Well, Michelle and I have officially moved into the fishing village of Ang Sila and since the move, things have been interesting.  I would describe our place as intense, rugid and funny.  (I will be posting pictures on here as soon our place is fully decorated) 

It has definetely been an experience living in Ang Sila the last few days, and it is going to take some getting used to.  I am very grateful to have Michelle as my roomate, because she is fearless when it comes to cockroaches and rats.  I basically need her to go into the bathroom before me everytime to take out all of the roaches and make sure there are no other critters in there.  I am slowly getting used to it, but she is definetely a life saver.

Another fun little feature of our place in Ang Sila is our morning wake-up calls.  I say “fun” lightly of course.  So, in Thailand everyday in the morning and at night they have these loud speakers that play a song in dedication to the king.  But, where our house is in Ang Sila, these loud speakers just happen to be right outside of our place.  It is incredibly long, and even though the song doesn’t sound that bad, the song promplty lasts for about half an hour!  Even with the help of ear plugs and a pillow, we can definetely still hear it.  It will for sure take some getting used to.

But, amidst all of the craziness of Ang Sila this week, I am happy to say that there also has been a lot of positives.  We have had the chance to meet alot of people in our little village and have really got to know them pretty well already.  The other night we took an hour Song Tow ride to a nearby city called Pattaya for a worship service put on by a YWAM group, for all of the local churches in the Thailand area.  Pattaya is a very much Americanized city, so it looks nice, but it also the prostitution capital of Thailand and there are many foreigners there that take advantage of the women there.  So, it was a very interesting place to visit.

Anyways, the praise and worship service that we had was in the middle of a very busy area, and it was awesome.  We were able to spend the night worshipping God with the Ang Sila people and have fun, despite our language barrier.  So, that was definetely a good experience.

 So, that’s just a little glimpse of what this week has been like for me in my new place.  I love to hear from you all more, and thanks for checking my blog!

I can’t believe it!  I’ve been in Thailand for a week!  Wow, it seems like a month.  I apologize to those of you have come to read my Blog before and it hasn’t been updated.  It sure has been a busy week, so it is very hard to spend time on here sharing stories and replying to emails.  But, let me spend a few minutes here updating you on what this week has been like for me.           

So, we arrived in Bangkok last Monday at sometime in the middle of the night.  At least that is what they told us, because we really had no idea what day or time it was because we had been flying for so long.  We checked through customs ok and all our luggage even made it to the other end all accounted for.  Praise God!           

One of our missionary couples, Dave and Louise Sinclair Peters met us at the airport and where we ever glad to see them.  We didn’t get the chance to talk to them for very long, but Dave told me that we were going to be staying at a guesthouse in Bangkok for a few days to get over the time change before heading to Chonburi.  (Chonburi is the city outside of Bangkok where all of our ministry is taking place)  The guesthouse is owned and operated by a mission’s organization called OMF.  OMF is an organization that has been around for a hundred years, and they use the guesthouse where we stayed as a place for Asian missionaries to go on retreats.             

So, Dave and Louise set my team and me off by ourselves in a large van with all of our luggage and we were off to the OMF guesthouse.  We got to see Bangkok for the first time, and despite the fact that our driver got lost quite a few times on the way, we eventually made it there ok.           

Andy Owen, one of our other missionaries greeted us at the guesthouse and gave us a tour of the place and even helped us carry our extremely heavy suitcases up the many flights of stairs.  Our place at OMF was really nice and we were excited that we got the chance to stay there for a few days to relax.  Our first night at OMF we had the best sleep of our lives. 

The next day we met up with Andy’s wife Carmen, and had a Bible study which was awesome.  I enjoyed spending time with Carmen and getting to know her better.  What a beautiful, faithful woman of God.           

During our time at OMF we spent a lot of time touring the community and really getting to know the area and what Thailand is like.  There were many things that I distinctly remember about my first walk through Bangkok: scooters everywhere, 7-11’s on every corner, people’s small houses which were also their shops, many mechanic shops everywhere and the most distinct out of all of those was the many Buddha statues and things they call “spirit houses” everywhere.  These are very special things to the Buddhists and they even leave food and water outside near the statues for the spirits to “drink”.  There are also many pictures of the Thai king adorned with yellow gold in every person’s house and shop.  The Thai people love their king, and as the longest reigning monarch in the world they have a lot of pride and respect.  They even where yellow shirts every Monday as a way of honoring the King.           

