First day of Sang Kran--Sunday, a wet day!

I haven't been able to tell you yet about how perfect our trip's timing is because we are here during the Thai New Year that starts today and the festivals go throughout the entire week. In fact, the Ashburns have to be somewhere else this week, so Julie and I are going to be tourists in Chiang Mai, which just happens to be the most famous spot for Sang Kran.
Wet is the key word of the week for us!!!!!!!! The way they celebrate the New Year is by playing water games with each other all throughout the week. Basically, you just throw water on people when they least expect it by using buckets of water, water guns, water balloons, you just name it.

Let me at least start by telling you about church today first, before i get into how wet the day has already been for me. They have a church on the property just behind where the building we are living in is located. It is halfway built. They made an announcement that the bathroom was completed and very nice and everyone was welcome to use it. It was truly sweet.

well, julie and i sat next to anna who tried to translate for us. she is 12 years old and does a great job, but she said it was really hard for her to translate. i just told her not to worry, but just to give us the main information like what book or chapter or verse they were reading from. i knew i could just read it and focus upon a sermon in some sort of way. she agreed. a good number of people came from around the village, and again i was just so inspired that they had the desire to come and hear about the Bible which is just not what they are used to knowing about. The pastor introduced julie and me. we stood up and did the wei and said "swadeekah." that's about all i can do. the songs were familiar. they were all in thai, but i recognized the tune and was able to sing the english verses to them... songs like "majesty," or "how great thou art" or "i surrender all." i just loved lifting up our voices in different tongues knowing God was rejoicing that we were praising Him no matter what our language was. He knows our hearts.

After the sermon, the pastor's wife stood at the front asking if anyone wanted to share anything God had put on their heart this past week. One Thai man stood up and told how a door had hit his eye and that it had been bleeding, but he was so thankful to God that it was healed. how genuine!
The pastor's wife searched the room for more raised hands of volunteers to talk and before she could get to more, she stopped in the line of vision of julie and me. i knew it. she asked us to share. so, i popped up and asked anna if she felt like translating. they asked us to come to the front of the church and to use the microphone. after my first sentence, anna smiled shyly and said she couldn't translate. i tried rephrasing the sentence several times to be easier, but she wanted Pan (one of the nurse aids) to do it. So, Pan ( a nurse aid who has been injured b/c of a severe jelly fish sting to her leg, hobbled up to the front to translate for me). I tried to talk really slowly and make really short sentences for her. we worked together as a team especially for an impromptu speech like this. first, i thanked the thai people for being who they are, i.e. just genuinely letting Christ shine through them. i told them how grateful julie and i were to be in thailand and how it was so obvious for us to come here. we learned how to not go where we wanted to go but instead to go where God wanted us to go. i said it's like when you pray and pray and pray and wait for God to tell you, and then suddenly you get a very wide open door to go through... that was thailand for us. i told them how much we love it here. i explained more about how much i had learned from the Ashburns and their commitment, devotion, or perseverence for serving the Lord here. I explained how the nurse aids and nurses were inspiring, from being in the clinic with them, especially considering how hard it has been for them to leave some of their traditions and families in order to be a Christian. I told the congregation that i understood and shared Noi's quote of "sometimes you just have to wait patiently for others to know, and i am still waiting on my parents." i concluded that i, too, was waiting patiently for others close to me and that God is in control. They all nodded their heads and i concluded with another wei and "swadeekah" of course with a smile. :)
next, i was blown away by their humility b/c they suddenly started to pray for me and my family. you know, they all talk out loud at once each praying individually. how powerful it was to me. wow! This is the body of Christ and this is what it means to love your neighbor as yourself.

