At Mekong, and off we go again

Sorry, no time to waste, we got into ChiangMai last last night, had our Mekong orientation again and we were told we are off again. Pray pray pray!!! We are heading into the mountains this afternoon to the Hmong people group.

Pray for us, spiritual attacks already. Kim's pack got caught in the elevator and exploded. Cover us with prayers.

Hmong Daw, White Meo of Thailand

Off to Chiang Mai Tomorrow

We are heading off the Chiang Mai tomorrow, to the headquarters of OMF Mekong.

Pray for our journey. We were supposed to take the overnight sleeper train straight from Lop Buri to Chiang Mai tonight. However, due to the flooding of Northern Thailand, parts of the tracks are underwater. So instead we are taking the day train and hop on the shuttle to bus around the flooded regions. It will be a long day, 13 hours train ride. Pray for strength for tomorrow.

Off to church with Ulrich today at a church plant 50 minutes from Lop Buri. Looking forward to that.

Lop Buri - Day 6 - Free Day

Today marks the last day of our language training and orientation. I'm am now pretty comfortable running around town and speaking the language at the market or ordering food. But I would not know exactly what I have ordering until the food arrives.

Shannon is nowhere to be seen, and we have the afternoon off. There was a refreshing thunderstorm in the afternoon so all of us ran outside and danced in the rain. Then we went downtown and ended up playing with some monkeys on the streets.

It was a horrible day for me; it started with a wipe-out when we were dancing in the rain. In the evening after dinner I knocked over a lamp post on the street – yes, you can actually knock over a street lamp in Lop Buri, go figure. And as we continue to walk home, I walked into a protruding pipe. Luckily it clipped me right under my left eye. An inch higher it would have shattered my glasses. Now I have a cut under my eye, luckily no bruise, but feeling a bit woozy.

However, to make things all better, Ulrich bought us durian when we got home. :S But for once, I ate it. It is not bad. I wouldn’t say I love it, but at least I can eat it now.

Lop Buri - Day 5 - Celebration of 60 years reign of the king of Thailand

Today, we went back to the Phra Narai Ratchanivet. It is the celebration of the 60th year reign of the king of Thailand. Break out your yellow shirts!!! We attended a mix religious service at the king's palace, in attendance were the Buddhist, the Muslims, the Catholics and the Christians. It was such a great opportunity for other to hear about the Gospel. However we know the spiritual warfare will be furious so our team covered the whole event with prayers.

In the evening Shannon abandoned us due to some emergency, so we went to the market to practice our Thai and got some unknown food. It was very yummy, but we have no idea what we are eating.

Prayer for the situation Shannon is attending to, and for us as we are alone running about in this town.

Lop Buri - Day 4

This afternoon we went to the Phra Narai Ratchanivet (Somdet Phra Narai National Museum). It was nice to get to know the history of Thailand and learn about King Narai.

In the evening we went to the night market, and Scott, Tyler and Kim had bugs. :S

Lop Buri - Day 3

Yeah, clean laundry!!!

Yesterday, Fiat went over the Thai customs with us, in Thai, and Ulrich translated. For lunch we Songthaewed to the LOT (Learning, Orientation and Trainning) house and Peter, a long time missionary in Thailand, briefed us with the history of OMF in Thailand. Then the 7 of us (without Shannon and Fiat) dropped by the Big C for some A/C and coffee before heading back to the Serve Asia House. At the Serve Asia house, Kim, Tyler and I took on the task of landscaping so that future missionaries staying at the house can enjoy a beautiful front yard.

But the most exciting news is we got our visas into the other country. And we have a rough idea of what we will be doing there. So we are going to fly out next week. We will be visiting new “members of the family” via radio. We are heading over to feed them milk for the first time.

I cannot wait. Keep us in your prayers.

Running About Town

Yesterday morning, Ulrich, the Serve Asia Thailand coordinator, gave us introduction to Serve Asia Thailand, and almost more importantly a crash course on transportation and getting around in Lop Buri. Hmmm… motocycle taxi sounds fun, and dangerous. :P But the best part of the morning is the language and phonics lesson by Fiat. It is like back in kindergarten again, making funny faces with producing weird sounds. At least I can now proper greet the local and ask them “How much?” Hahah.

Lunch was awesome, Fiat took us to a little dinner and I had the best Pad Thai in my life. Yum yum. Afterward, we rode the Songthaew and the Disco bus to downtown. The Disco bus was the best, the high school girls were all over Tyler and Scott. Boy, am I glad I’m Asian. For some reason, Tyler and Scott decided to sit by themselves in the front of the bus, and the high school girls in the middle of the bus were all giggling and fixing their hair. Then all of a sudden, they all took turns running up to sit with Tyler and Scott. One even asked for Scott’s cell phone number. The rest of us had a blast watching from the back of the bus and taking pictures.

When we got to downtown, Shannon and Fiat all of a sudden decided to abandon us and told us to find our way back home after spending the afternoon in downtown. So visited the monkey temple (lots of monkeys). I found it interesting it the monkey temple for it is a mix of Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism and Confusianism. Afterwards, Scott and I ran around the market, each got a coconut milk, and attempt to bargain prices in Thai. We were hit by a crazy thunder shower, but we all made it home via the red Songthaew.

For dinner, Shannon, Liana and I went to the market to pick up food… mmm… fresh fruits and cheap food.

Lop Buri

We arrived in Lop Buri yesterday by train. I love traveling by train. We got to enjoy the scenery of central Thailand while observing the customs and habits of the locals.

I was told that in between Ayuthaya and Lop Buri there is not a single church. Truly the harvest is plenty and the workers are few.

I really look forward to this week in Lop Buri, where we will undergo an one week orientation and language training. We will also have more freedom to explore the city on our own.

Lop Buri is a much smaller city compared to Bangkok, therefore it is not as intimidating. We, the boys, at staying at the PP S Guesthouse (more or less a motel) all by ourselves while the girls are about 1 km away at the Serve Asia house.