101 Posts Later...

... and we're coming home. This is it. The last post before we come home. I really don't have a lot to say. Today, I've been fighting back the emotions involved with leaving a place that has become home to me. There are people, places, and things that I will probably never see again. I'm glad that I will be able to see some people again, if not on this earth, in heaven. I also believe that that time is coming very, very soon. It's kind of interesting how we are going to be going through our second major life change in the course of one year. As we celebrated our 1 year anniversary the day before yesterday, it was fun to look back and see where we've been in the last year. We've definitely grown... physically, mentally, emotionally, culturally, and best of all-- spiritually. As we look forward to unknown things and uncertain times, I know we will continue to grow. I hope and pray that we will not lose focus of our whole purpose and mission on this earth-- "to obey God's commandments and remain faithful to Jesus" (Revelation 14:12) and to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 28:19). Thank you all for following our adventures, for writing us encouraging notes, and for keeping us in your prayers. They have not gone unappreciated. See you soon.

~M&S

Man appriciation day

Two weeks. That's it. 14 days and about 36 hours of travel is all that stands between us and you! We are so excited to see everyone. (We're not as excited about the longest travel day in our history but we'll do it gladly in order to get home.) Pray that we will get over our colds before we have to travel. We have some Australian friends who just got home after 52 hours of travel due to the Bangkok Airport closure. They both had colds and said it was a fairly miserable endeavor.
We just had Fathers day on Friday. It is celebrated on the Kings birthday in the same way that mothers day is celebrated on the Queens birthday. Handy. There was a program during Saturday Night vespers that honored all the fathers on staff. As all the dads shyly made their way up front other saff members kept coaxing michael to go too. He tried to explain to them that he was not a father but they kept on insisting that he go up front with the rest of them. Desiree, our new volunteer commented that Sauce was kinda like our kid and the teachers told him that his students were like his kids too, so along with the two other men who weren't fathers he made his way reluctantly to the front and was honored with all the rest.
I guess we can just fudge and call it "man" appreciation day.

Time to come home

Well kids it's time for us to come home. Reason being: I have found 2 grey hairs in rapid succession. Mai dee. Oh, and I found 1 black one. What is going on here?

Pictures and Shorts

Summer and I started a new English Branch Sabbath School on Sabbath afternoons with another English teacher, Jarun. It's in the village youth center-- quite a nice little building! They even have white boards, and that is very exciting! Granted, I did write on that board with a permanent marker, but after only a little panicking and thinking they will never let us come back to use their building again, I colored over the permanent marker with dry erase marker.... and erased. Crisis aborted.


Last week was Sports Day(s). Sunday and Monday were filled with students on four teams parading, performing, demonstrating and sporting it up. They competed in the parade floats, cheering, 100 m sprinting, football, basketball, volleyball, tekra, ping pong, chairball, and badminton. Here was the most impressive float (team yellow) with their entourage leading. Quite good, don't you think? Tuesday was "Rest Day." (Much needed for us teachers who had a 3-day weekend)


Two students performed a well choreographed Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) demonstration. For obvious reasons, there was no actual fighting in the Sports Day games. This one was performed more like a dance than an actual fight.







Our Thanksgiving setup was simple and very beautiful! Not all the food is on the table in this picture (but we did have a lot of it!). It was nice to have an outdoor Thanksgiving. We shared many texts about God's abundant blessings before Supper and prayed, then we shared what we were all thankful for after supper. We even had pumpkin pie. It was very nice.




Loi Kratong is a lights festival celebrated as a Buddhist Holiday. It is very beautiful. In Chiang Mai, there were gads of people lighting off fireworks, sending up paper balloons into the sky, watching the parade, and eating food. There were also small "boats" of flowers and such that were sent off into the river with incense sticks or candles. The festivities were very fun.... and beautiful.... and slightly dangerous-- dodging bottle rockets as they whizzed toward your head. The sheer volume of balloons that were sent into the air was such a sight to see. It's too bad our camera couldn't capture it.

