 months from San Diego. She's really sweet and she's going to do awesome things for the orphanage. Her name is Terra (please keep her and her mission in your prayers). I also just went with Noah and we picked up one more foreigner. Her name is Deidre and she is also from San Diego. They are both right around my age and I have had so much fun speaking actual fluent English with them. Deidre is here for 10 days and we are making the most of her time here. We have a lot planned for this weekend, and we're really looking forward to it. Saturday we are having a Fall Festival for the children. We have lots planned. We also brainstormed and created a drama we are going to perform for the children Sunday night. We're pretty proud of our creation. We also casted the Karen staff that are at the orphanage in our drama. It's going to be a blast! So God hasblessed me with the company of not only Nung Farang (one foreigner) but Song Farang (two foreigners). He's too good to me :)

Tomorrow, I start teaching again, so please keep this next term in your prayers. The children's English really is improving. I'm so proud of them. They're more confident in speaking with the foreigners we have here now, and I love to hear them say things I've taught them. It's great!!! Anyways, life is incredible! God keeps teaching me and I'm enjoying more than anything this adventure of a life He's given me, the life He's given to all of us!!


*new pics

My feet are killing me!

So there's a lot of updating to do. I have been so busy the past couple days and haven't had any time to update my blog. I finally made myself sit down tonight and update all my wonderful friends and family who read this journal. So I have had an exciting week since I last updated you. The teachers once again came to the orphanage and showed me around town (that makes it sound like they paraded me around town.....which is funny because sometimes I feel like they do parade me around. They take me to see all their friends, I'm pretty spectacular here in Thailand :)). They took me to a buddhist celebration and to a buddhist temple. The celebration was fun. I saw Thai dancing and other Thai traditions. As you walk into the entrance into the temple grounds it's lined with children. Women carry tin bowls that are full of candy and 1 baht coins wrapped in tissue paper. They throw them up in the air and the kids go crazy. They tackle each other to get that 1 baht coin. I went to stand in the middle of them to videotape and get some close up pictures and I seriously almost got knocked over. I also had the wonderful experience of eating ice cream Thai style. Kruhawm asked me if I wanted some ice cream and I'm not one to turn down ice cream so I said sure. I was picturing some chocolate chip ice cream (which is really good here and it just happens to be a strange yellowish brown color...but delicious none the less) in a cone. But instead I got ice cream that I don't know the flavor of scooped into a hot dog bun with peanuts and coconut milk poured over it. As strange as it sounds it was delicious! It was definitely strange though to be eating ice cream out of a hot dog bun, but delicous none the less. It was sad to see a lot that they did at the celebration. They made little homes, they looked like dog houses, and they were homes for their dead family memebers. Not only did they build a home for them but they also gave them food, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc. They also gave all these items (and more) to the gods through the monks. I kept thinking of all the poor people who could get a lot better use out of all those things than the dead ever could. The teachers also took me to one of the prettiest temples in Thailand. It was absolutely gorgeous. When we arrived we, of course, took our shoes off before we entered the temple. We had to place our shoes on the rack and run across the hot marble floor to the entrance. Once we entered our feet touched beautiful hardwood floors that connected with the red and gold walls and ceiling. Surrounding us were gold buddhas. One of the monks gave us a tour. He took us through the three levels of the temple. The top level is considered the kingdom of the gods, the middle level is the level for humans, and the lower level is the level for the dead. Kruhawm wouldn't even go down there because she was so afraid of ghosts. They kept asking me if I was afraid, but I tried to explain that my God is greater than any ghost and He protects me. He keeps me safe, so I do not have to fear. As we walked around the temple, I noticed some monks cooking something. We walked over and saw them baking bread. I bought some of that monk bread, and I must admit it was so good. Fresh out of the oven, delicious bread. I also shared my bread with the fish and dogs. One dog fell in love with me, he wouldn't stop following me (ok I'll be humble, he could care less about me, he really wanted some more of that monk bread :)). After we left this temple we went to a Burmese temple (I swear they love to take me to temples. I think they're trying to convert me ;)). This temple housed one of the largest buddha's in Thailand, and also a gold buddha that must remain behind bars so no one steals him (he's actually real gold). When we went and looked at the gold buddha behind the bars, the teachers were awe struck by it. I explained to them that it makes me so sad. There are hundreds of people starving in Thailand (in the world) and here we have a statue made of pure gold. It's sad. I think of how many people we could feed with all the money put into building a silly statue.....but in America, we seem to fall in the same way. We build churches that have beautiful stained glass windows or that have zip lines running from one building to another and yet we have people around the world starving. God doesn't live in a statue, He doesn't live in a church, and yet we try to spend more and more money to confine Him to those things. I think of the way Jesus preached. Out in the open, traveling from town to town, feeding the poor, eating with the prostitutes, and going into the temples that were created and showing us how we have made a mockery of it. Who cares if there are beautiful stained glass windows in a church or a choir with beautiful robes when all I can think about while they sing in their beautiful robes in front of the stained glass windows is how many people we could have clothed with those funds or that we could have fed. There are millions dying every day of starvation and yet we worship a God who has commanded us to feed the poor and clothe the naked in our million dollar buildings. Jesus' following was immensely great and he had no zip line or Starbucks. Here I see golden buddhas, in America I see golden pulpits....how have we all come so far from the story of Jesus.
Ok, moving on :) My week also consisted of a 2 day AIDS prevention camp. We had some people come from the government to talk to our youth about ways that they can prevent AIDS. They shared their ways and Pastor shared the Bible's ways. They played games and the children really enjoyed it. The past 3 days we have also had missionaries here from Korea. They are here teaching Bible studies to the pastor's of the churches that Pastor has started. It's awesome because the Pastor only speaks Korean, so he has a translator who translates into English and then Pastor Winai translates into Karen. When we pray, it almost brings tears to my eyes, to hear the prayer in Korean, then in English, and then in one of my favorite languages...Karen. It's definitely powerful!
I also attended church on Sunday in the Pacharoen village. We celebrated one of our children's birthdays. As we drove to the village our morning was filled with fog. The cold season is definitely on it's way and I love the changes in the weather I get to experience. I have really been popping my Echinacea pills though and taking some good ol' Airborne because I can feel a little bit of a sickness coming on (please keep my health in your prayers). I had the opportunity to teach Sunday school to all the village children. I taught them a song (I've got the joy, joy,joy, joy down in my heart, where?....etc.) and they did such a good job singing it. They performed it for all the adults, it was adorable! The classroom that I taught the children in was completely made out of wood. The children sat on benches that looked like they just chopped trees down and placed them as seats (I put pictures up of the children singing and of the classroom.....they were precious children).
Today was a wonderful day! Me and Kawee went to Mae Sot with a teacher from the Catholic school in Mae Sot. They have asked me to help teach in their English camp that they are having and I told them I would love to. Today I sat down with the leaders of the camp and we just did planning. After we finished Tawnoo (the teacher) dropped me and Kawee off in Mae Sot and we got to walk around Mae Sot until May came and picked us up. It was a really fun day with Kawee and really good bonding time :) May came and picked us up and we went to one store to buy a Karen dress for me. I had to buy a Karen dress because I am going to be a dancer this weekend. The past couple nights me and eleven of the girls have been going to Mae Sot to Hope Baptist church to learn and practice our dance that we will be performing at the camp we go to this weekend. We leave Friday for the 3 day church camp. It's going to be a blast! I am learning a dance that includes Karen dancing, Thai dancing and Burmese dancing. It's so much fun!! Kawee also just informed me today that we will be performing this lovely dance in front of a crowd of 1500 people. That's crazy!! Anyways, tomorrow is our last night of practice. We take off early Friday morning for camp. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day for me. I have to wake up, do English camp all day and then practice, practice, practice that dance at night. And let me tell you, it's not the easiest dance ever. It's definitely awcamangai (exercise) and my feet are killing me :)

*check out the new pics I've uploaded :)

Let's go fly a kite!

