A Day in Our Life....in the Mud

We had a super fun encouraging week this week when the Acts Team from IHOP Atlanta came to visit us!

We prayed and worshiped for four hours a day and it was wonderful!! They were a breathe of fresh air in a dry and weary land. 

We were so blessed to have some one else come in and lead worship and pray over our people. 

Our prayer sets in the morning were in English and it was sooo good. The evenings we had some Thais attend so we did an hour of English and a hour of  Thai. 

This picture shows our Sunday morning service. (excuse my Christmas banner still up... it is February and I'm aware and have no excuse.) 

All the pictures on the wall my sweet husband painted. 

After church some of our disciples asked if we wanted to go catch some fish. They didn't say, "Do you want to go fishing?" They said, "Catch some fish.... with your hands." 

This got me interested and I thought I must go see what they were talking about. I thought it would be a wonderful experience for some young excited interns too.

So we pull over to the side of the road and get out. I'm like, "Where's the water? I didn't even see a lake or a fishing hole or anything like that." 

My Thai friend pointed to the ditch filled with water and mud. 

It takes me a while to catch on sometimes, but I was totally stumped this time.

As I got closer I saw everyone bent over with their hands in the mud pulling cat fish out of the mud hole. HILARIOUS.

Bang and Pii Akom

This area has man made ditches for the water to run through when it rains and floods. As the water begins to dry up the fish, clams, shrimp and any other sea/water creature buries themselves in the mud. Perfect for dinner, right?

This is Kevin. What a precious young man! He played the violin the five days they were here and it was such a treat!! He's graduated with a major in Engineering, but wants to serve the Lord in full time missions in some capacity.

This is Lorien, she graduated with a major in Elementary Education with a focus on TESOL. (teaching English as a second language). She also has a heart for missions.

Lorien

This is Dana a sweet southern girl from Georgia. It was so fun to listen to her talk!

Dana

 Here's Nan, she's a precious Thai girl that is like a daughter. She calls us Mom and Dad. She graduated from our Bible School and is a missionary to her people. She'll be the one living at the church and taking care of the two Thai girls that we took in as well as watching over the church and the cell groups. We love her!

My sweet baby

So this canal, is full of water and they blocked the water off and began to use buckets to drain the canal of water. Once all the water was drained, they all began to dig the fish out of the mud with their hands........ little fish, big fish, it didn't matter.

I asked them, "Are you going to keep all the fish? What will you do with them?" They said they would keep all of them. With the small ones they'd make a curry cake they they wrap in banana leaf and steam, with the big ones they'd fry them or make a curry with them. 

Thais are super resourceful. Especially the Thai from eastern Thailand. Because there's very little work up there except farming, they eat whatever they can find.  

Even ants.

As I was walking around taking pictures, I saw some old Thai men with a bag up to a tree shacking it.  I know that Thais love to eat ant eggs, so I assumed that's what they were doing. I walked up closer and asked them what they were doing and if I could take some photos.

They were obliged.  But they weren't catching the eggs... there weren't any. They were catching the ant! A large ice cooler full of red ants!

They were gonna take them home, fry 'em and eat 'em!

This was the team when we got back to the church... a dirty mess! But they had FUN!

If you went on a missions trip, would this be something you'd like to experience?

What are some of the adventures you've had?

Until next time!

Amber~