Naomi

September 27, 2006

Hey guys!

Well, I’m writing from a Thai prison…haha. just kidding. I appreciate all the emails inquiring about our safety, and in answer--we are fine! There was a non-violent coup and non-hostile takeover of the government here in Thailand. We are now under marshal law, which I think is cool to be able to say I’m living in a country under marshal law, but we are doing great. There are soldiers, but they are all in Bangkok. So, other than everyone talking about it, it hasn’t really affected us. :)

Oh wow, I’m not even sure where to start. We’ve been busy as usual, but now we’re back in the village, and we’ll pretty much stay here for the remaining 2 ½ months. I can’t believe it’s that close. I am already getting to the point that I don’t like to think about leaving because it makes me cry. :(

We had a great week in the village after our great trip with Meg and Melissa. We spent a lot of time hanging out with the girls here. We also had a lot of opportunities to hang out with Maa because Pa was out of town. One night we even had a girls spa night with Ann. It was so fun. Oh, and remember Raem, the girl at the coffee shop, well, I absolutely adore her, and we take every chance we get to go visit her. At our last visit she told Jenn that she no longer talks to the Mormon m's because all they wanted to talk about was religion, but she likes us because we are fun and actually care about her. This was a huge encouragement and confirmation of what we felt Dad was saying about our relationship with her!

We also had some great opportunities to talk to our kids about Dad. (“our kids” are the 5-10 that come over every morning and as soon as school gets out) One night in particular, we were talking about their intense fear of ghosts or spirits. (even the adults don’t go out after dark for fear of the spirits). We told them that they didn’t have to be afraid because JC is bigger, and that Dad has not given us a spirit of fear. We had them read several verses in the Word, and at one point Yat just opened the Word and it fell open to a story about JC casting 2 demons out of a man, so they read that too, and we asked them some questions about it. It was really cool.

Then it was off to the team yarp retreat. We went to the beautiful “Koh Chang” (Elephant Island) and had four days of yarping and “detox.” It was wonderful. We had tons of time to lift up the Kui people (we yarped for over 400 prayer partners by name!) and I had more “Dad-time” than I’ve had in a long time. I feel like most of the time I spent all my yarp time working through things or just getting things done. At the retreat I had time for that plus some, so I was able to just have “chill time” with Dad. Time to just sit and listen. In fact I can’t remember the last time I had so much alone time. It was very good. And as usual when I give Dad time, He did a lot of work in my heart. One of my good friends likes to say something along the lines of, “God’s the kind of bully who knocks you off your bike, but then helps you up and walks you home.” Well it seems like He’s been doing a lot of knocking me off lately. But it’s really good.

As soon as we got back, we went to Kuhnhan for our teaching weekend. This weekend we had a huge sports day for the Compassion kids and their families. All day Saturday we played games and sports with them. It was so much fun. They thought it was hilarious to make the white girls try to do everything too. I even played my first official game of soccer. I tried everything to get out of it, but I ended up loving it. So I’d like to officially apologize to everyone whom I teased about playing soccer. Haha. I think the fact that I scored the only two goals (even though I almost killed myself on one) had something to do with it. The announcer even said something like “she doesn’t know where she’s going, but she’s fast.” HAHA. I laughed the whole time. It was also hilarious to see the old grandmas running around, chewing beeltenut the whole time. The weekends at Kuhnhan are some of my favorite times here. The people there are amazing. I have learned so much about living as a body from them. They are really like family. And they are some of the sweetest, funniest people I have ever met. I love them!

Ok, some Pr requests:

Projects for school…
Continued relationships and opportunities there.
Maa and Pa
The Issues Dad is “knocking me off my bike” about.
My future….. :)
Our kids. (Aeo, Goon, Yat, Loy, Gop, Woot, Jeew, and the others!)

Well, I think that’s about all! Thank you so much for your continued Prs. I love y’all!
Muan

Sweet pics are hot and fresh at:
http://sbuniv.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006850&id=177501000&l=d6a2d