wedding bells

Last Saturday we were happy to finally have a quiet evening without any company, when our neighbors stopped by. They came bearing an invitation to a wedding. Upon opening the invitation we learned that we've never actually met the bride or the groom, but it's our neighbors cousin.
Now 1st of all, let me just say that we love it when neighbors stop by…they are always welcome. But this particular night we were just looking forward to some peace and quiet without anyone extra…seems like our door has not been shut for the past two weeks. There are constantly people here.
2nd, we don't really know these neighbors very well, and so it seemed a little strange that we would be invited to her cousin's wedding. Guess it's just cultural though. I don't think I'd want a bunch of people I didn't know at my wedding, but in India it seems to just be the more the merrier. I think our whole street was invited.

So anyways, we were told we were invited, and told that we needed to wear saris. We were also told that the wedding started at 7:30, but we should arrive late, because everyone does, and that it ended "when the stars disappear and the sun comes up". An all night wedding…crazy.
So that being said, Mel and I had 3 days to come up with saris that neither of us owned. We went to Dehradun on Sunday to try and find some. Unfortunately, because it was a Sunday, the main sari shops were closed. Ravi told us that it was probably too late to buy them anyway, because there wasn't enough time for them to be made. So we resorted to finding really fancy kurtas instead. Long story short, I found one, Mel didn't. So she decided to just borrow a sari from our good friend Richa. She and I went to go pick it up the next night. After handing it to Mel, Richa said that the blouse had been taken in because Ravi had worn it last and so we might need to undo some of the stitching on the inside. Side note- for those of you who have never seen Ravi, she's tiny. In everyway.
Upon returning home, Mel tried on the blouse…let's just say it definitely needed to be taken back out. We had a good laugh. Not much breathing room.

The next day when our sweet helper Bimla was here, we had her show us how to put it on so that we could hopefully successfully get Mel dressed for the wedding later that night.
For starters, when Bimla walked in the room she started laughing so hard she was crying. I had helped Mel fasten the blouse, and apparently we did it backwards :) We had quite the bonding time with Bimla as she helped us learn how to wrap a Sari. It was pretty funny.

Apparently we didn't learn it very well, because as we were trying to put it back on her around 8:00, it didn't work nearly as well as we were hoping. After about 5 or 6 tries, she headed down our street to our other neighbors, who also happened to be invited to the wedding as well.

By the time the getting ready was dealt with, and Micah & Levi were settled in with Uncle Isaac and Aunt Ravi, we got to the wedding about 8:45. We walked into the venue and there were masses of people EVERYWHERE. It was craziness. When I had asked our neighbor how many people there would be, he told us that 3-4 thousand were invited. I thought that his English was just a little bit mixed up and he meant 3-4 hundred. Nope. Pretty sure he said what he meant. There were at least 2 thousand people milling about. I've never seen anything like it. It was extremely colorful, lively, lots of loud music, dancing, and there was more food then you can imagine. Everyone was dressed fancy, wandering around eating and having a good time. I'm sure we stuck out like a sore thumb, (people were most def staring) but we did fit in just fine as far as dress goes. After about 20 min we found our neighbor Massood, and his family and hung out with them. Aside from the family that initially invited us, they were some of the only people we knew in the entire place. We wandered around eating and meeting people for about an hour and then Masood suggested we go upstairs to the tent to eat dinner. We thought we'd just eaten dinner…he informed us that was just the refreshments. Haha. So we walked upstairs to many, many more people, and much, much more food. The eating was pretty funny, because even though were was tons, and tons of food, and by no means was it going to run out any time soon, you had to be extremely pushy to even get a plate. And then push your way through the food. People were pushing, shoving and elbowing. The males didn't care less that you were a female and much smaller then them, and the fact that you were in "line" went out the window. The older woman were the worst though, which I found pretty hysterical.
We stuck around till almost 11:00 and then decided since it didn't look like anything but eating was happening even remotely soon, we should head home to the boys. As we were driving back up our street, we saw our neighbor, the bride, and a bunch of other girls, just leaving the house. The wedding started at 7:30, it's now 11:00, and the bride is just leaving. Clearly we're living in another culture! It was fun to see/meet/congratulate the bride up close and personal though. Man alive, was she decked out. She looked beautiful.

So anyway, that was our first Hindu, Indian wedding experience. By the end of the night I was thankful I hadn't ended up wearing a Sari. Mel was worried the whole night that it was going to fall off, and it looked cold and hard to walk in. I'll buy and wear one eventually because you just can't live in India for a year and not wear a Sari at least once, but I'm glad it didn't happen to be on that very chilly night :)
It was neat to experience something so cultural like a wedding. Fun to try new traditional foods, and just watch people. Next time maybe we'll actually stay through the ceremony.

A drop in the bucket.

