Currently...

Samara from The Secret Life of Samara posted today, using the below questions, and I thought it would be fun to blog a random Question & Answer today, too! I hope you don't mind me sharing, Samara! :-)


Outside my window...
Metres upon metres of air... with city streets and many people below!

I am thinking...
About starting to use my new pocket diary to keep track of the never-ending to-do list that is always in my head. I bought the diary for $1.00 today! Bargain!

From the kitchen...
I miss cooking so much! Last night I was lucky enough to be able to do some baking. Let's just say the product of my efforts was a Valentine's Day sweet ;-)

I am wearing...
Black dress shorts, pastel green tank top with cream lace and beading (see picture at end of post)

I am creating...
A photo board to put up at Andre and my engagement party on Saturday

I am going...
On a Valentines Day date tomorrow night - all I know is that I need to dress up a little =D

I am reading...
Made to Crave Devotional, by Lysa TerKeurst. Amazing encouragement for people who tend to turn to food (or any other addiction) instead of God, when in times of need

I am hoping...
To book a caterer for our wedding soon. Fingers crossed!

I am hearing...
Fingers clacking on keyboards; papers being turned; drawers being opened; my computer's motor whirring (yes, I work in an office!)

Around the house...
"House" makes me think of my house - the future house that Andre and I will live in! I am dreaming what it will be like, wondering what engagement and wedding gifts we will receive to put in our new home... Can't wait!

One of my favourite things...
Long hair. Even though I often moan about my hair and don't know what to do with it, I truly do love it

A few plans for the rest of the week...
Family dinner on Friday, first Irish Dancing class on Saturday, and our engagement party on Sunday!

A picture to share...

My dear Australian and New Zealand buddies from Third Wave in Thailand last year! I've been missing these guys over this last week. (and the top I'm wearing in the picture happens to be the very top I'm wearing today!)

What is currently happening in your life?

~Rachel

Thailand - Third Wave [Day 7: Ministry with Others]

Oikos Church of the Nazarene

This was the last day of Third Wave - but we were really nowhere near finished yet! Much was planned for the last two days, and Saturday January 7 was a biggie.


This was our Ministry with Others projects day.


We were to have two work-sites. The first was a community park, where the team would clean up, do some painting and maintenance work, and form friendships with the people there. The second location was at a place that was affected by the recent flooding in Bangkok - general cleanup and building relationships was the goal there.


Unfortunately, on this day I was feeling very unwell. On Friday, our day of sight-seeing, I had not felt well all day, and on Saturday I woke up feeling a little better, but even after breakfast I could just tell that I was not well. I decided to stay back at the hotel all day - and trust me, that was one tough decision! I just LOVE to serve, and working outside in dirt and mud is no exception! But, for what was to come in the evening... I decided that this would be best.


As soon as the buses left for the project sites (they left soon after 8:30am), I tried to use the internet for a little while, and then I went up to my room and slept for a couple hours. Around noon, I came downstairs to help set up our Third Wave t-shirts, so that when everyone came back, they could simply pick out their size before going up to their rooms, showering, and getting ready for the evening project.

Church of the Nazarene logo - Thai

We were split into 3 groups, and we were to go to 3 different Nazarene churches. I went to Oikos church, a small church, that had postponed its Christmas and New Years celebrations until we were there!!! They had somehow (miraculously, I'm sure!) gotten approval to close their end of the street, to hold the event in the middle of the street - sound system, band, chairs for the audience, space for kids to play, and all. In a Buddhist country. Where less than 1% of the population is Christian. WOW. That blew my mind!!

Arriving at Oikos Church of the Nazarene

I wasn't feeling too well, but I knew I had to push myself - I knew I would regret it if I just sat around watching the activities.

Marie looking very official, as she keeps score of Tammie's Rock, Paper Scissors game with the boys

I looked around at the church for a little while...

