I hope that this post will prove that, no, the bite did not in fact succeed in killing me. ;) It's healing well now, though I still have a large black spot on the tip of my nose where it is still healing. Fortunately, my nose is back to its regular size and no longer painful. The antibiotics I am on are very good, though they have a few nasty side effects. I'll be very happy when I'm done with them in a few days. The sensitivity to the sun is not fun, but it's the crazy dreams that really get to me.
Today, I got back from our annual staff retreat to Pattaya. It's a great time to get to know our Thai staff more as ell as bond more as a team. I really bonded with my friend, Kru Nee, who is the office administrator. Kru Nee is older, but very sweet, and I really love her. She is also definitely the person to know if you need anything! When my friend, Ellen, visited last Christmas, Kru Nee was the one who arranged our train tickets.
My favorite part about hanging out with Kru Nee this weekend was when we were able to talk about God's will in our lives. We were talking about plans for returning, and she was reiterating that she thinks I should stay for 10 years. I laughed and told her that it was up to God. In a semi-rare moment of seriousness, she asked me what I meant by that. She said that every year, farang (foreign) teachers would say that it was up to God but she wasn't sure what it meant. I tried to explain that when I pray and listen to God, He can show me where He wants me to be and what He wants me to be doing. I told her how my own plan for my life was so small. All I wanted was to be a married housewife with children. That was my dream. Praise the Lord, He had bigger dreams for me, and praise Him further for His patience and persistence when I stubbornly resisted Him. I finished by telling Kru Nee that if God tells me to stay in Thailand, I will stay and be happy. If He tells me to go to another country, I will go and still be happy. If He tells me to return to the States, He may need to do a bit of work in me, but I will still be happy, because He is happiness. There is no way to fully explain the joy and peace that comes from knowing that you are exactly where God wants you to be doing exactly what he wants you to do. It far surpasses any dream I could dream for myself.
Well, we returned back to the school this afternoon, giving us the rest of the day and tomorrow for a weekend. Love it! My roommates and I decided to go see a movie and get some dinner. I jokingly threw out the suggestion of Fright Night, simply because David Tennant is in it and I wanted to see him. (For those who don't know, David Tennant is the new love of my moment. His acting is incredible and I just can't get enough.) Anyway, my roommates agreed, though I have no idea why, really, other than that there is not much else that is playing at the moment. So, we got to the theater and got some dinner. Eunice bought the tickets while we got the food, and she bought a ticket for the 3:20 showing. Just a few moments later, a guy came back and said that he had to exchange our tickets for the 4:50 showing for some reason. We had nothing else planned, so it was fine. When we got to the theater, we sat through the obligatory commercials and previews for about 20 minutes, stood for the king's anthem, and started the movie. We hadn't even gotten to the title showing before they shut the movie off and turned on the lights. We sat there for a bit wondering what was going on. The guys at the door said it would just be a few minutes, so e settled in and did our normal chatter, mostly about the ridiculousness of the situation. Another fifteen minutes or so later, they restarted the movie. It was fuzzy and kept going in and out of focus. It played for about a minute before it stopped and the lights came on again. Finally, about five minutes later it started to play again, creating a feeling not unlike Groundhog Day when you already know what will happen next. So, the movie is finally playing and it's in focus and we've seen more than the first five minutes...and it's in Thai. Yes, it is dubbed over with a Thai soundtrack.
We left.
As we were leaving, we talked to the assistant manager who wrote on our tickets so that we can redeem them to see it again some other day without having to pay for the tickets all over again. Here's to delayed gratification! All I can say is that the acting better be worth the trouble! I'm expecting cheesiness and cheep shots that I can make fun of. We shall see. We shall see.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Trips and Bites
As I'm sure you can well imagine, much has changed in the last month. For one thing, I now have good internet so I might actually be able to update more easily now. Yay! Unfortunately, my computer is now giving me a lot of trouble, so we will see. Hopefully, I'll soon be able to get a new computer.
In other news, August was a month filled with a lot of mission opportunities and trials. The second eek of August, I went with a group to the city of Mae Sot in the northwestern part of Thailand. We did a weekend girls retreat for some Burmese and Karen refugees that attend a migrant school that my church here is associated with. We took the girls to a hotel and pretty much just tried to shower them with love. The theme was "Poured Out for Him" based on the story of the woman anointing Jesus' feet just prior to his crucifixion. Our last day, I had the opportunity to tell the story to the girls. The story hinges on giving Him all that we have to offer, and His acceptance. He didn't tell the woman that she wasn't giving enough or that she needed to change before she could touch Him. He accepted her, just like He accepts us.
I was a group leader for 8 girls. Over the 2 1/2 days we were there, I came to really care about them a lot. I'm hoping to go up again in October, though I have a bit of a different vision for that trip. What is on my heart at the moment is a desire to help the teachers of the school by giving them some support and tools on how to be a better teacher as well as a mini-discipleship program with the intent of having them continue to support each other. Fortunately, my roommate is the one who planned the girls' retreat, and she is helping me with this. If I had to do it alone, it s unlikely that it would ever happen.
The trip to Mae Sot is a 6 hour van ride each way. On the way home, my neck got tweaked, causing a lot of pain. This did allow me to compare chiropractics in Thailand with those in the States, however, so that was fun. I'm actually glad that it happened on the retreat, though, because it gave me the opportunity to explain why I was in the van.
