The World's Greatest Friend

A true friend is someone who stands firm and lets you throw yogurt at their face and then rub it in.

Healings

I don't really understand instantaneous healings. I grew up in a church where people were healed through prayer. I am now living in a country where miraculous and instantaneous healings are common. I have seen so many since I moved here and yet I can't get used to it. I can't wrap my head around it, it's distracting and frankly it makes me a little uncomfortable. I think the problem is that I just don't really understand it. I don't understand how a group of fifty people can all fall on the ground and suddenly be healed by one person's shouting. I don't understand how hitting someone hard on the forehead and causing them to fall over is going to heal the sickness in their body. And yet I have seen people appear to be healed. I don't believe it's fake, I just don't know how to understand it.

I asked Nathan and Paul their thoughts on this subject last night. I asked why healings are so common in parts of the world and yet not so common in America or England (their home). Nathan suggested that God works in different ways in different parts of the world according to what will be accepted and cause people to accept him. I thought this was an interesting thought and have thought about it a little more. In our homelands, healings are explained away by science or hidden away so that others won't judge. In Thailand, healings are accepted as the power of the Holy Spirit working in a person's lives and hundreds of people accept Jesus because of them. I like the idea that I worship a God who is smart enough to change his tactics according the land and the people.

I still personally struggle with this subject though and don't know where to go from here. Any thoughts?

Why I Love Chiang Mai

I just emailed a friend (Krissy) that I haven't talked to in awhile and tried to explain why I love Chiang Mai so much. People are always asking me this question and this may not be the best description but hopefully it shows a bit of my feelings.

My life in Thailand is incredible. It is completely impossible for me to explain in words but I will try. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand and is absolutely beautiful. The old city is surrounded by a moat filled with water and on the inside of the moat parts of the old city wall are still standing, though crumbled. Chiang Mai is home to Doi Suthep which is a mountain famous because it holds the Royal Family's winter palace. The entire city is green; trees, plants and flowers everywhere. It is littered with the most ornate temples I have ever seen, hundreds of them, one on almost every corner. I guess that it is not really beautiful in the normal sense, sometimes when I stop to really look, it reminds me of Tijuana. It has that poor, third world look to it, but I still find it beautiful. It is amazing to live in a place where I can stand in the middle of a crowded market and not hear one word of English, where everyone around me has dark skin and black hair. I eat most of my meals from vendors on the side of the street and I shop in open air markets where I barter for a good price. I frequent the same places enough that if I don't show up for a couple days, the owners ask if I am okay. It makes me smile every time. I eat noodles and rice for every meal and the most amazing fruit and vegetables that I have never even seen or heard of in the states. I drive a motor bike on the wrong side of the road. I wash my clothes and hang them up to dry on a clothes line. I speak really slow English or really bad Thai. And I laugh a lot. I have amazing friends and I struggle to communicate with them every day but it just makes me love them more. I am challenged every day to stop thinking about myself and share my faith with those around me because otherwise, why am here? I am truly and completely happy here.

By the way, I posted some new photos on my Flickr account. Some of them are of my bungee jumping experience this past week. :)

Content or Bored?

Do you ever find yourself coasting through life completely content? Do you find yourself happy and when you look back at the end of each day, you realize that you laughed a lot and have some pretty incredible friends? Life is good and you have a lot to be thankful for, more than most people you know. And yet, after a while of feeling content you start forgetting to be thankful to the One who deserves the thanks. You grow so comfortable that you forget to spend any one on one time with the One who has given you this happiness. You grow bored reading His words simply because you are too focused on yourself and how life makes you feel.

I found myself in this place last week and am now working on pulling myself out of it. It has become very apparent to me that I have the ability to break God's heart and that is the last thing that I want to do. After all, He is the one who has blessed me with this incredible life and journey that I am on, I never could have gotten here on my own. I need to figure out how to be completely happy and still rely on God like I do when life is falling apart. Pray for me.

The person that I long to be versus the person that I am

I long to be a strong woman who can take care of herself and never cries or shows pain, but I am not.

Yesterday after church I went to the hospital to take care of a problem with my foot and walked out later with a pretty large hole in the bottom of my foot. I thought that I was pretty tough because it didn't hurt and I never even cried during the procedure. An hour later when the numbness wore off, I was no longer that tough, strong woman that I long to be. But I went to help I friend move anyway and tried to push through the pain. Unfortunately I overdid it, tripped and smashed my finger extremely badly. Within seconds it was four times the normal size and dark purple. I have to give myself credit though because I still didn't cry. I did shake quite a bit though. Today my finger is still twice its normal size and I can't bend it all the way. Maybe it is broken.

I wish that I was stronger.

I also long to be the kind of women who can take care of herself and do things like fix cars and build stuff, but I'm not.

On Saturday I accidentally locked the spare bedroom door in my house and closed it. I tried to be like Tamara (who is like MacGuyver) and pick the lock with bobby pins, but after thirty minutes of trying I gave up and called Nathan and Paul to come help me. They came over and had the door open within minutes, thanks to Nathan's long arms. Yesterday (Sunday) after the foot surgery and the finger smashing, I could not drive my motor bike home so Nathan had to drive me. While he and Paul were there, I talked them into helping me move some furniture. Tonight Nathan is coming over to help me hook up my washing machine because I have failed to figure it out on my own. Thank goodness I have people around to take care of me.

I wish that I was stronger

This is Tamara

This is Tam. Just wanted to tell you all to check out Jenni's new Flickr Photo Badge! If you click on it it will send you directly to her photo blog. I have also added a pic for her profile...
I straight up pimped her page yo! (in less gangster terms, I fixed her page up a bit and added a few fun little doo-dads.)
peace.
Tam

back in the swing of things

So I am now back in Chiang Mai and starting to get back into the swing of things. Two months was a really long time to be away and I missed out on a lot of things here that I am trying to catch up on now.

When I got back, my closet smelled really bad and upon cleaning it I found a decomposing mouse in my computer bag. That was unpleasant and I still have not completely gotten rid of the smell.

I got Gracie back and my worry that she would not remember me was completely dumb. She remembers me and doesn't seem to hold it against me that I left her for two months. Her hair was so long that I couldn't see her eyes or the ticks that were hiding in there. After digging a tick out of my stomach, I drove her to the groomer and had all her hair shaved off. That was also unpleasant.

On the other hand, it is great to be back at The Centre. When I got here, there was a team of 16 YWAMers helping out and that was a bit overwhelming, but still good to be back. I am starting my classes today and really looking forward to teaching again. I have missed my students and friends.

The internet has not been working. I am connecting right now by wireless and not on my regular computer and the connection has already gone out twice during the writing of this post so I should probably finish it up before it goes out again. I will post pictures of my trip home as soon as I get the internet working again.

Please pray for my friend Oil. Her dad passed away unexpectedly this past weekend. We are going to the funeral tonight. Please pray for her and her family, they do not know Jesus and I can't imagine going through this without Him.