One of my favorite parts of our few days in Bangkok was one day when Carmen took us to get pampered, and we got foot massages.  We went to this little shop in the middle of a busy street and the Thai women there took very good care of us.  But, one of my favorite parts of that day wasn’t actually the foot massages; it was attempting to talk to the women with the little Thai that I know and also seeing Carmen talk to the women in Thai fluently.  It definitely made me want to learn more and more Thai so that I can become as good as her.  The Thai people are so kind and understanding; they really take the time to listen and try to figure out what I am saying.           

 We left OMF on Wednesday and we finally headed off to Chonburi where we are now, at the TLC church.  The Church is located on a busy, highway, where of course, the traffic flows in the opposite way of N.America.  The Church building is a bit different that I pictured.  It is a four-story building, made mostly of cement, with lots of glass walls everywhere.  It is a fairly nice building, and for the time being our whole team is staying on the third-floor in one room and sharing one bathroom.  The bathrooms in Thailand are really interesting actually.  They are similar to those in Mexico, that you don’t put the toilet paper in the garbage, and there showers are different too.  The shower consists of a shower head on the wall and hole in the ground across the room.  You basically just shower anywhere you want and then squeegee the water into the hole and the ground stays wet for most of the day until the ground dries.  Different eh?           

This week has definitely been filled with a lot of new cultural things, there are some things I can’t remember, and definitely some that I remember that are highlights.  I will share those with you now.           

The first highlight I had was being introduced to a lot of the people here at the Church and visiting the orphanage (The Abundant Life Home).  I have just really enjoyed getting to know the Thai people and they really are so kind and happy all the time.  The kids are also really cute too.  I am getting excited to work with them more closely as time goes on.           

The next highlight of the week was a fun thing that my team and I did the other day.  We decided to do something to lighten our mood a bit, in the midst of all this new cultural stuff.  So, we decided to go on a banana boat ride down at the ocean.  (Jennette, your favorite…lol)  For those of you who don’t know what a banana boat is, it is like a big plastic tube that gets pulled behind a boat and you sit on it.  The boat tries really hard to get you to fly off and fall into the water.  It might sound a bit strange, but it’s actually really fun.  We had a great time doing this, and it definitely refreshing after enduring the heat for a few days already.           

The next of my highlights was attending a Bible study at Andy and Carmen’s house.  It really was a good experience for me, and it was the first real chance I had to read the Bible and pray with some people there, despite the language barrier.  We had translators there for us.  We met a lot of nice people that night, and it is only the beginning of good relationships.  It really opened my eyes to what we have to offer the Thai people and what they have to offer us.  It is awesome to see how despite our different cultures, we can still study the same Bible and learn together.           

The next highlight was actually really funny for me; it was something that happened the other night.  We were having Church here on Saturday and as our Pastor was preaching his sermon, an elephant actually came up to the door of the Church, with his owner, apparently there to ask if we wanted a ride.  It just seemed so strange, something I definitely have never seen before.  I will for sure take the man up on a ride one day.  Hahah…oh Thailand!           

The other funny memory from this week was actually something disgusting.  Our team was gathered to celebrate a friend’s birthday party when one of our missionaries made an announcement that he had a treat for the TREK team.  We were all wondering what he was talking about, until it finally hit me that I knew what he meant, when he pulled out a tray of “snacks”.  I recognized these “snacks”, I had seen them somewhere before.  I had seen them at the night market down the street.  They were indeed a plate of GRASSHOPPERS and MAGGOTS!  Ah!  He wanted us to eat this?  He wanted me to eat this?  Well, he managed to pass this disgusting, and very large grasshopper to me and I didn’t take it at first.  I was shaking and I turned red.  Ew!  But, believe it or not, all you skeptics out there, I actually ate it!  Ah!  The texture was so intense!  Jennette, Kate and Ashley, you can only imagine me describing it.  I can’t believe I can now say that I have eaten a grasshopper.  Oh my…           

Well, that is pretty much the down-low of what my first week has been like here in Thailand.  There are of course many other stories and things I would love to go on about, but I am sad to say that there is no time for that.  I will have to save that for when I see you in person.           

