Sawadii kah from Karla!
I think its about that time to start getting you guys caught up on what we're doing here in Ubon! You ready! Lets go!
So Bekah left off talking about the house church, i believe. That would mean that Monday came next which is our Sabbath here so I spent a lot of time catching up with God and we both had good, long quiet times alone. In the evening, we went to Took Ta and Bonas' New Years Eve party. We played musical chairs and the balloon game where you tie a balloon to your foot and then try to pop other people's balloons with your feet..yeah! I didnt know anyone besides our team and the girls so it was fun stomps on other people's feet...just kidding guys. It was a good laugh for sure! :D There was a gift exchange that we participated in as well. Super fun! Delicious homemade Thai food. I could eat that every night!
Tuesday we went to Took Ta and Bonas's house playing Dutch Blitz, listening to music and singing songs. Another guy from the house church came as well, Geng. He is quite hilarious! Lots of fun there. Then we ate dinner with them and went out for dessert. (Here in Thailand its all about New Years so all the stores and schools were closed for a while.) Spent the whole day with friends. Nice!
Tiredness hit us on Wednesday so we just spent the day in our room reading and listening to music and such.
Thursday we had our formal orientation with Kris and Silk. We did a prayer drive and talked about the culture of Thailand more. Shared testimonies and sang songs. Then! We went to a hospital to visit a friend. He is the grandfather of one of the boys in our house church. He is adorable. Half of his teeth..biggest eye dimples and his cheeks....so many dimples there! He smiled the whole time we were there! Hes already out of the hospital so thats super cool! It was a government-run hospital though, so it was quite the interesting experience. People are set out everywhere or those tall mat/beds and it was very crowded and family members were leaning against the wall. Hmm.....new culture experience! Playing bad mitten in the evening with the University students we very exciting! We realized that we can't play bad mitten. In Thailand, its like the super fun thing to do with friends so they are all very good at it. I'm poor at playing in America compared to other Americans so i was really bad here! Haha. Bekah and i just laughed at ourselves the whole night. Getting the sand out of our clothes was fun once we got home. Good day! :D
Det Udom is another part of Ubon; we visited Kris' friend there all day on Friday. While she talked to her friend, Bekah and I played with her sons. Jon is three. Theo is one. Ahhhh! So much fun! We played games on Jon's computer and he showed his remote control motorcycle! Haha. We ate at her house and then went to visit our ex-roommate, Sarah, and the family that she is working with..which happens to be her aunt and uncle! Kris and Nit, the friend we visited, are good friends with Sarah's aunt and uncle. Yeah! So that was fun and a circle little break from our part of Ubon Ratchathani. I think that was all we did that day.
Saturday morning Bekah and I had some good old bonding time with The Lord for a while. It was great. We're learning a lot about the power of prayer and interceding for one another. For lunch, we went to the mall to grab a bite to eat with our ex-roommate from Bangkok, Sarah! She came to Ubon for the afternoon and hung out with us, so that was super exciting to get a chance to catch up with her! After lunch, we went to the spa and, using some money we had won from a New Years party, got a massage and fish spa! A fish spa....i don't know if you guys have heard of such a thing before but! Its extraordinary! Haha. What you do is dang,e our feet in a little tank with small orange fishies and tiny black fishies....then, they start to nibble at your feet! YES! They do! They eat all the dead skin off your feet...its crazy! We got the fifteen minute one, but the first seven minutes were spent giggling and laughing and squealing. Because of this, and because we are three white teenage girls, the people walking past were staring at us and laughing at us! it was wonderful! But, nothing that were not used to. :D then, we got full-body oil massages. Nice! Yes, we treated ourselves but it was free money and it was a good afternoon with a close buddy! We hung out with Kris and Silk afterwards.
