Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (and Busses, Taxis, Ferries, and Cable Cars)

Hello friends!

This morning we had to say goodbye to Thailand.  We were all alive alert awake and enthusiastic (not really) this morning at 5:30am to have breakfast at the TK Palace before loading up the hotel shuttles for the airport.  Tears were shed as we all said our goodbyes to P Dang and P La.  After a slight incident of one of our team members accidentally leaving a security checkpoint without his boarding pass, we made it on the plane at last call and headed to Hong Kong.  We arrived in Hong Kong around 1:00pm local time (1 hour ahead of Bangkok).

Driving from the airport to our hotel on one of the other islands, it really hit the team how incredibly massive the city of Hong Kong is.  Since Hong Kong is a city-state and has very limited space (its on an island) everything must expand up instead of out.  There were skyscrapers and high-rise apartments as far as we could see for the entire drive across the city.

We were all exhausted when we got to our hotel, but the excitement of getting to see Hong Kong lured us in.  We had Thai food for dinner around the corner from the hotel (which ironically seems to be in the Thai neighborhood of Hong Kong).  The hotel is on the mainland in the Kowloon district of Hong Kong.  Now it was time to go to “The Peak” which is the top of the mountain on the Island of Hong Kong, which is above all the skyscrapers in the city, and you can see the entire city from the lookout at the top.  We split up into groups and took taxis to the Lok Fu MTR station to catch the subway.  For those of you familiar with Chicago transit, if you think the red and brown lines get packed, you should have seen these trains! I have never seen so many people packed in one place in my life.  Trains would come in to the station within 30 seconds of each other, and each one would be just as packed!  After a transfer to a different line, we got off at the Admiralty station on the Island part of Hong Kong.  Then we walked about 10 or 15 minutes to the Peak Tram, which is a train that is pulled up the mountain by cables.  The ride on the tram was pretty crazy.  The incline seems to be more than 45 degrees at some points and it is so steep that it looks like the buildings are sideways.  At the top it was a little windy and chilly, but the view was incredible!  Going back down the mountain was a little scary too.  There weren’t quite enough seats on the tram, so Ben sat on Scotty’s lap.  Of course everyone else on the tram thought this was hilarious, and a couple people even took pictures of the “crazy Americans.”  From the tram, we took a double decker bus to the star ferry, which took us back from the island of Hong Kong to Kowloon where our hotel is.  From there, we had to get back on the subway to get back to the Lok Fu station, and then take taxis back to the hotel from there.  We are back at the hotel now and ready to pass out for the night.  Our shuttle leaves for the airport at 7:45am tomorrow, and we are all looking forward to that wonderful 15-hour flight!

Pray for safe travels, see you when we get back to the States!

God bless,

-Kyle Salesky

Lights In The World

Over the past two weeks our team has done a lot, seen a lot, eaten a lot, felt a lot and most importantly, they have learned a lot. They have learned how to communicate in a new language. They have practiced new customs in a foreign culture. They have tried new, strange and sometimes, spicy foods. They have painted and wired student dormitories and learned how to build a house out of dirt. They have seen the Hmong way of slaughtering a pig and know just how strong Hmong whiskey is (given to us as honored guests). They have observed a different religion and have seen how it is a huge part of the culture. They have seen just how beautiful and different God's creation can be in a different country and they have had numerous instances where all they could do was praise Him for it. The list goes on and on.

Yesterday and today they learned that it is important to take time to rest and reflect. Even missionaries get to take time off and have fun. Since coming here we have had wonderful opportunities to think and talk about our experiences and reflect on God's goodness.  Looking at his creation in the ocean during the day and in the stars at night tends to have that effect on you. 

After a relaxing day on the beach or in the pool, we had a pretty special evening. Before leaving Chiang Mai, P Dang took me to a store where I could buy a special gift for our team. If you have ever seen the movie Tangled, you will know what I mean buy floating lanterns. We had 30 of them to send off, so we walked down the beach to the darkest part of the beach where Jamie had a brief devotion on Light and us being the light of Christ in the world. We closed our evening by singing the doxology as we watched the lanterns. Watching them float off into the sky was incredibly beautiful and was a great reminder to us of how the light of Christ came to this dark world to remove the darkness of sin and give us life and light eternal.

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

The Light of Christ be with you all,

~Deac-Betsy

Welcome to Hua Hin!

We’ve finished with our week of hard work and this morning we headed off to the Anantasila Villa in Hua Hin, Thailand. It is literally on the beach. Literally. After changing into our swimsuits (well, some of us already had them on…), we walked past the pool, down the steps, over the beach, and straight into the Gulf of Thailand. Not a few people commented that it was like bathwater, which we all appreciated seeing as it is freezing cold back in the places our team members call home. Lunch was served lazy and late in a little restaurant a short walk down the beach. We had many delicious Thai dishes, including fried shrimp. We thought some of the little pieces were fried clams at first, but they were really fried cloves of garlic. None of us had ever eaten whole cloves before, but they were very delicious with the ever-present steamed white rice.