Today I had the honor of flying kites with some of the children. The kite was a makeshift little thing made out of newspaper, sticks, really thin string, and a water bottle to wrap the string around, but it was the prettiest kite I'd ever seen. Our time flying the kites was full of laughter and joy! The kids became even happier (if that's possible), as their kites went higher and higher. I loved it! I've never had so much fun flying kites.
Kruhawm came and picked me up today and took me to the preschool in Huai Bong. The teachers there had made me lunch and wanted me to come and eat with them. They were so sweet and the food was delicious!! I also was escorted on another bike ride. The teachers truly are too good to me. Pastor explains that they just love me so much. I can definitely see their love, and I pray that they can always see mine. The weather was beautiful and the sun was shining. It was funny because I rolled my sleeves up so I didn't get a weird farmers tan and I soaked up the sun, while everyone else covered up with their jacket and wore their hat because they like to be white. They have dark skin and they want white skin, we have white skin and we want dark skin. The grass is always greener on the other side :) We rode our bikes to Krusookit's wife's school. She is a teacher in Wang Pha. They set a mat on the soccer field and we ate dinner picnic style. It was great! Krusookit cooked all the food for me and it was delicious! He made fish and Tom Yom Gai. It was a delicous dinner with great company. Another wonderful day with wonderful people. I can't get over how blessed I am!!


