Back from thailand

The trip was amazing. My nephew seemed to be loving every minute of it. I was right the flights were a drag, although the way back seemed worse...and then the 5 hour drive home!! ick.

We went to an elephant park. Later we rode the elephants in a seat strapped to their backs. I was actually picked up by the truck of an elephand and sat on it's trunk!

I think, so far, Thailand was my favorite country to visit. It's so beautiful there and I love the food! I had no problems eating there. It's a tourist type country so they had night markets with artists and other types of stuff to buy. And you could bargin. I had a blast doing that. There was a 17 year old girl on the trip, Kirstin and she and and my nephew bonded quite well. I had an honorary neice for the trip. She was a very nice gal and I didn't mind sharing my nephew with her.

The Thai people are a bit reserved. We were told to ask our sponsored child if it was ok to hug them! Very different from Central and South America. Pui was beautiful and she wants to be a tour guide.

I learned something new on this trip. Compassion is evangalistic. I thought all the kids in the projects belonged to the church...or at least were not attached to any other religion. Well, Compassion requires a certain percentage of the spots at any project be given to non-christian kids...to reach them, and their families, for Christ. I found this out when Pui told me she was Buddhist! It makes sense. But now I have even more reason to pray for her. Also, since Thailand is so heavily Buddhist, sometimes kids accept Christ but never tell anyone, especially their families who might disapprove-rather strongly.
Two of the projects we visited weren't technically Thai. One was a tribe called Yellow Lahu and they came from Burma about 50 years ago and were pretty insulated. They were more like the kids in South America...huggy sorts! And the other were Hmong, also huggy sorts.


It was such an amazing trip! I am so blessed by God to be able to do these trips and see the world safely. And Compassion is such an amazing Christ centered organization!

215 days til I go to Indonesia!
God bless