Finale.

       This will probably be my last post as I leave in two days to head home. I am still in Pai and have been loving every minute of it. I have not explored much of Thailand so it is not a very accredited statement, but Pai is my favorite place so far. I wish I could put pictures up right now, but a brief explanation will have to do. I rented a motorbike on Friday and went to find Mae Yen waterfall. I wasn't sure I was going the right way, but I asked a local and she said yes so I went on. I got to the end of the road and started hiking on the trail. The falls were supposed to be about an hour and a half walk. My hiking went on for two hours before I called it quits and turned around. It was a beautiful hike, but not the right way to Mae Yen waterfall. I rode my motorbike through the rain to the nearby hot springs, hottest hot springs ever. There were different levels, but still so hot. I stayed here for about 3 hours and met some cool people then headed back into Pai. No one has been out doing much at night as it was Buddha day or something for the 2 and 3 so there is no selling alcohol so everyone was nestled up in their rooms or something. Yesterday (Friday) I went to go check out another waterfall. This time, however, I decided to take a pedal bike. When it came to the big decision of road bike or mountain bike, I chose the cheaper road bike. By cheaper I mean 20 baht cheaper which is less than a dollar... If you are ever in a foreign country and have such a predicament- go with the mountain bike. Mae Paeng waterfall is about 7 K out of Pai. I started off on my wonderful bike and ran into nothing but uphill the entire way. Some of the hills were so steep that it was actually impossible for the road bike to go up. On my way, 3 foreign boys rode past on their motorbikes and mooned me. So funny. Even better was I then saw them once I got to the falls and we all just laughed. The falls were great. My favorite spot. It was a two-tiered waterfall and you could slide down the rocks on the first tier like a slide! So much fun. The climb up after sliding down was the tricky part. I got some good God time in on top of the falls and then a guy from Israel showed up so began talking to him. Soon after, three more guys from Israel showed up. Apparently everyone from Israel goes to Thailand because it is cheap. We slid down the rocks a few more times and after about 3 hours of being there I went for the ride back down. So much easier and quicker than the ride up. Last night everyone was back out on the town and I went down to watch a live band play. They were good and very entertaining. I think I may take some dance classes from the lead singer. The bass guitarist was pretty sweet too as he sat there playing while smoking a joint. Pai is like the Boulder of Colorado. Today I rented another motorbike and took a loop that goes through the mountains and back. This loop includes Pai Canyon and Pembok waterfall. First I went to Pembok. It was very pretty and also very fun. I got there and hiked up around on the trails until they ended then went back down and ate my mango for lunch. I again got to have some time with God and then I went to take a dip under the falls. A guy from England had just gotten there so we both swam up to under the fall. After that, I left and went to Pai Canyon. It is really not much of a canyon, more like a ridge... I guess the canyon is beneath the ridge, but the ridge is the big attraction. It is a pretty red dirt ridge about 3 feet wide that goes on and you can walk all across. It is very cool and crazy because it just drops off on either side. After the canyon I headed to the Chinese village and view point near there. I was not all to impressed with either so I didn't stay long. I am not sure what I will do tomorrow. I think I will try to go to the other two waterfalls nearby and then I catch the bus back to Chiang Mai around 4 p.m. I don't know what to do on Tuesday. Chiang Mai has little to offer that I would spend money on so maybe this will be a rest day. That is the nice thing about Pai, everything I have done (other than renting bikes and hot springs) is free so it is much cheaper than excursions that cost $100. I fly out that night at 11:50 p.m and take forever to get home. I have like 7 hour layovers in both Seoul and L.A.. Bummer.
          I was unsure about this solo travel thing and not sure I would enjoy it, but I have. God knew just what I needed and has given me a lot of time in the past few days to enjoy His presence and His creation. He has brought in several cool people to fulfill my need to socialize and interact with others while also giving me a lot of time with Him I did not know I so badly desired to have. He has given me the perfect amount of adventure and exploring and also rest. Praise God that He knows my needs and desires far better than myself. I will post a few pictures up in my next post when I am at home!

K

Program finished.

