Where nightmares collide....by Juli

Hello everybody, or shall I say "sa-wa-dee-ka!" Everything is amazing here in Pattaya Thailand {despite this post title} All of the need greaters here in the foreign language group have coddled our little fledgling group and are making sure we are all taken care of. We do seriously feel like fresh babies out of the womb helpless and hungry. When we first arrived in Pattaya our housing was sort of up in the air and we needed to find housing for all eight of us ASAP. We tried our best to play "International Househunters" but with the help of the group overseer {who has been our true life saver} we found a complex with four available apartments all on the same floor, but no two rooms being directly next to each other, perfect. We have made our home to feel, as homey and comfortable as possible, but there is one thing that I am being a real big baby about. Yes, the place where nightmares collide...the bathroom. Imagine for a minute that you have devoured a giant bowl of spicy Thai soup, that on top of the two other spicy meals you had eaten earlier in the day. You have quite a rumble in the Bronx so you head to your sketch bathroom. Oh yeah it's the one that is a million degrees because it has open air windows to the outside. It's also the place where mosquitos have a little pow wow on how the devour the foreigners tonight for dessert. It's also home to smells from who knows where and never mind the grime from all the other tenants from nightmares past. Just for kicks let's make the whole bathroom a shower so the floor is basically completely wet when you take a shower. Yummy. So your sitting on the thrown minding your business, sweating up a storm while being attacked by those same roque mosquitos...with wet feet. have decided to spend as little time as possible in that room. It freaks me out, for reals. It could be worse I know and I have seen worse, and overall I really do like our little studio. Ok, the nightmare story is over...for now.

Here are some other pictures of room, the not so scary area:

It's been fun trying to make our room cute and homey without spending too much money and bringing home only what you can carry on our bike. Do you think it could be an episode on Nate Berkus?! 

Wanna know where dreams collide? Pattaya Thailand. Kit and I are having so much fun and just tonight Kit said he was having the time of his life, awe. We have already made such wonderful friends that I know will be lifetime friends. In our congregation there are brothers and sisters from the States, Canada, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Germany, England, Russia, Korea, Japan, and more I am sure. The clash of cultures is really a beautiful thing and being surrounded by people who have made huge sacrifices to search out for spiritually hungry people inThailand is so refreshing. You know how back home you have talks on how to reach out to where there is a greater need and you really want to? It seems so surreal to me that we have actually done it and are living it. Some said before we left that this trip would be a life changer and I think they were right. It's hard to even imagine going home and forgetting about the huge need here in Thailand. Now if we could actually say something that a Thai person could understand that would be amazing....we'll work on that.

There are so many things to tell that it seems overwhelming to sit and write it all down.

Here are some ministry snippets:

We stop at any available market in the village we are working in for break. I discovered Lays nori potato chips there, it's as my mom says "perfection". 

One market we went into today we had to take our shoes off before entering.

Few have cars so we drive our individual motorbikes to the territory then walk it, yes you heard me...walk. 

Helmet hair...yep, when you do your hair you have to consider the fact that you will be putting on a helmet.

You walk up to gates to houses and yell out "Hello, is anyone at home? Hello?" {in Thai of course} then when someone comes out you give your presentation.

Dogs are really really scarey street dogs. No petting. 

Thailand is tropical therefore it rains...and we ride our bikes in the rain. With ponchos. Let's just say back home when we feel a drop we call it a day. Not here!

We do a lot of informal witnessing on the beach and in he shopping centers where foreigners will be. We all are sharpening up on our informal witnessing skills.