Wise words of Noah

As I drove to the University with Noah to pick up May we had a discussion. Noah loves to speak English....actually Noah loves to speak period...English or Thai, you can always catch Noah talking. He's awesome! As we were talking we started talking about "the enemy". What Noah said really intrigued me, I had never thought about it before. He said that Satan is not always our greatest enemy, believers are. "Believers" are the ones who crucified Christ, "Believers" are the ones who gossip about each other, and "Believers" are the ones who aren't truly, genuinely loving each other.

"But I don't need to write you about the Christian love that should be shown among God's people. For God himself has taught you to love one another. Indeed your love is already strong toward all the Christians......Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we beg you to love them more and more." 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10

"And may the Master pour on the love so it fills your lives and splashes over on everyone around you." 1 Thessalonians 3:12

"So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples." John 13:34-35

Love is such an important commandment and yet so many of us forget to do this. Am I allowing myself to be the enemy? When people look at me, do they see that I am a disciple of the Lord? Is my love proof to the world that I am completely devoted and passionately in love with my God? Are we the enemy, or is the love of God that fills our hearts and our lives splashing onto everyone around us all the time? Are we genuinely loving everyone? How many times do I have the opportunity to give a little bit more of myself. To stop, and take the time that God has blessed me with and drop what I'm doing and give my time to bless others. To realize that the things that I have made a priority aren't even important when it comes to loving every single person God has placed into my life. Take a little longer to actually listen harder, love harder. What would Jesus do? We need to be more like Mary in the story of Martha and Mary. Martha rushed around cleaning and preparing things and Mary sat at the feet of Jesus. Martha complained to Jesus and Jesus told her that Mary had chosen what was better. To simply sit and love. So simple!


Yesterday I had to go to the post office to pick up a package and Pastor Winai came to me, handed me the keys to the truck, and told me that Kawee and Boom would go with me to the Post office. So I took the keys and took my place as the driver in this crazy land of Thailand. It's a good thing I learned how to drive manual (God does have everything taken care of) otherwise I wouldn't be able to drive here. As I drove, on the right side of the car in the opposite side of the road, a chicken decided it wanted to run right out in front of me. It scared the me! I screamed and the girls just laughed and laughed at me. As if it's not confusing enough to drive on the opposite side of the car and road, a chicken has to run out and confuse me even more :) I also kept getting the windshield wipers and the blinker confused. Here the windshield wipers are on the left and the blinker is on the right, so every time I was going to turn there went the windshield wipers, back and forth, back and forth as the girls once again busted out laughing. I made it safely to the post office, though despite all the craziness. They drive so different here. Nobody puts their seatbelt on, and nobody stays in their lane so you really have to be alert here. Plus, the government and public safety is so corrupt here, so nobody really follows the rules. If you get pulled over by a cop, when you hand him your license you simply put money underneath it and he lets you go. If you are a farang (that's what they call foreigners here), they don't even bother you. So I could basically do whatever I want.
I had the privelige of meeting a man named Eddie. He stayed here for 2 nights. He is a missionary from Australia living in Chiang Mai. He comes down to this orphanage about once a month to help the refugee camps. He sneaks into the refugee camps to bring them supplies and other things they need. You can be praying for him because it is very dangerous for him. If he gets caught they could send him to jail or even kill him.
Yesterday they began building the lake for the water. Once this lake is built and the purification set up the water will be completely free of all bacteria. The water will even be safe for me to drink. I have been drinking only bottled water and even brushing my teeth in bottled water. It's not worth it to get a parasite so I take all precautions. It has been raining every day here, so once the lake is finished there will be a lot of water to last us throughout the other seasons when there is no rain. There are 3 seasons here. Rainy (June-October), cold (November-February), and hot (March-May)...very, very, very hot. It will probably be nothing for me being from Phoenix.
Today was really fun! I went to the University with May and Noah to talk with their English professor. His name is Joe and all the students call him Teacher Joe. He's from Ireland. We met and set up a schedule for the English camp that we will be doing. It's going to be so much fun! We are going to be teaching English to 18 year olds. I met a lot of May and Noah's friends and they loved speaking English with me. It's funny how many people want to speak English here. We get mad in America if people don't speak English, and here everyone desperately wants to speak it. After we left the University, we went into Mae Sot to buy the things we would need to celebrate Nu Nu's birthday. She turned 6 today. I bought her an outfit for her birthday and May bought pancake mix to make the cake. They don't have an oven here, so she bought pancake mix, made pancakes, and stacked them on top of eachother and then frosted them with frosting (they call it frosting, it was actually butter and glucose- similar to powdered sugar). I just ate some of the pancakes, they were yummy :) Pranom, Pastor Winai's wife, made noodles and hard boiled eggs for all the children as a treat for the celebreation. They all lined up with their bowls, brought their specail treat to their place on the ground, waited for everyone to sit, then they sang the song they sing before they eat, and I blessed the food and they chowed down. I love how nobody eats until everyone has been served. It's so neat! Nu Nu loved her outfit. She was so grateful!
There is a Karen woman staying with us who is in her late 70's. She doesn't speak any English, but her face speaks it all. She smiles and reveals black teeth. She holds your hand and her rough black from dirt hand rub up against yours. She laughs and her eyes, that reveal years of hard work and a long life, sparkle for just a moment. She hugs me and I just sit with her, not exhanging any words, but so much wisdom and love flows through her to me. All she wants of me is to sit with her. We don't have to say anything, and we do more for each other than words could do. I think about my busy life in America and how I wouldn't have taken the time to simply sit with this incredible woman. To slow down for what really matters. This is life lived the way it was meant to be lived. Tears come to my eyes as I write this. The amazing life I'm living is overwhelming. How God is using this is overwhelming. We can learn so much without ever saying a thing.



P.S. I will upload more pics at the same place so keep checking them out:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=9g2wdfq0.81wlq2oo&Uy=-915v4m&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0

Also, I am going to figure out the best way for everyone to send me packages if they want to. I just got a package and I have to pay about 40 American dollars to pick it up. I'm going to pick it up tomorrow, so I'll know more tomorrow about the best way to send packages. The customs here is a little corrupt, so they charge me a heavy tax to get the stuff and sometimes they take stuff from the boxes. I've received one box and didn't have to pay for it and nothing was stolen, but this box I have to pay for for some reason. So I will see why and will definitely keep you updated on how to send packages. Please keep checking for the update. My address if you do want to send anything is:

Andrea Zukewycz
Eternal Love Church Association
248 Moo 8
T. Mae Jaroung A. Mae Ramart
Tak Province, Thailand 63149

Also, if anyone wants to email me for anything at all my email (in case you don't have it) is:

mustangandrea@cox.net