If you would continue to pray for our team this week, we greatly appreciate it.  If you would especially pray for a team member Michelle and I as we move into our new place in a fishing village called Ang Sila.  It is going to be a difficult transition for us, and it means a whole new community of people to meet and ministries to get involved in.  So, if you would pray that the transition would be smooth and that we would fully rely on God to be our strength as the environment is going to be very poor and different from where we are now.  But, our whole team is excited to fully start our ministries next week and finally get into things.           

I also wanted to say thank-you to all of you very much for all of your emails and support this last week.  It is really nice to know that you are all there thinking of me and praying for me.  I will continue to try and keep in good contact with you as my time here goes on.           

I sign off then, and I leave this verse with you:  Isaiah 30:15-26.  It has been a real encouragement to me this week as I have entered Thai culture.  Remembering that God is my strength and peace…I love you all.

I can’t believe it!  I am leaving in the morning.  It really is hard to believe that two months of training are now over and that I am leaving for my assignment.  What an awesome time it has been here at The Mark Center, with such sweet people and awesome speakers who have really taught me alot.  It is going to be hard to leave tomorrow and say goodbye to all the other TREKKERS who are off to their own locations.  I wouldn’t have traded training for anything.

So, we leave The Mark Center here tomorrow at 7:30am and head to the airport for our flight that leaves at 11:30am.  We are flying China Airlines on a 13 hour flight, first to Taipei, Taiwan and then we have a 7 hour lay overthere.  It will be long, but at least we will be able to get off the plane for a while and get some exercise.  After that we have another 5 hour flight from Taiwan to Bangkok and we will finally be there!  What a trip it is going to be.  I think that God has made the trip that long, just so I will really be able to clue into what is actually happening.  Haha..

Our team is really excited to meet the three missionary couples who are waiting for us there, also known as Team 2000.  We have heard alot about them and will be nice to finally put faces to names.  We are eager to find out more details about the work we will be doing there and where we will be living.  Our first night should be very interesting.  But, we will have to see how it goes.

But, that’s all for now I guess.  I should get going, as I still have alot to get done before I leave in the morning.  I loved talking to most of you today (Jennette, Dad and Sheilagh, etc.) and saying goodbye.  I am going to truly miss all of you and want to keep in good contact with you all.  I hope to hear from all of you on a regular basis. 

Please pray for safety for our team as we fly.  It will be muchly appreciated. 

Well, I guess the next time you will hear from me will be from the other side of the world…That’s crazy!  God bless you all. 

 Hello! 

How is everyone? 

Well, I thought I would finally add my first update to my Blog about what’s been happening in my TREK adventures thus far.

Oh wow, where do I begin?  It has been a really busy last few weeks for me, and it would be impossible for me to tell you all the stories right now, so instead I will share with you some highlights. Well, I arrived in Abbotsford, BC about a month ago to begin a two-month training program here, at a place called, The Mark Center.  It is a beautiful lodge nestled in the woods, and I have a lovely room that I share with two roommates.  All of our training takes place at this center, and we have a Great Room that we have all of our sessions in and is our place to hang out.  There are about 17 Trekkers in the program in total and people come from all over.  There are people from California, Kansas, Iowa, and quite a few others from different parts of Canada. We even have one girl here that came all the way from Thailand be in the program, and her name is Ying. A few of the people are in the same program as me from CBC and are doing there internship as well, but the majority of them have just heard about this program and have chosen to participate for the year.  It has been really nice getting to know everyone, and we have definitely had a lot of fun times together so far. 

During the first week of training we made a trip up to Whistler, and it was awesome.  For those of you who don’t know where Whistler is, it is a mountain village near Vancouver and it is a popular ski resort, it is also home to a lot of the events that will take place when the Olympics come to Vancouver in 2010.  Anyways, we spent two nights there in a beautiful lodge, and we went hiking and swimming in a lake nearby.  We also did a crazy photo scavenger in the village, which was a lot of fun.  Our time up at Whistler was the first real chance that we had for everyone to get to know each other better.