Well, my program ended a little early due to scheduling and whatnot so I am now left with a week to travel around. We did lessons in the school near COSA last week on Wednesday and Thursday which was great. We were only supposed to teach 8 classes overall, but ended up doing 14! Then we had some more time with the staff, volunteers and girls at COSA for a few days. We went to Batman with all the volunteers and staff at COSA and on Saturday said our goodbyes. Everyone there was incredible and hard to leave. I might try to swing by there before I head out of Thailand since I now have extra time. Then the best week came. Sunday we packed our bags and headed up to Maetamann a village about an hour from Chiang Mai. Here, we did a brief session, changed clothes, grabbed some bananas and jumped on some large grey animal called an elephant- yep, we rode elephants. For about 4-5 hours we rode our own elephants bareback through the mountains of Thailand, gave them mud baths and washed them off in the river. My elephant's name was Wan and my guide's name was Dee. I got to sit on Wan's trunk and she picked me up, so cool. After elephants, we met our homestays. Mike, Jaxie and Ellie stayed with P-Phon at her house and Bre and I stayed with P-Oh at her house. We walked to the market with P-Oh to get stuff for dinner where we met the wonderful Jojo. Jojo is a 15 year old lady boy who is so nice and hilarious and speaks pretty good english. Jojo escorted us to see a bunch of elephants at a shelter where P-Oh works while P-Oh went to the market. On the way into the elephant park my Chaco broke. Bummer, eh? They were already duct-taped but it finally gave out. So I have now super glued them. We got back to the house and helped cook dinner which was so fun. We went to bed and met up with everyone in the morning to head to Karen hilltribe villages. Karen is the tribe that wears the rings around their necks... except these ones don't ha. We took a 2 hour ride in the back of a pickup on crazy muddy and fun roads and then a 40 minute trek to get to the village. We saw about 80 people this day doing various measurements like height, weight and blood pressure and the doctors that were with us were giving vaccinations and taking blood samples for malaria testing. The next day we took the 40 minute trek back and a short car ride to the next village. We visited two villages in that area doing some of the same check-ups but far less people came to these clinics. That night, we got played frisbee with the kids and got Thai massages from the women in the village- life is rough. The next morning we visited the school to give them some medical kits and then headed back to Chiang Mai. Last night we went out to dinner and checked out with Brynn who is on the ProWorld staff. Then, we all split and had to say our goodbyes- tough thing to do when you haven't had a single break from each other for weeks. Jaxie left last night to go down south. Me, Mike and Ellie left this morning at 5:30 a.m. to go to the bus station. They took off for the south and I headed out for a 3 hour drive into the mountains to the small town of Pai. I found a guest house with a bed and fan in a room for 150 baht (about $4.50) a night. And you're all caught up! That's where I am. Today has been a day to sort of rest and check out Pai by foot. Tomorrow I am going to rent a motorbike and go to the hot springs and waterfalls nearby. Don't worry, I will wear a helmet and be very careful and everything. Also, Pai is a small town of about 3000 people (plus tourists) so not like the big city of Chiang Mai. I am unsure how long I will stay here at the moment, we will see how it goes. Not going to lie, being on my own today made me miss people at home. Don't get me wrong, I still love Thailand and am excited for the rest of the time here; but I am also looking forward to seeing those I love back home!

K

Still kickin'

I bet you all are enjoying the time crunch for internet.. it makes my blogs much shorter to read. So to do a brief catch up, on Monday we went exploring near the girl's shelter. We went for a bike ride and headed back as my bike gave out on me. Then went for a walk towards the mountains and got lost so were escorted back by a wonderful Thai man who took us to COSA in his pickup. For the record, we were on the right track.. just didn't know it. Tuesday we headed up to the hill tribe village Ban Kuhn Soy where we would be teaching back health, maternal health and general healthcare. The first day in the school teaching general healthcare to ages 4 to 16 was great. The next day we were supposed to teach maternal and back health to the men and women of the village, but because of the recent rain they were all working in the fields and unable to attend. So we taught some back health to the two men there and taught nutrition to the children that came as well... not to shabby for on the spot. The next day we did a nutrition lesson at the school to all the students. While we were in the village, we got to do some trekking nearby and were fortunate enough to have attracted a few leeches as well. The wonderful Micky came to the rescue though with some gunpowder solution that got them off and killed them. Micky is the founder of the girl's shelter COSA and an incredible guy. He has some of the coolest stories. After Ban Kuhn Soy, we went to another village not too far from there to check up on two girls in that village and stayed at the village leader's house. Today and tomorrow are our days off from the program. We did a 'cultural experience' today by taking a Thai massage class! I no longer suck at massages, hopefully. It was a lot of fun and our teachers were so great. Tomorrow I am undecided on what to do. In a moment I am going to look into some programs for mountain biking, ATV tours and zipline tours to go check out and take up my morning. We head back to COSA tomorrow evening then will do some lessons in the school near there as well. Saturday we go to another hill tribe village with some nurses from a partner clinic and get to do some shadowing there for a few days. The time is going by entirely too fast.. only two weeks left (my family probably disagrees).
Love
K

Real quick.

