Day 5: Chiang Mai, Thailand

"Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation; rescue me from deceitful and wicked men." Psalm 43:1

Sa-wut-dee ka everyone!

So we've been in Thailand for five days now. Its hot, but we are loving it.

Highlights so far;

We arrived in Bangkok on Saturday morning, after a nine hour flight from Melbourne. We walked out of the airport and the smog and humidity was crazy. We managed to find a taxi that got us to the Mo Chit bus station. Here's where is got interesting - no one spoke english, all the signs were in Thai, and we were half dead with our packs on our backs! But somehow we bought tickets to Chiang Mai, and we're able to call Dan to let him know we were on our way. Once we were on the right bus, it was heaven. Air-con, reclining seats, and incredible views of Thailand for ten straight hours. We were blown away at the beauty of God's creation. But we were also shocked and in awe of the poverty, the traffic, the culture in general. (Random fact: Thai people don't use their indictators!) Although it was a reeeally long bus ride, and by the end of it we hadn't slept for nearly 40 hours, it was fully worth it for the experience.

It has been such a blessing for us getting to know the Cornelius family. The love that Dan and Ange have for this place and the people and the children is just so evident in their lives. They are always looking for ways to serve and do God's work, even in the smallest of ways. And the kids. The kids are amazing, we are in love with every single one of them. They are all so loving and smiley and eager to learn new things. We don't understand half the things they are saying, but they are hilarious! Ami is the oldest (she'll be 10 in a few weeks). She is incredibly helpful, a little nutty, and very sweet. Then there's Wichai who is seven. He is very smart and loves to learn. Andre has gotten him into soccer, so at the moment he is obsessed with learning about all the different countries. He too is very sweet and always smiley. Next is Chadaa who is six. She is mischevious, gorgeous, and is always getting into trouble. Chadaa is the prayer (sometimes she'll just burst into prayer - it's the sweetest thing you can imagine). And lastly there is Suthat who is also six. He's very affectionate and loves to talk. He is always chatting away to us in Thai, so we don't understand a word of it!

On Sunday, we went to the International House of Praise with the whole Cornelius clan. This church is full of passionate missionaries from all over the world. We were so inspired by their love and hearts for the Thai people. We heard amazing stories of how the Holy Spirit is at work amongst them and their ministries. The amount of trust they put in the Holy Spirit made us realise this is something we lack quite a bit back home. The message was about being bold in our service to God, and we felt God telling us that that was something we will need to put into practice in the next few months.



On Monday night, Dan, Ange and Gabrielle took us to the red light district of Chiang Mai. We simply walked the streets for a few hours praying and seeng just how real the sex industry in Thailand is. We heard all the statistics but we couldn't really fathom the things that go on here until we saw them with our own eyes. We saw kids as young as four walking the streets by themselves trying to sell flowers. Their families are so desperate that this is what they have to do to live. So with streets lined with prostitutes and dodgey foreign men, you can imagine the things that these children are exposed to. Dan and Ange were telling us that these were the streets Ami and Wichai used to work til 2am, selling flowers. They told us about foreign men (and sometimes women) that come and offer kids like them money, toys or lollies to go with them. Hearing these stories, and seeing it all first hand has really affected us. And knowing that the kids we have come to know and love were once a part of this, made it all the more difficult for us to take in.

We know that God is here and His heart is really breaking for these people. It's hard for us because we just feel so helpless. We have been doing various things to help out around the Cornelius' house, but we are pretty certain that God has a bigger work in store for us here. So we would really appreciate if you could pray that this would be revealed to us soon.

"Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell." Psalm 43:3