Fun with the Mahathai Girls and Drawing to a Close

Last night we went to Mahathai to do a bit of a "spa" makeover type thing for the girls there. Wow, was that a lot of fun. We did many girls' hair, we painted many fingernails, and even got to do some of these same things for the mothers of the town. We made some beaded necklaces too. All of the boys we had been hanging out with all week wanted to know why they couldn't play with us too!

After we did all of these things, we met with the teenage girls - about 7-8 of them - and gave testimonies, shared about inner beauty, and of course, talked about boys (but about what is important to look for in a boy). Then we took them out for dinner and did karaoke with them. Both Thais and Americans love karaoke! We laughed, ate, and talked together. This morning, Keiow told us that it was clear that they were beginning to trust us more and many families were allowing their children to spend more time with their ministry's activities. We came home tired and hoarse, but we had a TON of fun.

Today has been a bittersweet day. We worshipped with the congregation at New Community. Again, it was incredible to be worshipping in two different languages. We shared a meal together, and then joined in the prayer time after church. Unfortunately, it was also time for us to say goodbye to many of the people we have come to know and love in the past two weeks. Right now we're packing up to head to the beach at Hua Hin for a debriefing retreat with Dave and Melanie.

Please pray for us as we figure out how what we have learned here fits into our lives at home. Please pray for safe travels for us. Please pray for the people here that we have come to know and love, and many of them are not Christians.

For those of you who are interested, but don't know yet, we'll be arriving back at Illiana hopefully about 4:30 on Tuesday, June 23. We'll make some phone calls too.