Forgotten Fun Fact

Okay, so I realize that I may or may not have forgotten to include a fun fact on my last blog post... somebody may have emailed me about that. SO to make sure I don't loose any of my faithful readers, here is the fun fact from this past week:

Today's Fun Fact:

Often when people try random meat like gecko, or kangaroo or something like that, people ask what it tastes like, the common response is, "It tastes like chicken" 

Well ladies and gentlemen, I am here to tell you that chicken heart kind of tastes like pork.

3 Months Done

So I may have lost track of how many weeks I've been gone, but I know that I've been officially gone from home for 3 months now! And our outreach is coming up fast!
This week we learned about evangelizing. Instead of having just one speaker, a whole group came and took turns teaching us. They taught us ways of telling people about God using things they are used to. There's a saying in Thailand that says, "To be Thai, is to be Buddhist." So everybody here knows a lot about Buddhism. The speakers gave us ways to tie in what people already know about Buddha, and turn it into Christianity. So they pray in similar ways, but to God instead of Buddha. Some of the people in my class really liked the way they did things, but other people found it really controversial. I thought it was a good way of doing things, because then people can relate to what you're saying.
I spent this Saturday with a few of the DTS people at one of the guys from my class' village. He's from a tribe called the Karin tribe. They speak a different language, and they live up in the mountains. It was so beautiful. I felt like I ate all day there. They just kept on feeding us and feeding us and feeding us. The food was all really delicious though. We helped make this "cake" which was basically pounded up sticky rice with sweet things put in it. It was really good too. We got to meet his whole family, and we helped them harvest their bean field.
Afterwards we went to a waterfall. The water from the water fall comes from a hot spring at the top. So the water was really warm, and the rocks were grippy from all of the minerals and stuff, so you could just climb up the waterfall no problem. I'll put some pictures on facebook at some point.
As for the issues from the mini outreach, I think God is telling us that we need to let go of our rights to an apology. A lot of us feel like we deserve an apology, but we need to learn to forgive without getting the apology in the first place.
Some really exciting news is that we found out where we are going for outreach. I'm going to a mountain tribe in a place called Doi Inthanon. We'll be doing a lot of work on a farm up there and stuff like that. I'm really happy with the team I'm on, I think we'll have a really good time.
Anyways, I think that's about it for this week.
I'll talk to you guys later! I hope you're all doing well!

In the Land of Jackie Chan

Well hello everybody! It's been a long time since I've been able to update all you people so I figure its about time I give you all a heads up as to whats been going on for the last couple weeks.
SO, not this past Monday, but the Monday before, we flew out to China. We had to take two flights because it was cheaper than a direct flight. Not our entire group could go because some of them don't have the proper paperwork and passports and stuff to be able to go, so those ones all went to Burma.
We stayed in an apartment. It was actually really nice, it was on a high enough floor that we had a bit of a view too.
Anywho, the schedule changed basically every day. But we did a lot of English teaching. One of the days we taught in a university there. We taught two classes. We started off by playing a couple games that involved them speaking English if they were chosen and stuff. Turns out it doesn't matter how old people are, they still willingly participate if there is candy involved. We also gave them vocab words and they had to incorporate them into skits. Some of the skits they did were really funny.
We did a lot of English corners as well, which is basically a couple foreigners who speak English, leading a group of people who are trying to learn to speak English, in discussions and little group conversations. They also play English games and stuff. We were in charge of leading a bunch of them.
My favourite part was teaching in one of the kindergartens there. It wasn't an orphanages, but they wanted us to do a couple classes for them. The nice thing about that was that was that the teachers gave us some stuff to teach on, so we were actually doing their curriculum instead of just making up random stuff.
The one day we taught them about tastes. Sweet, Salty, Bitter, and Sour. We gave them little taste testers of things. They got candy for sweet, seaweed for salty (which they LOVED), lemon rinds for bitter, and lemon for sour. You should have seen their little faces when we gave them the lemons. So cute, we got some pictures so hopefully they'll end up on facebook at some point.
We did a bunch of "teaching" in an orphanage school there. Basically we just sang random songs with the kids and played with them and gave them candy. Trying to teach was ABSOLUTE CHAOS!! it was ridiculous. It looked like something from a movie. There were kinds gambling in the back of the class, other kids were wrestling, other kids were throwing things at each other, they would just walk around and get up and leave whenever they wanted. It was CRAZY. But the more we went there, the better it got because they would start to recognize us and know the songs that we were singing so that was cool.
The interesting thing about our time in china, was that it was like a little test run for our group for our major trip coming up. Needless to say, we have somethings to work on. So if you guys could pray for that, that would be wonderful. It's a lot of communication problems, and misunderstandings, and people feeling left out. But I hope that we worked through some of it for our major trip.
But don't worry, China was a good time and I'm happy that we were able to go. I'm gonna miss the cold weather in China though, I finally got to bundle up in some sweaters and even a toque!
Oh and I almost forgot, I got to celebrate my birthday in China, I figure most of you can't say that! haha. I realised that I made the mistake of letting the people on my team know that I like cows. I'm pretty sure I have never owned so many cow related things. Pencils, a pencil case, a toy cow, cow tape, a dancing cow and even a cow toque. It was a little ridiculous. haha. My birthday was fun though, they got me cake and everything. :) Oh also a little happy birthday shout out to my mamma. :)
Anyways we're back at the base now for two more weeks of lecture and then out on the major trip, i hope everything is good with all of you, and I will talk to you all next weekend!

