Little bits of Life.

About a week ago my team here in Thailand took a 4 day retreat to Chang Mai, the northern part of Thailand.
The team met at the train station at 7:00pm Thursday. From there we boarded an over night train headed to Chang Mai. I imagine most of you have never rode on an overnight train. So I made a little video giving you a tour.   

We arrived in Chang Mai at our destination around 10am Friday morning. In the mornings we had team worship and a bible study. After the bible study there was a speaker who spoke to us about different aspects of soul care. Positive thinking, setting boundaries, resilience, and how to deal with stress where the topics. After lunch was free time to sleep, swim, or go out.

After supper we did fun group activities. One night was game night. We played minute-to-win-it games. One of the games was to cover your nose in Vaseline and then get as many cotton balls from one side of the line to the other in a minute. You could not use your hands, but no one said anything about using you lips! haha I won with 18 cotton balls on my side! It was awesome!

Thailand Team!

 

 Another night we went out to an American restaurant called Duke's. It has American Food. I got a big old Man burger (that is what I call them). It was so good, but to my shame I could not eat it all!

The burger! With onion rings and a side of ranch dressing!

What I had to leave behind. I did pick the bacon off and eat that!

 After the delicious dinner, we went to the night market. I love the night market! I was able to haggle and get lower prices on everything I bought! That was a big boast to my confidence in my language skills. 

After the retreat Rhonda and I stayed 3 extra days to have a mini vacation. Those 3 days were some of the best days ever! The first day we did a kind of silent retreat. God really used that time to speak to me about trusting him. During the retreat we had to write down all the things that were stressing us out. God asked me to write them down and then He gave me truth to fight off the worries and stress. It was so goood! Some of the things that God brought up was my struggle with being single, relationships with thai people, language, believing that God is using me, and my self image. He took these things and covered them in truth. I can't even argue with the truth he put forth. I left that time with a feeling of peace and carefreeness.
The 2nd day we went and did some sight seeing. We went bungee jumping! Lets just say I did it once and I think I will be ok if I do not do it again. :) Rhonda had to pep talk me into jumping.

Near the top. I am so scared!

The little dot at the end of the rope is us. :)

 I still cant believe I did that. I also realized that I have a fear of heights. Which is kinda strange considering I want to fly airplanes and skydive! haha  
After the jump we saw a monkey show and a snake show. The monkey show was cute. The monkey rode around on bikes and did cool tricks. The snake show was awesome! I am scared of snakes, but am also fascinated by them. The people in the show realized that I was scared of the snakes, and decided to have fun with it. :)

At the snake show! This was a cobra!

Monkeys at the monkey show!

I have to admit I have never had so much fun. I laughed so hard I was crying. At one point they brought a snake over to touch. I kept scooting over, to the point I was on top of Rhonda and she was basically on top of a thai person beside her. haha. I loved it!

Coming back has been good. It is good t get back in the grove. I feel though the longer I am back the more I want to see my friends come to Jesus, and the more helpless I am. I know I must wait on the Lord. I know he is faithful, and he wants to know these people to.I just have to be patient. :) Well That is all for now. I pray that God would bless your day! Thanks so much for reading!
Love
Dani

Had an awesome surprise waiting for me when I got home!

One of my friends and her kids made these in Ohio. She heard 

 

 

 

that I was missing fall, so she sent some along! They are waxed covered leaves, I love them alot! 

Psalm 23: A Promise of a Good life

From the bible. From God. 
The Lord is my shepherd;
    I have all that I need.
I will provide for your every need food, housing, and clothing. In every town and place you will be provided for. I will look out for you. I know your needs.
  ² He lets me rest in green meadows;    he leads me beside peaceful streams.
I know when you need rest. i provide that time. I lead you and renew your strength. It is I who take care of you. I do it out of love. 
   ³     He renews my strength.
He guides me along right paths,
    bringing honor to his name.
It is I who lead you. I lead you because it pleases me. I love leading you down the path. I know where you are at. I will never lead you in the wrong direction, because I do it for my Glory. You bring glory to my name.
⁴ Even when I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will not be afraid,
I hold your right hand, and my light will always go before you shinning the way. I am with you, my spirit is on you. 
    for you are close beside me.
Your rod and your staff
    protect and comfort me.
Tough love. :) These hands that discipline you, and hands that love you. These hands will guide, love, protect, and heal you. I will give you my hands to hold, and when you can't hold them, they will hold you. 
⁵ You prepare a feast for me
    in the presence of my enemies.
If I am at the head of the table and you sit at my table there is nothing that can touch you. Sit back and enjoy, you are at my table! 
You honor me by anointing my head with oil.
    My cup overflows with blessings.
You are my chosen. I anointed you myself. I choose to bless you because I love you and it brings me great joy. 
⁶ Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me
    all the days of my life,
and I will live in the house of the Lord
    forever.
I will be with you all of your days. We will travel the path together. You have a good life coming! 

My life:

 This month I was sick. I had a cold and a cough. I missed two days of school because of it. The day I went back to school I felt better, but still not top dog. I was running late that morning so I just missed the Song Taow. I kept walking thinking I would get a motorcycle up to the main road and go from there. But the song toaw driver saw me, and backed up so I could get on. While I was on the Song Taow I was coughing alot. When I got off a lady offered me a package of cough drops which helped my cough alot! I really felt like it was God's way of loving on me. 

He has also provided several friends that I hang out with. Sometimes we just hangout and talk. Other times we go watch soccer games. We would like to go ice skating soon.

I love going to the soccer games. They have been awesome! I have been to 3 so far. My team is Thai Port (taa rua). They are the under dogs, but see to be doing better lately. 

Watching the soccer games and riding motorcycle are two things I really enjoy here in Thailand. 

In my free time I also play with the 2 girls and a boy that live in my apartment. They love it when I take them outside, to the "back yard". It is just an ally that goes into a small parking lot the motorcycles and cars park in. We have alot of fun playing games like hide and seek and no bears out tonight. 

Language:

I have taken 4 months of school so far. I am in my fourth month at school right now and am planning to take a month off. I feel like my speaking is becoming worse as time goes on. However, I am understanding alot more though. I have also started to teach my self the thai letters. I am enjoying this aspect of the language and look forward to when I can read.   

Next week I will go to Chang Mai with the team for a retreat. We will meet for 3 or 4 days, and Rhonda will stay there a few extra days after the team leaves. Well I think that is it for now! God bless!