Sometimes I look at this crazy world that we live in and just feel overwhelmed. I feel like a drop in the bucket, and I wonder if anything I'm doing is really making a difference. Or if what I'm doing is making a big enough difference to even matter.

It's interesting though, because living in Rajpur India for 6 months, I've been exposed to a lot more poor, hurting, lost people then ever before, and I've experienced lots of new parts of the world over these last two months, but the thing that my Jesus keeps teaching me, and reminding me about, over and over again, is hope. His hope for His people. For this fallen world.

I see the devastation. I see the poverty. I see the need. I live among some of the poorest of the poor. I know it's world wide. I know the problem is not small.

But my Jesus just keeps reminding me of how big He is. And how great and hopeful His perfect plan for His world is.

It's easy to look around you and feel completely and utterly overwhelmed and helpless. Like nothing you could ever do will make a big enough difference. But what I've experienced over the last 8 months, is that if you choose to live with open eyes you will see it all…all of it. But you will also see God at work. He's all over the place. You just have to learn to recognize where He's working.

While I was gone these past two months, my Jesus spoke to my heart about a lot of things, but one thing that He reminded me of over and over again was that I'm not alone in this. We're not alone in this. He has His perfect plan and He willingly encourages each member of the body of Christ to be an intricate piece to His puzzle. He gives us the opportunity to be part of His plan. And there are people all over the world that have said yes to their savior and His plan.

While I was in Thailand I had the opportunity to meet and spend time with Stanley and Linda Cheng. They are missionaries from Singapore who followed Jesus to Bangkok, Thailand. They live on the AIT campus and do ministry with graduate students. It was a huge encouragement to spend the afternoon with them, getting to know them, learning about their work and ministry, and hearing amazing stories about what Jesus is doing. It really, really encouraged my heart, to see first hand some of what Jesus is doing through this amazing couple.

That night when I got back to my hotel I stood out on the back balcony listening to my ipod. My room was on the 14th floor, and I had an amazing view of the city of Bangkok. Lights as far as you could see…just city everywhere. My ipod shuffled to the song Invasion/Hero, and I actually listened to the lyrics closely for the 1st time.
The 3rd verse goes like this-

Yeah. God is not pleased, man it's clear that His standards missed, Cause the world is rampant with sin, it's an abandonment. Man is feeling stranded, feeling hopeless since his banishment. God is angry at the distortion and the mismanagement. Evil is at work, but don't be thinking He can't handle it, He promised He would do away with all of it, dismantle it. He's put up with this damage in His world, but He's promised us That He'll destroy all His enemies and then He'll walk with us. New Heaven, new Earth, that's where all His sheep dwell, Jesus succeeded in every part of life that we failed. Died the death we couldn't die, paid our price with 3 nails. Began the work He promised, in the end we all will be well. Already beat his enemies and when His Kingdom's realized, all those who oppose Him will see Jesus with through some real eyes. Deliverance is offered us, the hero He is urging us, salvation is exclusive to His people who have turned to trust.

This world is a mess. But God's got this. And somehow, we all get the amazing opportunity to play a small part in it all.



Bangkok felt huge that night. That's all I could see all around me. And Bangkok is just one city among the hundreds in Thailand, and Thailand is just one country among the hundreds in the world. But I was reminded that even when we feel so small, and we know we are just one Katie Sue Linn, in one small part of the world, who can only make such a small difference, there are so many, many, one Stanly and Linda Cheng's out there doing the same thing. All over the world. Jesus was whispering hope to my heart that night.

One drop in the bucket feels so small and insignificant, but when one drop joins with many, it eventually fills the bucket up. As believers, we are all called to different things, but those different things all fit together in the master plan that our creator is weaving together. And we all have one thing in common. Following Jesus with everything we have, and sharing His love with everyone we meet. It's pretty amazing and humbling to think that He allows us to be a part of things. He allows us to join Him where He’s working. And when everyone works together to play their specific role, eventually we get the job done.

friends are good for the heart

Katie Greenway got to Shanghai the day after we got back from Thailand. It was SO good to see her walk through that gate at the airport! Hugging a friend for the first time in 7 months, is just a wonderful thing.

We spent the next 9 days laughing, exploring Shanghai, catching up on life, watching countless office episodes, being stupid, eating lots of pocky, staying up way too late, encouraging eachother, and just making memories together. It was so much fun to all be in China together! Definitely 9 days that will not soon be forgotten. I'm so thankful for all the amazing friends that my Jesus has blessed me with. I've got some great ones.

Time with the Thielmans!

The Thielmans met us in Hua Hin on the 20th. It was so, so good to see them!! We had such a fun, full, eight days together at the beach.

