valentine's day.

happy valentine's day. i love you! :) I KNOW that sounds totally cheesy, but it's true. I don't feel like it's just a day for lovers, I feel like it's a day to celebrate LOVE.
I LOVE Valentine's day. I love love. I mean, the idea that there's this invisible force that can tie people together and connect them and bring joy and pain and suffering and fun and happiness is so beautiful to me. I pray that God's love is real to you today and only increases.
I have about 16 weeks until I come home, but I feel like God is telling me to come back after the summer until January. So I'll be home (South Carolina) in June and probably leave again in late August and will stay in Thailand from late August to January. So, unless God delivers some BiG different message, that's the path.

Thai phrases of the day: *please note, these phrases do not include tones, and yes there are 5 of them*
1. Aahaan Thai phet kwaa aahaan farang kha. - Thai food is more spicy than white folks food.
2. Dichan ja bye boat wan aathiit kha. - I will go to church on Sunday.
3. Dichan rak khun kha. - I love you.
4. Hong naam thii nay kha? - Where is the bathroom?

Jesus is rad quote of the day: Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

sporty sports day.

Normally, the school takes the entire Superbowl Monday and turns it into "Sports Day". We had to postpone it a week though, b/c of the rain, you'll see our new "field" and you can imagine it after a couple days of rain. So I was on the official "Olympic Committee" jk, but I did get a plan and help a lot :) It was so wonderful seeing our hard work being paid off by the kids enjoying their day. We did the 400 Meter Dash, 60 M dash, shotput, discus, high jump, broad jump, long jump, baseball throw, basketball shootout, soccer shootout and football throw. The kids were divided up into 5 teams, Lithuania, Zimbabwe, Mongolia, Madagascar and Brazil. It was a fun day, here are some pictures...

Lithuania, the winning team!

So intense!

The Elementary girls running the 400 m dash.

Teak doing the high jump. I can't lie, she's one of my favorite students.

This is the amazing Pii Apa. He works "maintence" for the school, and he's great. He lined the field and is super-helpful. If you look back at the Akha Hilltribe village we visited, he lives there in one of those homes.

grace = unmerited favor.

Here's a picture of my niece b/c she's so cute. She just gets in her car seat and trusts, she doesnt doubt that her Mom and Dad are going to take her somewhere wonderful, she doesnt worry about the ride. She just plays where she is and knows that they've got it all under control...

If you've never had to fall on your face before God and ask Him for forgiveness, I feel sorry for you.

If you've never had to fall on your face before another person and ask for forgiveness, I also feel sorry for you.

I had to do both recently. It was an extremely humbling feeling, knowing that your future depends on the way that these beings respond to your apology and repentance. The idea that your next few moments or days or life or eternity depends on whether you're forgiven or not is an extremely humbling feeling. Derek Webb says "you're only free when you have no choice". I believe it...there is freedom in knowing that your only option is to trust the One who will not love you any less or more tomorrow than He does today or did yesterday.

I had to apologize to my supervisor and his wife and it was really difficult, but really beautiful. After I nervously delivered the truth of my sin, they didn't even have to look at each other to decide that they were going to forgive me. They just knew. I really desire that one day, to be so in synch with my husband that we know we will give someone immediate grace when they sin against us. Like in Luke 17, when Jesus says to His disciples, "If your brother sins, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins 7 times a day and 7 times comes back to you and says 'I repent', forgive him." As Christians, Jesus told us to forgive. Not only did they forgive me, but they gave me so much GRACE. They prayed over me, said I was released and told me they loved me. I left their home knowing I had experienced Christianity.
However much love and grace they gave me however, I know that His love and grace and truth abounds all the more...

seriously?

So, one of my very cool students, Emily, wrote this note about a motorbike accident she saw on the side of the road...

I saw a dead body today.We were just driving to drama practice, the same road we drive at least twice everyday. I wonder where he was going. On a stretch of road normally deserted, there were at least forty people, mingling casually. Death interests people. I wonder if he was popular while alive. While driving past this crowd, expecting a parade of sorts, I see a bundle wrapped in blood-soaked cloth. I wonder if he liked the color white.His body was lying on the side of the road. Everyone was just staring at the once-alive body now haunting the corner. I wonder if he really lived. It’s over for him. No more chances. All those thoughts he had buried inside him will never be known. I wonder if he was married.Maybe he left behind a family. Maybe he never said “I love you” to the woman he truly loved. I wonder what he wanted.And worst of all…I wonder if he knew Jesus. Did yet another human die without knowing the freedom and love of Jesus Christ? What if I could’ve told him? What if my lack of boldness cost him his introduction to Jesus? I wonder.

Well, so afterward, she found out that there were in fact 2 dead bodies. A family had been on a motorbike. The pregnant mother, a father and a small child. The mother had died instantly and the son had a broken leg (and later died in ICU), but the father got stuck under the truck and the truck driver didn't stop...because as all Thai's know, if you hit someone, it's just better to kill them, b/c if you hit them and they survive, then you have to pay for their entire hospital bill, but if they die, you only have to pay their family 40,000 baht (around $1200). It's amazing how as a race or culture we feel as though we can put a price on a life...