A Guilt-ridden Short

So, pretty much this boils down to the fact that I've only written one blog this month. I was feeling guilty about that so.... here you go. It's interesting how when things draw to a close, your interests and commitments change. There are quite a few things I could have written about in the past month, but haven't. Laziness? Probably. Anyway, it's becoming harder and harder to tell you about things here when we will be telling you in person in 3 weeks. I will try to post a few more things before we come home, especially since we won't see all of you right away.

On another note, Happy Thanksgiving! I came down with the flu or some such nonsense, so it was a little on the down side, but we had an amazing American Thanksgiving with 4 Canadians, 3 Americans, 1 Thai, and 1 Cambodian. It was nice to have a taste of home here. We felt loved-- like we got to spend Thanksgiving with our family away from home. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Pray for us as we finish up our ministry here, that we can finish strong to the end. And pray that the airports open up again so we can come home on time. All our love.

Thoughts on Six Weeks

This'll be a short one. I just thought I'd share some thoughts and experiences as they come to my mind. I guess you could call this a free-writing exercise.

First of all, big news that I'm sure NONE of you know about. *Ahem* Go back and read that first sentence again, but this time read it with a sarcastic tone. --Moving on-- We have a new president! It has been interesting observing from a more removed area all the happenings in America. We don't have TV (praise the Lord), so all of our event-following has had to be via the internet. It was quite exciting coming to school on Wednesday and watching as the polls started to close and the votes counted. Change. In light of end time events, any change is very exciting. Please understand that I'm not speculating that Obama will be the last president before Jesus comes, but every day we come closer and closer. I tried to teach my students the other day the word "anxious." When I think about the end times (which I've been doing more and more lately), I would have to say anxious is the best word to describe my feelings. Excitement, fear, motivation, nervousness-- all these things make me want to tell people about the good news of Jesus more.

I have been studying my Bible a lot more, and while I can't say that I know everything, I can say that I've learned a lot from my study and reading. It's amazing what some good study can do for your spiritual life. I'm getting a bigger picture of God's awesome plan. I have for the first time in my life started reading some of Ellen White's writings. I was never interested in reading them earlier, because I didn't like the way many people used her writings. I think about that now, and that's a little bit silly. People use the Bible in bad ways too, but I still read it. So, I gave her a chance. Wow, Wow, Wow!!! I would *highly* recommend reading some of her writings. Steps to Christ is amazing! If you are a new Christian or not one at all, read that one first. I have recently started reading the "Conflict of the Ages" series. I'm in the middle of Patriarchs and Prophets as well as The Great Controversy. The way this woman writes, you'd wonder how anyone could beat other people over the head with her writings. I urge you. If you have been turned off from her because of other people, just try her writings out-- from a fellow skeptic turned believer. Of course, always measure her writings (as well as anyone else's--Adventist or not) against the Bible. Just because writings may be popular does not mean they are right.

Speaking of the end of times, the end of our time here is only 6 weeks away. Wow! And speaking of anxiety, I am anxious to come home. We've changed a lot since coming here, and I don't know how I am going to handle returning to a strange culture. I am absolutely thrilled to see all of you, but at the same time I'm scared out of my mind. Expectations are a curious thing. And I am out of time. Off to my next class. Please pray for us as we finish our time and ministry here. I will post a blog soon of some of the things I've learned since coming.

Blessings!
~M

Hair progression

Okay so some dramatic things have happened to my hair lately. I could tell boring stories but I think that the pictures say enough so enjoy!

Okay so here's stage one. The culmination of 10 months in Thailand and several years prior to that. The kids loved my hair this length.

Stage two:This was after the first haircut in Bangkok. It was short but it did funky things when I didn't tame it and I don't have time to tame my mane here. So after a bit of lip biting and sitting very nervously in a barbers chair I came out with the following hairstyle.