**I put up pictures so check them out! (click the link to the right labeled my thailand pictures :))

It's ok, eggs are good for your hair, but I'm not sure about the paint

Our last two days of youth camp were great!! We spent our days exercising, studying scripture, listening to our guest speakers, trying to see which team could get the most points, and having some of the most powerful worship services. Our last day was the day we had games for the children. We had four stations set up for each team to go to and my station was the last station that the children would go to. The game I had planned for the children was really fun! When the children came to me, first I picked 4 children and they had to put a blindfold on. I told them they had to do sit-ups blindfolded and we would see who could do the most in one minute. Once they were blindfolded and in the ready position, I quietly picked four more children and handed each one of them a plate with whipped cream all over it. As the children came up to do their sit-ups the children smashed the plate of whip cream in their face. It was hilarious! Then I had the children get into groups of two. Each pair had to get one rolled up newspaper, one egg, and one pantyhose. The rules were that one of the children had to put the egg on their head and then put the pantyhose over their head to keep the egg on. Then the other person had to get on the person with the egg on their head's back. They had to try and crack everybody elses egg with the rolled up newspaper while protecting their own egg. I read them the scripture verse Psalm 46:1 and we said it in English and Thai. I explained that just as the person on our back was protecting our egg and protecting us, God also is our protector and He won't ever let our egg break. Anyways, it really was a blast!! Teep and Surichai had their army station. The kids had to go through the obstacle course and they again got their faces and hair clobbered with paint. It was so funny to see them all!! May played a game with the children and if they lost, they had to come to me and I got to put make up all over their face. We definitely had some crazy looking youth walking around! We finished our camp with the children performing dramas. I taught one group a drama. It was a drama that I did back when I was younger at church. They did such a good job performing it, I was so proud! One group did an awesome drama, where they didn't do any talking so I was able to understand it. The drama showed a girl who was walking with Jesus, she fell away and began to follow the crowd, then they left her beaten on the ground. She returned to Jesus and He accepted her with open arms and forgave her. Then she fell away again, and was once again battered and beaten and she ran back to Jesus and He once again forgave her and hugged her and loved her. She fell away again and when she returned to Jesus, He took off His white robe and put it on her. She was washed clean! She jumped up and down and rejoiced. I was in the back of the room in tears. It was so powerful watching these youth portray such truth. We mess up all the time and yet Jesus forgives us and welcomes us back. It was such a portrayal of the amazing grace we're shown all the time, and these youth get it. They actually get it. It was powerful! I was so tired that night because we ended up not going to bed until about 2:00 am. Which normally isn't late for me, but I've turned into an old woman here and I like going to bed about 10. That's probably because I try to get all the kids in bed by that time and then I'm exhausted, so I hit the sack. Anyways, the next morning we had an awesome church service. Pastor baptized two of the boys, and it was precious! After lunch many of the children went home to their villages. Since they are on winter break they have time to go to their villages and spend time with their friends and families. They will be returning in about a week for the AIDS seminar that we are having. The government is sending someone to talk about AIDS and preventions.
Life has been a little slower with most of the kids being gone. My class is down to about 40 and I'm not teaching at the Huai Bong school. It's really been fun having a smaller class and being able to do a little bit more one-on-one.
Today was a blast!! I'm truly so blessed here! I'm surrounded by so many people who love me and are so kind! They would give me their shirt off their back if I was to go without. They take care of me so much! I want to serve them and bless them, and they continue to serve me and bless me! But I'm learning that's how it works. We serve and bless and obey God and in turn we are blessed more than we could ever imagine. No wonder God wants us to love others, not only is it good for them but amazing for us!! (not that that's why we should love or serve, it's just an added bonus :)) Today, as I taught the children Kruhawm drove up on her motorcycle and brought me lunch. If the teachers don't take me out for lunch then they bring me lunch to the hostel. They're seriously amazing! They always bring me tons of fruit too. There's no way I can eat all the fruit that I'm given. I've told them I like bananas (they are so delicious here in