Day 4: Wat and Street Market – May 14th, 2010

Good Morning! Sawadee Ka! Last night we went to sleep at 9 pm and this morning we woke up at 6 am. There is a rooster that lives across the street but I did not hear him early this morning, even though some of my teammates did. Nate came and knocked at 6am. We got ready: took a shower, brushed our teeth, got dressed, and then had Thai cereal. Yum! And Kiwi juice, yummier! We then had until 8:30 for journaling and Jesus time. Right now, I am going to read some of Andrew Murray’s _With Christ In The School of Prayer_ and also Ecclesiastes 5:1-7. …
Day four was fantastic! We went to the Wat (Wat Doi Suthep). Talk about a beautiful heartbreak! The temples were such gorgeous architecture – gold leaf covered doams and idols… it is completely beautiful. But what gets me is the countless reminders of Old Testament sin – idolatry. I just want to sit and cry for the people who think their pointless merit earning and attempts to gain better karma will gain them something. I know that it will not and I want them to know the truth. We have a heavenly father who is not abusive and cruel like the fathers here on earth who send their children into slavery, and a father Gof who is not fickle like the idols they buy flowers and incense to appease. Our God is Abba – daddy. Loving and Caring. We were worth the sacrifice of his only son! We could never do anything to deserve the love we’ve been given! Pouring water on a flame will not give us any greater sight in his eyes that what we have now. He loves all of his children for who they are and is calling out for a relationship. I think that going and observing this is/will be one of the most devastating things I will ever witness. After we went to the Wat, we went to a restaurant and ate lunch. We all had (for the exception of Stacey’s iced coffee and Trayce’s passion fruit juice) Thai iced tea. I love it! I think it tastes like chocolate, coffee, and strawberry milk all mixed up. I love it. We all ate Khao Soi, which is a red curry soup with noodles and chicken. The chicken was on the bone still so I am very proud that I ate it. I used a spoon to scrape off the meat (avoiding the skin).It was pretty spicy, but Nate told us it was a 1.5 on a scale of 1-10! Wowzers!
After lunch we went to the street market. What an experience! It’s like a bazziollion stores that are legit Thai-aimed for Thai people and not so much for tourists. There was a building which I refer to as the mall that had 3 levels of stores. I bought some key chains for my girls and also a pair of fisherman/gaucho pants. Love them. After that we went back to Thong house, shower for the second time and got ready to go to dinner at Tim’s house (Kara’s parents). We ate some amazing noodles and peanut sauce – yummy. We also ate fired Morning Glories. Who knew a flower could be so delish! After we ate we played uno, phase 10, and Sorry to practice our numbers. JD, Eli, Crissy, and I played Sorry and the boys team won – lame! After that we came home and got ready to shower. I was so tired that I passed out while I was waiting for my turn! Ha Great great day!