The most recent adventure, though, was hen I woke up on Thursday last week with a bite on my nose. I thought it was just a bad mosquito bite because I tend to get bitten by them often. However, my nose soon began swelling and becoming red and painful. by then I knew it was a spider bite. I went to the hospital on Saturday and got some antibiotics. My nose continued to get worse and by Sunday night, a small patch of black skin was on the tip. Monday, I went to a different hospital where they sent me to a dermatologist who gave me a different antibiotic. The new medicine works, but it has some pretty nasty side effects, so I had to take the last 2 days off of work. Teaching 3 year olds tends to be hindered when you can't move quickly, lean over, or speak much without fear of throwing up or passing out. Oh, and the fact that my entire face is in pain. My face is getting better now, but it's a process, and a fairly painful one at that.
Here's the thing though: I don't believe for one moment that this was an accident or coincidence or anything of the kind. This was a spiritual attack. The same day I woke up with a bite, my roommate woke up with yet another complication to her surgery wound. A surgery that is performed thousands of times around the world with few complications. Our other roommate, meanwhile, is still undergoing pain from a cyst that is abnormally large and not going away as they typically do. All of this is on top of the spirit of division and isolation that has already been plaguing many of the teachers here. Those who know me wall should be aware that I do no talk like this lightly. I can actually feel the darkness trying to press in. It's a tangible force.
On Sunday, I was overwhelmed by the spiritual warfare taking place all around us every moment, though we're so often blind to it. It was while praying in church that I had a picture in my mind. I saw myself standing in the full armor of God with the enemy pushing me down and trying to crush me. I had the shield of faith and the sword of truth with me, but my instruction was not to fight. I was told to stand firm. Stay exactly where I was, don't back down, just stand there. At this time, I'm asking my fellow Christians to do the same. Face the enemy and stand firm, knowing that we have a Champion who battles for us. Don't lose faith, don't despair, don't be afraid. Just stand.
Until next time!
In other news, August was a month filled with a lot of mission opportunities and trials. The second eek of August, I went with a group to the city of Mae Sot in the northwestern part of Thailand. We did a weekend girls retreat for some Burmese and Karen refugees that attend a migrant school that my church here is associated with. We took the girls to a hotel and pretty much just tried to shower them with love. The theme was "Poured Out for Him" based on the story of the woman anointing Jesus' feet just prior to his crucifixion. Our last day, I had the opportunity to tell the story to the girls. The story hinges on giving Him all that we have to offer, and His acceptance. He didn't tell the woman that she wasn't giving enough or that she needed to change before she could touch Him. He accepted her, just like He accepts us.
I was a group leader for 8 girls. Over the 2 1/2 days we were there, I came to really care about them a lot. I'm hoping to go up again in October, though I have a bit of a different vision for that trip. What is on my heart at the moment is a desire to help the teachers of the school by giving them some support and tools on how to be a better teacher as well as a mini-discipleship program with the intent of having them continue to support each other. Fortunately, my roommate is the one who planned the girls' retreat, and she is helping me with this. If I had to do it alone, it s unlikely that it would ever happen.
The trip to Mae Sot is a 6 hour van ride each way. On the way home, my neck got tweaked, causing a lot of pain. This did allow me to compare chiropractics in Thailand with those in the States, however, so that was fun. I'm actually glad that it happened on the retreat, though, because it gave me the opportunity to explain why I was in the van.
The most recent adventure, though, was hen I woke up on Thursday last week with a bite on my nose. I thought it was just a bad mosquito bite because I tend to get bitten by them often. However, my nose soon began swelling and becoming red and painful. by then I knew it was a spider bite. I went to the hospital on Saturday and got some antibiotics. My nose continued to get worse and by Sunday night, a small patch of black skin was on the tip. Monday, I went to a different hospital where they sent me to a dermatologist who gave me a different antibiotic. The new medicine works, but it has some pretty nasty side effects, so I had to take the last 2 days off of work. Teaching 3 year olds tends to be hindered when you can't move quickly, lean over, or speak much without fear of throwing up or passing out. Oh, and the fact that my entire face is in pain. My face is getting better now, but it's a process, and a fairly painful one at that.
Here's the thing though: I don't believe for one moment that this was an accident or coincidence or anything of the kind. This was a spiritual attack. The same day I woke up with a bite, my roommate woke up with yet another complication to her surgery wound. A surgery that is performed thousands of times around the world with few complications. Our other roommate, meanwhile, is still undergoing pain from a cyst that is abnormally large and not going away as they typically do. All of this is on top of the spirit of division and isolation that has already been plaguing many of the teachers here. Those who know me wall should be aware that I do no talk like this lightly. I can actually feel the darkness trying to press in. It's a tangible force.
On Sunday, I was overwhelmed by the spiritual warfare taking place all around us every moment, though we're so often blind to it. It was while praying in church that I had a picture in my mind. I saw myself standing in the full armor of God with the enemy pushing me down and trying to crush me. I had the shield of faith and the sword of truth with me, but my instruction was not to fight. I was told to stand firm. Stay exactly where I was, don't back down, just stand there. At this time, I'm asking my fellow Christians to do the same. Face the enemy and stand firm, knowing that we have a Champion who battles for us. Don't lose faith, don't despair, don't be afraid. Just stand.
Until next time!
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