A lovely picture of Jaime and Michael. Oh wait! Nope that's just me after haircut number two. I have serious bangs again. I swore I would never do that again after 8th grade but eh!? Whatever. It was time for something new. -grins-

And this is the everyday me. Short, sweet and to the point. The kids are so funny. They are so blunt. When I first cut my hair one of my girls in P3 came up to me and said, "Teacher! Mai soy louay!" Which means, "You're not beautiful at all!" I had a good laugh over that one. "Well," I thought, "If you don't like it like this, I guess there's no harm in going shorter..." The result was pretty good. The second cut got them speaking more English, "Teacher, you more beautiful with long hair." I know I know. I like it though.

10 Things...

Here's part two of my "10 things" lists. This particular publication should be read with the mind that 1) I am actually an optimistic person, 2) I love Thailand and most everything it entails, and 3) I believe any place a person lives has both positive and negative aspects. That being said, here are

10 Things I Won't Miss About Thailand:

1. The constant threat of mold on anything and everything (especially clothes, things made of wood, and things made of leather-- including my dress shoes that have to be hosed down thoroughly every month or so).

2. Stepping in/on any and all kinds of water, juice, rice, vegetables.... really, just food or liquid of any kind in my bare feet in the cafeteria.

3. Never having less than 10 bug bites on my body that itch at any single point in time.

4. Not being able to easily communicate with people for things as simple as groceries or directions.

5. Having to pay more for something because "you have white skin, therefore you are a foreigner, therefore you are rich and can afford what I have to sell at a higher price." Okay, so they don't say that, but other than them speaking those exact words, the rest is true.

6. Not being able to REALLY clean my clothes. They are more of just a semblance of cleanliness.

7. The constant wonder at whether or not you will have electricity or water at any given point in time and when they do go out, wondering when they will come back on again.

8. Having to pay all kinds of money for visas and such to stay in the country or to leave the country and come back.

9. Teaching in a classroom full of teenagers who stare at you with blank faces more often than not (again, I love teaching, and I love teaching here too; but when the students have no clue what you are saying, it's hard!).

10. The smoke! Oh, the smoke. During the cold and hot seasons, they burn everything here... and the smoke is terrible! I didn't even know we had so many moutains around us the first couple of months we were here. Then it rained!

So, there you have it. The not-so-nice of Thailand. Yet, it's still not that bad. We are going to continue to enjoy our last two months to the fullest extent. We'll see you soon!

~M

Let Me Tell You a Story...

It was the day we got back from Cambodia. We had just ridden in a cramped bus (you can see the picture below) from Siem Reap to the border where we crossed back into Thailand and happily boarded a smaller, air-conditioned van for the final few hours to Bangkok. Our driver, apparently not wanting to waste time like we had on our trip to Cambodia, made double-time, and Summer and I were glad to realize we were back in Bangkok before the sun went down. Sweet relief! We hopped in a cab, and made our way to the hotel we had booked, looking forward to a shower, air-conditioning, internet, and maybe even a bite to eat. When we got to the Sawasdee Sukhumvit Inn Hotel and showed them our reservation voucher, they pulled out a little note saying "URGENT" on it and kindly informed us we would be moving to another of their branch hotels a few kilometers down the road (Sawasdee Langsuan Inn). We, understandably, were a bit confused at this. They pointed us to a brochure and told us where exactly it was, and if there's one thing you learn from living and teaching in a foreign country like Thailand, it's if you just go with the flow and don't let things get under your skin when it comes to scheduling, your life is a whole lot easier. So, we went with it. They told us they would pay for another taxi for us. Nice! Things were looking up. Not only that, but the hotel actually looked a little newer and nicer in the brochure, so we weren't complaining.


