End of Semester Party

So the Wii is a huge hit in Thailand! We had a party last night to celebrate the end of the semester and to encourage everyone before their finals start (tomorrow!). Here are some pictures of the Wii in action.

Wii Tennis

They were so intense while trying to play tennis!

And then the boys had a turn

The girls were boxing!

Meet some students!

We want you to meet some of the students we spend time with at Mae Fah Luang!

This is Mickey, a first year Business Administration major, and she does a Bible study with us on Tuesdays. She is one of the many international students at MFL.


This is Mint (with Emily and I) who also does Bible study with us on Tuesdays. She is going to get to be on campus with us full time next semester because she is a 4th year student and will do her school internship with us! We're really excited.


This is Kung, a first year English major who is not a Christian but is really interested in learning about Chrsitianity.

This is Hall (blue shirt) and Eve --
Eve is the girl I mentioned when I was so excited that we did a follow up Bible study together.
She and her friend, Mew, have been coming to Bible study regularly!
This is Naam and May -- not Christians but such good friends of ours.
We're going to keep hanging out with them next semester and we'll see what happens.



I'll post more when I take more pictures.
For now, please be praying for these friends of ours!

Chiang Mai musings

Over the weekend our team had to go to Chiang Mai again for our monthly staff meeting. One of my friends came to visit from Bangkok, so I took her to see one of the more famous sights in Chiang Mai: the "wat" at Doi Suthep. I went a few months ago when a teammate's friend visited our city. But this time, it looked different -- it was under construction!

I remember watching so many Thai people buy gifts to leave at the monument which they consider a sacred place (because a king-commissioned white elephant chose this spot as a resting place while the elephant was carrying a sacred Buddhist relic) and walk around this "chedi" three times in reverence and in hopes of good karma. And then I wondered, "Do the Thai people feel discouraged seeing one of their sacred symbols of good merit under construction? Do they feel defeated that this building in which they put their hope is imperfect and falling apart?"

I didn't ask anyone while I was there. But you can see the pictures for yourself.

This is what the "chedi" (or the big, gold, pointed monument) in the "wat" (or temple) at Doi Suthep looked like a few months ago:

This is what it looked like this weekend:

This monument to the white elephant (there's the little gold relic on his back) is just outside the area where the "chedi" is located.