Thailand), so they always give me bananas. I had enough bananas to give to every girl here at the orphanage. They all would have gone bad if I didn't share them. I love to share them though. I get to see such grateful, happy faces when I share. It's such a good feeling!! As Kruhawm dropped off lunch for me she told me she would be back at 4:00 and we were going to go on a bike ride to Mak Usa Hot Springs. She came and got me at 4:00 and I rode my bike as she rode her motorcycle to her house. We dropped the bike off at her house and she told me to get on her motorcycle. Little did I know I was in for one of the weirdest things I've experienced so far. We drove a little ways down the road and met up with her mom and sister walking. Her sister handed me her baby and Kruhawm told me to have the baby stand up in between me and her on the motorcycle. That's what they do here. No car seats or seatbelts, just little babies practically driving the motorcycle themselves. I held onto that baby so hard. I was so nervouse the whole time we were driving and tried to explain to Kruhawm that this would never, ever be allowed in America. We drove about 5 minutes and then we stopped at an older man's house. Kruwahm took her nephew, and brought him to the man. The man grabbed the babies face and started to blow in his mouth. I was like "what the heck". The baby started crying and he blew in it's mouth three more times. I know I had the strangest look on my face because Kruhawm looked at me and started laughing. Then as if that was not weird enough, Kruhawm got her bottle of water and gave it to the man. He opened up the water bottle and then blew in her water bottle four times. I tried to ask her why he was doing that and she told me she didn't knwo how to explain in English. Anyways, right after he finished blowing in her water, we got back on the motorcycle and left. That was it. We got her nephew and drove all the way to the man's house, so he could blow in the little baby's mouth. Seriously, it was the strangest thing. I still have no idea why he blew in the baby's mouth or in the water. We drove back to Kruhawms house and she gave her nephew back to her sister. Definitely an experience I'm not going to forget. Oh the things I get to see in Thailand :)
Anyways, Kruhawm went into her garage (it's actually a little garage like thing she made out of wood) and got her bicycle and me, her, and Krusookit all went on a beautiful bike ride. The view was extraordinary as we rode our bikes. I wish everyone of you could have experienced that bike ride. My words and pictures could never explain how wonderful it was. It took us about an hour to get to Mak Usa, and I loved every minute of it. As we rode to Mak Usa Hot Springs, the sun was setting. It was gorgeous. There was a cool breeze and it sprinkled just a little (phone tuk neet noy-it is raining a little bit). As we rode past the river, orange, pink and purple were reflected onto my face. The sunset was amazing! It's the greatest feeling to be riding so free amidst all the color of God's glorious sunset. I felt like the sunset was just for me. It was God's gift to me. I couldn't help but just thank Him as I pedaled for all that He does for me. He blows me away. I kept thinking how I could never deserve to be here and yet God continues to make every day more and more amazing! He truly is so good to me! It was really funny because as we rode our bikes along the pretty much empty road we came up to a man who was just peeing right there. I was cracking up. I get two funny experiences in one day :) When we got to the Hot Springs we had a lovely dinner in a little restaurant as we heard the water rushing down the waterfall next to us. It was amazing! By the time we finished dinner, it was pitch dark. There was no moon and no stars above, only lots and lots of gray clouds. We had to ride the whole hour back. It was so much fun! The roads here in Thailand are not the best paved roads ever, so there are lots of holes. I could barely see Kruhawm riding in front of me, none the less holes in the ground, so it was like a roller coaster where you had no idea where you were going next or when you were going to hit a dip. It was a blast! Every time I roughly bounced over a hole in the road I busted out laughing. I couldn't see Krusookit or Kruhawm but I always knew when they hit a hole also because I would hear "oh, oh". It was so funny! They kept telling me "slow, Andrea, slow". Because when I get going down the hills, it's such a rush to just let my bike go fast, so they wanted to make sure I was safe, so they kept telling me to go slow. But I was definitely not going to be speeding down the hills when I could barely see a thing. I'm not that much of a daredevil. Tomorrow, they are coming to get me and we are going on a bike ride again. How did I get to be so blessed? I'm so thankful that a simple bike ride can make me so happy. I'm learning how to see the extraordinary in the ordinary. Many may see ordinary mountains and trees as they drive, but I see extraordinary creation. To think they were created simply by God speaking them into existence. I see God all around me and I don't want to leave His presence. It's amazing!!!