Well, we got there, learned they had upgraded our room for us because of the change (awesome!), got settled, took quick showers, and eagerly anticipated going to the shopping center nearby for some good ol' homegrown Mexican food. Hmmm.... it just hit me; that doesn't make sense. Whatever. On the way in, however, Summer had seen an Italian restaurant just at the end of the street our hotel was on. It was closer, and she had been jonesing for some of that, so I-- being the loving, caring, understanding, flexible, hungry husband I am-- conceded, and we headed to the Italian joint. Here's my journal entry (with a few picture-enhancing additions):

"We walked in and were immediately overwhelmed by the very stimulating decor, the racks of wine, the tables of breads, cheeses, and meats, and the fancy place-settings. A fountain was spewing forth it's continuous flow of water in the middle of the restaurant, a stage with a full band settup was in the corner, and the Sistine Chapel-like paintings were looming overhead, the characters in them seeming to whisper to us, 'you can't afford this, you can't afford this,' in that universal kid-known tune usually put to the words, 'na-na-na-na-naaaa-naa.' We were in over our heads. We were just two hungry people in shorts/jeans and matching T-shirts, who had just taken a quick shower to wash off the top layer of dirt and sweat that had caked on us from our trip. My immediate reaction? (in a rising tone of accelerating hysteria, culminating in an explosive finale of the last word) 'What were we THINKING?' This was all in my head of course. On the outside, I was calm, collected, cool, and other "c" words as well that describe my controlled countenance.

We decided to take a look at a menu to see if we could afford the place. But apparently, they assume that if you are the type of person who would eat at their restaurant, you wouldn't need to look at a menu before sitting down. Pretty presumptuous if you ask me! So we were seated. I started feeling more and more out of place, my anxiety levels rising at the thought of 1) paying thousands of Baht for dinner or 2) embarrassing ourselves by walking out of this almost empty restaurant with the eyes of almost all the waitstaff on us. As the host was laying out the nicely folded napkins onto our individual laps for us, who should come out but the chef himself-- a slightly overweight yet chic Italian man, who fits the bill perfectly-- to personally welcome us and tell us what the specials were. Good grief, did someone just turn up the heat? We were screwed!

He proceded to tell us about all the chicken, beef, and fish dishes that are in fancy sauces with cheese specially imported straight from Italy that melt in your mouth and such. I could have sworn by the way he was describing all the things he made that I would have entered some form of extasy by eating them, never wanting to eat anything else anywhere else ever. We sat politely, listening and thinking, 'can we just see a menu?' The hammer was about to fall. We (horror of all horrors) asked about his vegetarian dishes, and that's when it struck. You could just see the countenance on his face fall. It was almost like he was asking himself-- 'Vegetarian? Who on earth is vegetarian?' The next words out of his mouth were precisely, 'you.... both are vegetarian?' We just smiled and said yes. I didn't think we needed to tell him we were on a budget on top of that. He might have just had a heart attack right then and there. I don't remember much of what he said after that. I imagined him telling us to just get out of his restaurant, though.

Well, we stayed and ate. By this time we were too embarrassed to just get up and leave (I mean, they had already poured our water.... we were trapped). Summer got the margherita pizza-- the cheapest thing on the menu. I got the chef recommended spinach ravioli in a butter cream sauce with fresh-grated parmesean cheese. And that's all. No drinks, no appetizers, no dessert, no cheese platter. Only the complimentary bread basket common to most Italian restaurant meals. One service tax (10%) and one Value Added Tax (7%) later, we forked over our 795 Baht and left the restaurant, embarrassed and considerably less rich.

That being said, the atmosphere was impressive, the service was fantastic, the food was phenomenal, we did get to (when hopefully nobody was looking) share entrees, and the various breads at the beginning of the meal were some of the most amazing breads with sauces and spreads I've ever had. I think next time, we'll go with more money in our bank, nicer clothes on, and the confidence of fine dining connoisseurs. Then, maybe we can enjoy it a little more. It was just a little too intimidating for this simple lover of the finer things in life-- you know, Taco Bell."