Day two was filled with the beach and simply the joy of being together. Zach, Kelly, Megan, and I kayaked out to an island that looked pretty close. We discovered that Monkey Island was in fact, named appropriately. As soon as we jumped out of our kayaks a bunch of monkeys appeared from behind the trees to meet us/ eat our paddles and steal our water. A lot of people take boat tours out to the island to feed the monkeys, so I think they were expecting food from us…they weren’t too happy to find out we didn’t have any. We attempted to hike up to the top of the island-that was interesting. It was super steep and extremely overgrown. After a few scrapes too many we turned around and headed back. After a couple (very funny) falls on the way back down, and what seemed like a forever long kayak back to shore, we spent the rest of the day hanging out on the beach.

Day three was spent with our guide for the day, Nut. In the morning we drove about 2 hours to a national park where we hiked up to really pretty waterfall. On the way we stopped at a pineapple field for a look after a conversation in the back seat between Mr Andy and Zach that went something like this- A- “What do you think that this?” Pointing to one of the many, many fields we had passed. Z- “ I don’t know…it looks kind of like pineapple though.” A- “pineapple doesn’t grow in the ground, it grows from trees. Z- “no it doesn’t, it grows in the ground.” So, we then had to stop and learn about how pineapple grows. It was pretty funny.
After hiking up to the falls, Nut told us that whoever caught one of the HUNDREDS of fish by hand from one of the many pools beneath the waterfall, would get a free chocolate milk. Lets just say that looked MUCH easier then it really was. After about half an hour of trying, someone asked him if anyone had ever done it before. Nope. And we didn’t change that. We certainly tried to though. For a long time. It actually provided about at least an hour of entertainment.

We had lunch at a little local place, and then drove about an hour back towards Hua Hin, to the elephant village. We got to spend about 2 hours trekking around trails on elephants. That was so cool! Definitely a first.

Day four Zach and I introduced the scooters :) Zach, Mr Andy, Kelly, and I headed into town to make a grocery run. Who knew the grocery store could be such an adventure? That night we all headed into town to the local night market. That was a cool experience. We tried some of the local street food for dinner, and found some gifts for peeps back home. In Thailand you can find just about any type of food on a stick-they really seem to like the skewers. We tried chicken on a stick, pork on a stick, fruit on a stick…etc. It was all pretty good! We steered away from most of the weird stuff :)

Day five was Christmas Eve! It was the 1st year that it really didn’t feel like Christmas Eve to me. We had to keep reminding each other what day it was. It was a fun day though! Spent the morning playing frisbee at the beach and then took a boat tour out to Monkey Island. This time, armed with bananas. Monkeys are actually pretty nice when you have food for them…all except for the one male that stole all the other monkeys' bananas. Not cool. He wasn’t my favorite. Every once in a while one of the smaller ones would randomly jump on somebody looking for more food-that was always pretty funny. As long as it wasn't me. After they finished off the bananas, we got back in the boat and got a tour of the island from the water. It was a beautiful boat ride! God’s creation is amazing.

That night, we had Christmas dinner. Definitely not my mama’s cookin', but it was good. The best part of dinner though, was Santa. Apparently every year the resort has one of the guests volunteer to dress up as Santa and come during dinner, call all the kids names one at a time, and hand out gifts that their parents have pre-wrapped. This year no one signed up to be Santa. So guess who volunteered? Mr. Andy. It was pretty funny. Santa rode in on a rickshaw and delivered gifts to all the kiddos. Pictures below :)

Day six was Christmas! Definitely the most unique Christmas I’ve ever celebrated. I knew it was going to be a hard day. When think about Christmas I think about my Jesus and my family. I missed my family so much more during the holiday season. There are just so many traditions and memories that go along with that time of year and it was hard knowing that things were going to be so different this year. Knowing that the time of year when families are all together, mine was going to be so far away. It made my heart hurt. Jesus was so gracious to let me spend that time with people that I love so much and are so special to me, even though we were an ocean away from home. It was still really hard not to be with my whole family, but I was so incredibly thankful to be able to be with my brother and the Thielmans. That was such a huge blessing. We had so much fun, and made memories that will last forever.

Christmas morning we opened a few presents/stockings, made a quick grocery run, (nothing like Tesco on Christmas morning) and then Kelly, Megan, Zach, and I, packed a lunch and took the scooters to the national park for most of the day. We had so much fun! Kelly and I also learned that going over speed bumps too fast can result in a flat tire. That evening we all headed back the night market to find a Mexican restaurant that we remembered from a few nights before, for dinner. We had Mexican for our Christmas dinner, and it was delicious :)

Day seven we drove about 4 hours to the floating market. Took a while to get there, but it was a neat experience. You hop in a little paddle boat and shop from the water. All the little vendors are set up and when you go by, they grab a long stick with a hook on the end and pull your boat over to see if you want to buy anything. It was pretty crazy. After that, we drove about two more hours to the place where we ate, and then drove a little ways to a little village where we went bamboo rafting on the river Kwai. It was a little slower then any of us expected…we were pulled up the river by a long tail with a motor and then just drifted back down with hardly any current, but it was very peaceful and the river was really pretty. We also had a great sunshiny day for it, which was perfect. Towards the beginning of our four hour drive back home, we stopped to see the bridge over the river Kwai. That was cool. It was neat to see in person and learn more about the history behind it.

