Ready, set, Sawadee-kah...except, this time, I mean goodbye.

Well, well...what to say? It's the start of the final countdown to the end of our time here in Thailand and I've managed to avoid blogging for almost the entire last half of the trip. Fail on my part. There's plenty to share and tons to say, but finding the right words for it all...that's the hard part. First, let's play a little bit of catch-up.
      We've been in Chiang Mai (northern Thailand and the second largest city) for about 4 weeks. We have been working/volunteering at a RAD as all get out coffee shop that stand right across the street from Chiang Mai University. It goes by the name of Wongen Kafe and it's run by an amazing Thai lady named Emmi. Ready for a cool little story? Well, as it happens, about a week before my team decided to leave Phuket and come up here, before we ever got in contact with Emmi, Emmi had a dream/vision that there would be a random team of 8 people coming to Wongen soon. Teams normally book weeks or months in advance. A few days after her dream, we called asking if there was room for us to come up there on just about a weeks notice. What could Emmi say but yes? God had told her we would come and awesomely enough, there was room for us! So, we've been living above the cafe at night, and during the day serving food, helping out with open mic nights, worship nights, and just getting to know and hanging out with all the cool people that come to the coffee shop. Also, we are still doing our bar ministry here, as well as, helping out occasionally with English clinics at the university and going to a poorer part of the city ("slums") to hang out with the people there and play with kids, paint their faces, etc. It's been such a sweet sweet sweet time here! Also, Chiang Mai isn't as humid as Phuket, so we aren't constantly wondering around in a state of sweaty misery. It's fantastic.
       Just 7 more days and we begin our debrief period. Three or so "free" days here in Chiang Mai then we head to Bangkok for 3 days (where I plan on hiding indoors at our hotel the whole time due to the overly hot and humid weather that resides in that smoggy city.) and then it's back to New Zealand to be reunited with the rest of our DTS outreach teams!! It's insane to think it's been 3 months...it's insane to think that it's all coming to an end, and it's insane to think back on all the crazy things that God has done during our time here. It's also insane to think that I started out on this journey almost 6 months ago doubting the very existence of God. But after everything that's happened, I have no doubt in my mind that God is, well...God. And He's amazing. And, that is that for me.

Changes are a-happenin'

    Ok, well I figure it's been a long enough time since I last blogged here so, why not toss another little "update" out? So, let's get straight to business...or should I say, updating.

Baking cookies with the neighborhood girls

        My team is relocating from Phuket ("poo-ket") in southern Thailand up north to Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. I'm extremely sad about having to leave behind the friendships we've made with the Thai girls that work here at SHE and the kids around our neighborhood. I absolutely love them! It's also sad that we are leaving the ministry we had helped Mark and Sharon (owners of S.H.E.) pioneer in a section of Phuket called Chalong. But, on Friday we were blessed by one of the girls we had befriended in Chalong come to tour and have lunch at S.H.E. While she personally does not plan on coming here, she said she will be telling the other girls she works with about this place. Hopefully that will begin to open doors.
       During our time here, there's been many amazing stories and we've met so many flippin rad people. God's definitely been moving and working-crashing down entire bar filled streets, bringing girls back to life, enabling members of my team to begin the process of rescuing young girls from abusive homes, the list goes on and on. I apologize if it seems like I'm just brushing these things aside-I'm really not. I just don't feel I can do these stories justice by blogging them to a wide-open cyber-space where anyone and everyone can read them. It's not that I don't want to share them, but these stories are real. They actually happened and I can't bring myself to just casually and impersonally blog them to who knows who. On that note, if you are reading this, and you do want to hear more about the things that have been happening over here, feel free to ask! I'd love to answer and talk about them :)

       On lighter notes, in a few hours we are off to Chiang Mai to begin work with an organization called Lighthouse. I'm not entirely clear what all we will be doing yet, but I've heard tail that there's a Fair Trade coffee shop for us to volunteer at, working in the rice fields with locals, and tons of other opportunities to "embrace" the Thai culture. Woot woot. It's gonna be rad. And I've been told Chiang Mai has sweet as elephant tours and Thai cooking classes. Also, it's supposedly cooler than down south-aka- I might, MIGHT need a coat at night...I might cry a bit out of joy if that's the case. Oh and my hair is now red. RED. Oh yes. K, bye.