After our Whistler trip, we have had 2 jammed packed weeks of sessions here at The Mark Center and there were many excellent speakers.  The speakers have covered many topics and I have learned a lot more about God and about using what I know to minister to the people that I am going to serve. The next trip that we went on is known as a, “Silent Retreat”.  A Silent Retreat is exactly as the name implies.  We went to a camp nearby and spent three days in silence, reading the Bible, praying and processing all the information that we had learned in the weeks previous.  It was an interesting time for me, as some of you can imagine…haha.  I enjoyed some parts of it, but other parts I didn’t enjoy at all because the silence was dragging on for too long.  But, in the end, I was able to survive. 

After we had the silent retreat we all got very excited for the teams to be announced, something that we have been waiting for for a very long time.  To give you a reminder of which countries were possibilities, they were: Guadalajara, Mexico, Berlin, Germany, the jungles of Panama and Thailand.  Some of us had mixed ideas about where we wanted to go, and I didn’t really have a certain place in mind.   All of the places sounded exciting to me.  But, I am happy to announce that I will be going to THAILAND!  .  I have three other girls on my team and I have been chosen as team leader. I am happy to share that I get along with the girls pretty well, and we have been getting to know each other a lot better over the last couple weeks since teams were announced.

Ever since teams have been announced we have been slowly finding out more information about some of the things that we will be doing while we are down there, but we will find out more as time goes on.  But, for now we know we will be serving in a city called Chonburi, which is about 45 minutes to a 1-hour southeast of Bangkok.  For most of the time we will be teaching English as well as working at an Aids orphanage, called The Abundant Life Home.  I am very excited to be working with the children.  We are trying hard to get as prepared as we can to serve in these areas and have been slowly trying to learn as much Thai as we possibly can, even though it is a very difficult language to learn.  But, it is a blessing to have our friend Ying here from Thailand, the girl I mentioned before, to assist us in our language learning; she is like a walking resource.  She has also shared with us many things about the culture that will be important for us to know, so that we do not offend the Thai people.  

I also wanted to update all of you on how my fundraising is going.  I first want to thank-you all again for your donations for my trip, it really has been amazing to see how much all of you have really supported me in this journey and that I know I can count on you for the remainder of this journey as well.  Thanks to all of your donations, combined with the money I have received from my Student Loan funding, I have more than enough funds to cover my expenses for the entire year.  This is something that I have been stressed about for a while, but now that it is all-together I am able to relax.  Praise God that he provides!  

I also wanted to share with you just a few of the prayer requests that I have for our team, and if you would pray for us that would be great.  First off, if you would pray that over the next couple weeks I would be able to get the most out of the training here and that I would be able to really grow in my relationship with God and with my team.  Secondly, if you would pray for the Church and the missionaries in Thailand and that they would be getting prepared to receive our team and that there vision for their ministry would line up with our vision for this year.   Lastly, if you would pray for the people in Chonburi that we are going to serve, that God would be working in their lives, whether it is spiritually or physically.  That God would really be alive and active in Chonburi and that the people there would be responding accordingly.  All of your prayers are greatly appreciated. 

Also, I wanted to mention that if any of you are interested in visiting some of the other websites that are connected to the ministry I will be involved in this year, such as the TREK/MBMSI website, as well as the website for the Aids orphanage that we will be working at, I have added a their links to my Blog.  (On the right side of the page.)  If you want you can even check out the Blogs of some of my friends who are in the same program as me, serving in Mexico, Germany and Panama.

So, those are just a few of the highlights from the last few weeks of my time here in BC and there are indeed many more things that I would love to share with you.  But, please feel free to contact me via email anytime and I would to share them with you.  Thanks again to all of you who are apart of my Support Team; I am grateful to have you and your support. I would love to hear about what’s been happening with all of you as well, so updates from you and your family would be great.  I will keep all of you in my prayers as well and you will be missed when I am gone.  I want to thank-you for visiting my Blog.

God Bless.

Diana