The church kitchen. You can see the little gas heaters in the middle of the floor there. Newspaper covered the floor. And the toilets were just to the left of this picture!

...and then I got involved!

Attaching a message from Oikos Church to every "showbag" (that we filled up here)

Playing some style of volleyball. They played for about 2 hours!

The church ladies provided us with a wonderful buffet!

They gave out Samaritan's Purse Shoeboxes!! Sooooo amazing to see the other side of these gifts - the smiles on those faces were priceless!

Each country / region had to prepare a cultural presentation, and as I already shared here, Australia and New Zealand teamed up.


Now, I know, for some of you Aussies and Kiwis, the idea of these two countries being one team may be a little strange, and maybe even outrageous!!! (if you are not an Aussie or Kiwi, and are a bit confused right now - you do really have to be one of us to understand this ;-) )


In fact, I am generally like that. And when our team suggested performing this Mauori song and the Haka... I admit I thought it was unfair that our entire presentation would be Kiwi. I wanted something Australian in our presentation!


But do you know what?


My heart was changed in those few days between the decision, and when we were at Oikos.


I looked around me at our International Fair - Australians, Kiwis, Mexicans, English, Scottish, Irish, Thai people, all together, having fun, eating food, celebrating the birth of Jesus and the beginning of a New Year. I saw laughter and love. I saw different skin colour, different clothing styles, heard different languages, tasted different food, and saw many cultures. All together, in one street, in this Buddhist country.


And it was then that I realized. At an event like this, we can still have the Aussie / Kiwi banter / competition / silliness - but when it comes to sharing the love of Jesus and the unity that it brings, that doesn't matter.
The whole performance was SUCH fun (even though I'm sure I mimed half of the lyrics, and *subtly* peeked at the other girls to make sure I was doing the actions right!)!! And you know what? Even though I sang a song that I wouldn't have understood if Moana hadn't translated for me - a song from my country's rival, no less! - and the boys took off their Aussie hats of to do the Haka, I am so very grateful for that experience!



AND I got to share it with these AWESOME people!!!

Tammie, Moana, Yannis, Marie, John, Dani, Aaron and me

...and my awesome big brother Simon =D

Although... that's not going to change my mind about the cricket or the rugby or most of the other things us Aussies compete the Kiwis for! ;-)



Click here to see us performing. (note: this links to Facebook, so you may not be able to access the video without logging in to Facebook)

I hung out with this pretty girl pretty much all night! 

:-)

If you look closely, you can see the little girl's hilarious hair - all sticking up straight out from her head - soooo adorable!!

Delicious fried banana, and sweet potato. Simon will tell you I was addicted. He's not really lying...

So, don't forget to check out the video of the Australian / New Zealand cultural presentation! Enjoy :-)


~Rachel

Thailand - Third Wave [Day 6: Cultural Immersion]

I know that my experience in Thailand and at Third Wave is taking a long time to appear here on my blog, but bear with me! We are nearly done!!! And I can't wait for you to see some pictures and hear about these last few days :-)

Friday January 6 was ouir "cultural immersion" day. As the day went on, I realized that "cultural immersion" was just a fancy term for "sight-seeing" ;-)

We had an early Plenary Session that morning (8:00am start), titled "In Our World".
Then we headed out for a long day of seeing the sights and spending time with each other.

I was not feeling good all day. After a few days in Thailand, the food really began to affect me. The worst began on Friday - I was feeling VERY light-headed, slightly dizzy, and couldn't really focus on much at all. I later found out that Thai food has a lot of MSG, so I think that would have been the major reason why I felt the way I did - especially since I had been on my Whole Food Detox. Going from very healthy, non-processed, non-fatty [etc] foods, to eating everything that was served [including this food loaded with MSG]... Well, I can understand why my body reacted that way!

Anyway, so even though I felt terrible all day, I faithfully took photos so that I could go back and look at the day with fresh eyes!

First, we went to this temple:

So many statues inside the complex...

