Last Night

Last night was my final night in Thailand! Craziness- this trip has gone by with a snap of my fingers. The children went around sharing different things they were thankful for, and it was such a blessing to my heart to hear of their deep and sincere gratitutde for absolutely everything. Those kids have just touched my heart and soul all over again, and I am so grateful to my God because of it! Goodbyes are always tough, but oh the joy to know that I shall see them again. I'm at the airport right now getting ready to board my flight home... God is good.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your prayers. THANK YOU over and over again. I praise the Lord for the people who have been praying for me : ) God has answered your prayers and grown me, protected me, and been with me. To the praise of His glory Amen!

Mother's Day

So Thursday was Mother's Day for Thailand because it is the Queen's birthday. The Thai staff at our children's home, along with Ajan Lana/other Life Impact women staff members attended the children's school ceremony. When we arrived, we were surrounded by many other women and their children. Once the main ceremony came to an end, I noticed that many of the children at the school were in tears during a song so I asked Knot (thai translator) why the children (not including our Life Impact Children) were so sad. Though some of the kids were crying because they had no mother or their mother could not be there, most were crying because Mother's Day in Thailand is made to be very discouraging and degrading. The first song spoke of a mother's care for her children, and how all the children ever do is disobey and make their parents' lives difficult--- continually the song speaks of the children being of little help/worth. The second song is what got me and it said something like this: "In my class I have a teacher and she asked us to write a letter to our mothers for Mother's Day. However, I have no mother for she is dead and I am an orphan so my teacher told me to write about being a lonely orphan." As the song progressed the child sang of how she was an orphan; alone. How depressing it was to see the children so sad at that moment. One of the younger (17) staff members came to me crying and when I asked a translator what was wrong, she was crying because she did not have a good relationship with her mother. The next day when our Children's Home celebrated Mother's Day, Ajan Lana spoke to the children about how they didn't just have one mother, they had 22! She said that there are belly mamas' and heart mamas': though we are heart mothers, and the children were born in our hearts, we love you just as much as a belly mama would. Praise the Lord that we are able to speak truth to them!

Last Night

Last night in Thailand (well last full night in Mae Sot that is)... Praise the Lord for this trip! It has blessed me : ) I will miss being here, but after a month I am eager to be with my beloved family. Thank you ALL for your prayers, they were evident and are so much appreciated by me and my fam. -- but this is not my last post, I have a few more stories which I will share hopefully tomorrow.

2 Timothy 2

"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart....And the Lord's servant must not me quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant then repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.."
2 Timothy 2:22,24-25
These verses have been resonating within me to the praise of the Lord's grace. How can I better flee youthful passions?
"Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything."
2 Timothy 2:7
Wow. That's amazing. I think that verse speaks for itself completely : )
In verse 24 we Christians are called to patiently endure evil. How merciful our Lord in heaven is! This verse encouraged me with the reminder that this world IS evil but by the Lord's grace I cannot let it affect my peace and patience. There is no getting around the darkness but God being rich in mercy, even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ. How mighty to save is He!

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was so enjoyable- The two full days that we were there we just shopped until we dropped for fabrics, lamp shades, and other things to decorate our office in Mae Sot. Last night one of the staff and I stayed up late at the night bazaar (super large and crowded street market with everything you could possibly think of) buying different things and it was so much fun. Most of the time because we are white, the people selling their products charge us twice as much, so you should begin haggling at at least half of what they ask.... but I'm a true bargain shopper. They'd tell me it was like 200 baht (which is really only like $6.25) and I'd get em down to like 80 baht (which is barely more than $2). Totally my scene. Sometimes I'd name my price and they'd laugh at me and say no, and so I'd walk away and they'd continue to lower their price as I was leaving, and eventually they'd crack and yell, "Okay Okay!! I'll do it!" Gotta love it.... Super intricate purses for $5. We were told to meet in the hotel lobby at 3:00 a.m. for our ride back to Mae Sot, but when we got back to our hotel room and showered we realized it was already almost 1:00 so we just made some coffee and stayed up until 2:30, walked to McDonalds and had burgers, and then got in the truck : ) I'm so thankful we did that because if I only get 2 hours of sleep it feels worse in my opinion. The reason we had to leave so early was beacause at 8:00 a.m. we had to be at the childrens' mother's day celebration at their school.

Extended

To the praise of the Lord I was able to extend my trip a few days, and so I don't have to go back to the states so soon : ) Tonight was my friends' last night in Mae Sot, and tomorrow we are all going to Chaing Mai until the 11th-then I'll come back to Mae Sot. The children had their belt test today for Tae Kwon Doe and it was absolutely adorable to watch! Many of them were able to graduate to yellow belts, and the others were given white belts. Today my heart was opened to my lack of patience once more, and my prayer is that I would be slower to speak. Over and over again I am blessed by the hearts of the people here. What a good God we serve!

Return

Last night during dinner I was sitting on the floor with EhTooSay telling him how sad I was that I was leaving in just a matter of days. He looked up at me and said, "When you leave I will not be very happy, but I love you so much!" I love that little guy: ) Boy will it be tough when it is time to leave but I praise the Lord that He has given me such a wonderful wonderful opportunity. My prayer is that I would return soon.