home again

After touring and exploring Chiang Mai, Thailand, experiencing the most incredible debrief on Koh Samet Island and 30+ hours of traveling, I'm back home in Colorado Springs with my team (and all of our luggage!)

My team took a busride to northern Thailand to spend a few days in Chiang Mai before we left Thailand. Chiang Mai is a great city, and for the first time I really felt like I was experiencing Thai culture. So much of what I learned in Mae Sot was from the Burmese, living right on the border of the country. In Chiang Mai we took advantage to experience Thailand like we had only seen in pictures. Our translator and close friend Milk showed us the best her hometown has to offer, from the HUGE Sunday night street market, temple tours, Monk chat, cultural food and dancing, elephant riding, waterfalls, bamboo rafting, movie theaters and paintballing.

The 4 days we spent there were jam-packed with activities, and as the team packed up for another 8 hour bus ride and a 5 day stay in Bangkok, we were surprised with a change in itinerary. We packed our backpacks for a weekend getaway on the beautiful Koh Samet Island.

Koh Samet is probably one of the most breathtaking and wonderful places I've ever been. Each day there I was so in awe of how God wanted to bless us, and how he chose to give us rest after a tiring outreach. We spent 3 and a 1/2 days swimming, snorkeling and having church on the beach.

My quiet times there were so powerful, so refreshing, just laying on the shore as the sun rose over the ocean, praying out loud without another voice on the island to be heard. God met me there to answer questions I had, struggles with being put in paradise when the beautiful street children who became my friends are still living in such a dark place. Where's the balance between serving and living a life of luxury?

The answer I received was strong and simple, "Don't live your life pursuing the luxuries and 'good stuff', but don't live life so controlled that you don't allow good things to happen."

I will always remember Koh Samet as a testimony of God's goodness and faithfulness. After 6 weeks of work, he gave us a week of rest. And it was above and beyond anything I could have asked for or imagined.

I got into Colorado Springs Wednesday night, and have been debriefing and fighting jet lag for the past few days now. I know this week is really good for me, having my team close when I need and miss them, having friends and staff on base who are willing to talk and even more eager to listen, and also the space I need to hide away and walk, journal, process or even just try to sleep. I'm hoping that by the time I return home to Nebraska next weekend I'll be rested, restored and ready to meet up with old friends and spend some quality time with family. My time will fly by, since I'm planning to return to YWAM here for a secondary school Sept. 11 - so please call me so that we can get together while I'm home!

And thank you again for all of your prayers you've lifted up for my team, and all of the personal encouragement I've received. I honestly could not have done this without you. I've had the most incredible summer, and God is continuing to teach me though new world experiences. I love debrief because it's a time to pull apart everything that's happened and ask, "Why? What did I learn? God what were you doing in that? Through that? And why did you choose me?" Hopefully I come out of this with some answers, but more likely it will be outweighed with even more new questions to pursue!

life at the village

I just returned to Mae Sot this week after four intense, beautiful days in a hill tribe village on the Burmese river border. It was such an amazing time for the whole team, and I don't know how to sum it up in a quick blog update. So I pulled a few quotes and phrases that I wrote in my journal this past weekend, and hope that I have a chance to sit down with each of you over coffee or a phone call and really voice these incredible stories. The Koren people revealed a side of Thailand to me that I had yet to see, and I am so thankful for the opportunity I had to stay and serve with them.

"As soon as I climbed out of the back of the truck I knew I was in love with this place. Soccer in the middle of the land, worship music booming out of band practice, and the mountains in clear view from our balcony. This village is located literally on the order of Burma, and where I sleep is a 2 minute walk to the river dividing the two countries. Judah told us you can often hear the landmines exploding from the camp."

"The girl I prayed with was so passionate, so intense, and even though I didn't understand a word she was saying, it shook my heart and I know God understood every word and saw every tear that fell from her eyes."

"The flood pictures just about broke my heart, seeing these little innocent kids draw dead bodies and animals and trees floating in the water. No Sunday school in the States has ever drawn Noah's Ark like that."

"Everyone here seems so genuine, seeking knowledge and pursuing God."

"It made me smile watching the guys sit on the floor together with hands and arms and legs intertwined, having no problem at all with their lack of personal space."

"People back home have a picture of this little girl or boy from Compassion that I've been hugging and singing and playing with. These are real, wonderful kids and they've really helped warp my view of the pictures I see of sponsored kids and children in need."

"God, you broke my heart for these people tonight. As the music played I fell to my knees and wept - wept because you love them so much, because I need to do more to help them, more people need to do something to help them."

"We do so much here - but I really like it. It makes our four short days here feel like double the time with testimonies, messages, dramas and songs. And there are still moments like these where I can sit on the deck, look out on the mountains and journal."