Today's Fun Fact:

In Thai, the way you pronounce words is very important, you could be using the same word, but with different pronunciation it means something completely different.

For example, if you say "cow", depending on how you use your intonation it could mean: rice, news, knees, white or nine.

SO, if you say the Thai sentence for "I'm sorry", but use the wrong intonation..... you actually say, "I farted."

Week 10

Welcome to week ten. It's definitely getting colder here. To the point where i can wear a sweater for like a couple hours in a day before i have to take it off because i get too hot. But I do hear that at home its freezing cold. I'm a little jealous of that.
This weeks topic was spiritual warfare. So get this, his parents moved from friesland after WWII, to Canada and started a dairy farm. Yay for Canadians. haha
 It's been interesting because at the beginning of the week we were warned that we might be affected by the spiritual warfare. So during the week we had one person twist their ankle really bad, two people got pretty sick, one girl's eye really started to bother her and hurt a lot and theres girls in the upstairs room that can't sleep because they keep seeing a dark shadow/ spirit thing that wont leave. SO it kind of seems like there might be some warfare going on.
But something that is really good is that we all got our visas for our mini outreach. YAAY. so we'll be leaving at 3:30 on Monday morning. It'll be just like getting up to go milking! haha Then we'll be gone for two weeks and I can almost guarantee that there won't be any Internet access so this is going to be good-bye for a couple of weeks.
But I'm gonna head out for now, I'll talk to you guys in a couple of weeks.

Today's Fun Fact:

Tinkerbelle, the sweet little 300 lb pig that we have at our base?

ya, she bites... she bites hard.

Week 9

So, this week marks two months in Thailand! RIDICULOUS!
I'm gonna start off with the most exciting part of this week. Do you remember how I asked you to pray for Mai because of the potato sized cyst? Well, this past weekend she went back to the doctor for her checkup. He ran some tests and when he came back to talk to her, he made her check the paper to see if he had the right patient, she said yes, he asked if the date on the paper from her last check up was right, she said yes. So he said. "I don't believe it! The tumour is completely gone! I don't know how this happened!" yep, thats right, no meds, no surgery no nothing, (well other than a TON of prayer) and the tumour is COMPLETELY gone! So amazing!!
We applied for our visas for our mini outreach, and we're not totally sure how thats gonna go because its not necissarily easy to get visas for the country that we're going to. But we go on tuesday to pick them up so hopefully that goes well for everyone. Then not this coming monday, but next monday we leave for the outreach, apperently its really cold where we're going and often the Thai people get sick because they're not used to the cold but I'm looking forward to it becasue that means that i get to wear my hoodies. yaay.
The speaker this week talked about the Holy Spirit, it was nice because we often get a lot of teaching about God and Jesus, but not a lot about the Holy Spirit, so it made it pretty interesting.
Now for the other best part of this week. Yesterday, guess what I went and did? Oh just chilled inside some tiger cages. I pet huge tigers and sat with them and played with their tails and feet and stuff, and then (get this) i went and played with tiger cubs!!! They were so ridiculously cute! I wish I could have stayed there all day. Some of the people there were volunteer workers, I would LOVE to do that for a job, just hang out with tigers all day? Sounds good to me! We even got to see a tiger cub that was only two weeks old! We couldn't touch it or get very close to the cage though. Who needs a house cat? When I get home I think I'll just get a pet tiger. =D
Anyways, I think thats about it for this week!

Today's Fun Fact

Tigers have tickleish feet.