We all spent the rest of the afternoon and evening on the beach playing Frisbee, tanning on our chairs, listening to music, and soaking up the day. Finally we had a late dinner at a different restaurant on the beach, Thai-style with… you guessed it! Rice! (Thai-style basically means family style, with various plates of different main dishes passed around for people to scoop onto their rice.) The meal finished with a delicious dessert of mangoes and coconut sticky rice. Our walk back to the hotel/little resort consisted of a little meandering over the sand since everyone was looking up at all the stars. It’s pretty dark here, so we can see a lot of them! We pulled some deck chairs together into a semi-circle on the beach for our devotion time and shared some of the moments throughout the trip with God’s work made us want to “shout for joy” as it talks about in Isaiah 60. It was a wonderful way to end our relaxing day as we enjoyed God’s creation.

Tomorrow, we’re up for round two!

God’s blessings,

Jamie Helmreich

CUC In Thailand Photo Album 2

https://picasaweb.google.com/thailandtrekker/CUCInThailand2?authkey=Gv1sRgCMCnm8X6iI28Ug

Road trips & Is this real life?

Good night, good morning, and good afternoon depending on where you are in the world,  

Tonight we (Meghan and Kayla) have blogging duty.

After a bittersweet goodbye to P. Waan, today we road tripped through Thailand once again, his time from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. We thought we would share with you a few Thailand road trip essentials in case you ever make the trip yourself. Here it goes:

-Toilet paper for those lovely squatty potties found at rest stops

-Hand sanitizer because for some reason most of the rest stops just have sinks, and no soap

-Music and speakers, which are perfect for van rides while singing along. Our favorite music s        elections include T. Swift, 90’s throwbacks, Justin Bieber, and the alternative genre

-Baht in order to purchase snacks at rest stops…Today we were able to get ice cream for 15 Baht, which is 50 cents. Kyle’s request for 2 scoops led to two ice cream cones.

-A pillow or something to make you comfortable while you sleep…lots of this occurred today.

-Game supplies…today our van played the name game which required pencil and paper

-Movies….the other van purchased a few selections at the night market and enjoyed watching them

-An awesome 11 year-old to keep things entertaining

-Great drivers and friends who make every trip a grand one

We think that should cover it. After about 8 hours on the road it was a welcoming sight to see Bangkok and the TK Palace Hotel once again. To give you an estimate of how big Bangkok is it can almost fit 3 Chicago’s inside of it. Our accommodations are a step above those we had in Chiang Mai although we are still missing out on the washcloths we had anticipated upon our return.

After settling in, we divided into two groups for the night: those who wanted to stay at the hotel and those who wanted to go out and explore Bangkok some more. We decided to join the group further exploring Bangkok along with Paige, Liz, Carolyn, Sarah, Kyle, and our wonderful tour guide Betsy. We first hopped into a cab and drove to the BTS, Bangkok’s equivalent of the L. Once we got our passes, we proceeded to get on the train, which was much nicer and a smoother ride than those we ride in Chicago. We got off at the Siam station in order to explore the Siam Paragon mall. This mall was unlike anything we had experienced before. Our senses were on overload. What first shocked us was the size of the food court area. It expands over an entire floor and has food options from around the world. It’s so big McDonald’s has 2 locations on the floor. We settled for Thai food and enjoyed it before further exploring the mall. Some of our favorite sights were the Lamborghini store along with other luxury cars, high fashion design stores (Prada, Dolce and Gababana, Louis Vouiton, etc.), the biggest movie theatre we’d ever seen outfitted with leather couches, a popcorn bar, giant lobby screens, Starbucks, and special lounge theatres with Lazy boys, and floors and floors of escalators and elevators to get lost on. The mall was the opposite extreme of the sights we saw in the slum at the beginning of our trip. 

When we left Siam Paragon we were greeted by fireworks, a water fountain with lights, and two giant screens outside leading to Siam Centre and Discovery, which we quickly walked through once again commenting how we’d never seen anything like we were walking through before. We made our way back to the BTS and enjoyed another smooth ride feeling especially tall compared to the local riders and respectfully amused by the signs saying to give up your seat to a monk if one is on board. Upon returning to our station, we got into cabs once again avoiding those who tried to rip us off assuming we were ignorant tourists.

After arriving back to the hotel in timely manne, we joined our pizza eating, Who’s Line is it Anyway watching teammates for evening devotions. We were able to reflect on the countless ways we have seen God working while on this trip. His ways have been remarkable, and we can’t wait to tell you about them in person.

