Beloved,
It’s Thursday
and we have a day off to add joy to the enjoyment that we already share with one
another. The team went to meet the
elephants, did some last minute shopping and took in some customs and traditions
of the Thai culture.
We forgot to
mention yesterday that Dr. Marvin bought some Durian fruit for the team to
taste. For those of you who are not
aware of this fruit, in a prior team that was sent to Thailand from the
Holiness Conference, Tommy P. snuck some Durian into the hotel, and due to the distasteful
smell of the fruit (it really stunk up the place), the team was almost thrown
out of the hotel. So with such a reputation
of this unusual fruit, most of the team gave it a taste while Alli ran away from
it. Durian even looks scary – like a
porcupine ready to devour you. The vote
was mixed. I think most of us wanted it
to taste good, but……. Try it, you’ll
like it.
The rain
stopped, but the sky was full of dark clouds.
So we thought it might rain, but then it might not. Then we concluded that it should be OK, but
we’ll take our umbrellas anyway. And………
oh, what the heck, we just decided to go out and enjoy ourselves in the….whatever. And we did.
Our first
stop was the Elephant Camp which was about 50 minutes from our hotel. These elephants and their trainers are quite
amazing. The elephants played soccer and
scored goals, popped balloons with darts, and painted better than any other
elephant we’ve seen….. well, since we haven’t seen any, at least better than
Stephen or Bryce. Riley volunteered to
challenge one of the elephants at darts and drew loud boos from the crowd (aka
our team) as he annihilated the poor pachyderm.
For goodness sakes, Riley, pick on someone your own size!
Then it came
– that first kiss in Thailand. One of the
elephants placed a smack-a-roo right on the check (or should we say face due to
the size of his nose) of Alli! Sorry, Jason,
we weren’t quick enough to stop that.
Alli loved it, snot and all. Lots
of laughs and fun.
The elephant
ride was a little intimating to some of our team members. There was mud all over the place. I guess the one thing that caused some in
trepidation in their hearts was when we waved and said “good bye” as they left
the loading dock. More hilarious fun. Kristen just loved the slipping and sliding ride and was all smiles when she returned with
her Mom who was just glad to get back.
You could see it clearly written on both their faces.
The team
enjoyed a great lunch and it was off to do some last minute shopping. I don’t think the team knows what “last
minute” shopping means. One should not
be buying more in the last minute than was previously bought. But be proud of your team as they put up
their own money to buy toiletry items for the Bible students who have so little
and have done so much for us while we’ve been here.
It’s 10:00pm
and we just returned from a dinner/show which gave us a taste of the customs
and traditions of the Thai culture. Brooke
almost dislocated her hand trying to over bend her fingers to simulate the hands
of the Thai dancers. When it came time
for the crowd to participate and perform with the dancers, Riley was up and
dancing before he was even asked. It must
have been that pineapple blend drink.
And Ron, Allie and Brooke were quickly on (or should we say, “pulled to)
the floor to join Riley. We liked the
hula much better, but Riley came in a close second.
The ride
home was very quiet. We were all fast
asleep as the van whisked us home through the very dark roads in the remote
areas outside of Chaing Mai. Even fun
gets one tired. Our dreams were of you,
our beloved friends and supporters.
Even though
we say “thank you” over and over again, words cannot truly express what you
have meant to us. Your prayers sustain
us. Your love encourages us. Our thoughts of you bring smiles of joy to
our hearts. Thank you, dear ones. We pray that you will also sleep well and
have dreams of His goodness and lovingkindness to us all.
“And now faith, hope and love abide, these
three; and the greatest of these is love”
Amen. 1 Corinthians 13:13
And we will
praise Him,
Your
Thailand Missions Team.
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