**Check out my pictures. I'm uploading some pictures from camp!!!

I can fly!

The past two days have been absolutely wonderful! I was surprised by 2 of the teachers and some children from the Huai Bong School with a bike ride. They all came to the orphanage and invited me to go on a bike ride with them! I love to ride my bike here, so of course I said "for sure!" They explained to me that we were going to ride our bikes to the mountain! The mountains surround us but I rarely get to go out to them so I was super excited! We started out on our beautiful bike ride. There was a nice breeze and it felt even cooler as I raced bikes with the children. I was winning at first, because I'm such an awesome bike rider, but then I figured I should probably let one of the children win :) As we rode our bikes I wanted to capture every moment, so I clumsily took out my video camera and started recording. As we watched the video later at dinner, you could hear me laughing the whole time because I was shaking so much from riding, so the video is all bumpy. I'm sorry for all those who I will force to watch every video I've taken while I've been here. I'm not the best recorder :) Anyways, we made it to the top of the mountain through walking our bikes uphill, because none of us were strong enough to ride it up, and as we flew downhill we all had a blast letting go of the handlebars and letting our hands and feet go free. I felt like a kid again! It was a blast! On our way up, we stopped at a little hut that was in the field. And just in time too because it started to pour rain. As we sat under the leaf roof in the bamboo hut we ate some dragonfruit and listened to the rain hit the leaves. We all laughed as I tried to speak Thai and they tried to speak English. Once the rain stopped we headed back out to our bikes and our butts met nice wet seats. But really, here, no one cares if your butt is wet, or if your hair gets messed up from the rain. Everyone's so real here. No superficialities. I love it! On our way back down the mountain the sun began to set. As I rode my bike across the red dirt that paved the road, I was surrounded by green fields and trees and the sky was full of oranges, purples, and pinks. It was even cooler now because the sun was setting and the breeze surrounded me and gripped me. I wanted to stay in that moment forever. I felt like I could fly! Like I could just fly right up to Heaven! I could feel God whispering to me in the wind and holding me as the wind wrapped itself around me. It was absolutely peaceful and glorious and beautiful! Once we finally made it down, the sun was completley set. It started to pour again, and I loved it! I couldn't stop laughing as the rain whipped at me as I rode my bicycle. Something about riding in the rain just brings joy! We ate a wonderful dinner, where they once again served me way too much food. But it was delicious! Yesterday, the children and teachers came and surprised me again with a bike ride!! They are so good to me! This time as I rode with the children I sang "If you're happy and you know it" and they loved it! We rode through the streets of the Huai Bong village clapping our hands, stomping our feet (well actually just stomping our pedals since we were riding our bikes), and shouting hooray! Nothing but smiles graced the children's faces!
Two nights ago we had the honor of celebrating Pastor's birthday! He turned 56. Me and May got him a cake for his birthday. It's funny in Thailand, the icing on the cake just tastes like butter. It's really gross. I had a tiny piece and I felt like I was eating sweet bread with tons of butter. It's not really sweet at all. But when they eat it, they think it's really sweet. Strange. Anyways, I was the one who got to bring the cake, with lit candles on it, out to Pastor Winai. He prayed to finish up our worship service and while he prayed we turned off the lights and brought the cake out to him. He was so surprised. All the children and staff sang to him and tears filled his eyes. After he blew the candles out, he looked to me and sincerely thanked me and then told me he thanks God that He brought him another daughter......that daughter is me! Then he brought tears to my eyes! I am truly blessed with a father in Thailand. Pastor is such a wonderful, kind, selfless spirit and he teaches me so much daily! We cut the cake and gave Pastor a piece and, being the kind man that he is, he gave away every piece that we continued to give him. Until there was only one piece left and we told him he had to eat it. He never wants to keep anything for himself. How different from a lot of the people we encounter every day.
Anyways, yesterday marked our first day of our youth camp! It was a blast! We have about 120 youth who are attending our youth camp. It will last 3 days. Yesterday the children arrived at about noon. We ate lunch and everyone registered. We started our camp with a crazy obstacle course. Seriously we would probably get sued for doing what they did with the youth. They had the children race through a tunnel covered by tree branches. The tree branches were infested with giant ants. So as the children came out the other end of the tunnel the ants were biting them all over. We, as staff, weren't aloud to brush the ants off. Right when they came out of the tunnel, two of the staff put colored paint all over their faces and drew on their faces with lipstick. Then the children had to get down, without any time to brush the ants off, and crawl under string. They weren't aloud to touch the string. The boys had to crawl on their backs and the girls on their stomachs. It was hilarious! The ants even started attacking me, and as I screamed and jumped up and down (because one crawled up my pants and bit my butt), all the children just laughed at me! After each team completed the obstacle course they had to line up and thank me in English and then thank the other staff in Thai. Then they had to make their team flag. We have four teams- pink, orange, green, and blue. I'm the staff for the pink team. We had free time in the afternoon, and I played some hardcore badminton. I never knew that game was so much fun and a really good workout. I was playing against Teep who informed me that he was the champion in badminton in his school. He was really good, but I must admit my skill was definitely comparable :)
This morning I woke up at 4:30 am. I had to lead my exercise class this morning. It was awesome! The sun wasn't up yet, so we ran around the field in the dark, being careful not to fall in the holes that are on the field and then we exercised in the hall as the sun rose. After we exercised we sat quietly with our eyes closed and just absorbed God's presence. It was amazing to be sitting in the presence of God with 120 youth as God's beauty surrounded us. The best way ever to start the day!! I loved it! So this marks the second day of our youth camp! After we exercised, the children showered, ate some breakfast (rice of course), and then jumped right in to their Bible studies! They're such great kids! I look at them and I know great things are going to come from them!!