Blessings,

Kayla and Meghan

HOLY BUCKETS WAS THAT RUSSELL CROWE?

WHEW 80 million crazy things happened today so I'll do my very best to remember all of them. Right after breakfast this morning we headed up the mountain to the Hmong village to celebrate the Hmong New Year and Children's Day. Children's day is an Asian holiday where communities come together to celebrate children by playing games and giving gifts to kids. The village's activities were held at the church and we got to join in on the planning. First, we sang some songs in the Hmong Language led by P. Wan. Then it was the team's turn to do skits and songs. The two skits we did were David and Goliath and Jesus calms the storm. After the skits and songs we helped the kids color pictures depicting the two Bible stories we just acted out. Following the coloring activity, we gave out gifts to the children like hair brushes, pencils, notebooks, frisbees, teddy bears, etc. When the gift giving ceremony was done we headed out to the yard to play relay races and tug o war. The Hmong boy students got to teach some of our team's guys how to play this really cool spinning top game. It was one of those things that they made look really easy but when the guys tried it they found it to be super difficult.

We finished the Children's Day activities and moved onto the New Year's Celebration. The pastor of the Hmong church invited us to eat lunch at his house. While we were waiting outside we could hear the squeal of pigs being prepped for the slaughter for the special New Year's Dinner. Some of the braver members of the team peeked over the edge of the hill to watch the process of the poor piggies' last moments.

The fabulous lunch that was graciously prepared for us consisted of rice, super spicy salsa (that Betsy ate until she cried), chicken noodle soup, a pork dish, and garlic morning glory. Some of the team got to sample a celebratory shot of corn whiskey (basically Thai white lightning). When lunch was over the family dressed us up in traditional Hmong clothing which is super colorful and intricately sewn.

We headed up a hill through the village to see the community festival complete with a stage for musical numbers and food vendors dotting the pathway.

After a fantastic morning and afternoon immersed in the beautiful Hmong culture, we piled into the vans and headed back to the hotel to rest up for one last night of shopping in the night market.

At dinner we had more morning glory, yummy chicken, stir fried veggies, and the biggest shrimp (I guess really prawns) I've ever seen. P. Dang is really good at ordering us food that makes us step a little bit out of our comfort zone but always tastes super good. Although dinner was great, that didn't keep some of the team members away from the temptation of a McDonald's McTriple cheeseburger.

While browsing the vendors' stands a few of us spotted RUSSELL CROWE chillin' with some gal pal asking about a bracelet. They could tell that he wasn't feeling the need to be spotted and bothered because he hadn't shaved in a couple of days and was wearing baggy clothing so Sarah settled on making awkward eye contact with him instead.

While we bought our last Chiang Mai souvenirs we couldn't help but think about how sad we will be to leave such a scenically beautiful and culturally rich place. We did a lot of hard work and accomplished a lot of big projects but the more we were able to help, the more we were reminded of how much there is left to do. We can be satisfied with the consolation that we helped equip wonderful people like P. Wan, P. La, and P. Dang with some tools to continue God's work in Thailand. And what we received in return is worth its weight in gold when we consider all that Thailand has taught us about people, the world and our faith.

We have a long day of traveling ahead of us tomorrow so I better catch some zzzzz's.
Thanks so much for your continuous prayers! Keep 'em comin'!!
Carolyn (Keykone)
P.S. Hey Mom and Dad I'm alive!!!
P.P.S. Happy birthday Grandpa!!!!!!!!!

CUC goes tourist

Hey Fellow Troopers of Concordia and beyond, this is your good friend and lovable hoodlum Ben Spaulding reporting on today’s events.  We went to a Buddhist temple in the morning on Doi Suthep mountain and the general feeling of the group was uncomfortability and sadness.  The view was beautiful but seeing the crowds of people bowing before the idols made us all realize how much this amazing nation has bought into the lie of idols and how much the Gospel light needs to be proclaimed.  It was also sad to see the fellow tourists participating in the worship and the ignorance behind it all, but also the dangers of participating in false worship.  It was discussed at the devo tonight and everyone had the same sad feeling about the temple.  However, afterwards we got to experience some great Thai food at a local restaurant at lunch time and we had amazing soup and noodles.  Then some of us went to finish electrical projects at the house and others stayed and planned for Saturday activities.  The best part of today, though, was the dinner theater.  We all sat down on the floor in comfy small chairs and ate huge portions of delicious food.  The artistic entertainment and dancing was also amazing to witness.  The fellowship was amazing and also seeing the floating lights was spectacular.  Plus I pranked Carolyn Foote tonight posing as a delivery guy and she believed me.  Classic!!! Love you guys, but more importantly Jesus loves you!!! Peace!!