Merry Christmas

Hello everyone thanks for all the LOVE you have sent my way this year!

At the local mall they have an elephant water fountain and this year they decorated the elephants for Christmas with big red santa hats and green wreaths around their necks.

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

Delivering WARMTH and LOVE

This last weekend, I was able to join a group of staff from Grace International School, to deliver blankets, warm clothing, food and some stuffed animals, to two small Thai-Karen villages located in the nearby mountains. The school and community had gathered items for a Christmas service project to heap some warmth and love on our neighbors.
Here you see our two 4-wheel drive rigs filled with donated items, even the car-top carrier was filled to overflowing! The drive, though short in actual miles, took hours of bumpy and "wild" mountain 4-wheeling. Great views...if you weren't driving ha!

The villagers came running from all over, when they heard our car engines. Every single villager shook each of our hands and greeted us in Karen. Everyone helped carry packages and boxes to the meeting house, which was a long building with tin roof and open sides and about 8 or 10 feet off the ground.

The people gathered on the floor and they sang traditional songs in Karen. the first village we visited, there are no Christians yet. Our Thai Principal gave the gospel message to the village, starting with god's promise of a Savior in Genesis and finishing in Revelation. It was amazing to watch their faces and their reactions to each part of the story.... since I didn't have a clue as to what she was sharing at the time, until I saw her stretch out her arms for the crucifixon and saw the saddness on the crowds' faces, and the laughter and joy they expressed when she next shared of the resurrection.

Each of the school staff had the opportunity to present blankets and items to members of the village. And of course there were the Official Photos. Here in Thailand it is the tradition that anytime you receive a gift, a photo is taken to commemorate the giving and receiving.

Look at that sweet face !!! We learned that these two villages are located a very long walk from the nearest Government school, so it is common for the girls to only attend school for a few years and then they are needed at home. At 13 or 14 years of age, if a girl is not attending school, then she usually gets married and starts having a family of her own.

Here is one of the typical village homes with a weaving machine on the front porch. Exteended families live in a home and help with all the work involved in daily life.

Here are some village homes, photo taken from the porch of an older home where we ate our sack lunches we had brought with us. the mountains are beautiful, lush and green. The dirt is red. there is NO level ground, their crops of rice and strawberries and vegetables or raised on terraced hillsides.

This is the meeting house at the first village we visited.

Here is our Official Photo from the first village.

Here is our Official Photo at the second village. This village...everyone but two people are Christians. they had a small cement block building as their church meeting hall. AND they were very proud that they had some plastic chairs, so their "honored" guests did not have to sit on the floor when visiting. These two villages are being ministered to by a Korean couple whose children attend Grace International School.

Here I am with a woman who is about my age, but we have led very different lives!! We prayed for her legs and hands and she wanted her photo taken with me. I spoke english and she spoke Karen and God opened our ears and hearts to each other.

Well there you have it. It was a delightful day of being able to be His hands and feet to deliver warm clothes and blankets and food, to be able to share God's love, and just to be able to connect with His sweet wonderful people here in Thailand.

Oh and by the way..... this Christmas, instead of buying cards and small gifts and spending money on the postage.... I decided to rather buy blankets to donate to these two villages. So as I was helping hand out items, it was YOU who were providing the warmth for the cold nights. These happy smiling mountain villagers are snuggled up under love from you!! Thank you for your prayers and support and for loving His people in such a lovely way.

Praying that each and everyone of you have a blessed and joyfilled Christmas!!

Merry Christmas

from Pam

delivering WARMTH and LOVE to the mountains

A sweet Christmas Celebration

This last weekend, I was invited to travel to the largest Refugee camp in Thailand, Mae La.
We parked at one of the gates, and took about a 30 minute hike INSIDE the camp, to reach the meeting hall where the Christmas Party was to be held. The whole camp looks like this photo above, brown buildings, all the same, brown dirt and mud and jungle trees. (The internet says that there are about 50 thousand families living here in homes such as these ).


We entered the meeting hall which was already packed with children, care givers and parents, who had excitedly been waiting for our arrival for over two hours!!!

We were escorted to the seats down front and the celebration got under way. There I am in the second row of a packed house!! We sang Oh Come All Ye Faithful, and then each student group got up one by one and performed something they had been practicing for months.... a Christmas Carol, a dance to Bible verses, or a traditional song or dance. It was a delightful experience. So much Joy !!!

This is one of the Karen boys who came and had a "sit and chat" with me during the afternoon. Everyone wanted to practice their English and find out about where we live and what we do. I learned a lot about what it is like to live in a camp where you can never go outside of the barbed wire fence. We both had many questions.

Below, are photos of some of the groups that performed in the program....

After the singing and dancing, we broke up into smaller groups to go play games and make crafts. Then we gathered together again for the Giving of Christmas gifts. Each child and person got gifts. Next we ate a meal together of egg soup and rice and then began the farewells.

It was a sweet sweet time of celebrating our Savior's birth and rejoicing in what He has done for us over this last year. And I came away feeling as if my own Christmas celebration was quite complete.... how could I ever top a day like this???

( If you would like to hear more about my visit to Mae La, if you have questions, or would just like to know more about refugee camps in Thailand, I would love the opportunity to chat with you. Please give me an email at pamsjoy@gmail.com I look forward to connecting with you. )

I pray that each of you have a joyful Christmas Season!!!

blessings

Pam

First Sunday in Advent

When I was growing up, my family always made an Advent wreath, and then every night after dinner we would light the candles and read devotions together and anxiously look forward to Christmas Eve. Today is the First Sunday in Advent. Earlier this week I went down to the day market and bought a few little supplies so i could make my own little wreath and light my candle today.

