Dumbo, Disney, and Dreams

Sa wat dii kah! (hello in thai)

Well it feels a little bit like this blog is long overdue, and I'm sure some of you are feeling the same. So for that I apoligize. When I last blogged we were in Chiang Mai and loving it. Well that didn't change, we ended up staying about a week and a half there and made some really good connections with people. Chiang Mai become very familiar to us, and we would even have our daily routine of seeing Tip, about 3 times a day. Tip is the sweetest Thai lady, who makes the best fruit shakes any of us had ever had, and all for less than a dollar. Crazy!
Well, in Chiang Mai we were able to meet with an organization called Lighthouse ministries. http://www.lighthousethai.com/
With them we were able to meet a couple other YWAM teams from around the world. The main reason for meeting with them was Red Light District and Bar ministry. We were able to get encouragement from teams who had done it before, and advice from the Thai woman Emmi, who runs it. So for the next couple of nights we went out and experienced first hand what it was like. The first night we did some prayer walking throughout the area, and had a conversation with a man that we had met in the cooking course we had done prior. He was super curious about what we believed, and even said he would go and look up more about christianity. The second night we went into the bars, a little bit uncomfortable at first but then ended up having some awesome conversations with people. It was a challenging experience at times, just seeing the brutality and horrific truth of what goes on there.
We spent a couple more days there, and made some more connections with people, including this awesome family from the states who sold everything and just started travelling about 10 months ago and are still going strong. We found out they were believers, and were able to encourage them in their faith as they were really feeling the effects of not having fellow believers around them for so long. The daugher, who was about 20 was even interested in doing a DTS after we chatted with her. So be praying for them, as they continue on their travels.
After heading out from Chiang Mai, we made our way up a constantly curving mountain road, to a little town called Pai.(pie) We settled into our riverside hostel, and even had a lovely surprise when the other team, as well as a guy we met in Chiang Mai, met us for dinner. Pai was a neat little place, that was a little frustrating at times, as it was harder to meet people than we would have thought. We  had a few conversations with a couple girls we met at our hostel and the occasional other one. The highlight of our time there had to of been going on an elephant trek. We rode them up and down hills and we even went into the river with them. Overall it was an awesome day full of memories we wont ever be able to forget.

Our time in Thailand was nearing the date of the end of our visa, so we decided as a team to make our way down to Cambodia. So starting at 8 am we made our way, by bus back down to Chiang Mai, and then found a sleeper train to Bangkok. The sleepertain was surprizingly nice, and as Luca says "the toilet has a really nice flush, I like this very much, I pressed it several times" Unfortunately the food on the train wasn't so nice, and Ben was struck by food poisoning. We arrived in Bangkok only to get on another bus and head to the border. So after 36 hours, and lots of prayer for Ben, we arrived in Cambodia, and Ben is feelings tops. Praise the Lord.

Our plan is to spend a couple days here, seeing Angkor Wat, and hopefully meeting some awesome people before heading south to the beaches of Thailand. God is good, and has been providing us many good opportunities to share our faith and His love with the people we meet, and safe travels.

Prayer points:
-more opportunities to meet people, and share our faith
-safe travel as we head down south in a couple of days
-continued health and safety