Thailand Update #2
Update: Jesse Hunter, DTS Student
It has only been two weeks in Thailand and honestly so so much has been happening. We stayed in two different villages, one for 4 and one for 5 days. The first was a hill tribe of Karen people from Burma. We stayed in bamboo huts. On a tangent, bamboo is amazing. You can eat it, cook with it, sweep with it, raft on it, use it as a bridge, pretty much anything, it has blown my mind.
We did very hard work making fire breaks to prevent the spread of wild fires in the forest…on a mountain! The tribe has been preserving a huge chunk of forest for the last decade because everywhere else is being rapdily deforested and irresponsibly hunted. They don’t get payed, but feel it theyre duty to preserve it. Very cool lifestyles. Langauge barrier was huge, but workin up a sweat together is way beyond language.
The pastor who has been our guide is named Manop. We have had some great chats about God’s kingdom in Thailand, and without him we would surely be lost here. He has a great and practical love for God, and is fervantly offering his life as a response. We stayed at a Lisu village last week and did more manual labor for the organic garden that Manops ministry is running. He is very wise and an amazing worker, God has blessed us with his presence. Yesterday we rode elephants and went to a crazy night market as we are back in the city…Chiang Mai.
Tomorrow we head to Bangkok on a ten hour bus ride to serve there for two weeks. I know that I miss the villages already. The sun rise and set, playing mafia by candlelight, and especially the amazing food that was prepared for us. Today we ate chunks of chicken blood in a nice curry sauce. It was delectable. The team has come together in so many ways the past few weeks. We bring prayer requests to eachother every day and I feel that has been pivotal in keeping us all atune to eachothers hearts, and being able to respond. In a month we will all be seperated, and that is looming ever so dark on the horizon. Please please pray for all of us with regard to those things.
The country is beautiful, I have thourougly enjoyed being with my friends in such a new place, and he is speaking lots to us. Playing with the masses of kids at the lisu village hjas been a highlight. Swinging them round and round in the hot sun listening to them laugh and scream. We had a wicked large game of duck duck goose the other day and many villagers were enterained by the chaos of screams. Bangkok will be another kind of jungle, and we are all anxious to see how we will be of service.
Update: Michelle Funderburg, Staff