Just in case you missed them - see the little people in the bottom left-hand corner? Now you can see the real size of this thing!

And so many people there to pay their respects.

It was crazy.
It was crowded.
It was hot.
And with my light-headedness, I got out of there as quickly as I possibly could.

I spent the day with my new friend Jamie. Loved getting to know her a little! We were seat-mates (is that even a word?!) on all of our travels throughout the day.

With one gorgeous young lady!! So blessed to have met Jamie

After sitting down outside the temple waiting for the others to come out, we wandered down a small strip of markets just across the carpark. There were some pretty weird, wacky and wonderful things there!!

And I met a lovely gentleman who just happens to be the pastor of a church in South Africa, that my pastor planted years ago! It was so cool to meet him!

Me and Uncle Kenneth. He just loved being called "uncle" ;-)

Next, we drove to a Thai village, that the Queen of Thailand set up, basically as a place for disabled and disadvantaged people to work at. They do handicrafts and many other things, and people (aka, tourists, like myself) can go there, watch the work being done, and purchase the products.

Jamie and I wandered through the Bird Park...

Andre, this one is for you :-) His name is Joe ;-)

...the Aquarium...

...the streets...

...the workshops...

This man is glass-sculpting...

...they HAND-MAKE figures like this! Amazing! (sorry, the photo quality isn't terrific)

Making beautiful wall hangings, tables, and more, with coloured glass - mosaic style. This man has one finger on his left hand, and you can see his fake right arm. Blows me away.

These are tiems when I wish I was an artist! How cute are these?!

...and when we went to the cafe to rest (I was feeling even worse by this point), we got interrupted by this little cutie:

He flew right inbetween Jamie and I [scared the living daylights out of us!] and calmly sat on the table and looked at us!

Ohhh, and Jamie tried to kill me:

hehehe... Good times!!!

At around 5pm, all of the Third Wavers joined up again, and had our official group photo:

The entire Third Wave group!!! Almost 200 people, from 55 different countries!!

Chilled out for a little while, and played a game, similar to duck-duck-goose, believe it or not ;-) Pretty funny! And more dangerous than you would think!!!

Thai-style duck-duck-goose

Then, we piled in buses and took the short ride to have our buffet dinner.
We were welcomed by these gorgeous people!

The tables were set on a cement "decking" type area, set right on water! The chairs had chaircovers; there was music playing; tables of food (although, I heard some people didn't get any food :'( Maccas run for them that night!)...

See the lights strung up? They looked beautiful when it got dark!

Our welcome drink! Exotic!

For me, it was nice to just sit down and [try to] not think. I was thankful that the sun was disappearing - the day had been SO hot! - although night-time = mosquitoes.

Terence, Bradley and Jamie

We had some beautiful girls dance for us...

...and some beautiful boys as well ;-)

And some crazy-amazing-out-there-scary sword fights!

These fights were so real. Some girls actually screamed because they thought heads were going to be chopped off. I would have as well, only I was filming the fights, and didn't want my loud voice to be blasted into the microphone. You're welcome.

It was such a beautiful evening! Although I wasn't feeling well, I made sure I took everything in. I tried not to miss a moment. Because I knew that I probably won't get the chance again to be with 200 brothers and sisters in Christ, all from different family, race, culture, nation and language, fellowshipping under the starry sky, living for the same God. This was such a rare and beautiful experience. I breathed deeply. I drank in the laughter. I fixed my eyes on everything, etching it all into my brain.
Oh, what a mighty God we serve!!!

Jethro

And finally, the night was finished by sending off these beautiful lanterns.

I'd never experienced that before, and it was so fun; so breath-taking. It was the kind of thing that made me want to just sit down and stare up at the stars and at the dozens of lanterns floating in the sky. I was in awe of the Lord's greatness, and the huge privilege it was to go on this trip.
Thank You, Jesus!!!

~Rachel