And it was only to be a "Travel Day".....

On our agenda, today was planned to JUST be a travel day. That is like saying the color was blue, without telling the shade, richness or vibrance. Imagine Cousin Judy and me in the back seat of a pick-up truck finding new and regional experiences as we 'traveled'. We decided to each write about parts of the day, so after you read this, check out Judy's blog to see her stories. It was a day of vibrant colors!

Mike was such a good driver (from his right side of the truck and wrong side of the road)! He pulled over or made u-turns to let us see whatever, when we hollered "Ohhh, Mike, we have to see that"! We stopped to see pineapple fields that spread for thousands of acres.

We stopped in coconut harvesting yards.

Here's a little lady spinning sugar cane and showing us how to eat it in coconut based 'crepe's.

You have to watch this video of the 3 baby elephants rocking this truck from side to side as it lumbered down the highway. What a fun day of laughing and making memories.

It was such a highlight to see Somsak and Uan, a couple who have raised their own two children, welcome their 10 new orphans home after school. Over a couple years, they kept hearing God say to take children from the islands and provide an orphanage for them. Their orphange equipped hom was recently constructed by Mike's tsunami relief leadership and ministry teams. They are so proud of it. All 10 kids came in and sat with us and thanked us for providing school uniforms for them. They thank by folding their hands and bowing to us. So precious. We then went to the uniform store to purchase uniforms for the children, with the money our Sunday School class sent. It was very exciting, We wished our whole class could have been there. The children in these photos are not the only ones who will receive the clothes. Children from several schools and families will receive them. I will update you more on that later. Here we are with the ten precious children.

We leave in the morning at 5:00 a.m. by boat to go out to the islands for two days. Heavy rains are forecast, so we are leaving early to beat the storm. I will be sure to blog on that in a couple days!

I must add, that watching Mike and Judy interact, fluently speak the language and connect with these people, is very exciting for us. They are certainly where God has called them. More on that later, too! I have to get to bed, the boat will pull up bright and early tomorrow, and I can't miss it.

Arrival and first day in Bangkok.

Our flight arrived about twenty minutes early on Saturday evening. Mike had driven up from the islands in the south and Judy was flying in from Chiang Mai to welcome us. Well, the best laid plans did not work, Judy's flight was late. So Mike met us, the three of us ate, and exchanged U.S. currency for baht, and waited another hour for Judy to arrive. That night we went to the KT guest house, a nice Asian-style place that Mike and Judy use often when they are staying in Bangkok for ministry meetings, to go to doctor appointments, and to welcome guests. KT House, typical of most public areas in Thailand was not air conditioned in the lobby or dining room, only our sleeping room, and we were to turn that off when we were not in the room. We were thankful for the air conditioning to sleep because it is hot, humid rainy season.

The plan was to spend two nights at KT, and in the day in between, Mike and Judy wanted to keep us busy and awake until bedtime that night, to overcome jet lag. I had not slept well the two nights before our flight, and then had only a few hours sleep on the flight, so I was numb with exhaustion. They did a good job dragging us around Bangkok the next day, and it really was a good plan, as we have done really well with overcoming jet lag. The day was good, I just felt like a party-pooper, knowing all they wanted to share with us, and how tired we were.

So that first day began with breakfast at KT house. Khao Phad again, along with a banana mango shake. I told Judy I would be happy with Khao Phad every meal! (Since then I have altered my thoughts on this dish!) After breakfast, we took a taxi to the sky train in Bangkok.
I need to stop and explain traffic in Thailand. Wildness, chaos, pandemonium, dangerous, lawless, fast. I may think of more, but that is a fair start at explaining it. Oh yes, and driver sits on the right, driving on the left side of the road. The key thing that adds to all of this is bright orange, pink, yellow Toyota taxis in major abundance and a kazillion motorbikes plus buses and automobiles. The motorbikes have entire families on them, or furniture, or bags of rice, or food to sell, or just ANYTHING! These little bikes dart in and out like a lizard that never seems to get caught. Weather is not a factor, hard rain just causes them to wear plastic rain ponchos and keep the accelerator pressed!

We took the sky train down town, we were on it quite a while, going way into the city. Once downtown, our first stop was at the river going through town. We hired a driver on a longtail boat to take us through the city. Below is the boat coming in to get us.This was a great exposure to the lifestyle of native Thais. Homes built out over the river's edge, some crude, some nice, along side Buddhas, temples, and businesses. We stopped at a floating market where everything was sold, from every kind of cooked food, to handcrafts, to fresh produce. It was very cultural. Below is a woman selling items on the big river.

There are shrines all over the city that people worship. This is the back of Buddha (I did not see the front!)

Temple of the Dawn
We came upon a corner lot; Erawan Shrine (above), a Buddhist worship site. Women danced, people bought leis, fruits, birds and incense to burn and lay at the feet of the shrine. They bowed and prayed and left the gifts for a sacrifice. It was quite sad to see the intensity with which they spent money to buy the offerings to earn merit. Then the garbage man would go around and scoop all the flowers, fruit, etc into a garbage can and throw it away. He was very busy, as the shrine filled so fast with the offerings, and he was always making room for more. The air was thick with incense smoke. It gave me a headache. This was difficult to see. We don't see such blatant false Gods in America. They exist, but this devoted worship was hard to watch.

