We found a VERY SLLOOOOW internet solution, so that I am able to blog from the village. It’s been a great week, and we are enjoying ourselves. I’m hoping to upload some more photos of the village and daily life, but I’ll have to wait till I get to a place with good internet speed. So, read the news and enjoy!!
Karen Church
On Sunday we went to a Karen Church. They don’t have their own building in the village we visited, but they meet in a home. It’s actually kind of nice – there’s something special about house churches. It’s more intimate, as a family should be. So, we spent the first hour sharing songs in Thai, Karen and English, as a kind of a round, with each group taking turns to sing. Then the team began to share testimonies and words of encouragement for this small group of believers. Of course, it was impossible to keep the kids quite, so I had to take them outside… on the way down the stairs, my impatient son, who wouldn’t wait for me to help him, fell down the very steep, very tall Karen style stairs. It was quite a tumble. His trajectory was such that he should have landed on his head, but on the second last step he put his hand out and did a cool little flip, thus landing on his bum. As he fell, Sean was flying through the air, having leapt from the top step to rescue him. Sean landed on his feet just as Timothy hit bottom, and scooped him up in his arms before Timothy even had a chance to started crying. I think my kids have inherited their father’s ape like agility.
English Camp
This week has been a lesson in ‘being’ for me. While the rest of the team leads the English Camp for the local village school, I have spent the week Being Mum. The first couple of days I underwent some intense ‘missionary guilt’, feeling like I am not doing enough ‘ministry’. But I’m learning to live up to my own belief that my kids are my primary ministry, while also seeking to find ways to allow them to be partners in the ministry that God has called Sean and I to. We take walks every day, praying as we go, and we visit the women in the village. I tell Samantha that we are going to visit the cats and dogs, or go buy a snack. But what I really want to do is go make friends. It kind of back fired on me the other day. During dinner a man came to the school and gave Samantha a kitten The kids played with delight. The kitten endured the torture with great angst. As we returned home, I took the kitten back. It took about 20 minutes to convince both Samantha and the Little Old Lady that we could not take care of it. Apparently she was also in the process of acquiring a puppy for us.
The team did a stellar job teaching English. I think it was the girls who really pulled it off. They spent many hours preparing a curriculum from scratch, including Bible stories, puppet shows, songs, skits, ABC drills, flash cards and games. The week culminated in an Easter Egg hunt – yes, it was a week late – the kids were fascinated by the process of coloring the eggs and they had a blast during the hunt! Our team built an amazing rapport with the village kids, so much so that by the second day many of the kids were greeting us with enthusiasm and showing lots of affection. Thai’s are not usually affectionate, but children often feel a certain freedom to express themselves this way with foreigners.
Day off
Saturday was our day off, and we decided to visit a near by national park, with water falls, hot springs and most importantly, massage!! So, we set off into the wilderness, following the trail along the edge or the stream. We stopped in several places to feed the fish and wade in the water. The ultimate goal of the team was to make it to the very top of the 6 level waterfall. I encamped with the kids at the bottom, feeding the fish and enjoying a splash. Then suddenly the sky opened up and the monsoon began! It’s the end of April! It’s not supposed to rain!! Expecting a quick down pour followed by sunshine, we huddled under a tree to wait it out. Waiting and getting wetter. And colder. So, we made a mad dash along the trail back to civilization. Timothy was laughing the whole way as I sang silly songs about the rain. Needless to say we were drenched. So, as good missionaries do, we ordered sticky rice and chicken with honey spicy sauce, and had lunch. Then we went back down the mountain to the hot springs for a dip and a massage.
Heaven. I’m in Heaven….
I could have spent the entire day just hanging out at the hot springs. Forget the waterfall and nature. I want to relax!! 😉
But I think that Sean’s experience was a little different. While I enjoyed my massage, Sean was soaking in the hot springs with the kids. The pool was quite big, and Samantha was being her usual crazy self, jumping around and doing stunts. She decided to do a flip off one of the rocks. She slipped and landed on her head, and got a slight concussion. She had a big knot on her head, pupils dilated, very sleepy and a little dizzy. The team prayed for her and the knot on her head went down and she began to feel better, ready to get back in the water and play again.
We’ll be off to Jok Bok tomorrow, the Karen village where we did the work on the stairs and toilets. They actually have a church building. We’ll see if I can sit through a church service this week or if we’ll be chasing chickens again. Stay tuned to this channel to find out.
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