Day eight Zach and I went to Hua Hin and hung out together for the day. The Thielmans were really sweet to give us that chance to be together- I didn’t think I would care that much…we had just spent a week together, but it was really nice to have one more day with him before he went home. He’s a good bro:) That night Kelly, Megan, Zach and I played spades (trying to finish our ongoing tournament) until about 1:00am when his taxi was scheduled for the ride back to Bangkok. Bummer goodbyes, but they all seem to be. I always hate those. It was so, so fun to explore Thailand with him for almost 2 weeks though. I’m so thankful for that special time that we had together. Sweet memories were made for sure.

Day nine the rest of us headed back to Bangkok to catch our plane to China! We made it to Shanghai about 9:30pm. So much fun to see where the Thielmans have been living for the first time, and a glimpse of what their day to day life is like here.

a taste of family . . .

I have five of the most legit brothers in the world. They’re hard workers, tons of fun, and they love Jesus. I look up to them all, and have so much respect for them. I miss them all like crazy. But I got to spend two weeks at the beach with one of them, and Oh my goodness, it was so.much.fun. I’m so thankful for the time that we got to hang together. Zach flew into Bangkok on the 14th, I met up with him, we stayed one night, and then headed down to Hua Hin via bus the nextday.

We spent a week swimming, playing cards, exploring the national park on rented scooters, (pretty much just driving around and exploring around the world and back on said rented scooters as well) caving, eating yummy Thai food, hiking, visiting local markets, walking the beach, talking about life, doing nothing, and just having fun being together. He’s the best.

Koh Jum

Alright. From now on I promise to be consistent in my blogging. It's been a little bit harder then usual this past month and a half because internet has been so scarce, but I have wireless now, and I'm done with the excuses :)
Here's what I saved on my computer everyday when we were on Koh Jum.

Day 2

Today we hung out at the beach in between the rain showers. Not the nicest day ever, but still fun. It’s so weird having an entire day with no agenda and a bunch of stuff that needs to get done. Especially knowing we are going to have 2+ weeks of this. Sometimes it’s so hard to slow down. You want to, but you also have to almost force yourself at the same time. It’s nice in a way not to have any internet and be “cut off” to most extents. It’s been a while since that has been true, and I’ve forgotten how nice of a break it is to just pull away for a while. My goal is to read through the New Testament over these next couple weeks... we’ll see how that goes. This afternoon Dave, Micah and Levi took the kayak out and went fishing. They ended up catching quite a few squid. Dave then gave the squid to the cook, who made them for dinner. I’m really not a big fan of seafood in general, so squid’s pushing it. I did eat it, and it was just as gross as I thought it was going to be. But like I said, I did eat it. I actually was pretty proud of myself if we’re being honest. Ended the day with a quiet walk on the beach with my Jesus under the stars.

Day 3
Today was pretty rainy like yesterday. Still hung at the beach quite a bit in between showers though. Late this afternoon I went kayaking which was beautiful. I was out there for a couple hours and then sat in a little cove and watched the sun set. One of the prettiest sunsets I’ve ever seen. I didn’t want it to end. It really was picturesque. Our Creator never ceases to amaze me. Tonight for dinner we decided to walk down the beach a little ways to the next set of bungalows. That was a good choice! We discovered that their restaurant is MUCH better then ours, and will probably be eating over there from now on. Put the boys to bed and then headed down to the beach to call my mama and sit under the stars.

Day 4
Still rainy. Hung with a couple friends down the beach a ways that we met yesterday though. Oh, and we had PORK for lunch…what?!?

Day 5
Today Mel, Micah and I ventured into Krabi. Kind of a bummer that the one day it decides not to rain, is the day that we made plans to leave. When we first got to the island we took a ferry, (among other things) but after being here a few
days have figured out how the locals get back and forth between here and the mainland. Their way is much cheaper and much simpler. So that’s how we decided to go. Paul and Pauline, the sweet older couple that owns the place that we’re staying, were already going in today and asked if we wanted to go with them which was perfect. We headed down to the pier in Paul’s 1947 Land Rover that felt in every way shape and form like it was going to fall apart at about 7:15 and caught the 7:40 longtail boat off the island. Spent the majority of the day in Krabi getting things done and then headed back the same way. We went grocery shopping which is a little tricky since we have no fridge or kitchen, but we bought a little Styrofoam cooler that is now full of milk and yogurt, and a bunch of cereal and snacks. Now we just have to make sure the monkeys don’t find out about it :)

Day 6
Today we decided to kayak down the beach a ways and try out one of the other restaurants. Dave and Micah took one, and Mel, Levi and I took another. The place that we ended up was owned by a French couple and the food was delicious. We met a family from Canada with 2 little girls who were almost the exact same age as Micah and Levi, so we ended up staying for a quite awhile since they all seemed to be rather instant playmates. Seems to happen when we ever so rarely come upon English speaking children. Unfortunately, the same time we decided to head back, there was a huge storm heading the same direction. We decided to just paddle fast and try to beat it. Lets just say, we did NOT in fact beat it. We did get back safely though which is always a plus. A little wet and extremely tired, but safe. What’s a day without a little adventure anyway?

