Pattaya and other news!

Hey everyone!
It has been along time since I have last written.
Alot has happened since I last wrote.
There was an international night. I had to sing a thai song called, 'Som Tam'. It is a fun little song about making papaya salad. Good experience that I am not eager to do again. I did get to dress up in a traditional Isaan (north eastern Thailand) dress! That was cool!
The president of the University also took me and some of the other international students to see and thai ballet and opera. It was cool to see.    
My University also took the international students on a trip to Pattaya. What a great experience it was! It was so good to get away form the university. I made alot of new friends! The international array of students included students coming from China (the majority), India, America, Nicaragua, and Thailand. The commutative language spoken was not English like you might think, but Thai!

Love the Boy's Terrified expression!!

At the Art Museum.

We left on an early Saturday morning and arrived in Pattaya around 2 hours latter. In the morning we went to an Art museum. It was super awesome, because it was a 3-D interactive museum. We spent hours taking pictures and becoming part of the art. At lunch time we went to a revolving restaurant. The entire building was around 57 stories high. They had a huge buffet with a variety of thai foods. It had a great view of the sea and surrounding city. The best part of this tower was the way to go down. For the people who have little love of heights or thrills there was a lovley elevator complete with a person to push the buttons for you to go down. For those who are alittle more daring, there was a sky line to ride down. Now I have to say, as much as me and my friend Anabell love thrills, we have a huge fear of heights. But we were determined not to let that get the best of us.
There were several types of skylines. We chose the one where you could go down together. Our turn can and we climed onto the ride. I should have known right off this was going to be an extravagant ride because I could not even stand strait on the lift. I have always said I have baby bearing hips, I just did not know how true that was until I got on that ride. The ride took forever to start. Now the first rule for people who have a fear of heights is to not look down. But that is the first rule I always break. It felt like the ride was at the top of that building forever, when suddenly we started. Slowly at first, and then almost as if the attendent wanted a good laugh, the ride droped around 5 feet. Yep, us girls both lost it. I screamed, and Anabell begun to pray. Oh Lord help us. over and over. I could not get over how funny this whole thing was, and I begun laughing. I laughed to hard that I started crying. I thought I was going to throw up. Just in time, we saw someone taking a picture. Both of us, stopped what we were doing and posed. When the shot was taken, we continued. By this time I was laughing so hard I could bearly get off the ride. We looked at the picture and laughed some more. I am sure the workers thought we were on drugs or something. Good memories!

Kissing the fish!

This was the pose!

One thing I should mention is that Pattaya is know for the Ladyboy shows. The most beautiful ladyboys go there to work. So In the evening we went to see a show. I have to say, it is amazing what humans can do to the body. On the outside They pretty much looked like a girl. The show was mostly of them dancing. It was fun to watch. It was also sad to see what God had created completely rejected and turned in to an object for pleasure. At the end of the show I asked one my guy friends what he thought? He said they were beautiful, but as soon as he heard the voice he just shook his head and turned away. You see they can change the outside, but the voice is a little hard to change. haha. It is crazy.

This is one of the Ladyboys.

The next day we went to the beach. We had to take a boat on a 15 min. ride to an island. I enjoyed the trip, but there were quite a few sick bunnies. The Island was beautiful! The water was Chrystal blue and the beach nice and white. It was a great time to relax and play in the water. I was sad to leave, but I hope to go back again to just relax on the beaches.

I was defiantly not ready to come back to study. Luckily that week some of my class were shortened or cancelled.

I also had the opportunity to go to a Thai funeral. P'Lung's father passed away. I went to help P'Great with the girls. (This is my Thai host family.) Normally a funeral lasts anywhere from 3 to 5days . You are allowed to wear black or white. I was really supprised at the casualness of it all. In America, you must dress up. But here sandals, shorts, and a T-shirt are fine, as long as there is some black. There are alot of things you have to do, like, feed the monks before you can eat. Or Bow and pray to the person who has died. I asked P'Great what she thought about it all, cause she is becoming a christian. She said there is too many rules and things you must do. To me she seemed to think it was all kind of silly and a wast of time. In thailand, the cremate people. The process is as fallows. They walk around the oven with the body, like a funeral prosesion 3 times. Then everyone goes and bows down to the body one last time leaving a flower on top of it. There is one last viewing and then the body is burned. I felt so sad for the man's wife. They were married for so long and now he is just gone. I can't imagine.

Nice beach!

My Thai costume!

One day I had a bible study with my roommate Organ. She wanted to study about prayer. So we studied the passage in Luke. After that we were talking and she said she wanted to receive the Holy Spirit. So I told her all we have to do is pray and ask for it. So I prayed that God would allow her to receive the Holy Spirit. Afterwords I asked her how she felt about prayer. But she understood it as me asking her to pray. I could see fear on her face, but then she just started to pray. At first it was just simple, and then suddenly her prayer took off. She started praying for people to come to know God. The Spirit of the lord was on her. She told me latter that she wants people to come to know Jesus so they can receive happiness. I asked her about baptism. She told me that she would tell me when she was ready. I could see fear in her face, and I think she is counting the cost. Praise God that he allowed this to happen. For real I felt just like Moses. I did not know how to speak or explain things, but God was still glorified.

Annabell and me!

I have a little over a month before this term is over. I am looking forward to it. I have decided to change my major to hotel management. It will be in English and I think be more useful to me. I can speak, read, and write Thai already. That has become my normal language, even to the point it can be troublesome to talk English because I forget. It is vary tiring being in another language almost 99% of the time.

There is a song called "Worn" By Tenth Avenue North. I feel like it describes me pretty well. Here are some of the lyrics.

I’m Tired I’m worn
My heart is heavy
From the work it takes
To keep on breathing
I’ve made mistakes
I’ve let my hope fail
My soul feels crushed
By the weight of this world

And I know that you can give me rest
So I cry out with all that I have left

Let me see redemption win
Let me know the struggle ends
That you can mend a heart
That’s frail and torn
I wanna know a song can rise
From the ashes of a broken life
And all that’s dead inside can be reborn
Cause I’m worn

I know I need to lift my eyes up
But I'm too weak
Life just won’t let up
And I know that you can give me rest
So I cry out with all that I have left
 

My prayers are wearing thin
Yeah, I’m worn
Even before the day begins
Yeah, I’m worn
I’ve lost my will to fight
I’m worn
                          So, heaven come and flood my eyes  

I am struggling with homesickness and lonesomeness. I have lots of friend whom I love. But they can not understand what it is like to be a foreigner or the only one who thinks like I do. God is faithful. He gives me the strength for each day. But I do ask for your prayer. I need it now more then ever.

Pray that God would give me daily strength.

Pray for Organ that the spirit would continue to move in her.

Pray for my friends, that they would see God in me.

Pray for guidance for the future. I hope to come and stay in Thailand for a long time. Pray that God would open doors, and answer prayers like never before. 

Thank you all so much! God bless! 

Dani