**I'm going to put up pictures from camp after camp is all over, so check for new pics in a couple days!!

A Hug

As I sat in worship and chatted with Noah I noticed that Bybooa was not in worship. I went to her room to see if she was in there to tell her that she needed to come to worship. When I walked in I saw her sitting at her table, doing some homework. I told her that it was time for worship and that she needed to be there. As I told her this, she lifted up her face and I saw very sad eyes. She told me she was very sad. She felt like she was not a good person, not a good student, that God doesn't love her, and that she misses her mom and sister. After she finished saying this she broke down into tears. I sat there and held her as she sobbed. She was crying so hard she shook in my arms. As I held her my heart broke for her and I cried too. I rocked her back and forth and held her for over 30 minutes as she cried on my shoulder. Bybooa has to live at the orphanage because her family is way too poor to take care of her. After she calmed down a little bit, I tried to explain to her in the little bit of Thai that I know and easy English words that she knows that God loves her more than anyone could ever love her. And that God is captivated by the creation He made in her. I prayed with her and she kept thanking God for all that He does for her. It was a powerful time. As she explained to me that she really misses her mom and sister, she told me that I am her mom and her sister. It brought even more tears to my eyes. I explained to her that although I may not be her real mother, I love her like she was my own daughter. She asked me if I missed my mom. I told her yes, but I can talk to my mom on the phone. After I finally left Bybooa, about 2 hours later, I did call my mom. I couldn't imagine being 15 and not having my mom there to hold me when times were rough, or lay with me when I'm not feeling well, or tell me how beautiful I am. This is such an important time in a girls life. Good thing we have a God who takes care of us. God provided my arms to hold Bybooa, my heart to love her, and my voice to tell her how beautiful and wonderful she is. God knew exactly what she needed. She needed love and she needed a hug. I have love and I have arms that hug. Maybe that's my mission here. To be the arms that hug, the heart that loves, and the voice that encourages. I couldn't ask for a better mission!!

