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
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