After church, Anna, Julie and I all walked over to the "pool" near the tennis courts. it looks like a pond, but it really is a pool according to Anna b/c it has a cement bottom. We went to put our feet in the water just to cool off a bit. Anna said she usually likes to take a swim on Sundays so we told her we'd go with her later. we all sat on the deep end of the pool away from the shallow end where the bees were buzzing around over the water. i had no idea of what was to follow....
julie asked me what time it was, i looked at my newly bought watch from a street vendor that said "baby G" on it and was pink (about $8 US) and told her "it's noon." she said, "hey can i try it on?" sure, i took it off and gave it to her. whatever, i thought. mind you we are all sitting in our church clothes, anna is dressed the nicest in her pink chiffon easter dress with pretty pink roses and ribbons on it. julie and i are both wearing skirts and shirts. then julie says, "hey, Zsi, how are your nails holding up on the trip? can i see them?" okay, i gave her my hands and showed her my nails.

the next thing i know i am being pulled into the pool with full attire on and julie is going in right with me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! she yelled "SANG KRAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
UHHH. SHE GOT ME.
poor little anna is dry in her pink dress standing outside the pool and she says in the most naive voice, "can i come in, too?" Then, she does... she just jumps right in the pool with her easter dress on!!!!!!!!

all three of us are having a blast together, laughing and just in disbelief of what we were doing with our church clothes on of all things. i must say, i haven't done that one before. :) anna decided we needed mermaid names since we were dressed pretty in the water. i think julie was something like "desiree" and anna was "pearl" and they tried to give me the name of "crustacea." uh no. i took biology and know that means shrimp or something. :) i replaced my name with "star." so, the three mermaids we were all flipping about in the pool below the hot steaming sun on a sunday afternoon decked out in decadence in our church clothes. so, the whole point was julie took my watch off for me. somehow, in all of the commotion, we lost it in the pool. this is a pool that you can't see the bottom of, i mean it is green. so, we called it a loss and we'll just replace it with another street vendor watch in chiang mai. hopefully, until tuesday i won't need to know what time it is, b/c i really won't have a clue.

we waited for all passersby to leave the area before we got out of the water dripping wet. we all quickly took showers and met back up for lunch with the rest of the Ashburn family. i arrived to the Ashburn screen door first and went in after taking my flip flops off. I asked if they knew what had happened. Mary (Anna's mom) was not amused. She said she was a little mad at Anna b/c of the dress. i asked hoping it wasn't, "was that her easter dress??" she said "yes." i said, "oh, no." she said, "no, the problem is what will it look like after it's been in the washing machine." hmm. uh huh, i can see my mamma saying that about my little easter dresses that had the bells on the pettycoat. :) i said, "did you hear how it happened?" anyway, the story was told and it was funny to me. julie and anna come in after playing sang kran with the water guns and i quickly tried to hush their cheer. i told anna that her mom may not want to know about it. Mary was very forgiving, though, and we all had a great lunch. Anna told her family that Julie and I were more fun than kids her age. oh no. there's a problem. i'm guessing not too many other med students that they've had as volunteers have jumped in the pool with their church clothes on! :) well, at least it is all in the fun of Sang Kran, right?
then, just as we were talking at the lunch table, they had steven curtis chapman's cd on playing "i'm diving in." i just burst into laughter. how appropriate!

after lunch, julie and i were washing up the dishes and i hear anna come in the house saying, "why'd you do that to me? what have i ever done to you?" this was to her brother Bruce. we all perked our eyebrows up, wondering what happened. apparently, she was sitting on the porch and he snuck up on the roof and poured a giant bucket full of water straight down on her like a waterfall. all in the fun of sang kran again. do you see what i have to look forward to this week? not to mention, we will be in the city that is the heart of the festival. even though julie just poured water on me while i was typing this blog, i have to say it feels really good here. this might work out pretty well. :)
i wish you all were here to play Sang Kran. Every one does it, all ages!

The only thing is that the church has several prayer requests regarding this week...
1. usually there are always deaths from people getting too dangerous or driving drunk b/c of Sang Kran
- so pray for safety and no drunk driving
2. one of the villages called Sacket has a few new Christians in it and they want additional prayer for growth

well, that sums up my sunday. tonight is pizza night. who knew? i'm in thailand having pizza.
julie and i have to hit the books hard studying for medical jurisprudence too. we have to take a test online before we leave this tuesday for chaing mai for a few days. i'm not sure how internet access will be then. we'll see. please pray that we can study the Texas laws and focus for the test. obviously, that is the last thing we'd want to do right now while we are here.
i love you and miss you!