tuesday in thailand

Praise: Catharine Coon made it to Thailand!
Prayer Request: Her luggage did not!

After an exhausting 4 day journey from Uganda to the UK to Thailand, Catharine has finally made it to Thailand. The Thailand Team was fortunate enough to have been able to eat lunch with her today and passed on many of the comments and well-wishes from you guys back in the States.

It's hard to believe that our time with the MKs is half way over! It has flown by so quickly and yet it seems like we've known these guys for a while now. Today was another great day spent getting to know them more and getting to share so much with each other.

We spent the morning in the Cave, but we had an extra special worship time - today's worship was led by Anika (vocals and rhthym guitar), Abbi (bass), Luc (electric guitar), Luke (vocals) and Dave M (vocals). They did an awesome job today and we look forward to two more days of praising God with them!

During the daily devotional time Teresa and Kevin shared their devotionals with the MKs. Afterward Pastor Lyall gave an overview of Buddhism to help equip the MKs for their tour of a Buddhist temple later in the day. Throw in some fun games with Kim, a few laughs from Pastor Lyall, and some great snacks from the staff of the Empress, and the Team had another great morning with the MKs.

After lunch the Team and the MKs hopped in a bus and drove 30 minutes west to the Doi Su Thep temple. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Chiang Mai and sits atop a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. Unfortunately we had heavy cloud cover, so the views from the top were not the greatest. But the MKs were troopers and hiked up the 300+ stairs to the top and we were led on a tour of the temple by our guide named Par. Around 4pm we made the 300+ step back down the mountain and rode back to our hotel where we met under some trees to discuss our trip to the temple. Throughout the day the MKs asked some great questions about Buddhism and some shared from their varied experiences in other countries.

The Team again wandered out into the city to find dinner. Lyall had something special in mind and took us to a Thai open-air marketplace for dinner in order to saturate us in the culture. Each of us were give money to buy dinner and then we wandered from vendor to vendor finding what we wanted. Peter and LaNae went straight for the Thai food because they just can't seem to get enough (you won't see them at the Chiang Mai McDonalds with Lyall and Storm this weekend!). Kari, Kevin, and Lyall once again stayed true and went for the local cuisine - Lyall got extra fried shrimp and shared with the group, it was really good! Teresa, Kim, and Storm managed to find what seemed to be the one vendor selling something other than Thai food and jumped on it. All three got chicken pita sandwiches and two orders of fries. After some good food, relaxing conversation, and a quick discussion on tomorrow's timeline we headed out into the night market to take a look around.

What happened next will not be discussed on this forum. If you would like to know, you will just have to look at our pictures. Moving on...

The team spent some time together in the market and then we split up into groups, because, let's face it, some people on the team enjoy shopping more than others. So now it's 11pm and the entire team has made it back to the hotel. A few of us are writing emails, a few prepping for tomorrow, and I'm sure a few are out cold right now.

Tomorrow will most surely be another enjoyable day spent with the MKs. The morning will follow the normal routine up through lunch. After lunch we are heading down to a local orphanage here in Chiang Mai and spending some time with the kids at the orphanage. Tomorrow night will be basically an open-mike night for the MKs and their missionary parents to come down, hang out, and share their musical talents - the team is definitely looking forward to that!

Please pray:
that Catharine Coon's luggage arrives here soon.
for strength for Sandy, Marty, and the rest of the organizers here as they continue to do a great job!
that the Team would continue to be open to God's plan for them this week.
that the Team would remain in good health for the duration of the trip.
that the Lord would be glorified in all things this week!