And Thats A Wrap....

Tis' the season of one service year coming to an end while seconds later another begins. I have been busy, busy finishing up my time, fortunately with success! I cant believe its been five years...its amazing to look back at all the places Pioneering in Jehovahs service has taken me....all the friends I have made, all the doors its opened, all the things I have learned, all the experiences that has molded me into the person I am today.

With that being said here are some highlights from service...and life...in August   

  

Firstly: We received our first Visa extension earlier this month yay! From the horor stories we were quite nervous, but after running around a small box teeming with people, it just felt like you were trapped in the terrible walls of the DMV, only the Thai language flowing from the mouths of the workers behind the counter instead of English. We were in and out in an hour, WINNER!

Hill Tribe Witnessing: Our friend "Nee" convenced us to join her a few mondays ago to visit those outside the city. It sounded like adventure + service, so we were defiantly in.  The first Village we visited was about one hour away, there were only 12, yes twelve houses in the village. Based off the looks I received by the people I think its safe to say foreigners dont frequent their homes/huts.  Most of the village surprisingly had the religious background of 7th day Adventist (many missionaries fund the children's schools here) so the house holders loved the Learn From God brochure, including the kids....they were captured by the illustrations. 

Its amazing to see where cars will go here. 

Nee

This wonderful women was on her way to go work in the crops shown in the picture below....I promise you they can grown anything, anywhere, no matter how rocky or steep the land is.

On our way to the Next village we popped in a roadside market along the way, to give a witness and pick up a few things for dinner. I cant get enough of the simple beauty and tastiness of the variety of fruits and veggies here! 

Well over two hours out of town we make it to the next village Near Chiang Dao...however, the people in this village speak Lisu instead of Thai, and language that stems from Tibet.  The crazy thing is there is only one witness family in the whole world that speaks this dialect (Nee, the sister we went with is a member of this one family)....so there is ZERO literature from the organization that is printed in this language. Nee has to search out interested ones in these villages and then translate herself thoughts from Thai magazines into Lisu.

Because we were so far out of town a study let us stay at her house for the night, how hospitable! Especially when we couldn't even as much tell them "thank you" in their own language. Despite any language barrier food always brings people together, so we cooked a giant yummy dinner and watched the sun go down. 

The view from the back of the house we were staying at

Later, one of the older women that had spent her day harvesting and sifting through peanuts roasted a tray of them as a late night snack for us to munch on....they were the most delicious peanuts I have ever tasted. 

A few of the women came over for breakfast and they didn't let us leave the house  until we dressed up in their traditional Lisu Garb. Yep, those are indeed velvet sleeves. 

If you look closely to the left you can see the rooftops were the Lisu village sits. 

On the way home, a Gody temple caught our eyes, I could not believe how clear the water was that surrounded it, and the fish were HUGE!  

The snakes/serpents that come down from the temples are known as 'Nāgas'-wise serpents- some have the job of protecting Buddha. Other nāgas are known to be capable of using magic powers to transform themselves into a human semblance. (doesn't this sound all to familiar of when the angles came to earth as humans in Genesis 6:2-4??)
Interesting side note: In Revelation 12:9 where it discusses the 'Original serpent' being Satan....look in any Thai Bible and it uses the term
"พญานาค" in english it sounds like  "Phyra naga"....directly translated to "King of the Serpents" when describing Satan.
Buddism beliefs and temples are literally filled with Demon worship. 

A special pioneer "Wayo" in the Lahu congregation found out I was struggling to get my time for the year, despite her lack of English she invited me to tag along for a day of her studies. She had regular pioneered for 4 years, then became a special pioneer 8 years ago...three of those years while she was single! Her husband of 5 years works along with four others in their home translating all the literature for the organization from Thai to Lahu. Wayo is the only special pioneer in Chiang Mai that isn't on the translation team and has to make her time via the field ministry. 

She is unstoppable and seriously has multiple days a week hopping from one progressive bible study to the next. She has some in Thai, but her main target is the Lisu field, and according to her, their is a huge need. 

We visited villages with people that lived in structures that should be called anything but a home. A piece of cardboard for a wall, or a blanket strapped to the celling to try to prevent the rain coming through the giant holes in the metal roof should not be called a home for anyone. These people need the truth, they want something better than this life thats spent sitting on a dirt floor wondering what they have to live for.  

Durring the day we discovered the bike had a flat tire (a very normall occurrence from the poorly maintained roads here)when Wayo went to turn a corner and the bike seemed to continue to go straight, bumping off the road. She said to me in broken English "eh um sista maliah-thats how they say my name here-you can walk?" 

I giggled...until I realized she was serious. So I got off her bike, in a very unknown place, and she gestured in a forward motion. So she and her flat tire flopped away while I was left standing in the middle of the street.  I didn't have to walk more than ten minutes in what I was hoping was the right direction before I stumbled across her at a mechanic with two plates of food waiting for me. 

She said "I already order for you" as she slides the plate across to me. After a good lunch break and a new tire we were ready to go to more studies in the afternoon. 

Wayo 

One of the little boys of Wayo's bible study's

Last Saturday a sister asked us to take care of one of her THAI bible studies while she was out of town. I was so nervous...its hard enough explaining the ransom in English...and now in a thai, a language that i cant even speak?! But with the help we prayed for as well as the assistance of a thai-english dictionary, drawings, and many charades, I think me and Tyese successfully got the point across.  "Nan" is one of my favorite bible studies to go on, she's progresses very quickly. This time she treated us with tasty apricot tea and a delicious fudge brownie's... 

What would we do with ourselves if we didn't have adventure Monday's?! 

This week we biked up to Doi Suthep, one of the mountains right out of the city. We enjoyed the views along the way, and the speedy ride down. 

We also have 2 regular games of Badminton a week, one on Monday and one on Friday...

Asia has changed my view towards this game that I thought was to be played in elementary school gym class and at picknicks. This is a serious game here, and I think its safe to say that we are so addicted! 

Me and Tyese with our fearless adventure leader Mike 

I hope everyone is well....its always nice to hear from you!