Cambodia

This is one of the locations where Tomb Raider was shot.











This is an ancient fallic symbol for fertility. Contrary to the couple who rubbed and poured water on it a few moments earlier, we were not too enthusiastic about its regenerative blessings.























Ye old ancient temple.









This was the best Indian food we had ever had. And little wonder. Look where it's from . -wink-


















This was the luggage situation coming back to Thailand. There were so many people on the bus that someone had to sit in a blue plastic chair in the middle asile.

Angkor Wat

Old faces. Michael and I had flashbacks to Tomb Raider when that statue with the rotating faces started attacking people. It made us want to get bb guns and shoot at them.











The elephant terrace. These are elephant heads with their trunks hanging down as the columns. Can you see it?
















The breath-taking Angkor Wat. Wowza.

The legendary bridge over the river Kwai. We walked over it whistling the theme song from the movie. At least I did. Michael was kind of incapacitated at the time...






Sadly Michaels allergies flared up and put a little damper on our outing, but we got some fun pictures of his nose!
Entering Scambodia... er Cambodia.










Michael and I standing infront of an ancient library in Angkor Wat.

Pictures never seem to do places justice. This is Wat Arun. Quite impressive really. Those stairs were a beast. I made the mistake of climbing all of them with the same leg forward. That earned me a dibilitating charley-horse for the next two days. Oh, and then there was the wind factor, which normally would have been great considering how hot Bangkok is but when you're wearing a light skirt and trying to climb down stairs... not a good combination.






Tee hee hee. Ummm. So I cut my hair....

Michael and I outside of the Wat complex that housed the Emerald Buddah. Oooooo Aaaaahhhh.








Giant Reclining Buddah. It's big.

Chiang Rai II

This girl was so beautiful. I think she's probably around 11 or 12 years old. When they are around 4 or 5 they get to decide whether or not they will start wearing the rings. From there on out they are kinda stuck. In any case most decided to wear them.







Well here we are! We have officially been to the Northern Most of Thailand!

It may seem to be a bit lacking in technological advancement but this is the way some people still fish up in the Golden Triangle. It's a bowed frame that has a net attached to it's four legs. They settle it down into the water and wait for the fish to swim over it and then they pull it quickly from the water.(As you see here)




The Golden Triangle opium museum. Educational and informative. Where most museums only tell you about history, this one told us how to grow, harvest, refine and smoke this substance. I think that museums back home would be a lot more frequented if... well never mind.

Chiang Rai

I got to be a long neck for the afternoon! It really wasn't that bad. I don't know what they're complaining about...











"Hi! It's very nice to meet... woah! Sorry, but you seem to have a little something right here..."
It kinda takes you by surprise doesn't it? The women in this tribe chew this special root that turns their teeth jet black. We asked her if her teeth were healthy and with an unnerving smile she told us that she would have them until the day she died. Good for you.



You think the guages back home are intense? In this tribe it is believed to be good luck to stretch your earlobes as it signifies long life. I think I'de rather just die young.






These little boys were having a great time running around the village while we were there. One of them... well you can see for yourself.

Update on Teedae

So, our friend that was recently electrocuted is still in the hospital. However, he has awaken and is slowly recovering. Some friends went to visit him yesterday (Sabbath) and he can recognize people, he can talk well, but he is not smiling yet. He's having a little bit of trouble reading and solving some problems too, but he's working on it. He's been having pain in some of his joints (wrists and knees and such), but he can walk with a little bit of difficulty. I guess he doesn't know that his friend died in the accident yet. I thought he had found out, but I was apparently wrong. They're saying that he'll be on medication, but he should be able to go home sometime this next week. I still don't know what side-effects (if any) will last from the shock or how severe they will be, but that is the update I have for you now.

