Day 2 - Completed and Unionized

We want to first thank everyone for their prayers! Already we are feeling them being answered. For starters one of our ladies' luggage did not make it to Thailand and today was day two without it. Once back from church and lunch, at the desk waiting for her was none other than Stacy Blank's luggage. Having clean clothing after 2 days does amazing things to lift one's spirit. Especially sense we are heading into 2 of the hardest days of the trip.

The service this morning was amazing. We surprised the church's worship team by standing and singing and praising God. We thought it was the beginning of the service (like a prelude) by the end we realized we were still the only one's there, and we were just very early. At least we helped make practice fun, LOL....boy did we think we would feel embarrassed, but you know in the end we were praising Jesus that we just had the opportunity to praise Jesus more than once!!!! AMEN!

After church we had our first experience of a Thailand Mall by going to a place called MBK. After herding ourselves like sheep up 7 escalators to get to the seventh floor we sat down and enjoyed fellowshiping with one another and having a wonderful meal. Watermelon smoothies and beef/chicken/Salmon was to be had! Yum, it was amazing.

Once our bellies were full, we all took off in little teams to explore the first five floors of MBK which just happen to be chalked full of stall after stall after stall after stall, well you get the picture of little shops. Some people learned the great art of bartering, while others helped jack the pricing up with each squeal of delight over liking an item too much (Jeanne we all know this is you!)

After shopping we had an opportunity to come back to the hotel for some free time and enjoyed hanging out and getting to know one another. There is something about being one with Christ together as the body and worshiping together that brings us closer, and by the end of the day you could begin to feel the Holy Spirits presence forming friendships and sisterhoods. Praise God for the Unity that is beginning to grow. Continue to pray for this as we need to be one in spirit in order to fight the evil one in the next two days especially.

Last night we were given a taste of the Thai culture and our faith was tested as we sat surrounded by beauty and the art of Thai dancing, yet sat across the room from a table of call girls and the men whom which they were with. GOD this country needs you! This world needs you and we call on the power of Your might hand and loving arms to rescue, redeem, and restore the women of this world. We are here not to change the world, but to allow the world to change us. We desire and crave to see these women through Your eyes. Love them! Let them some how some way feel Your presence. We don't know what to do, how to act, what to say, or where to go, but we know to turn to YOU! May be be your vessels! Teach us what You would have us learn on this trip.

After such a heart wrenching night we had to add some laughter.

1 - Audrey decides to swat a mosquito and goes for the kill. Realizing we are in a Buddhist culture makes a face and says...oh no was I supposed to do that, to which Elisa replies, oh you are fine as long as it doesn't have the president's head on it. --- ask us all when we get back, but this had us rolling on the floor laughing because the president is sacred here.

2 - After handing out roommate survival kits with candy, note cards for encouragement, and earplugs we were told to add an emergency flashlight for next year as all lights are controlled by one switch (including the bathroom lights) and well lets just say Amanda has been blacking out Lauren's potty times...

All in all our time has been eye opening. Please continue to pray and know you are loved and missed! Thank you for supporting us!