First Chiang Mai Update

Wow, as I write this post, everything is in Thai! The only thing English on this page is what I am typing. I hope that I am familiar enough with this site to be able to post everything even though I can't read the buttons! This post is actually an update that I emailed out just a few minutes ago. I am posting it in case someone doesn't get the email but wants to see what is going on in Chiang Mai! Here it is:

Greetings from Chiang Mai!

After 4 straight days of traveling, being delayed in Raleigh for one day, leaving 5 of our group in Raleigh with a canceled flight, and spending an extra day in Bangkok, I am finally in Chiang Mai! Praise the Lord! We had so many problems getting here that Northwest booked us on a US Airways flight with business class seats from L.A. to Tokyo and Tokyo to Bangkok. The seats were AMAZING! God definitely had His hand in delaying us a day and separating our group in order to give us excellent flights to Chiang Mai! We felt so loved and blessed! When I first stepped on board the flight from L.A. I saw the seats and immediately took a Dramamine to make sure I stayed asleep in those plush seats. I ended up sleeping for 7 hours straight and completely missed the fruit plate, salad, braised beef short ribs in port wine sauce, twice baked cheddar potato, fresh steamed veggies, and caramel cheesecake. I was so sad! Anyway, enough about the flight.

Please pray for one team member that is very sick. We rushed her to the emergency room in Bangkok the first night we were in that city. Her eyes were so red and swollen that she could barely open them. She was in such intense pain that we forced her to go to the hospital. The doctor looked at her and said, “ooo.” Haha! He said it was probably a “bacteria infection” and gave her antibiotics and eye drops. We then went to the hospital again in Chiang Mai and she was diagnosed with Pink eye and Tonsillitis. Please pray for her healing and the rest of the group’s health as Pink eye is so contagious!

We arrived in Chiang Mai and only had 1 student that had previously signed up to learn piano from us. So, the first day we were here we went out to local malls and recruited students to teach! I just started teaching my student yesterday and it was a lot of fun! The purpose of teaching piano is to use the curriculum our professor wrote for us that has Scripture throughout in order to share the Gospel with our students. It turns out my student is already a Christian! At first I was excited for her, then I was bummed that I wasn’t going to get a chance to try out the curriculum, but then I realized I had an opportunity to encourage this sister in Christ and disciple her while I am here. I talked with Ed (one of our professors) about this and he said it could be very important that I be here to encourage her. He tells us often that to be Thai is to be Buddhist. It is very difficult to live the life of a Christian among Buddhists and for me to be here as a sister in Christ encouraging her and exhorting her to be bold in her faith is just as important as leading someone to Christ. I am very excited about this opportunity that I have to disciple a sister from another country. I pray that I can be an encouragement to her and maybe even help her be bold in her faith to her non-Christian friends and meet with all of them to help her lead them to Christ. That would be so neat!

Please continue to pray that our team would reach out to this city handing out Gospel tracts and forming relationships with our baristas at Starbucks while we are teaching our students and building relationships there as well.

Thank you for your prayers!