Hey! Really quick update. We got to the girl's shelter today on the other side of Chiang Mai. We got to meet the girls ranging from ages 5 to 19 or so and they are so great. Friendly, kind, beautiful.. amazing. We are in the guest house here now which is again really great... some of us kind of wish we were roughing it a little more ha. But we are being taken care of very well. Tomorrow we have relatively all day to plan our lessons then Tuesday we go to the village to do lessons in maternal care and back pain to the villagers there for 5 days. We will also be doing general healthcare lessons to the children there. That's all I have time for now! There's the brief update.

Love
K

Arrived.

Guess who is in Thailand!? I still can't quite believe it. I arrived at the Denver airport at 4:30 a.m. July 11th and arrived in Chiang Mai at 11:30 a.m. on July 12th. Plane rides were long but not too bad, just tried to catch up on some sleep- not all that successful. Got to chat with some chill people and ate uh 'wonderful' airplane food, yum. Three of us arrived in Chiang Mai on the same flight and were taken back to the guest house where we are staying for the next few days. We have great accommodations right now. Each of us have our own room with our own bed, shower, toilet... all the luxuries. When we got in, me and Elle (a girl on the team) were just stoked to be here so sleeping was not the first thing on our minds. So, at 1 a.m, we decided to go get a little feel for Chiang Mai and walk around. Don't worry family, we asked, they said it was safe to go, and we stayed in busy areas- not dark allies. Elle's first words of our walk were "there's some religious girl here," little did she know she was referring to me haha. She said she enjoy's picking people's minds so was excited, so we had some good chats walking around and enjoying the nightlife here. The term 'religious girl' is so, well, annoying to me ha. A friend I met on the plane used the same term. People should start saying something like "There's a girl here who really loves Jesus"- I would gladly take that title. I have decided that the title really doesn't matter, as long as the reflection is the same. I pray for courage, faith and endurance as I continually meet people of differing views and opinions. The great thing is that everyone I have met is very open-minded and curious, not judgmental or condemning. We got back to the guest house, got some sleep and got up this morning to find some breakfast. We really dove into the Thai culture with a french toast breakfast :). Today then consisted of venturing around, program orientation and a Monk Chat. Earlier, a few of us went into a Buddhist temple which was cool. After orientation, we all wanted to go to a Monk Chat and talk to them some about, well, Buddhism and monk lifestyle and whatever we wanted. So we took a half hour walk to the chat and spent an hour and a half talking to a group of about 15 monks. From everything we'd heard, monks definitely didn't fit our stereotype. They were incredibly friendly and social and glad to have us. We all just talked and asked them questions and they asked us some as well, it was a cool experience and I learned more about their religion and culture. For instance, we learned that because feet are the dirty, unholy part of your body, pointing them at anyone or anything is rude and disrespectful. I have odd sitting habits, believe it or not, like putting my feet up and whatnot, so it is definitely something I have to be conscious of. Our tentative schedule for this next week or so is girl's shelter on Monday, mountainside village on Tuesday, stay there for 5 days, then Monday and Tuesday off. Our team consists of 5 people, 4 girls and 1 guy. We all get along fine, 4 of us are from the U.S and one from Canada. I am excited to get to know the team more and chat with them in the weeks to come. Although my family would love me to come back now, I am already super jealous that everyone here is staying at least 5 weeks in Thailand. But that's okay, thank you Lord for the time I have. So far, getting to have time easing into the program and just venturing around has been great and a nice transition, I am also ready to start the program! That's really all I have for right now, Thailand is great, the food is great and the language is difficult. Tomorrow we start our Thai language classes, it will be interesting. But I am excited to be able to communicate a little bit better. The time here is 9:47 p.m.- no idea what time it is at home. I will probably not give many updates since I did not bring a computer or anything along, but will comfort my family as often as I am able. One day down.

Be Bold. Patient. 

K

Suffocate.

         Well, I am out doing homework.. you can see how well that's going as I have resorted to updating my blog since it has been a very long time. Goal for the day: Finish up my Evolutionary Theory class. One 8 page paper is all that stands between me and being school free... for a month. Brief update on things lately. Passport has yet to arrive which is a slightly stressful situation. I think the passport phone people stress me out more than need be. They can't tell me anything. I get they aren't allowed to, but still so annoying. So I just paid the fee to get it rush ordered in hopes to speed up the process and get it here on time. It's funny cause all of a sudden in the past three days I have gotten worried about it so started really praying the passport would get here so I wouldn't have to pay the fee. My pastor always says to pray fervently and with faith believing that God will actually do something. So I did. I prayed expecting God to make the status of my passport say 'being shipped' rather than 'processing application' before Friday. As much as I wanted God to run on my time this week, apparently He still knows better and His timing is still better as the status still reads 'processing application.' So I continue to fervently pray expecting that regardless of the timing, God will work it out as He has done with everything up to this point.

