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!!!!!!!!!