Day "Neung" (One)

Sah wat ti cap! Greetings!

We are here and we are right into it all, and it is so good.

To boot, we all woke up having had a fairly restful night for just having traveled 40 hours and Melody Kuka took us on a tour of a Buddhist temple. She initially brought us to a shrine where many Thais pray to Buddha (against Buddha's own teachings) for blessing when starting a new business or honk when driving past for good spirits to protect them on their travels. From there we had to drive further up the mountain to the temple. 

However, Melody's remote stopped working and her key wouldn't open any doors, which had never happened before. Only after praying over the vehicle and fiddling around with the remote for a while did it open. Was there an evil spirit in the vehicle? were the batteries just low and the key worn down? I can't tell you confidently one way or the other but this I can: the acknowledgement of my dependence upon the Lord in all situations, 'big/small'; 'significant/insignificant'; 'sacred/secular', grew from that experience. It was too bizarre for me to pass it all off as merely coincidence and in so doing refuse the Lord to work in my life and teach me that there is more to this world than flesh and bone. We fight the powers and principalities that cannot be seen with physical eyes and cannot be won by physical means. To ignore is to loose.

The temple itself was extravagant. Much beauty, much craftsmanship, much significance, much devotion, much twisting of truth, much hopelessness. It was helpful to see, so as to better understand the Thai culture and the background of the people both around us, and those we interact with. That's what I really want to talk about now so I'll leave off talking about the temple.

All afternoon was spent hanging out at the Centre talking with University students and it was so good. All of us were able to jump into conversation with the students rather quickly through playing card games or the students having been assigned to ask us questions or joining in on an English teaching class. I tend to have difficulty initially engaging in conversation with people, strangers and people I know well. But today it was smooth and easy and enjoyable. I met new people and remembered their names and even learned to correctly pronounce some Thai. They are really fun to hang out with. I really look forward to seeing them again, continuing conversations, and building stronger relationships with them.

Please continue to pray for us. Already we seem to see the Lord begin to work amidst this group and we desire more of it, deeper change, greater love. We love you and I thank you again.

Love,

Brother Mark

p.s. Frog legs do not taste like chicken...but pretty close.

Note from Janelle - for the Wiebe family - Jolene (though not convinced at first) also tried the frogs.