Oh boy! Oh Crud! Wow!!!!!! (breath-in breath-out...)

"Oh CRUD!" I just found out my flight from Washington D.C. to Bangkok is....well as the travel itinerarys so sweetly puts it:

Flight duration: 28:50

Oh man! I'll be flying for about 29 hours! Yikes! It will be kinda fun actually:) Wow! Didn't know it was that long....(panting her tongue lolls out....)

Also my Reservation for Rama Gardens didn't work out. So I'm trying to book a room at an even nicer hotel and still it's only like $53 for one night:) The hotel is like...wait let me check...ok it's called Miracle Grand Convention Hotel. Boy that sure is a weird name for a hotel:) It's only like 10 or 15 mins. from the airport.

I wrote up 3 lesson plans yesterday, for the Art classes...and printed off more ideas from an Art Lesson website on the internet... and also printed off some pics from bigger works of art I've done. The originals are too big to bring over. So I took some digital pics. of them, and even some closer-up pics.

I can do this. Ok, square your shoulders, one step in front of the other, deep breaths...(not too many though I'll get light headed.) Just relax, smile....and talk one day at a time!

Also "The Joy of the Lord is my strength." and "I CAN do all things through Christ who strenghtens me!":))(BIG GRIN)

I leave for Thailand in a week and one day!

Wowzers! I leave for Thailand in a week and one day! My launch date is July 5th, next Wednesday at 7:15 in the morning! Yikes! Wow this is really happening. It's hard to believe. It's unreal, it's surreal. I'm excited!

I stopped in at CFI today to buy a little purse, instead of bringing my big purse to Thailand. I talked to Jim some about travel arragements in Thailand. Instead of buying domestic travel before hand here in the US, I'll buy it over there, oh yeah and I'm planning on spending my first night at the Rama Gardens, a very nice hotel. It was rated 4 stars out of 5 on it's web site. Oh yeah baby! And it will only cost me like $46 one night with breakfast in the morning.

I mentioned in the other blog that I'd be teaching Art 2 days a week, well actually at this point I'll be teaching it 5 days a week:) I won't know for sure what I'm doing everyday until I get there.

I actually started packing today. Packing alot of short sleeve shirts and skirts:) I'm even bringing the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring books and Summer of the Monkeys. Maybe I'll read a book or 2 or 3 to them, I could even leave them there cause one of the kids may want to read 'em.

I watched 2 dvd's about the Karen and Karenni people today put out by CFI. There was a legend that the pale faced brother would bring the "golden book" and tell about the true God. I guess the pale brother took the book away from the other brothers so he's bringing it back. The Karen believe that Adoniram Judson fufilled that legend when he came over to Burma and shared the "golden book"-the bible, the truth of the Bible Jesus Christ with the Karen people. It's an amazing story of how he was discouraged and for 7 years was being a missionary in Burma and only had one convert. A guy who was said to have killed 30 people, he was a thief. This guy was Karen, and knew of the Karen legend and thought Adoniram was the fufillment. So today hundreds maybe even thousands of these people are Christians because of the work God started through Adoniram Judson!

One of the DVD's was about the medic backpacks that CFI sponsers. Pastors and medic people go to different villages in Burma to treat sicknesses that wouldn't kill a person in civilization but can kill these people because they haven't gotten the proper treatment.

On the dvd's they showed actually crayon drawings that kids had drawn of the junta military government's atrocites. There were soldiers killing people, shotting guns at people...and blood. This is what some of these kids have seen.

There was even a clip of beautiful little kids at a refugee orphanage.

Pray for me as I pull the last details together and as I fly. God has helped to take away some of the fear and anxiety that I had concerning this trip. Keep me in prayer for that too. Not to worry about things I shouldn't...or trying to figure out too much at once! God has made a way through for me up to this point! "He makes a way through the sea."

Remember the Persecuted! And remember to pray for me on Wed. July 5th. Here I come Thailand! Love ya'll!

Thailand-Another Journey

Just updating. I haven't posted for awhile...so here I am now. Right now I'm listening to the sound track from "Phantom of the Opera."

I'm at home by myself tonight. Adam's going to an eye doc. Krista's with some friends. She got her grad. pics taken today by a girl friend.

Well I got my airplane ticket for Thailand today...may need some adjustments. But I am goin'. Crazy huh! What I know at this point is that I'll be teaching Art 2 days a week. The other days I believe I'll be teaching something else. At least one other class. Maybe ESL...English as a Second language. I won't know for sure what I'm doing until I start doing it.

Flyin' in I'll get a 30 day tourist visa when they stamp my passport....than on day 27 I need to watch the border between Burma and Thailand...to make sure I'll be able to cross into Burma on day 29 to get my passport stamped again so that I get another 30 days in Thailand. I won't be in Burma much at all. It's a repressed nation! Bad for Christians! It's just that there's a bridge that's close by with offices on both sides of it where I can get my stamps.