In other news, Summer and I finished our last regular day of teaching on Friday. This next week is exam week, which finishes on Wednesday. Then, we are off for another adventure! We are going up to Chiang Rai to visit the Golden Triangle for a couple of days. Then, it's down to Bangkok for 4 days and over to Cambodia for another 4 days. Then, back through Bangkok to come home. It should be pretty epic. And I promise to post pictures and stories about said adventures when we get back. :-) Vacation rocks!!! We start the second semester of school on October 21 (I think). So yeah... exciting times. Sorry this month has been so boring for you to read. Not even any pictures. How about this one? It's the only one I've got with me at the moment.

A Strange Weekend

Once again, our writing and posting has fallen by the wayside. This last weekend was an interesting one. On Friday, Summer and I went into Mae Malai to get some groceries. We were getting ready to come back, and the weather was brewing up quite a storm. We were like, "Oh boy! Let's go!" So, we started coming back, trying to outrun the storm. It started to sprinkle on us a little bit, but it was a relief from the hot weather. We outran it, but on the way back home, we passed a little market on the street that had some oranges. It's the Hmong (a hill-tribe) market just a few kilometers from the school. We turned around quickly and saw the nearly black clouds coming for us. We got our fruit (some of the best oranges and the best pomelo we've had since coming here), and the rain came upon us. So, we hopped back on our bike and outran the storm once again. The closer it came to the school, the more evil it looked. We got to the football field, and I was thinking, "Oh man! Here it comes!" So, I said, "Run for your lives!" Not two seconds after I had said that did a crack and roar peel through the sky. It was so close, it didn't even sound like thunder. I thought someone had shot a gun at us. We made it home with only a couple minutes to spare before the wind and rain just slammed us! It was an intense storm!

Now for the not-so-pleasant part. The next morning, we found out that the lightning had struck a tree just down the hill from our house at ICC (the orphanage), killing one of the Pratom 6 students and seriously injuring another student (one of Summer's and my students) from Pratom 3. Prakit was killed instantly, and Teedae is still in the Nakornping hospital. The two boys were allegedly leaning against a post that was touching the tree. Teedae was unconcious and (this is only what I heard through a language barrier 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th hand) wasn't breathing for 30 minutes. I don't really know any more about the situation or the validity of the "facts," but as of today (last night, maybe?) Teedae had woken up and was responding. I don't know what his mental state or physical state are. I just know that we've been praying like mad for him over here, and things are heading in the right direction for him. If you could pray for him, that he makes a full recovery according to God's will, that would be wonderful. We had the funeral for Prakit yesterday.

The strange thing about that storm was that there was no build-up as far as the lightning goes. No rumblings or distant thunder even made itself known. It was just one big and loud crack that snuck up and rocked our school. To add to the strangeness of the day, Pe Prom-- an old lady who comes to our church-- was bitten by a dog at the market on that day (dogs here aren't always friendly, but they rarely bite someone, especially if unprovoked). And on top of that, there were 4 men in black pants and jackets that came to the house of the school barber (we call him that, because he lives just off campus, and most of the students go to get their haircuts from him). He wasn't there, and his wife (sister, maybe?) spoke to them out the window. They wanted to know where he was because he owed them 1,200,000 Baht. Apparently, he took off so he couldn't be found. Speculations are that he owes them an old debt from when he used to deal drugs, although there's nothing saying he's totally clean now. The authorities were called, but the men left before they could get here, and it wouldn't have made much of a difference anyway, because many of the police are involved in the drug rings. In fact, as soon as the police were called (unbeknownst to the men), they took off.

So, yeah... Drugs, dogs, and death. An interesting weekend indeed.

Summer and I are okay. Love to all!

