No Brain to Blog

The "shed" at Yupa's Mom's house.
The whole village looks just like this :).

In Seol. Who knows what time it is? I think it's about 6 a.m. Thai time, and actually, I didn't sleep at all on my first flight of five hours. That means I've been up for 24 hours straight at the moment. Ew. Sounds worse now that I just typed that.

Keyed up, I guess. And processing.

Tried to journal on the plane, but with three weeks of intensive Thai immersion still swimming in my head, I could hardly catch any English to put down coherently. Just lots of ramblings and musings, barely connecting with each other.

They're good ramblings and musings. I am filled up and over flowing and over flowing the over flow. What a beyond-sensational trip this was, on just so many planes (no pun intended). Best part, hands down, was the clear observations of significant and on going improvements in the general standard of living and the overall well being, inside and out, of the kids.

They are stunning!

Living among them for three weeks, it is easy to see why any kid would thrive being brought into this environment. This family knows community like community should be. Lots and lots for us to learn there.

Suradet and Yupa's values of community and unleashing and stewardship are reflected in every corner of the property, and in every smile on a kid's face, and very song of praise sung every morning and every evening until you think you're going to die, it's so beautiful.

And the passion there for kids in need is rivaled only by a passion to see their friends and neighbours come to understand the freedom and light that Jesus offers. With increasing language skills on both sides (more on his than mine), Suradet and I were able to have more Pastor to Pastor talks. Talks about a vision for the future of Hot Springs, and how Highview can partner with our Thai family in more meaningful and effective ways.

For example, Suradet regularly gets asked if he would teach English to neighbouring children who are not in any way connected with the church. Not only do they know that Suradet is learning English himself, but they have observed all these farangs hanging around the place, and figure it's a good bet someone might be willing. See any ideas coming out of that? Suradet does.

And there's more. Tons of stories, a lot of them hilarious, about language mistakes, and how the kids were so helpful and completely made fun of me at the same time :0). About how Fruk got blamed for the earthquake, and a silly nursery song to teach Thai children the names of eyes and noses and such, that somehow turned into a yabbadabadoo song.

To my amazement, I actually went "shopping" by myself once and carried on the entire transaction without letting on I was functionally illiterate. AND, I made brief conversation with the woman sitting next to me. I think my tones are getting better because I am greeted with less and less of those totally confused looks :).

Okay...enough for having no brain. I need to go find something to eat. :).