Sunday morning we had the house church and it was an all girls day. Haha! Some people were still here because of New Years from other villages so they joined us as well! We read about god delivering Peter from prison and the power of prayer. Also, we heard the sory four different times so that we can share it with someone else! So, when we get home, you guys should test us just to make sure we still got it. It was nice to talk about what we learned and such. Afterwards, Took Ta invited Bekah and i, along with two girls from another program to go to the Laos border with her. We looked at each other, asked Kris if she had any plans for us and then!!!! There we were: Rachel, Katie, Bekah, Took Ta and Karla heading off to Laos! On the way back home, we stopped by a dam close to the border and walked around. There were trees! And grass! And flowers! And i the distance you could see mountains...well try to get some pictures of it up here for y'all to see what I'm talking about! Yeah....and then we ate on a raft/dock thing by the river. Mmmmmm.....the sun was going down, Took Ta had some music playing, we dangled our feet in the water, chatted and gobbled up food. Now thats fellowship and building relationships. Yummy food. Good friends. Beautiful sky! It was max favorite part of the day! :D That was pretty much all day so we just got home and relaxed afterwards.
The Sabbath. lunes. wancan. Monday. In the afternoon we went over to Took Ta and Bonas' house and played table tennis...we really need to pay something that Bekah and I can actually beat them in! Seriously, they beat us in bad mitten and then yesterday they creamed us again...actually it wasnt as bad as bad mitten but ....we need to show them that Americans actually have some skill...somehow! Haha. That was fun though! Took Ta took us to the food market and then we ate ice cream and crepes for dessert! YUM! We went out by the river and had some really good conversations! Lets just say, Took Ta is kinda like a big sister to us. One of our good friends for sure! :D So that was nice. As the moon went down and the ice cream settled into our stomachs and the sand monster came, we layed into our beds and let sleep overtake us...late at night...later than we wanted..but well get to that later!
Today is Tuesday. This morning we woke up exhausted. Bekah and i both didnt fall asleep till late last night, and today was our first day of ministry. Someone mist have known that and not wanted us to go though because when Bekah hopped onto her bike, she realized that her tire was flat. We had to have Kris come and pick us up and take us there, which was fine but the fact that we didnt get a lot or sleep, and then the tire...Satan really didnt want our ministry day to begin! Then, on the way to the preschool that we were supposed to teach English at, a car pulled out and almost hit us...we're fine. Monm or Chris or grandparents, don't fret! Just another thing that we encountered as someone tried to keep us for doing what God called us here to do. Other things have been happening these past couple of days to our team and to other people as we prepare for Henry to come. He is a speaker who is coming from Wednesday to Friday. W are preparing for the big Evangelistic event that will be happening in March. But...in the days leading up to these preparation days, there is already spritual warfare. So! Hopefully God is planning to do something amazing. HE has already defeated Satan once so we just enforce His deliverance to us. Amen! Okay so! We went to Kittikun preschool and taught them how to count to ten. We played a game and taught them a song. Then, we all went outside...our class was the five years olds....and played games out there. Then they all came back inside to play with toys. Bekah played Janga with the kids and I colored, made airplanes, built towers so the boys could throw stuff at them to make them fall down, made Legos fly and had a really good time. We sure didnt let the mean dude downstairs ( I'm talking about Satan here...try to keep up with me please...) get to us! Whoop whoop to Jesus! :D After preschool we ...haha....that sounded funny....we went to eat lunch with some of the university students we're getting to know. We had our first Thai tutoring class today! Wasnt too bad actually; we both remembered more than we thought we did! We just got back from a meeting with Kris and Silk. We had tacos tonight...uhh..so good! Ate way too much! :/ then we talked about the book we're reading called "Intercessory Prayer" by Dutch Sheetz..side note: its a super incredible book. Totally opens your eyes to what prayer really is and the power of it. Lots of stories and wisdom. And Bekah and I both agree that we've never prayed so hard or so much in our entire lives before. Definitely an eye opener. Definitely a good buy guys!! .....done with that. I sound like a commercial. God is totally working here and its amazing. I am so energized right now with what just happened in that house. If you have time, please listen to " Shekinah" by Cory Asbury and Jaye Thomas. Hmmm..good one.
Now were back to long paragraphs again...sorry. That's be because of this kid:Karla. Well! Now you're updated and thanks for reading again folks! Hope of have a supercalifragilisticexpealidocious day! :D
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