Greetings from ChonBuri! We are back here, just for the day, to take a break from the serious language lessons that have been taking place for the last several days! It's crazy that not many days have gone by and SO MUCH has happened, but I thought I'd write for just a few minutes to let you know a couple things.

The remainder of our trip up north was great..in a tragic, deeply moving sort of way. Crossing into Burma was probably the most challenging part of my experience here this summer so far. Watching beggars...often times BABIES...come up to us killed something in me. I'm STILL processing through a lot of what happened there, even thought we were there for only a few hours. It is a draining place to be, and many of the things I saw there will likely never stop haunting me. Laos was beautiful, and we did the typical tourist things like going to the Golden Triangle, etc. As Ricky assures us, there is "freedom and fun" in missions, so we're not supposed to feel guilty about this.

After that, I think we went straight to Phanat Nikom, where we met Aun and her husband SomChai--quite possibly two of the most amazing, inspiring people I have ever met. SomChai is the pastor of a small, growing church in PN and Aun started an English Learning Center (where we are staying) and they are so passionate about their work and have such a vision for Phanat. It has been so great listening to their stories and being able to work with them. Things are a little bit more difficult in Phanat because we don't have a means of walking anywhere, and we don't have access to international internet (ha) which is sometimes frustrating...all in all, though, our experience there last week was a good one. We threw a party for "executives" (really high class people) so they could practice their English and have a chance to make a pharang (foreigner) friend. It was so much fun, and we had a BLAST with our new Thai "executive" friends. We also threw a party for some English teachers, although some of them didn't understand the question "how are you?" in English, which made communication a little bit difficult.

We have been working HARDCORE at the schools to do English programs with them. In the next four days, we will hit up 8 more schools and spend time with hundreds more kids. Every time I feel like I can't open my heart up for one more child who is hungry to learn and has a smile I can't get out of my head, I'm in a sea of new faces. God is giving me extra doses of grace as I try to love on these children and accept the fact that I will likely never see them again.

One incredibly exciting thing that has happened/is happening is the growth of this woman Ben who we have been getting to know in these last few days. She came to Aun two days before we arrived and asked her to teach her English as quickly as possible because she needs to know English for a job she's applying for. Aun decided to let Ben work with us, take us around Phanat, and hang out with us to improve her English. She is a Buddhist and the wife of a prestigious police chief and she left her family up in the north, so she is lonely because no one wants to be friends with someone who is the wife of a rich (probably corrupt) police guy. ANYWAY, she has been spending a lot of time with us and I have become so attached to her! She is so sweet and as we bumble through our conversations, I'm finding a really wonderful friend in her. She has a 15 year old daughter who is also sweet, and I love sitting down and teaching them English. They have also been thickening my oh-so-limited Thai vocabulary. ANYWAY, yesterday, we went to Aun and SomChai's church and Ben and her family CAME! I was so excited! There is definitely something wonderful going on in her heart! She is becoming so open...please pray for her!

It was SO GREAT going to church in Phanat Nikom. I really like the way Thai people share a meal together after their church. Melody (one of my great friends from our team) and I helped lead worship, which was interesting. We didn't know a lot of the songs, and they were translated funny, so they didn't make much sense, but we sang out hearts out regardless! It was a lot of fun, and we made friends with some of the young guys of the church...haha if you want a good story that I shouldn't write here, let me know! Anyway, it was a great time! And then we hit up TLC for their evening service which was one of the most encouraging things EVER! The room was PACKED with people who were so excited to be there! And there was one little sweet, elderly Thai woman who I sat next to, assuming she was one of the older Christians in the church who had a lot of history there...turns out she wasn't a believer at all and BECAME A CHRISTIAN LAST NIGHT! It was crazy...granted, things like that probably don't have THAT often, but it was really special to witness that there!

ANYWAY, today was our "day of rest" and we went to a really strange tiger zoo and a sketchy water park. I will have to save the details for next time because we are about to drive back to Phanat for this week. Please pray for me, for us, for BEN, and for Thailand this week! I don't know when I'll have internet again, but I miss you all SO MUCH and I definitely feel your prayers while I'm here.

Be blessed, sisters and brothers!