Exciting news

I found out my phone turns into a WiFi hotspot so you don't have to wait three days to hear from me. I thought it didn't but found out it did. I was pretty excited, so I thought I should share :-)

Tuesday evening we went to a village out of town to do an English lesson for about 12 children age range from 3 to 13. It was good to see Kim and Mary in action, and we were able to provide some assistance with actions for some songs. They had a clip on the computer with the Creation story told in Thai, and then they reinforced it with a simple English version. It was really interesting to see the village atmosphere, lots of adults were around and interested, there was even a Buddhist monk who came and went.

Wednesday (yesterday) we had an early start to get to camp, with Gayle and me coming by public transport (we had to transfer in Bangkok) as the vehicle was full with kids coming to the camp. It was actually good to do that as I am keen to catch a van down to Bangkok when we leave, and now we've done it once we have lots more confidence about doing it. Of course Kim helped by printing out our destinations in Thai so we could just show people where we wanted to go. And of course we both have cellphones with his number if we get stuck. The van driver certainly made his own traffic rules when we were in the thick of traffic in the city.

The camp itself is right on the beach just out of Pattaya which is apparently the Las Vegas of Thailand. There's certainly a lot more English on signs around here, and Gayle even managed to buy some shoes today. Another sign it's tourist central is the bottles of wine for sale in the 7 eleven convenience store!! While we have ready access to the water, unfortunately it is a) as warm as a bath, and b) dirty and full of rubbish and dead fish, so my swim yesterday will be the only one I have here. Nevermind, just another thing to chalk up that is better at home. It's a good camp complex though, there are about 150 teenagers here, and it is well set up for us. Gayle and I have our own room, and again, yay for air con. I am very impressed with the food, and also the speed with which it is served. Dinner has been rice with a couple of toppings, and then you can add chilli and a few other things to taste. Of course the food doesn't really get cold here, and you don't want it that hot anyway.

We were able to provide practical help today for a couple of hours during an activity, and will be able to do so again tomorrow, so it is nice to be useful. We have been there for the worship times in the meetings, but after last night decided there wasn't much point being there during the sermons, so we are back in our room tonight while that is on. We may have the opportunity to play and sing a song during one of the meetings, so we have prepared for that. This I Believe (The Creed) will hopefully be appropriate, it's been in my head since we got here so I'm taking that as a prompt from God and going with it.

I started writing a journal yesterday. I've never really done one before, but was encouraged to do it during this trip at least so I'm trying it. So far so good, it's not 'we did this, we did that' it's 'I thought this, I felt that', so I'm pleased about that. Heather and Martin gave me a bookmark for the trip with 'two questions to ponder' on it, What is God doing? and What does that mean for me?. They are good questions to ponder.

In response to Heather's comment on my last post I tried walking a little slower when we went out yesterday. I'm not sure if it helped, but I'm going to try to stick with it. I did unfortunately go a bit hard when I was helping out today and hit a bit of a wall in the afternoon. I know, I know, those of you who know me well will shake their heads and not be surprised at all, it's a familiar pattern, but I'll keep working on trying to remember to pace myself. Part of the problem was I found the main hall empty immediately after I'd finished helping, so the opportunity to play the keyboard for a bit (ok, maybe an hour) was too good to pass up. But then I really was tired! Oh well.

I have been doing some good reading while here, I finished a book of Martin's which I'm pleased about, there may be a book report in your future dear reader. I also am nearly caught up on the blog of a lady I am planning to meet when I'm in Chiang Mai, so I'm pleased about that too! Lots of things about which to be pleased :-)

I'll write again soon, love to you all
Sarah