Clear Skies

A week o' fun begins for 80 middle schoolers and 20 crazy adults. The hour and a half drive took us south of Chiang Mai to the very highest point in Thailand.... on Doi Inthanon. This was the first time in at least a month that I've seen a blue sky. Pollution in Chiang Mai has been the worst in history according to people who've always lived here. When my brother was here last week, visibility was less than half a mile. The sun wasn't able to get through the smog--- so it was a little bit cooler during this hot season. But this past week on the mountain we had fresh air AND cool weather. It was wonderful!

Some of my cabin girls.... precious. Checkout these rockstars... Here we were at the very highest point in Thailand. It is significantly cooler there. HOWEVER, don't be fooled... hats aren't quite necessary. We stayed at a camp grounds somewhere about half way up the mountain. It was beautiful. Each day we walked a ways to get to our meals. On the way we passed our local gas station. This is my favorite gas station in life.

Outdoor ed. week meets team building games..... here's your flashback to summer camp. One of the four excursion trips was to a waterfall.... we did water testing and identified little creatures.


My job for the weekend was to be a floater--- try to calm down children and keep our parent volunteers sane. I also organized large group games in the evening for these 80 wonderful children. Here's the "coffin." They had fun.

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Another one of our excursions was hiking and spelunking in huge cave. The pics in the cave are obviously dark.... but you can see a little.

Cabin time on the last day.... The beds were harder than concrete, the girls were hyper, and the second night of our stay a connecting cabin had a fire. (3 girls lost all of their stuff, but thankfully the Lord protected us all and no one was hurt!) These circumstances didn't allow much sleep.... but we sure had fun.

Last stop of the week was for some yummy chicken and sticky rice. We're pretty blessed to have this as our lunch time scenery. This week I was blown away by the Creator of the Universe.... His perfect plan and design for all things. Gotta love the waterfalls.
p.s. The first two weeks in April we have off of school.... so I'll be heading down to a beach in Phuket in southern Thailand for vacation with some friends. Pray for our safety! I'll be sure to bring back pics to share with ya! I leave tomorrow and will be back in a week.

Big Bad Barrett and Bowling

My fun brother... affectionately known as "Big Bad Barrett" by our little cousins... came to visit me in Chiang Mai! This past weekend he raced in southeast Thailand. So, he kindly paid to come up north for a week and visit me. He basically trained during the day while I was at work. Then we ate and shopped at night. It was fun times.

Friends having fun on St. Patty's Day----- we went out to hear live Irish music.

Apparently, Barrett wasn't quite entertained. I'm just gonna blame it on the jet lag. Here he is asleep at the dinner table. Lovely.

We love each other.

And then comes my favorite pose. Barrett showing off his "wai"... Ronald taught Barrett a little Thai culture.

After Barrett left, we had a birthday weekend o' fun for my roomie. Here we are bowling... I am ashamed of my lack of bowling skills.... but we had lots of fun.

Here are two people I love.... Staci and Katie. Happy Birthday Katie!

Despite my horrible bowling scores, I did bowl a strike a time or two. On one of those strikes, I freaked out. I'm sure the Thais around (and my friends for that matter) thought I was insane--- I jumped around like a crazy person. Sadly, I pulled a muscle in the midst of the celebration. I know.... you can laugh.

Thanks to Team X for the fun times. Strikes all around.

We are so cool.

A sense of belonging...

One of the joys of being a teacher is the built in vacation days! This week we had a glorious three day weekend... I love those. But, instead of sleeping in and vegging out like my body wanted to, I joined the wonderful junior class for a little road trip. The six hour drive started off well---- five vans and junk food and lots of ipods made these 4o something students happy. I was a little concerned when my van driver started swerving before it even got dark--- after that I was wide awake!

This wasn't just any ordinary road trip--- let me explain. For the past four years this class from Grace has visited a school/home in Mae Sot which is on the Thai/Burmese border. The kids at this center come from the currently largest refugee camp in the world. The 1 km long camp houses over 60,000 people as of today. It's estimated to have had as many as 75,000 at one time. These Karen kids at the center are given the opportunity of education in hopes that they may be able to apply for citizenship in another country. I can't go into much detail here, but if you're interested in finding out more about this stateless people group and the current situation in Burma, I'd love to fill you in.

The Karen language is much different from Thai---- and the kids at the center actually speak English very well. So, we were able to communicate easily with them as we hung out for 3 days, played games, sang, danced, shared our testimonies, ate spicy food, heard their heart-wrenching stories, and laughed a ton.

Hangin out in the girls' room.

Game time! Balloon stomp was fun for everyone.... here were the final two champs.

We made bracelets with the girls... the boys were off wrestling or doing something manly, I'm sure.

The juniors partnered up with the kids at the center for prayer time...

One of our boys thinks he's a stud.... he was mostly happy because these Karen girls say he looks Karen.

Singin' Time... One of our juniors plays guitar as we hear these girls' gorgeous voices.Here's a little sample of the kids singing to us at the center. They're singing in Karen.





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We even taught the girls how to do the Virginia Reel--- the music isn't quite country, but not everyone's from Texas. It was a hilarious sight to behold.

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These 13-16 year olds were so much fun.... then you mix in our 11th graders and it just gets plain crazy!

Group hug good-byes...

Reality hit me this weekend of the blessing it is to have a place where we belong. A country we call home. A citizenship that allows us to live freely and travel to other places because we have a passport--- all we've ever known is a sense of belonging. I really can't fathom not having that. I can't fathom having my life threatened because there wasn't a country that recognized me as a human being. Beyond an earthly sense of belonging, as a believer in Jesus Christ, I have a citizenship for eternity in heaven. That is my home. No one can take that from me. Yet, I don't deserve it.

These Karen kids aren't safe in their own country because they aren't recognized as citizens. They are only allowed in refugee camps and places like this home in Thailand because they aren't recognized as citizens here either. Some of these have been arrested just trying to get from the camp to the center or to jobs within the country. Their life is behind walls and barbed wire fences. Yet, many of them know where their eternal citizenship is found. Many others still need to hear and believe.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
Phil. 3:20-21

Intelligent Individuals

Smart people.... we all know them.

Some of you are one of them.

Some of you wish you were.

Some of you think you are.

Some of you couldn't care less.

Regardless.... I have an announcement to make:

I'm a proud friend of a smart person!

That's right!!! It's my honor to announce that Katie Savoie... my very own roommate... is going to be a doctor!!!

HOT NEWS: Miss Kate Savoie has recently been accepted to Wayne State Medical School. During her recent trip to the States, she interviewed with two potential medical schools and also the NIH. She's waiting to hear from the other interviewers before she makes her decision where she'll land next year. She hopes to do research and plans to study Pediatric Oncology.

On the way to Starbucks tonight to celebrate, I began the process of writing a 3 part song about the new med student friend o' mine. :) Personally, I think it's quite humorous. Maybe I'll record it one day and you can hear it.

Here's smart Katie holding up the cake my friend Maew and I made her the night before her return to Thailand after interviews: I got a little hungry and ate some before she got to it... oops. It's yummy... if you want a piece, feel free to drop by the house.

Time to celebrate at Starbucks!!! See our happy faces???