week 8

Well we are officially back from the conference. Im going to be honest it was a little sad to leave. i had a lot of fun there. We met so many peple from all different places. Actually it was kind of cool because i met a lady that used to recruit for trinity western! so when i told her hat i was from abbotsford she knew exactly where i was talking about. But i also met people from cambodia,vietnam, myanmar,australia, south africa and like a bazillion other places. there were about 160 peple there and all together hey were able to speak a total of fourty different languages. it was pretty crazy.
loren cunningham spoke at a lot of the sessions this week,the stories he has are absolutely wild. its crazy how God has provided for him and his family. he just casually told us a story about how YWAM people had two people raised from the dead in Africa two weeks ago. we were all thinking thats crazy and he just talked about it like it was just an every day occurance.
the main thing that i think that probably got out of this week was just being reminded that Gods plans for your future are not going to leave you miserable. So many times we get caugght up thinking that we are going to have to leave everything good behind and juts be so burdened for the rest of our lives becasue we are doing Gods work. but i was reminded that,no, God uses the things that we like to do and the gifts that he gives us to make us happy.
My favourite part of the week by far was an offering that we took. there were people that werent abble to pay the fees for the conference so the first part of the offering was for that,  then there were also some people that needed bus fare and then the rest of the offering would be for Laos. But it didnt stop there, we were told to just go around listening to God's voice for wo in the room we should give to. so everybody was giving things to eachother. im gonna tell you a little story just because its cool and worth sharing :). so during the offering i went up to one girl because i felt like i was being told to go to her. so i asked her if there as anything that she needed. so she told me she needed a water bottle. So i thought to myself,"Oh ill just give her my water bottle." then i remembered that during the conference i had dropped my water bottle down the stairs nd it cracked. which is sad because i take tha water bottle everywhere. but thats beside the point. at the conference they were selling water bottles so i gave her enough money to buy a water bottle and she was so happy. But the story doesnt end there. Later that day,i had a guy come up to me, wo didnt know that i had got the girl the water bottle and he didnt know that my water bottle was broken, and he gives me money and tells me that i should buy either a water bottle or a tshirt from the conference. it was really cool. So for those of you wo think God doesnt notice the little things, he even cares about water bottles. Lter people shared testimonies about the offering and it was so cool to see how they were provided for. Oh and did i mention hat the offering taken for the other things came to a total of over ten thousand dollars!? crazy right?
One of the other fun things that we did this week was set off chinese lanterns. they are so cool. theyre a lot bigger than i thought hey were. we had a few close calls though because there were a couple of them that almost didnt make it over he trees. and you would be surprised at how much flame is in those things!its possible that i almost lit my arm on fire because one was almost in the trees but i caught it first. it was a little sketchy.
tomorrow we go back to our regular schedule of classes and stuff. that will last two weeks, then we have two weeks outreach then two weeks back again and then we go on our maor outreach. things are going so fast. it will be two months that ive been gone this week. sorry that was worded funny but you know what im trying to say.
the flooding in Bankok is getting worse. we arent affected by the water because we are far enough north. but remember to pray for the whole situation. some peple are evacuating and heading our direction. but lots of people, even some that weknow fro  YWAM have lost their homes.
Anyways thats bout it for this week, im sorry if theres a ton of spelling mistakes and missing letters in this. The thing im using is really annoying to type on.

Todays Fun Fact
When Thai people dont know how to start a conversation,instead of asking how you are doing or taking about the weather, they ask you if youve showered yet.

Week 7

So for this week, it was a little bit different from all the other weeks so far. On Sunday, we packed up and headed out to the Ywam base in Chiang Rai which is a couple of hours away, near the very top of Thailand. On our way there, we stopped at the highest hot spring in the country.
The reason that we are in Chiang Rai, is to go to a two week DNA conference put on by YWAM. We are actually quite lucky to be able to come to the conference because its technically only for the leaders of YWAM, and DTS students are almost never invited, but this year they let our base come.The orphanage next door let the base use their land and buildings so we all have a place to sleep as well as a big classroom for the sessions. There are 4 sessions every day, lead by three main speakers. One of the speakers is Darlene Cunningham. For those of you who don't know, Darlene and her husband Loren started YWAM. Loren is going to be coming to the conference this week so it's really really cool to be able to meet them and everything. The conference itself focuses mainly on what makes up YWAM and who YWAM is. The teachings are also about how to lead and i really like listening to those ones. It's a nice change of pace.
The orphanage that we're staying at is empty. All of the kids are on a break right now. But we realised that both of the orphanage buildings have huge flat open roofs. PERFECT for sleeping on!!! So a  couple of the girls and i have spent some nights star gazing. Its so much nicer because the rooms are cooking hot, so being outside all night is nice and cool. That is one thing that I like a lot about Chiang Rai though, its quite a bit cooler than Chiang Mai. I've actually been able to wear a sweater at night.
OH and i cant forget to mention our bathroom situation... squatty potties and freezing cold buckets of water to dump on yourself as a shower. It's oh so wonderul.
Now for the coolest thing that we did this week. We got a whole group of us together and went to the Golden Triangle. It's a place where the borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand all meet. You can also see China in the distance. So we went for a boat ride and stopped in Laos for a few minutes.
Afterwards we had some lunch and then went to a market in Mae Sai, which is the northernmost part of Thailand. We shopped around there for a bit and then we headed back to the base.
On the way back to the base we took vehicles called Song Taows. (we take them everywhere, they're Thailands form of taxi.) They are basically pick-up trucks with covers over the back and benches in the box. They also have a platform on the back by the bumper. So me and Kathryn, (one of the other girls from my base) stood on the back the whole time. You get a really good view of the scenery standing there. I love looking at the fields back in Abby, but let me tell you, there is no field quite as pretty as a rice field. They're such a deep and bright green. I love them. i tried taking pictures, but as usual, pictures just cant capture it.
Well that's it for this week! Talk to you all later.

This Weeks Fun Fact:

Of all the 32 people that are at our base, guys and girls,

there are only 2 people that are taller than me. Lame.