Surprise!

At 1:00 pm, she crept into the house (as quiet as a mouse), grabbed a newspaper, and jumped onto the couch. As the woman of the house came into the front door carrying her granddaughter, she didn't even notice the stranger on the couch. She was focused on baking bread, but her daughter kept pushing her into the living room. At last, she looked up and let out a squeal of delight! There on the couch was . . . .

A bit later, the man of the house came in and wondered who the person behind the newspaper was. Finally, she peaked over the edge of the newspaper, and the look on his face was priceless! He was totally unable to conceal his shock at the sight of the stranger!

Then all of them (including the 5 that picked the girl up at the airport) ran up to another house. A few of them went in the front door and started talking to the grandmother who lived there. The rest ran in the backdoor and the girl ran and placed her hands over the grandmother's eyes. She had no idea who the cold hands belonged to. At last she laid eyes on the face of the stranger, who, come to find out, she had just been praying for. She shed a few tears!

The Stranger??

Yay, it was ME, of course!

It was great fun surprising my parents and Nana. Fawna and Jeff (and Sierra and Savana) picked me up at the airport and helped me plan the whole surprise. (Beaver and Becca also helped me coordinate all of this from Thailand.) I went up to Southern on Monday to surprise Shama. I was worried that she might find out, but nope, she was totally surprised!

I know I haven't posted in a while, that was all part of the surprise. I couldn't talk to my family on the phone or e-mail, because I was afraid they would find out.

The last few weeks in Thailand, we went to some more villages up north, one of my friend's village a few hours from Bangkok, and then down to South Thailand. It's good to be home, even though I miss some things from Thailand. I had a great year serving there, many learning experiences and hard times, but growing times, too. Praise the Lord for my time in Thailand!

Continually learning!

Tomorrow, we are heading back to the villages. I am so excited to be going to the country. One month in the city was more than enough for me. We are going first to an Akkha village and from there, to an orphanage, and then who knows. : )

I really enjoyed the last month in Lamphun. It was a stressful month, but I have learned so much and fell in love with the students. I was sad to leave them. It is scary all the things that I am learning about myself. These stressful situations have been opening my eyes to the sinner that I am and the amazing God that I serve. This morning as I was reading about the race that the Corinthians would run, it made me re-evaluate my own life. In Acts of the Apostles it was explaining the work that went into receiving a laurel wreath and the applause of men. Contestants would die as they reached for the prize, or they would be permanently handicapped in the midst of the race. Why would they go through all that, maybe even die, just for people to notice them! What am I willing to do for the Lord? Am I willing to put away my comforts, step up to the starting line and let go of everything to touch someone's life?

Just a quick note!

For some English we have learned from our students, check Emily-Thailand (Emily Yoder's) blog. It's pretty funny! The blog title is: "Did we accomplish anything?"

3 of my girls!

These are my girls that I had lots of fun with, playing games, singing songs, oh yeah, and teaching English to. This was the craft at the Evangelistic meetings.

Ajhan (teacher)

Me, a teacher? yup, that's what I've been doing for the last month. We arrived here in Lamphun and were put to work teaching 2-4 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. It was extremely stressful the first week, seeing as I have never taught English in my life (besides some random vocabulary words:) and nothing was planned. We had to prepare everything from scratch, but after we started, things improved immensely. This is one of my classes that I taught English to. It was pretty fun, at times. I have a lot of respect for teachers and the work that they put into teaching. Right now we are having an evangelistic series, so please keep that in your prayers.

All for now!

That's all for now, folks! I hope you enjoyed a small taste of my Christmas vacation. A couple things that we did that I didn't post up included visiting the Killing fields and Phnom Penh in Cambodia, and also going to Vietnam and seeing some of the War Tunnels. It was a great break, these pictures hardly say anything about how we spent it. Rob, Alison, Emily, Holly and I were the ones who traveled around. Great times! Anyways, we are now in a meeting to find out what the future (or at least the next month or 2) holds for us girls. Exciting! We might be leaving tomorrow, so who knows when I'll post again! Byebye.

Train Ride!

Emily and I on the sleeper train. Instead of taking a bus to Chiang Mai from Bangkok, we took a train! It was awesome. We had our own bunk-beds and everything. A fun new experience!

At the beach!

Emily, Holly, Kelly, and I with our delicious coconuts on Pattaya Beach! It was beautiful but not as nice as some of the other beaches in Thailand. Can you believe that on the 2nd of January, we went swimming at the beach?! It was great fun! (I got pretty sunburned, though)

King's Palace

We are outside the King's palace, but unfortunately, since it was New Year's day, the palace was closed to tourists. This king is the longest ruling monarch in all of history!

Temples

(Front to back) Kelly, Holly, Emily, Michelle, Jeptha, and I, in front of the "Temple of the Emerald Buddha" in Bangkok. This Buddha was supposedly so special that only the king was good enough to worship it. (Michelle and Jeptha are teachers in Laos)

Holly, Emily, and I

In Bangkok on New Year's Eve

Angkor Wat

We left at about 5:00 AM to get to Angkor Wat, a famous temple (and surrounding ones) in Cambodia! It was beautiful to watch the start to rise up over the temple!

Angkor Wat

Such a beautiful temple! (Emily is a great photographer, too:)

Angkor Wat

These huge tree-roots were making the walls fall down in some places!

Back at the Ranch!

I have never been so excited to arrive back at the "ranch" (a.k.a "the center" or "our base") as I was today! We have been on the move since December 10 when we headed to Cambodia. I really enjoyed Christmas break, but it sure wasn't very Christmasy without family, many Christmas lights, and cool weather! We arrived back in Bangkok on the 30th and got to spend New Years with Kelly and Jorge. That was fun, but I couldn't live in Bangkok for long! The city is just too big! It was crazy! So, that was why it was so nice to get back to the mountains and fresh air! Anyways, some pics will follow about our days on break! Hope you all have the best New Year ever, as this is the closest we have ever been to the Lord's return! God bless!