Popeye the Sailor Man

Today was a wonderful day!! I had the joy of joining May and Noah in their trip to Mae Sot. We dropped the children off at a youth worship service and we went to Popeye’s. That’s right we went to Popeye’s chicken. Some good ol’ American greasy food. Delicious!! (Actually I don’t think I like that kind of American food all that much, it made my stomach upset). At this Popeye’s they sell pizza too, and they actually use real cheese. But they have weird topping combinations. They have a seafood pizza and a vegetable pizza where one of the vegetables was corn. Weird. I ordered some garlic bread, and enjoyed eating it for the first time since I’ve left America. It was very good! I also had the opportunity to drink my most favorite drink in Thailand. They don’t have it at every restaurant so I’m excited when I get to drink it. It’s called Thai Iced Tea. It sounds boring, but they add some Thai stuff and make regular Iced Tea delicious! After, we came home from Mae Sot, I gathered up 5 boys to fill up water balloons for me. They were so excited to fill them up because they knew it meant that we would be playing games with them. While they filled them up, I taught songs to the other children. Then I told them it was time to play the games, they jumped up and down and all I could hear was excited Thai J We played water balloon volleyball (materials- water balloons and sheets). They loved it! The boys were really good at it. Then, the children took a 15 minute break and it was time for exercising. I have now started a Thai exercise class. So if anyone is wanting to join, all you need to do is purchase your ticket for Thailand and be willing to serve the Lord :) I will do my exercise class every day except Sunday, from 4:30-5:30. We run, do a little tae-bo, and anything else I can think of, and then we stretch and have a cool down while listening to worship music. Then I have the children sit quietly and just spend time with God. Then we close with prayer!! It’s been amazing and the children love it, plus it keeps them and me healthy and fit! Boy, have I been sweating, but it’s nice because it makes those cold showers I have to take feel awfully nice! I spent some time with May and Noah and some of the kids in their house. We watched Spiderman. I sat next to one of the boys. He flicked a bug off his foot, and I busted out laughing. I do a lot of laughing here! I'm just so overwhelmed with joy. What he did wasn't even funny. Nobody knew why I was laughing, but to me it was hilarious!! I was filled with so much joy and happiness I literally felt like I was going to cry!! It's hard to explain that kind of pure joy I was blessed with at that moment. It's incredible! I had the opportunity to sit with two of the girls, Kawee and Nanna, because they wanted to learn one of the worship songs we listened to as we stretched during our exercise class. I wrote the words for them to “Draw me close to you”, and sat and listened as their angelic voices sang the words. It was beautiful!! Worship was also beautiful tonight! We sang “Jesus, lover of my soul”, and it seriously brings so many joyful tears to my eyes every time I hear all those voices being lifted up to God! After worship I came into the office to update you lovely people, and Solo ran behind me as I sat, grabbed a bamboo stick and started stabbing it into one of the drawers on the other desk. I freaked out and asked him what he was doing and he explained that he was trying to kill the mouse. As I heard little squeaks coming from the drawer, I jumped up on my chair. This mouse, unlike the mouse you are using to scroll down to read this, is very bad for the computers. So despite the squeaking that was making me very sad, I knew he had to go. Solo wasn’t able to kill him and he escaped from the drawer. And the race was on! He ran to the door and closed it tight. Kawee, Nanna, Seeqwa and Ooten were all in ready position. I must remind you I am still, like a little scared girl, standing on top of my chair. The mouse runs past me, heading for the door. Little does it know, we are smarter than it and the door has already been closed. It tries to hide behind one of the computers, but they see it. They shake the desk and it begins to run for it’s life again. Nanna gets down ready to catch it with her hands, which I just couldn’t believe! These Karen girls are definitely warriors! She wasn’t able to catch it and Seeqwa tries to go in for the kill. He begins stomping where the mouse is, in his bare feet I might add, but the mouse is a little bit quicker then his stomping foot and gets away. It runs behind the desk again, but this time Solo, bamboo stick in hand, shoves the stick to the back of the desk and we hear the mouse’s final breath. We prayed he was a Christian ;) I thanked them for killing the mouse. They were all my heroes. I stood my ground on top of that chair through the whole ordeal. I guess I’m the typical American. While the Karen girls get down on their hands and knees to catch the mouse, I stand atop and supervise. Definitely a sight J At least now we will all sleep soundly, knowing there won’t be a mouse trying to jump into bed with us.