Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving Party was a huge success! There were about 40 people there and 7 different nationalities represented! So many of our non-Christian friends came and it was really special to get to tell them why we are thankful.

Here's our team with Trina Turkey...

We put in a DVD of a football game so it was just like real Thanksgiving...


The food! But no turkey. Just to the right of the sweet potatoes were 6 grilled chickens as a substitute.
Before:

And after!
The desserts got their own counter because there were so many!

We passed the mic around to share in our Thanksgiving tradition (started last year in Thailand!) of giving thanks for whatever you want. This was our chance to tell students we really are thankful because we believe God provides all good things. Lots of students participated.


The cafe was so full, a group of students sat outside to eat. No one wanted to use the Thanksgiving napkins because they were "too pretty" -- they wanted to take them home as souvenirs.

A Thai Christian Wedding

Our Thai staff friend, P'Fawn, got married on November 1st. It was fun to see what a Thai Christian wedding is like (probably a lot different than a wedding of not-Christians).

The bridesmaids and other girls in the wedding party were just asked to wear pink... so they all had different pink dresses. They all got ready together before the wedding -- just like in America!

The invitation said the wedding would start at 10:00am. But here it is at 10:34am, and still no wedding...

There she is! P'Fawn, the beautiful bride (being walked down the aisle by her dad).

We are looking at the inside of Thai Lanna Church, P'Fawn's church. The pink/white lettering says the names of the bride and groom and the date of their wedding. It is made out of painted STYROFOAM, which is SO THAI. I can't think of a conference or event we've attended that did not have decorations made out of styrofoam. When we came to the church the night before to "help out," none of those flower arrangements had been assembled. P'Juum, another staff friend, pretty much stayed up all night long making them.

During the wedding, all the pastors who spoke during the wedding came and prayed for the couple, and all the Christians in the congregation were invited to pray also.

And then I got to sing at the reception! It was a fun day.

Our team with the bride and groom!

Visa run to Malaysia

We had to go to Malaysia to get our visa. But we found a Chili's restaurant! We couldn't believe it. I think we ate there every day in Penang.

In Malyasia it's really popular to do a "Dr. Fish spa" which means you put your feet in this water and little fish eat your dead skin. Emily, David, and I tried it because we thought it was a once-in-a-life-time opportunity. I didn't like it!

There is a mall Hindu population in Malaysia (less than 7%), but everywhere they were celebrating the holiday of Deepavali (aka Dewali for all you "Office" fans) while we were there.

This is called a kolam. Entrances to homes (this was at a mall) are decorated with colored rice powder in this type of design to evoke the Hindu's goddess of wealth, Lashimi.

In Malaysia, 60% of the population reportedly practices Islam (it's their official national relgion), so we visited the national mosque in Kuala Lumpur. We visited the Museum of Muslim Art, too, and we really learned a lot about Islam and their traditions.

This is what Emily and I had to wear to go in to the mosque as tourists. All covered up, but in one-size-fits-all purple. A really nice man who volunteered at the mosque let us ask lots of questions and he taught us about how Muslim's pray.

We also went to a water park one day to just relax!

Our team in Malaysia

At dinner