~M&S

In the blink of an eye

It’s amazing how fast things can happen. One minute you’re standing erect and confident and the next you are flat on your hind end thinking, “How in the world did I get here?”
This weekend was full of adventure for Michael and me. It started Sabbath morning after Sabbath school. When we got done teaching we plodded up the hill to our house and set about making a picnic lunch. We had decided earlier that morning to have our own church out in nature at a waterfall that Jackie and I discovered when she was here. The sun was radiant as we set out on our adventure. It was a perfect day for a picnic.
We reached our destination without mishap and started exploring the area to find a good spot for lunch. Our wanderings brought us around a bend further up the falls and into a cove that was absolutely breathtaking. I was excited to get there so I started making my way with some haste over the water covered rocks. I was walking gingerly, and doing pretty well at it, when all of a sudden my legs came out from underneath me and I was reclining on the rocks like a clumsy princess. I was so stunned that I just sat there for a moment looking around for the culprit that pushed me over. He was nowhere to be seen. I had a flashback to last week when David had a similar experience at a different waterfall. “I really should have had more sympathy for him.” I thought, “That really hurt!” Thankfully Michael didn’t see my spill. I imagine if he had he might have laughed like certain members of our party did at David last week. When I called his attention to the fact that I was on the ground when I wasn’t supposed to be he was appropriately sympathetic and we spent the remainder of the afternoon (until the rains came) eating, reading, repairing my pride and enjoying God’s nature.
(I will skip the rest of Sabbath only to interject that when the rain came it made all the rocks very slippery and produced 3 more falls from me, though they were less painful than the first.)
And now comes Sunday. Oh that fateful day. I have cleverly hid this story deep in the middle of another less interesting story in hopes that fewer people will read it and thus be less concerned for our well being. That said here is the scoop. On Sunday we got into another motorcycle accident! –Grins- Yes, it is true. I will answer the important questions first and then tell the rest of the story. Were people hurt? Yes. Did anyone have stitches? Yes. Is anything broken? No. Are you still alive? Clearly.
So here’s the story. Sunday dawned bright and cheery and begged us to come out and play. So after a lazy morning of pancakes and cartoons we headed out on Wing-Jammer (our motorbike) for an adventure. It was brilliant! Everything was going well: The wind in our hair, the sun on our backs, freedom at our finger tips…and we missed our turn. So Michael turned the bike around and we went back. We waited patiently for a bike to pass before we turned and began our journey across the lane and down the avenue that promised adventure. And then BAM! In the blink of an eye we were down on the ground. Now I don’t actually remember being down on the ground. It’s like I somehow levitated. The next thing I remember I was next to Michael checking him over for injuries. He was holding his knee and moaning slightly but his hands were okay, he wasn’t bleeding out of any part of his body so that was good. We were both in the middle of the road so my first instinct was to pick him up and carry him out of the way. –Grins- I would have done it too, but as I was lifting him off the ground he was like, “Sum, Sum I got it. I’m okay.”
It was then that I looked around. We had been hit from behind which meant that there was probably someone else lying in the road as well. And indeed there was. Two girls were staggering off the road one with a HUGE gash in her chin. It was gaping open and disgusting. It was about 2 inches wide and coagulated blood just hung out of it. I looked away remembering how well I did at the sight of Michael’s first injury and went about gathering our stuff and getting bikes off the road.
The next hour and a half found us driving the girls to and from the Mae Taeng hospital to get sewn up. We had our road rash cleaned and got to take pictures of yet another Thai emergency room, which was fun. Praise God we are no worse for wear. Michael and I both have some scrapes on our feet and bruises on our knees but really, it could have been a lot worse. It is a testament of Gods intervention that we were hit as we were. When we looked at our bike later, the best we could figure was that they hit us on the back of our back tire. It was crazy! If we had been just a breath slower on our turn, they could have hit us broadside and who knows what we would have looked like then. J Praise God that we are in the hands of a loving and protective creator and Father.

The Beautiful People (Alpha)

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. Some of them are Jackie's and one of them is David Crawford's. Continued on the next page. Also, don't miss Summer's blog at the bottom of all the pics.

The Beautiful People (Beta)

The Beautiful People (Gamma)

The Beautiful People (Delta)