          Then there's the packing. Ugh. I still need to get business casual clothes. I know, shocker that I don't have business casual attire. I have been jotting down a list of things that I need to bring so hopefully I won't forget too many things. My game plan is to shuffle out my paper today so that all I have left to focus on is preparing and packing for Thailand.

          I have decided that although I am not a morning person (that's not the new revelation) I need my time with God in the morning. I got this great devotional book from my wonderful roommate last year called 'The Jesus Calling'- if you haven't done it, do it. Or don't. But if you are looking for a good devotional book, I recommend it. The only thing I have discovered is don't be dependent on your devotional book. Devo books are great but also make it easy to spend a quick ten minutes with God and read the few verses referenced in the text. Be cautious. But anyways, I would go read that day's devotion at night or after work and wish I would have had those words to have carried with me throughout the day. Not because it's not some peace or wisdom or advice or whatever that God couldn't have spoken to me outside the devotional book, but because I didn't give Him the time to speak into my busy day until the business was over. For me, it's one thing for me to spend time with God each day. It is an entirely other thing to begin my day with Him and invite Him to journey through the day with me. The nice thing about devotional books is it gives you a quick bit to start your day with if you don't have much time in the morning. Game plan: sunrise devos (maybe late sunrise, but still sunrise). Speaking of sunrise (good transition eh?), I had an entertaining thought yesterday. I was on a morning run, got back, keeled over, watched the sun coming up and lost the breath I was already short of. I thought of all the breathtaking views I have seen and how such seemingly simple things are so beautiful. There are hundreds of sunrises, but they never get old. Then I thought 'Man, the Creator is of unimaginable beauty, far beyond anything I have ever seen or can fathom.' People always wonder what it will be like when they are face to face with the Father and how wonderful it will be. I have decided all of His beauty and glory will certainly be breathtaking, unimaginably breathtaking- so I will suffocate. I mean it's only logical :). Good thing He is the giver of life and can resuscitate my breathless body- I mean He breathed the breath of life into Adam, pretty sure He can do it again. This thought process, of course, was one where I cracked myself up. 

Now that I have procrastinated for a sufficient amount of time, I will crank out my 8 page paper. Quick note though, if you haven't been already, pray for the Colorado fires and those affected by it. It truly is devastating. It is incredible how powerless we are in such situations. God help us. 

Pray. Persevere.

K

Let me help you.

I don't have a lot to say at the moment, but would like to give a quick update. 

One: after continually trying to remind myself that my Father will provide, I laid in bed restless for two hours last night thinking of what I needed to do or what I could do to take care of everything myself. Not the way to go, I know. Independence can be a burden. Luckily, I am continually humbled by the failure of my own efforts. 

Two: I should really own the words that I speak and whole-heartedly believe God will provide. Today, I spent time looking everywhere online to find temporary positions, babysitting jobs, anything that would provide me with some extra funds in the next few weeks. This isn't my first go at this either. I have done several attempts previous to today. But this time I got a week long gig! Not through my own efforts, however. A rather random call came into work asking for a babysitter for next week. I am insanely filled with joy as I see God's providence. Even in my times of worry and doubt, He draws me nearer to Him and desires for me to fully trust Him. 

Three: I don't know why it is so difficult for me to cast my worries on God. I know He can handle them, I know I can't, I know I am being foolish. Despite everything that I know, I never seem to actually know much. Knowing and owning are two entirely different actions. Or maybe knowing leads to owning... Regardless, the challenge is getting from point A to B, from knowing to owning. James 1:22-25 says "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do." This is me. Disregarding the words God is speaking. I want to be the voice you're seeking, not the voice competing. I have repeatedly heard this throughout the year. This time, it is my own voice competing with what my Father is speaking to me.  

Four: The heading in my devotional book this morning: Let Me Help You. I think one of the coolest things is our living God. That through a generic devotional book, He makes it personalized. He speaks to me. 

My not a lot to say turned into more than I thought. It happens (and happens frequently if you're me.)

Listen. Trust. Peace. Joy.

K