We shopped at a couple malls. The malls are more like flea markets, in that the open areas are lined with vendors of everything from electronics, to tourist keepsakes, to clothing. Judy and I did some Grandma shopping, and I bought some patio lights. BUT, the funnest part was when the four of us all had foot massages. One hour. We all slept through part of them. Kyle swore he would never have one, but you know what? He enjoyed it and I think he will do it again!

We ate at Outback, Mike and Judy like to go there whenever they are in Bangkok. They lived in Bangkok for 6 years before moving to Chiang Mai, so they have a lot of memories there. It is where Mike led the GCTC Training center. When we got back to KT that night, we were so exhausted. We went to bed and slept until 6:00, which is really good for jet lag.

The Asian culture is just so foreign to anything Americans know. I am still wrapping my mind around the practice of 'making merit' to earn the favor of their gods.

Landed!

We are here....in Bangkok at a guest house that Mike and Judy use often. Clean and cool. I am posting a blog before getting my shower and going to bed. I really have no idea what time it is. I think it is 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning in Thailand, making it 2:00 p.m. Saturday afternoon in Georgia.

We were met at baggage claim by our flight attendant because Kyle had lost his wallet in our seat on the plane. They brought it to us. Thank you Lord for that protection! Money and cards all inside safe and sound!

Okay, off to bed....goodnight. Thanks for your prayer and interest!

What's outside the window?

We are sitting on the plane with forced night time. Flying over Alaska, the flight attendants require the window shades all stay down so people can sleep. I want to see Alaska! I went to the back while on my 7 p.m. “midnight stroll” to a window in the open area of the back of the plane. I raised the shutter to see lakes and fields of ice. WOW-it’s Alaska!! But it wasn’t 2 minutes and a Korean flight attendant came communicating in rapid broken English, to close the window. People are sleeping. Bummer. God’s beauty is out that window, however I along with 300+ other Korean Air customers are held captive in the darkness of the cabin.

As I strolled up and down the isles, the surroundings remind me of people lost in the darkness of their lives, longing for relationships with vision, meaning and excitement. On flight #35, mini screens on the seat-back in front of each person keep them riveted to the flick of choice. Babies cry and are hushed back to sleep. Another round of food and beverage is served. Each person, each little family (there are a lot of children on the flight) engages with others only when necessary.

Life at 30,000 feet is really no different than life on the street level we live each day. Pre-ordered with what’s-currently-in-my-face choices, missing the opportunity to see the glory and beauty of what God has created for us outside our tunnel vision and tunnel experiences. I know I need to remind myself to pull up the shades, and I bet there are times when you do too…..to see God’s offer to experience life. As we approach another continent for the first time in our life, I hear Him nudging me to step into the sunshine of engaging in life and relationships beyond the familiar what’s-currently-in-my-face. So we will land in about 15 more hours. Ready to experience a view (other than a seat-back) as well as experiences.

Korean Air, here we come!

Last night we had dinner with Jason and Elizabeth and the kids, and this morning Chris and Katie are picking us up, so we can spend breakfast together when they take us to the airport. Yesterday was spent at doctor appointments, shopping, Kyle mowing, etc. We were pretty tired and still packing at almost midnight last night, but will hit the air with a dose of Tylenol PM. All will be smooth (as long as we don't snore). Well, I guess it would still be smooth for us......

I am so ready to go. Family, church friends, other friends and WinShape family have blessed us with their excitement, contributions, interest and promise of prayer support. Wednesday night when I was alone at WinShape Retreat for about an hour after everyone had gone, I turned out the overhead light, left my lamp and little brass fan on, and just spent some time in my cozy corner with the Lord. Amidst all the details of being away from work for three weeks, my heart was at such peace. I was overwhelmed with gratitude to Him for giving me peace for the days ahead, and no worries for the duties left behind. The teams I am on at WinShape are amazing, I can't wait to hear about all that happens when I am gone!

I will miss keeping up with our kids while gone. We'll have fun catching them up when we return and hearing their stories from over the next three weeks too!

I'm not sure when I will get to post again, but before then, I am hoping for a good long nap and some movie time. Oh, and enjoying the M&M/Cheezit/Teddy Graham combo I make for us to snack on in flight with our crunchy apples. Honey, wake up....it's snack time!

It grew!

In all my excitement and planning for our Thailand trip, I have realized something tonight. As I have been working out a spread sheet for our family of where and when we will be throughout the trip, and after a call to Judy, I realized a discrepancy in the foretold length of our trip.

I think my excitement has been fertilizer for our trip plans. Somehow I grew the trip from two and a half weeks to three weeks. Hmmm, I wonder how this happened? It is three Friday-Monday weekends, and the days in between, and then you just have to go with me.....I got excited. Well, and there is the fact that we arrive home the same day we leave Thailand. So, add a day there, since it takes 23 hours to get there, but no time to get home. So, all in all we are looking at 19 days rather than 21, yet still gone from work 21 days to allow a packing day on the front and an unpacking day on the end. I guess it is not that big of a difference.

My excitement has me seeing things bigger than life. I am anticipating more than I can imagine and enjoying it for longer than is planned. I am thinking that is living life full.....and I don't mind being guilty of such extravagance!

We'll miss our three little people...

Today we have had the fun of alone time with all three of our grandchildren, exchanging snuggles before we leave. We will try to connect via Skype while we are gone, but we will still miss those running feet with outstretched arms and yelling voices when we are seen after church: "Graaaama....Graaaampa...."

Caroline will turn 7 in September,

Doster will turn 4 in July, and

Mary Anna is 11 weeks old.

We've enjoyed the day of snuggles today!

We love you!