Day 7
Today was sunny! Sunny and Extremely hot. When you’re on the beach though, that’s a very nice thing. The water turned a gorgeous crystal blue when the sun came out and pretty much all we did today was swim, eat, swim, read, swim some more, and sleep. It was wonderful.

Day 8
Today I spent the morning with my Jesus and it was so good. It’s amazing to me how He chooses to be so personal with each of His children. I love it. Dave, Mel and the boys, kayaked all the way down the beach, had lunch and explored and then rented a motorcycle and drove back. About an hour before they got back I was sitting in my bungalow and for some reason started thinking about monkeys, and how everyone said they were all over the island, but I hadn’t seen a single one since we’d been there. After this occurred to me I was telling Jesus that I was so thankful for not seeing any, and telling Him how much I hate monkeys (He already knows this though…definitely told Him this one before) and how nice it was not to have to worry about them. Seriously not 5 sec later I start to hear weird sounds coming from Dave and Mel's bungalow next door. Knowing they were gone, I went outside to see what it was. It was what I was hoping it wasn’t. Monkeys EVERYWHERE. From my balcony I could see them all over the porch, roof, and climbing in and out through a back window that was wide open. Did I mention I hate monkeys? And to be honest, due to some scary situations in India I’m also rather scared of them now too. But I knew what had to be done. Grabbed a broom and headed over, making very loud noises all the way. I pushed the door open and was greeted by 20+ monkeys staring straight at me. I screamed at them and they just sat there. It was crazy. One was sitting there pooping while eating peanut butter out of the jar that he had screwed open, one was eating cereal out of the box, many were sitting there peeling oranges, and a whole bunch were just sitting on the floor. I hit one with the broom and they all freaked out. As did I. Not really sure what to do, I started yelling and just banging stuff with the broom. They all left very quickly via the window, and I started cleaning up the massive mess they left behind. God’s got a sense of humor.

They came back early afternoon and the plan was for Mel and Levi to take a nap, and Dave, Micah and I to take the motorcycle back to town, get the kayak, and paddle all the way back down the beach. This plan was going well, until the crew sent to retrieve the kayak ran out of gas. That’s always fun. Picture this. A big tall white guy with a fisherman hat and no shoes walking a motorbike that won’t start. Behind him a ways, a white girl in a tie dyed shirt with no shoes and very muddy feet, followed by a little boy with no shirt, no shoes, and very happily eating fried bananas. On a dirt road in the middle of what seemed like nowhere.

Everyone was staring, but no one seemed to want to help with the gas tank.

Having not a clue where the next “gas station” was, eventually we stopped at a house that looked like it had somewhat of a bike repair shop out back in a shed. The lady spoke no English so eventually Dave just walked up to the shed and started looking for gas. We were successful in finding enough to get us to the gas station. Got some gas, returned the lady’s gas, and eventually returned the bike and paddled home. Not a real adventure till something goes wrong.

Day 9
Pretty much just a normal day on the beach. Sunny, beautiful, and restful.

Day 10
Today we hung at the beach all morning, had lunch, and then Mel and I headed into town to find internet while the boys slept. We rented a motorbike from the bungalows down the beach and headed into town. Koh Jum is a very small island and town really doesn’t consist of much, but there are a few small grocery shops, an internet café or two, and some touristy type shops. The dirt roads are so bad that it takes almost 30 min to drive into town. The way there was no problem aside from the pot holes and occasional “mud holes” along the way. We found a decent little internet café and did what we needed to do, stopped and had a cup of coffee at a cute little restaurant, and then headed back to the bungalows. About 2 minutes after we started home Mel made a comment about the clouds that seemed a little bit dark. About 2 minutes after Mel’s comment was made it started raining. About 2 minutes after it started raining it started POURING. Did I mention the roads were dirt? Makes for a very slippery, muddy, wet ride home :) It was pretty funny. We were fishtailing, getting stuck, couldn’t hardly see, completely drenched, full of mud, and all of the sudden, the only motorbike that was dumb enough to still be on the road. Just as we were both wondering aloud about where everyone else who had been on the road a few minutes ago was waiting out the storm, we passed a house where some people where sitting out on their porch. The lady waved us down and told us to sit on the porch with them til the storm passed. They were very sweet. Our pathetically wet selves were given towels, chairs, and told to sit until the rain stopped. We sat for about 20 min or so and then decided that the rain really didn’t look like it was going to stop, the roads were just getting worse by the second, we were already soaked and so we might as well just drive the rest of the way back. The lady did not think this was a good idea, but we went anyway. The rest of the way home was just as funny and hard as the first try, but we made it eventually. And, we gave our friends that we rented the bike from, a good hard laugh at the site of us. Sometimes you just have to suffer for the story, right?