3 more months

So I'm legal now :) I was able to cross the border today, thank God! Pastor had spoken with some people a couple days ago who were crossing the border into Burma and they said it was safe to cross but that I should cross as soon as possible. I didn't have to cross until October 20th, but we decided it was best if I crossed today. Me and May went into town to do a food run for the kids and I took care of some shopping I needed to get done. While we did this, we decided to take a trip to the "Friendship Bridge", so I could cross into Burma and get my stamp so I am able to stay another 3 months. Everything went well. I had to walk the bridge by myself. It's not safe for the Karen people to go to Burma with me, so I made the 5 minute trek across the bridge by myself. I felt like I was walking the plank.....I was a little nervous, just praying that everything would go okay. The guards on the Thai side and the Burmese side were really nice. I chatted with them a little while they took care of all the Visa stuff. I was so thankful when he told me I was clear to head back to Thailand. That meant it was all taken care of. It only cost 500 baht, which is a way better price then if I would have had to take a bus to Chiang Mai and then a plane to Malaysia. Anyways, Pastor told me that he is working on getting a work visa for me. Please keep this in your prayers. If I have a work visa I will not have to cross the border at all. I will be able to stay in Thailand until it's time for me to go home. This would allow me more freedom and it wouldn't matter what the border situation would look like.
We had a busy day today. We spent the whole morning and afternoon shopping in Mae Sot. We went to the Tesco Lotus, which is the grocery store here. As I mosied my way through the isles, I spotted some spaghetti sauce and next to the spaghetti sauce were noodles. I was so excited!! I have been craving some American food lately. I bought myself some spaghetti and I'm going to have it for dinner tomorrow, I'm really excited!! I also bought my supplies for my English lesson tomorrow. I'm teaching the children about ordinal counting (first, second, third, etc.), and I'm going to teach them this by having them follow a set of directions. For example, "First we do ............. Second we do.............). We are going to make Oreo Pops (which are Oreo cookies that they put on a popsicle stick, dip in chocolate, and then sprinkle sprinkles on them). The kids are going to love it!
Tonight, we were blessed by the presence of a group of missionaries from Syngapore. They spoke English fluently and they were a blast! They played games with us and gave a short message. They were such nice people! It was really fun being able to chat with them. They invited me to the church they are attending on Sunday, which is called Hope Church. This church also has planted churches in Los Angeles and Chicago. I'm really excited to go to their church and hear a sermon in English. Also, Sunday's my day off so I will be able to hang out with them on Sunday. I also was asked by the Pastor of the Hope Church to attend a camp they are having October 26th-28th. It's a youth camp and me and 12 of the girls from Agape are going to be going. I'm really looking forward to it!
Anyways, tomorrow two of the teachers are coming from the Huai Bong school and we are going to clean all the girls hair. Me and Krudam went to the clinic and spoke with the doctor and nurse and we got them to donate the medicine for all the girls who have lice so we can kill the lice. We're going to clean all their belongings and their hair. Some of the girls have lice pretty bad. It breaks my heart to see these little, innocent girls scratching at their heads. Well, hopefully, they won't be anymore tomorrow. It's so cool that the teachers are coming to help. I had just told them that I was wanting to buy the medicine and clean all the girls hair. She suggested we go to the clinic and see if they would donate and they did! One bottle for each girl! And the teachers said they wanted to help me! So many people in the village are being connected with Agape now and wanting to be a part of it all!! Praise God!! He's truly working!!

You want me to put what on??

