basketball.

Our school doesnt have many opportunities for the students to get involved in sports, so an event like the basketball game that happened the other night was a big deal. We dont have jerseys and we played against the team from a nearby university and got creamed (32 to 68) but the kids had fun and it was fun to see them enjoying athletics. Soccer will be starting after spring break, and I'm so excited!

Thai Phrase of the Day: Tuk wan dichan len futbon kha. I play soccer (futbol) everyday!

mae sai.

What I want to communicate with these pictures is the beauty that is everyday life here and the manifest of God's extraordinary and infinite beauty. I went with my friend Aimee to Mae Sai, the border town where we exit Thailand to go to Burma. These are a few of my favorite pics... This is a man taking his goods across the border, he's walking those boxes through immigration. These are some girls that were riding in the bus. The last picture is just a side street off of the main road through town.
Life is going well, there have been some challenges, but I feel like God's strength alone is getting me through them. Also, I know this is becoming a theme, but I was still stressing about my plans for next year, and I was saying to someone else, "but perfect love drives out fear" and suddenly it took on a deep meaning in my heart as well. The cross was perfect love and His resurrection screams our freedom.

Thai Phrase of the day: Khon thai may khehy kin khaaw khon diaw kha. Thai people never eat rice alone.

maintaining homeostasis.

So my really rad friend patrick williams (whose beautiful wife is pregnant!) kindly put a link to my blog on his, and he says interesting and intelligent things on his (http://www.pwandsw.blogspot.com/) and i imagine people actually read it, and might go to a link that he posted b/c folks spend A LOT of time on the computer these days...so i figured i'd go ahead and update mine, just in case :) My camera is on it's way here from SC right now, so I haven't been posting much b/c I think people get bored with just reading my words and want to see pictures...there's probably only 10% of you that have even read this far :) haha. So here are some pictures my friend Kyndra took... This is me helping lead worship in church - on the far left. I'm not really sure how that happened. :) So the girls on the right are Thai and they are singing the Thai lyrics, as we farang (white folk) are singing the words in English. Singing Thai and English simultaneously is great, and I love it, but 2 problems are created. 1. For most songs, the words just don't fit with the music for one language or the other. 2. Farang clap on the beat and Thai people clap of the off beat. Rhythmically challenged people like me just clap. :) This is a picture from the flower festival. That is a float and the king made from flowers and that's a really cute old Thai couple in the foreground. The man is wearing his yellow shirt. Something really interesting is that Thai people celebrate more of the day of the week you were born, not the date. They also have a corresponding color for each day, so if you were born on Sunday, red is your color. Yellow for Monday, Pink for Tuesday, Green for Wednesday, Orange for Thursday, Blue for Friday, and Purple for Saturday. The king was born on Monday, so every Monday you should wear your yellow polo shirt that has the king's crest on it.This is a pottery place called Doy Din Dang. The Thai artist who makes these is Buddist, but his son went to my school. He's pretty famous, and the pottery is so beautiful.

Thai Phrase of the Day: Khit waa khun khuan ja aapnaam pro waa sokaprok kha. I think you should take a shower because you are dirty.