For those of you who haven't experienced and Advent wreath.... This is a special way of marking the four weeks before Christmas, purpose??? to prepare your heart for the celebration of our Savior!!! How it works.... Everyday this week I will light the same ONE candle. Next Sunday I will light the First candle and a second candle, so two candles all week, then three then four and then Christmas Eve/day!!!

Now you can make your own, or purchase a lovely ready-made wreath. You can google Advent wreath and read all about them, there are different colors of candles to use, each candle has a special name, there are special devotions avaialble.

But the focus is this...... Jesus Is the reason for the season.

Join me in a childhood memory..... prepare Him room in your heart. Happy first day of Advent.

Pam

Why we are here

Modern day convenience !! This is a small portable machine outside the neighborhood grocery store. Inside the glass case are small buddha statues representing each day of the week (two for wednesday) In front of each statue is a small merit pot... pot with a cover on it and a coin slot. Now while on your way to shop, you can pause and slide some coins into the pot representing the day of week you were born. You no longer have to go to the neighborhood temple to make merit. Just visit the local store and use the portable statue machine. (those of you born on wednesday morning have a reclining buddha, which means life is easier, if you were born in the evening, your buddha staute is standing and life is more difficult) Making merit.... is earning your way by doing good deeds, in this case giving money.

this is the special buddha statue and when you drop coins into this merit pot, a circle of lights light up and a lovely sound comes out. It's kinda like a "vegas" slot machine. I watched young children put coin after coin in to light up the lights. This machine gives you something for your coin, a little entertainment! immediate gratification !

A Spirit House in my neighbor's garden. Most thai homes and businesses have a Spirit house somewhere on the property. And then daily they put water or soda pop or tea and fruit and candles and incense there to entice the Spirits to remain in this little house and away from their home or business. Animism (spirit worship/fear) is a major part of thai life and tradition.

As soon as the ground was broken to start building the Big C grocery store, the first thing built was a BIG Spirit House. Then construction on the rest of the property proceeded. Big C is sort of like a K Mart store only thai-style.

Father and daughter worshiping at a large temple on the mountain overlooking Chiang Mai.

Receiving a blessing from a monk

worshipping idols

Before coming to Thailand, worshipping idols was something that I read about in the Bible. In the USA we talk of people worshipping the idol of money or possessions. But coming here to SE Asia, one is reminded EVERYDAY why we have come to this land to love and reach out to a beautiful people who bow down to idols.... cold lifeless idols that can not hear them or help them.

Take a moment and really look at these photos and then KNOW why you are here.

Pam

Parking.....thai-style

Today I finally became a "Thai Parker"
I drove to were church meets, got there early so decided to try parking IN the parking garage. (usually I park outside and walk around to the side door. anyway, I found a nice spot, parked, and went to bible study and church service.
After service was over, I made my way back to the car, AND SURPRISE a car had come and parked so close beside me that it was a miracle that my side mirror was still there AND there was a whole line of vehicles parked behind my car (and everyone elses) !!!!
In thailand, once the parking places are filled, then folks park across the back of the cars. they leave their cars in Neutral, so that you can push them out of the way.
Today the cars were all parked so closely that I had to go to the end car and start moving one car at a time so that finally I was able to move the car that was behind me. then I had to crawl through the passengers side door, and do some acrabatics to get my body positioned behind the wheel. finally I was able to back out and drive away !!!! Mission accomplished, I can get out of Thai parking !!! I drove away with a smile on my face.

Later on in the day, my roommate, eileen and I were running errands and needed to find a place to park at the store. All the parking slots were full..... So guess what I did ???? Yep, I parked behind someone and we ran our errands>

I am a Thai "Park-er" :0)

pam

Land of Plenty

Land of Plenty.......plenty of Lays potato chips!!!!

Today I stopped off at the grocery store afterschool for some bread and eggs.

I had my camera with me, so thought I'd take a few photos...

hmmmmm the Potato chip aisle seemed to be calling me.

Here was an interesting aisle of flavors, to delight those

tastebuds!!!!!!

Check out the choices.

something you'd find in the USA

mmmmmm tasty!

the name says it all

Flavors and choices continued below in the next entry.

After reading to the bottom of the next entry, I would love to hear which flavor suits your fancy, and maybe we can get the company to import some yummy new choices to the USA

Maybe you've come across your own different exotic flavor....

Come on share with us

And while we're at it, perhaps you have been inspired to invent your own flavor

the possibilities are endless.

continued below

really!

pam

Potato chip flavors CONTINUED

And the variety of chips continues with Extra Barbacue........

Followed by this YUMMY selection, Hot Chili Squid !!

It's difficult to find a hamburger here, but here you have

Double Cheese Pork Burger!!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm Spicy Seafood..........

cheese and onion

and a little sweet Basil, to finish off the choices !!!

Yes indeed !!

There are Many flavors of Lays potato chips here in the grocery store in Thailand.

The Thai people seem to love a variety of chips for their meals and snacks.

(Bonus points... How many did you count in all???)

What's that you say..... yep, you noticed it........

on the shelf today, there were NO Original flavored chips,

just the wonderful variety pictured above.

Next time you visit Thailand, I'll make sure you are well "chipped" hahahaha.

blessings

Pam (I had a peanutbutter sandwich with NO chips :0)

Some Field trip photos

Here I am, suddenly the most popular person around
Why??? because I had a notebook FULL of paper and a pen!!!

This little cutie walked up behind me, tugged on my shirt and
climbed up in my lap. She opened my notebook, took my pen out
of my hand and got busy drawing a picture.... humming a little tune.
What a delightful time we had. The children printed their names and our names.
They drew silly photos of us and of animals.

Here is a group of girls playing a game of marbles.

More photos from our field trip

Some of the boys playing a song during Chapel

the chapel, with attached diningroom/kitchen

what an incredible view from their front steps