Day 11
Today was a wonderful slow day filled with, Jesus, reading, kayaking, sun, and good food. Just can’t go wrong with that.

Day 12
We all hit the road early this morning and headed into Krabi for the day to get some stuff done. Grocery shopped, mailed stuff at the post office, found internet etc. It turned out to be a pretty long day, and we didn’t get as much done as some were hoping, but I guess that’s just life some times. Good days, bad days. They both happen. The beach was a welcome sight to all at about 5:00 pm when we got back. The sun was just starting to set and it was gorgeous. One of Jesus’ gracious ways of reminding ourselves of His face.

Day 13
Today the weather was gorgeous and we spent every bit of our day outside enjoying it. Swam, read, slept, kayaked, ya know the usual.

Day 14
Today we moved from our little bungalows to the big house at the end of the beach. I leave in a couple days, but Dave, Mel and the boys will be here at least another week while waiting for their visas, and Mel decided she would rather not do it in the bungalows. They were great for a while but no hot water, kitchen, washing machine, internet, or space, gets hard. So we moved. Not gonna lie though, it was a little bit awkward moving all of our stuff out of our bungalows and then not leaving, but just moving down the beach a little ways. Especially because we have to pass the place that we had been staying, in order to get to the place that we eat everyday. Oh well. Spent the morning moving everything, figuring out the new house, and enjoying the hot shower :) Played at the beach all afternoon, ate a lunch that we actually made for the first time in over 2 weeks due to no kitchen, played at the beach some more then ate a yummy supper with our friends down at Bon Homie. I ended my day down at the beach under the stars….talking to my family and spending some time with my Jesus.

Day 15
Today was my last full day on the island. I fly to Bangkok tomorrow to meet up with Zach!! So excited! Today the weather was pretty off and on. This morning was rainy, but it cleared up this afternoon and so we decided to jump in the kayaks and head down the beach for lunch. Someone apparently told Dave about a certain place that had “really good burgers”. Even though we knew it was probably too good to be true, we decided to try it out. Unfortunately it was in fact, too good to be true. They were not burgers. They had chicken burgers, but that’s just not the same thing. Lunch was still pretty good though. The other unfortunate thing was that the clear sky that we enjoyed all the way over, wasn’t looking so clear anymore when it was time to go. Why does this always seem to be the case? Everytime we’ve tried to go anywhere on the kayaks, we always get stuck in a storm on the way back! You’d think we’d learn our lesson, and just quit trying. Anyways, turned out to be a very longggg, cold, wet ride home in the huge waves. But we made it eventually, and then spent the rest of the rainy day inside in cozy clothes. Tomorrow I get to see my bro!!!!!!!!

this new adventure

I realize it's been a long while since I've blogged. Sorry about that. Here's a run down of my time up until Koh Jum. I've been writing this as I go, just haven't posted it due to lack of wireless and such.

THURSDAY - November 25th
Wow. It's been a crazy few days. So good, but so full. I am worrrn out.
Left home on the night train to Delhi on Tuesday. I left 1 day before the Murrays because my ticket is multi-destination and so it was quite a bit cheaper to fly on the 24th, rather then the 25th. Go figure. I was in a bunker room with a really nice little family and one other business man. The couple was so sweet. They had a little 2 year old girl. She was a cutie. She also had a mind of her own. And that mind of hers was n.o.t. going to sleep if she had anything to do about it. She screamed and screamed. And then screamed some more. Eventually the mom got up, turned on the light, whipped her shirt up, and gave her a "snack". Hmm…ok. Whatever works I guess :) The mama was super kind and we became friends pretty quickly. She spoke quite a bit of english, as well as her husband, so we talked quite a bit. They insisted I share the dinner that they brought with them. They pulled it out about 9:30, which is around when Indians would generally eat dinner. I, of course, had already eaten but they insisted. It was delicious, but gave me horrible diarrhea...not so fun when traveling. Guess it was worth it for the friendship though. Made it Delhi about 8:00am Wednesday morning. God is so good, and it turned out that Amanda Wherry was going to be in Delhi the same day that I was. (how crazy is that??) And so we had planned a couple weeks before to hang out during the day. It was SOO good to see her! We had lots of fun. Amanda, Katie, Asan, (2 of her friends) Will, and I hung out all day. Will showed us around Delhi and took us to some of his favorite places. My flight to Bangkok wasn't until 1:10am…so it was a very full and long day, but really great. Will graciously dropped me at the airport around 11:00. I made it to my gate and eventually on my flight pretty smoothly.

