Thailand update #1

Hello All!
I am sitting in a internet cafe called Buddy Internet. It is around 3:00pm and we have had a relaxed sabbath. We are staying at the YMCA International Hotel here in Chiang Mai, and it quite nice.

There is so much to tell about this past week, but I will try and hit the hight points. When we arrived, we were greeted by a very excited Brittany and Kelly (for those of you who don't know these two, they are some alum from George Fox who are working with the Garden of Hope here in Chiang Mai).We then spent the next day getting over jet lag and setting the Garden of Hope Drop in Center (DIC). The DIC is right in the hard of the red light district for the westerners. We were able to see some of the bars where prostitution is so common. The work that Kelly and Brittany do is quite wonderful. but also challenging. The are consumed with he work of befriending and loving the women who work in these bars to feed their families. It is a discouraging job, but they do well at it. Kelly told me that, "This problem wont change here in Thailand until the people of Thailand own up to it, and want to change." This is not to negate the work they are doing here with the Garden of Hope, but it is probably the sad truth about the issue. In the mean time Garden of Hope and other organizations will be tying to help the situation the best they can with God's help. Jesus loves these women who are caught in prostitution, and he also loves the people who use these women. They are all broken and need the grace of God.

On Friday we thew a party for the kids of the prostitutes and the other street kids in the area. It was a blast and even included western style pizza. By the end of the night we were all exhausted, and felt we had never sweat that much. Garden of Hope is truly doing wonders for this community by the grace of God.

The food here is wonderful. Sometimes it is spicy, and sometimes it looks like you shouldn't eat it (either because of the way it was prepared, or the place it was prepared in). The fruit is on here and it is awesome to get fresh pineapple whenever I want. The culture is interesting and it is all based on the Buddhist religion. The people are very kind and the temples are beautiful. Yesterday when I was at a Buddhist Wat (a Wat is the name for Buddhist temples, and it is pronounced Waat) there was a monk there blessing a young couple's new motor scooter. I commented to one of my companions that I thought that it would be cool if we did that type of thing in our Christian faith. I think that blessing things is a very beautiful way of showing thanks to God, and submitting to God's will for our lives with that thing.

God has been working in my heart. I am not sure what he is doing, but maybe he is making more compassionate, and more able to love. God has blessed our team with a wonderful closeness. It has been nice to get to know everyone, and I feel blessed to be here with them.

Next week will will be working more with the Garden of Hope, and then we will start working with Remember Nhu.

I have seen a lot more that I don't have time to write about here. I will just have to sit down with you when I get back and tell you all about it. Pictures to come. I think that I will be able to email another update next Sunday.

Sawatdee khrap! (The Thai "hello" and goodbye")

I love you all