Vision Trip
We hosted a vision trip of staff from the US the week after Thanksgiving. Organizing these types of trips on our side is part of my new job. I think the group had a pretty good time seeing and experiencing life here. It was the first time in this country for most of the group, and the first time out of the US for a couple of them. One of the highlights of the time with the group was an outreach party on one of the campuses here. The group arrived late Tuesday night, spent Wednesday and Thursday touring and meeting students to invite the party. That might not sound too hard, but they also had to find students who spoke English pretty well, since none of them speak the language of this country. By Friday night, there was a party with over twenty students. After hearing a short introduction to the gospel, the majority of the students were interested in hearing more and are still being followed up by members of the team on that campus.
Group picture at the outreach party
We played a game of 'Win, Lose or Draw' for the ice breaker
Thanksgiving
At Thanksgiving, I had the opportunity to go and celebrate with my friends Graham and Ashlei. They are leading a team in a new city that just opened this fall, so it was fun for me to get to see the new place for the first time too. I was there less than two full days, but had a great time hanging out with Graham and Ashlei and their team.
This was our first experience with cooking turkey (do I really want to do this again??) but it turned out to be pretty tasty. Turkey cooking tip #1: Always take the neck out. Turkey cooking tip #2: The seller/processor of frozen turkeys may have hidden the neck inside the turkey. Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it is not there. I hope that our trial by fire turkey cooking tips will benefit those of you who do not have turkey cooking experience in the future.
Thanksgiving Group Picture
Trying to figure out what to do with the turkey
Pandas
In mid-November, I was in another city for a meeting over a long weekend, and I had the opportunity to visit a panda research facility. In spite of the fact that I have been here over five years now, this was my first trip to see the “beautiful panders” or “pander bears” as they are called by the English speakers around here. It was a neat experience to get to see these rare creatures roaming around the park like environment that had been created for them.
As I walked around, I couldn’t help but be saddened that this country seems to take much better care of these animals than some of the people who live here. Please continue to pray for the people here, so many of whom really are harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Trying out the Panda look...
It was pretty cool to be able to get this close
This is where they live.
Bangkok
In October, several of us had to go to Bangkok to renew our visas. Here are some pictures from that weekend trip.
Wendy and I both really like Starbucks coffee. We do not have Starbucks where we live, but Bangkok has 100 Starbucks shops
(they were celebrating the 100th store opening on the weekend we were there).
Wendy and I both really like Starbucks coffee. We do not have Starbucks where we live, but Bangkok has 100 Starbucks shops
(they were celebrating the 100th store opening on the weekend we were there).
Picture from the river taxi
Another picture from the river taxi
Night traffic in downtown Bangkok