I thought that I would HATE traveling alone…honestly I was not real excited about it at all. I've gone back and forth to Delhi on the train and stuff, but I've never really liked the idea of flying alone. I don't know why, I just don't. In the end though, I really didn't mind it all. You definitely meet some interesting people. Interesting in good ways and also a few, ya know, just interesting. While I was sitting at my gate waiting to board, I struck up a conversation with the people sitting across from me. I came to find out that they are originally from Germany and had just spent a week in India, and now were on their way to Thailand. I asked them how they liked India. This lady's response was so quick and so harsh I don't think I'll ever forget it- "Hated it! Every second of it. The food, the people, the cities, everything. I will never go back. Not ever again."
Well, ok then. She then proceeded to ask me how long I had been there and what I thought about it. My response- "well, I've been here 5 ½ months and love it. The food, the people, the city I live in, all of it. It's going to be hard to leave." She just sat there and stared at me in shock.
Guess everyone has their own opinions.

Me and my exhausted self, got to Bangkok about 7:00am this morning. Uncle Tim had graciously hooked us up with some friends of his that are living in Bangkok, who so kindly agreed to help me with my China Visa that day. They offered to have their friend pick me up from the airport and go with me to the embassy. It was a huge blessing all the way around. The couple that I had connected with here, are actually missionaries from Singapore. Their friend that picked me up from the airport is originally from China. He has been in Bangkok about a year and a half. He's in the process of getting his Masters. Stanley and Linda live on the AIT campus, and that is how they met each other. Their friend, Qi, was extremely helpful, and so sweet to take time out of his day to help me out. He met me at the airport, and we headed straight to the Chinese embassy. It was a blessing to have him with me, as they all spoke Mandarin. I clearly don't. But Qi does! He was great, and it was all so simple. I handed them 2 copies of the visa application and my passport, she looked them over, stamped them, and said to be back by 3:00pm. According to Qi and Stanley, that never happens. Thank you, Jesus for being in the details! I went back with Qi to the AIT campus, had lunch with Stanley and Linda, got a tour of the campus, and headed back with Qi to pick up the visa. We barely made it back in time! The embassy closes at 4:30, and due to horrible traffic, we cut it pretty darn close. In the end we jumped out of the taxi and ran the rest of the way there because traffic was so bad. Got the Visa, found our taxi again,(that was interesting) and headed to the hotel where I was supposed to meet up with the rest of the gang. Got to the hotel, checked in…surprised and thankful that they let me….and waited for everybody else. They all showed up around 10:00pm, we all had some dinner and everyone else headed to bed. I will be in to join them very shortly. :)

FRIDAY - November 26th
Mel and I had planned to spend most of the afternoon shopping. We had to find appropriate clothing for us all to wear to the wedding, since none us had anything nice enough to bring with. Not on this side of the ocean anyway. We figured it would be pretty simple. Sounded simple anyway. It was a h.u.g.e mall and we just needed to find, dresses, shoes, pants and shoes for the boys, and shoes for Dave. Fairly easy when you have the entire afternoon and evening right? Wrong. It proved to actually be a very hard task. We also needed to figure out phone service for the next month and get all the Visa paperwork sent somehow. We thought those would be the harder things, and the clothes would be easy. It was actually the complete opposite. We got those two things knocked out fairly quickly and easily. Then came the clothes.

Ok, 1st of all, you have the exact opposite of India, and not only is it culturally acceptable to wear shorts, apparently the only shorts females wear are barely even there. When you hold em up, they're about 2in long all together. Apparently this carries over into dresses as well. EVERY dress was sooo short. If we were going clubbing that night we would have been all set, with any color and style to choose from, however, it seemed almost impossible to find one acceptable to wear to a wedding. Long story short (after trying on what felt like the entire mall) we finally decided to just wear black leggings underneath. This opened up a whole new world of options and we found a couple of dresses. Not the cutest thing I've ever worn, but it worked. And I was just glad to be done. And have something that actually covered my booty :) Dave's shoes were pretty funny to find. Long story short, we ended up walking into countless shoe stores and had many a conversation that went something like this- "Will you please show me the biggest size shoe you have in brown? No, I don't really care what it looks like, I just want the biggest one you have." I guess his foot is significantly bigger then most Thai men's. It was pretty funny. The boys pants proved to be much, much harder then expected as well. Oh well. We got it done eventually, and in there somewhere at various times, we had a doughnut, a BEEF cheeseburger, and Cold Stone ice cream. 3 things we haven't had since we left home. In my opinion that made it alllll worth it. We made it back to the hotel about 8:00pm, Mel and Dave went and had dinner and hangout time with everyone, and the boys and I hung out back at the room. All in all, it turned out to be quite the day.

