Shrimp.

Thursday we were able to travel to Laos; it’s about 45 minutes away from Mai Sai. That is also where the Golden Triangle is located. It’s the point when Laos, Burma/Myanmar, and Thailand meet. It’s a big thing in Asia. We rode a boat across the Mae Kong River and spent an hour in Laos. As I walked I prayed for the country and the people, just asking God to bless every visitor that came there. That night we went over to some of our contacts friend’s house. They made traditional Burmese food for us and we played games with them. It was so much fun to hang out with them, Thai and Burmese people are amazing.

And we come to what I like to call shrimp on shrimp on shrimp day. AKA the day that we met with Max! That morning as a team we went to hang out with the street kids again. We planned some games and songs for them and were excited to spent time with them again. The first game we played was a new one to me. You sit in a circle and pass a bottle of powder around as someone plays music. If the music stops and you’re holding the bottle, the person who is sitting next to you gets to put the powder all over your face. I say we play this at our next family event :) It was a lot of fun- the kids loved it!

After we were done there WR, PAL, and I went to the gym to meet Max. Unfortunately his girlfriend wasn’t able to come with us but his friend Paul did. We waited for 15 minutes as Paul went to get his car and were shocked when he arrived. Both WR and I were expecting some small Thai car but here comes a 2011 Ford 4X4 truck. It was amazing. Trust me, when the only vehicle you’ve ridden in the past 5 months is a beat up white van, this is luxury. Max told us that we were going to his friends restaurant and that’d it’d be about 30 minutes outside of Mae Sai. WR and I were both worried that we wouldn’t be able to afford it (we get 50 Baht per meal) but we were trusting in God.

We weren't sure where we were going and when Paul turned off into a dodgy side street we got a little nervous but were again trusting in God. And God sure did bless us that day. We pulled into this cute restaurant on a little lake with walkways and tables on the lake. It was beautiful. We sat down and Paul and Max ordered for us. We talked and laughed with them while the food was prepared. It was a lot of fun hanging out with people outside our team. We took some pictures together and then the food came out.

And this is where the shrimp on shrimp on shrimp part comes in. The first dish was shrimp with noodles. The second was shrimp and fried rice. The third was spicy shrimp soup. The fourth was shrimp and yellow curry. And the fifth and final dish was deep fried shrimp with basil. Most of you know that I’m kind of a picky eater. BUT! I tried everything. PR you would have loved it all. I really enjoyed the deep fried shrimp with basil. The whole meal was amazing though! And we were blessed by Paul and Max- they ended up paying for everything.

After lunch they took us up to the scorpion temple that overlooks all of Mae Sai and into Burma. It was cool to be there with people who could explain what everything was and what it meant. We made plans that afternoon to go to a temple in Chiang Rai that Sunday. WR and I were excited to be able to hang out with them again.

Saturday we went to play with the street kids again and spend our last day just hanging out with them. We played some games, colored with them, and had lunch there too. It was good to see them once more before we left. Those kids are beautiful, I pray that God blesses them as they grow up. That afternoon MP and I went to prepare a drama for the church service we were participating in. We wrote a drama that was centered on a story that MP heard when she was a kid that brought her to believe.

Unfortunately when we preformed that same drama it didn’t go too well. I lost my place at one point and accidently said crap in church. Oh goodness, it was so bad. And then CH and PF had a laugh attack at the end of the drama. They were able to keep it together and finish out but once they stepped out of the building they cracked up. I like to refer to that day at Church fail. We all had to keep reminding ourselves that God is laughing with us and that it’s ok that things didn’t go perfect, we were able to get our messages across. AND CNB did an amazing job with the message. His mom would have been so proud!

That afternoon WR, PAL, and I went to the temple in Chiang Rai with Paul and Max. This temple was different than all the other ones we went to. Most of the the time temples are red and gold. This one was pure white. It was beautiful. There was glass mosaic over the whole temple, it was amazing. Then Paul took us to the University he graduated from. It too was beautiful. Nothing like Universities in America! It was a fun afternoon!

Monday closed out our time in Mae Sai. We had that day to say our goodbye and end out time in the city. I spent the morning with Roger and his friend Robert. I didn’t really say a lot but I was constantly praying for them and people that passed. At the end of my time with them I was able to pray for them, and granted they were drunk, it was still good. I pray that God pulls them closer every day.

We had the opportunity to spend time with Brandon and his wife and her family. They invited us over for dinner. It was another amazing meal. Burmese people really know how to cook. We as a team had the opportunity to pray for Brandon and Am. It was really hard saying goodbye to them. They are such beautiful people and have such a love for the people of Mae Sai. God is doing amazing things in their lives.

And then that night I found out that we had to do another border run. That one was going to have be at 630 in the morning. Meaning we had to be up by 530 and walking by 6. And this girl didn’t wake up until 6. But we still made it there in time. We walked in and walked right out. After we got back to our hotel we had breakfast and headed to the bus station. It was the best ride ever back to Chiang Mai. We had 8 VIP seats and my name got picked :) it was so great!

I have more to update but I’ll wait till later, this post is long enough :)

Love!