Let me tell ya a bit about Thailand. It's right under China. Near Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Vietnam. It's a Buddist nation mostly...even the government is Buddist. They have a law against proseletizing but it's not enforced strongly. I'm not suppose to touch the monks...better even be careful about brushing up against one, even just doing shopping....I guess I could get in trouble if I do...yikes!

They eat alot of rice...their money to ours is 39 baht to one of our dollars. Our money goes farther than theirs.

I've been on the computar a long time so I'll keep this blog short:)

Just a litte update...

By the way I'll be leaving July 5th. And at this point I'm thinking I'll be there like 3 months. Man...yikes the reality of it was just hitting me...it's scary...but I know I'll like it.

If you want to pray for me about it here are some things you can pray about:

1. Protection flying over and back, and when I'm there...physical protection against sickness and accidents...
(on my mission trips sometimes things happen to my physical person that make it harder...God does use it... BAD poison ivy, sickness...wierd stuff)
2. Creativity in teaching/lesson plans
3. Smooth adjustment to culture quirks, the food etc...
4. That I'll love the kids the way they need to be loved... that I'll be the "mother" figure to them that God wants me to be-to love them with God loving them through me
5. That I'll accomplish over there everything that God wants me to
6. God's guidance for the future(...as I consider it when over there)

Let me know if you prayed for me and if you want to pray for me regularly when I'm there. I'd appreciate daily prayers. These are God's children and it seems sometimes when you go on mission trips...(plus this is my first mission trip that I've basically put together, and AM putting together, with alot of help...but before I was joining a group of people and I just provided the money to pay my way and did what they said...this is different.) you're more in the battle spiritually sometimes to an extent...

Thanks for listening.:)

Mom! Happy Birthday!!!

Boy... I am tired. Adam and I got up before 6 to make my mom a special BIRTHDAY breakfast. It started with a loaded omelette that Adam served with hot tea in bed. Then she got homemade fruit cocktail, with mango, watermelon, maderin oranges... watermelon, pineapple... um, than she got crepes with a yummy sweet cream cheese filling and one with a strawberry, a little pineapple, and banana with sugar filling. She was so full that she hasn't eaten them yet:)

My mom Patricia Jean is 53 years old today. This year has been kinda rough on her. Change of life, growing, changing... knowing you need to change. So pray for her.

Hmm, what does my mean mom to me?... memories?

When I was little she'd draw me 2 types of flowers, they were a daisy and a tulip. I liked them. They were simple.
I remember at least one time, (probably more) she woke me up to try some, in the process of being made, culottes on, to see if they fit/to work on the hem... I think so that I could wear them the next day at school. She's made me a number of pairs of culottes:)

One year the night before my birthday I was just down and unhappy. It was the night before I'd guess my 17th birthday(?) and she came downstairs to the basement, probably my bedroom at the time. And she sat and listened to me for a long time and talked with me about whatever was bothering me. I think I cried some. And she prayed with me.

My mom has been an example of reading the Bible and praying. Since I know that she does:)

She is a hard worker. One time when she was sick she was washing the dishes than would got to throw up than come back and wash some more... I wouldn't have done that, I don't think.

There have been times where I've been sick and she'd care for me. Bring me toast, orange juice... :)

She gets up many many mornings to make my dad lunch. She's done this for YEARS. She's cooked and cleaned for us for YEARS too.

If I ask her to pray with me she will then and there.

I am who I am partly because of her. She isn't a quitter. She's a fighter. A woman of vision.

She was the one who first caught the dream of all of us kids goin' on a mission trip the summer before our Senior years. Dana went to Equador. Matt went to England. I went to Russia. Adam went to Japan and Krista went to Romania. Isn't that awesome... it started with a dream... which lead to Action, which became fufilled reality.

I'd say because of my mom's initial vision and both parents support, Adam and I have pursued even more mission trips. You can't underestimate the power, the influence of mothers (especially the ones that follow Christ), on the destiny and life's journey of their children.

It will be amazing to see my mom in the eyes of heaven, to see what Jesus truly made her as. She is a warrior in brillant glowing white. You'll see the scars on her heart...but even more you'll see the flashing fire of victory in her eyes. She will fight for those she loves... She will stand by what she believes. She is a woman of strengh, of boldness and authority in Jesus. She is a fiercesome thing to behold!

Right now all we see, with eyes of flesh, is a 53 year old mother of 5 who is still lovely all dressed up...:) She has earned the expression lines, the character of who she is- you can see in her face. These have come through hardships, commitment, hanging on, being tossed to and fro by the storms of life, and the laugher and tears. Her life hasn't been easy, but it also has had really good times... she is a fighter, a winner, an overcomer....

This is my mother and this is the legacy she has given me.