SATURDAY
Today was the wedding!! It was neat to experience a traditional Thai ceremony and then see how they blended the two cultures for the reception. It was a beautiful wedding! So happy for Isaac and Ravi as they start their new life together.

SUNDAY
Mel and the boys and I hung out at the shopping center while Dave made a trip to the train station to try and figure out how we were going to make the 12+ hour trip to Koh Jum, where we would be staying for the next few weeks.
In this shopping center there was a huge supermarket…lets just say it had been a while since any of us had stepped foot inside anything even remotely close. It was a Big C supermarket which is comparable to a Walmart. We were all in wonder at the huge deli, large selection of veggies, real milk, many choices of cereal…and well, just about the whole store. For about an hour we sort of felt like we were at home. We decided life in India would simply just be too easy with a supermarket. Ha. What would we do without the 3 hour grocery runs where you may, or may not, actually find what you were looking for at the various 3-4 little shops you go to? :)

Dave met us back at the store with the news that he had purchased overnight tickets on the train. So we went back to the hotel, packed up, said our goodbyes, and headed to the train station. Getting to the station, finding our train, loading up, etc. turned out to be much easier and simpler then we had imagined. I guess we were all picturing the Indian railway stations…let's just say they're a little bit crazy.
The Bangkok station was very nice, clean, and not too crowded. We loaded up and got situated for the next 12 or so hours.

The train proved to be fairly simple, but it was the getting off, and the next 6-7 hours that we did't really anticipate to be so hard. And long.
1st of all, the train stops for a total of 2 minutes at every small platform along it's route. Tarat Thani is where we needed to get off, and it is indeed, a very small platform. They also do not feel the need to let passengers on board the train know which platform we happened to be stopping at. So you just guess. Or maybe they do let people know, but we don't speak Thai and so we wouldn't know even if they did. Very possible. Anyway, so we decided to just go by the time. We were supposed to arrive at 4:35am. So at 4:30 we were very quickly trying to get all our luggage through the small isles and to the door by 4:35. We failed. Thankfully that was not our stop. We didn't really know that at the time though. Thinking we most likely missed it, we decided to just sit by the doors with our luggage and get off at the next stop. About 20 min later the train stopped. I jumped off, Dave started throwing me luggage, Mel jumped off with the boys, and Dave followed up the rear. It was quite a sight I'm sure. Have I mentioned its 5:00am? We were all a little bit out of it.
Where we got off was a little platform in what seemed to be the middle of nowhere…but it was in fact Tarat Thani. We went and found the "bus station", aka the little shack in the middle of nowhere close to the little train platform in the middle of nowhere. We purchased tickets there, and then loaded up in a van that took us to the bus station. We had about an hour at the station before our bus was scheduled to leave. 1st of all, this bus station was seriously sketchy. 2nd, it was very early in the morning. 3rd, while waiting for ours, we watched about 4 buses arrive and unload. Almost every individual getting of the bus was completely and totally drunk. Apparently the bus ride had been hard on them or something…I don't know. Still trying to figure that one out. Made for an interesting hour at the bus station though, I can tell you that.

We took a 2 ½ hour bus ride, unloaded at another station, took yet another van to some other place, then loaded up into the back of a pickup truck who took us to the pier. After about an hour at the pier we loaded up onto the ferry. Took a 45 min ride on the ferry and then transferred from the ferry to a local long tail fishing boat when we got close to the Island, and they brought us in. All in all let's just say it was a very l.o.n.g. process to get from Bangkok to the Island.

It all seemed worth it when we got there though. I have never seen anything so pretty. Beautiful in every sense of the word. I was on the Island for 2 weeks and was constantly in awe of our Maker's creation. The beauty in His creation is like a reflection of His face to me. And I loved being surrounded by it.

We stayed in little bungalows right on the beach. I guess you could compare it to camping in a lot of ways, although we did have a bed. Mel and Dave slept in one bungalow, and the boys and I in another. Every bungalow had one room (that was literally almost entirely filled up with the bed), a bathroom(that was half outside) with running water (most of the time), and electricity (some of the time). Kind of the bare essentials, but it worked. I liked it. You hardly spent any time other then sleeping in the bungalow anyway since you spent most of your time at the beach, so it didn't really matter.

It was a great 2 weeks filled with the beach, the mountains, kayaking, delicious food, beach volleyball, motorbikes into town (THERE'S a story for ya. Ha.), Joe's little snack shack, super friendly people, fishing, a couple trips into Krabi, and just enjoying God's creation.

I didn't have internet, but I did journal a little bit every day. I'll let that two weeks be in the next post since this one's already a mile long. :)