continued from sobs to smiles...

Im not really sure how to explain what happened in those five hours, but it definitely changed me.

Once we walked through Wat Pho, we walked through this awesome flower market. Flowers to my left, and right, and for as far as I can see. Im sorry to disappoint, but I did not get any pictures of the flower market. By this time we are the ONLY white people, and we havent seen a tourist in a long time. We try to ask someone where we are on the map, and no one speaks English. We are literally lost in translation. We continue walking around the corner and back toward the Chao Praya River. We see the river and run out on a pier to take a look around. We cross the river and head toward a large Wat. You can see the white tall thing of the wat (first picture of this post). We wander around this Wat (still no white people) and happen to see a school band practicing. An elementary school band. They were quite good, I have video.

Then we walk through this shantytown to try to find a main road. An example of the shantytown can be seen in the last picture above. It is really sad to see, but a lot of people are really poor over here and live in shacks with dirt floors. After we get through the shanty town, we look up in the sky (to try and figure out where we are), and we see a steeple!

This is the first church I have seen in Bangkok, and so I have to go check it out. Turns out, it is a catholic school for girls. There are girls playing in the yard and no guard at the door. We walk right inside the gate. The girls are between the ages of 5-14 and giggling at us. We see some playing basketball and head over to join. Thats right, we join these girls and play basketball with them! Then we have a dance party (Josh is a much better dancer than I am, and he teaches them the moonwalk). They know a bit of English, and tell me over and over that I am beautiful. Their laughter and joy was definitely contagious. I felt so amazing playing with these girls, and seeing their faces light up during the short time we spent there.

The sun is going down, and so we figure that we better start heading back toward the mansion. A hard goodbye to the girls when they ask us if we are coming back tomorrow. Maybe we will try to get back out there soon. Then we find our way out to a big street and find a road sign. Arun Amarin! Through all the mess and confusion, we made it back to the street that the mansion is on. Check plus. Sure, we are several miles down the street from the mansion, but we are still happy to be on the same road. We walk, and walk, and walk... feels like forever. Josh coined a phrase, "Im about two miles hungry." When we were about right now hungry, we stopped at a cute restaurant full of Thai people. We still havent seen a tourist since we crossed the bridge. Order up some great food, and take a break from walking (for about 4 hours by now).

You can see the food above, it was delicious! Then we continue walking down Arun Amarin until a man stops us. He is a Thai man and knows English! We talk for a good 15 minutes about why we are in Thailand and for how long. Then his daughter shows up. She is super sweet and knows English too. By the end of the conversation, the man invites me and Josh to come back and spend the day with him on Sunday. You just dont find this in America. He doesnt know who we are at all, and he invites us out with his family on Sunday! The hospitality of the Thai people blows me away every single day! We exchange contact information and decide to meet up on Sunday. (yes, I will be careful)

The day of walking just calmed my fears about Thailand. I know its cliche... but Jesus does have the whole world in His hands, and he did follow me all the way to Thailand. Something about this walk through my new city was life changing, and I went from sobs to smiles over the course of two days. I realized that I need to stop worrying about things at home... that I cant change them and I know Jesus has a master plan for me and you and everyone else. I can only love others, just as Jesus loves me.

Snuggle in God's arms. When you are hurting, when you feel lonely, left out-let Him cradle you, comfort you, reassure you of His all-sufficient power and love.

- Kay Arther