To All:
Greetings from Chiang Mai on a Sunday afternoon. What has our life been like in the past week? Well, I'll tell you. Dogs barking. Roosters crowing. But enough about our alarm clocks, I'll get to the meat of the letter. This past Tuesday morning I, Carson, left for another two-night village trip with the rest of our group. Kathy and Dakota got to have some quality mommy/daughter time for those two days. These villages were "more" modern than the first two in that they were connected to the world with their electricity. In the first village we saw how tradition met the modern world. With their electricity they operated a bamboo cutting machine. And then with the 1/8" X 1/8" X 5' bamboo pieces they wove baskets by hand. I got a series of three videos with my camera of a local women weaving a basket about the size of a bushel basket in twelve minutes. That was pretty neat to see. They also use bamboo for their homes, mats to sit/lie on, woven tightly enough they can make cups and bowls, bird/chicken cages, and they can even eat bamboo shoots. Oh, they also eat the tiny grubs that are found around bamboo. Yes, I tried one. (Just one.) Bamboo is very versatile. Plus, it is very pretty scenery if used for landscaping. I would love to grow it someday.
In the other village we visited there is revival going on. The Holy Spirit is moving through them in powerful way. People are repenting and evangelizing. They have land cleared in order to build a new church. With seventy people in the village, can you guess how many people they are building the church for? Three hundred! Talk about an act of faith in/obedience to God! The pastor dreams of neighboring villages joining us in God's Family. He is not simply saying,"If we build it, they will come." But rather,"If we build, we will have a place to bring the people we reach for Jesus. God is working and we are partnering with Him." We were there on a Wednesday night. As part of the service I gave the message. I know, I know, it may not seem normal for me to do that. But I thought it went well. It was not a testimony of my life. It was a message on being soldiers. We are in a war whether we like it or not. Soldiers have weapons, they have enemies, they actively engage in war, and they don't do it alone. That was my first "official" message. I wasn't even planning on speaking that night, but on the way to the village I felt God was giving me that message to share with those people. And when I was done, one lady came forward and shared how what I said is what she was needing to hear from God at that time. I love how He works! That one response made the whole message seem valid (not that it wasn't anyway.) There is a picture of me delivering this message with this entry.
Yesterday our group took some local orphans to the zoo. This was also Dakota's first trip. All the kids seemed to love it. Dakota also loved it. There are a couple pictures of her below this entry. What is hard to process for Kathy and me is the lack of long-lasting relationship with these kids. That has however spoken to us in a different way. We feel called to be in a place (we don't know where yet) where we can form those lasting relationships. A time and place where we can plug into other peoples' everyday lives for an extended/indefinite period of time. The kids we took to the zoo had been there before, because other groups like ours have come here, and among other things, taken these kids to the zoo. It's just a quick trip and then we may not do anything else with them. Granted, while we were still in Salem our group thought we were coming here primarily work with these kids, but when we got here, some one planned other stuff for us to do. (That's another entry for another time.)
Kathy is giving a brief testimony of her life tonight at an evening service here at the local church. It's been a while since she has had to use a translator. And it probably won't be the last. This past Friday Kathy went to the hospital again to visit children. That has been one of favorite activities here. The children enjoy the company.
Well, I could probably write for another hour if I tapped any more of memory, but I'll end this entry shortly. Please check out the latest pics before and after this entry. Oh, feel free to leave a comment. It's nice to know that people are reading this (special thanks to Jen B. and Jon D.) But we do appreciate your checking in on us and the prayers you say for us. It's not just through the internet that we feel close to you; it's through the Holy Spirit. When you find yourself in a hard time in life, remember you can try to use bamboo in one of it's many functions to solve your problem(s). Or, a more effective method of problem-solving is to rely on God and our fellow believers.
God Blesses Each of His Children,
Carson, Kathy, Dakota
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