Tonight was so extremely fun!! I laughed so hard tears were streaming down my face! I'm keeping my English lessons simple this week and playing more games. The children are finishing up their term and taking final exams. Next week starts "winter" break. They just call it a break in between terms but I'll call it winter break :) It lasts for one month. So I also get a one month break. Not from teaching entirely though just from teaching in the Huai Bong School. I'll still be teaching at the orphanage every night. Anyways, tonight I taught about the four seasons. It's difficult to explain Autumn to them because in Thailand there are only 3 seasons. They have the cold season (we refer to this as winter), the hot season (we refer to this as summer), and the rainy season (do we have this in Arizona??? I'm guessing this would be like our spring and autumn combined). So I taught about the seasons and what each one of them is like. Then I had the children get into groups and they had to write clothing items that they would wear in each season. I had already taught a lesson on clothes so this was review. When I began the lesson, I walked into the room with a jacket, scarf, gloves, and beanie on and asked the children which season they thought I was dressed for. I could see them all get excited and engaged in the lesson as I walked out looking ever so silly (dressed in winter clothes when it was really hot outside). After they brainstormed clothes that they would wear in each group we discussed it all as a group. Then we played two games. The first game one child from each group had to run up to the board and the first one who spelt the item of clothing I said got a point for their team. You should hear them cheering for each other, it's awesome! They all raced quickly to get a point for their team, but team Nemo took first place, team Minnie Mouse took second place and team Spiderman, well came in last place and only got one point. It was a sad day for Spiderman :) After this game, I had one more game planned. I had packed a pillowcase full of some of my clothing items that would be worn in each of the seasons. It was packed with everything from socks, long johns, shorts, and t-shirts, to my bathing suit. We picked 10 children to sit in the center of our circle that contained my 80+ students. They had to pass the pillowcase full of clothes around until the music stopped. When the music stopped whoever had the pillowcase had to stick their hand in without looking and pull one item out. Whatever item they took out they had to put on. God definitely wanted to bring me joy tonight, because it worked out perfectly who put on each item. Somoo had to wear the skirt and the bag stopped once on one of the boys and he pulled out the bathing suit top (we all just about died laughing) and then the bag stopped on him again and he pulled out the bathing suit bottom. This turned us all hysterical. (I got pictures of it all, so check out kodak......seriously hilarious!!!). They were all such good sports! I kept thinking they would never go for this in America....we'd be way too shy! Anyways, they all loved it! I love to laugh so much, it refreshes me! I definitely got my fill of being refreshed tonight! There was so much joy flowing through that place! We all had a blast!
Anyways, I have a border run coming up here real soon. If you don't know what a border run is, it means that I have to cross the border to get a stamp in my passport. I got a one year visa, but the rules of the visa is that I cross the border every three months and then I can remain in the country for one year. I think they do this so the Thai government keeps tabs on me or something. Anyways, I don't know if you've been hearing, but there are protests going on in Burma right now to protest against the civil war that has been going on for decades. These protests have been causing a lot of uproar and the Burmese soldiers are not really fond of that. Anyways, the border that I want to cross is only 15 minutes away and that border is the Thai/Burmese border. We're not sure if the border is exactly safe, so we're praying about what it's going to be like. If the border is not safe then I'm going to have to go to Chiang Mai by bus and then to Malaysia by airplane. That's a lot more expensive then the simple 15 minute truck ride to the Burma border. Anyways, please keep this situation in your prayers. Also, keep all the events going on in Burma in your prayers.
Other than this, still just teaching the children at the Huai Bong School and more and more kids are coming to the lessons I teach at the orphanage. This week, I have been testing the children in English. It's been a busy Monday full of testing and the rest of the week will be the same. They need an English grade for their report cards and I'm their English teacher, so testing is calling my name...."Kru Andrea". My classes will be smaller over the break because many of the children will go home to their villages, so it will be nice to work with a smaller class, although I'm really growing fond of my large class.....they're so much fun!! October 11-13th we're having a youth camp here, so that's going to be a blast too!! I have one station where the kids will come too and we will play crazy, wacky games and they must listen to directions only in English.....we'll see how that goes :) I'll definitely be putting pics of that up!! Anyways, my night was great!! I laughed enough to last anyone a month....but I know there will only be more laughter and joy tomorrow......Praise God!! Life couldn't be any better!! I'm off to sleep now so the joys of tomorrow can come quickly!