Northern Thailand

We flew to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand on Tuesday and then took the 3-1/2 hour bus ride to Chiang Rai on Friday. This is our last stop before heading back to Bangkok on Monday, have a day there and then fly home on Wednesday.

 Riding an elephant. The first missionaries rode elephants from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, a distance of 465 miles, and it took 4 months. Slow but steady, and they can haul a lot.

There are some familiar sites here but this is the first time that I've seen a Dairy Queen outside of the US and only the second time outside of Texas. Where is the other one? York, PA.

Dave and I are standing at the overlook of the Golden Triangle. That is the Mekong River behind us. We are in Thailand. The Mekong is heading north into Laos. Over Dave's right shoulder is Burma (Myanmar). The triangle gets its name for when gold was traded for opium.

Established in 1998, the beautiful campus of Mae Fah Luang University in Chiang Rai. I understand that most classes are conducted in English. The university is named for the mother of the current king.

Rose Martinez cooking meat and veggies at the table of a neat restaurant we went to last night. Rose has four children's homes including one in Cambodia. She's been at it since 1980. Early on I could tell she was a "kindred spirit." For more on her ministry visit http://mmfthailand.org/.

A couple of the young ladies from Rose's Home that went with us. They ate and ate and ate. We had a lot of fun.

I'm sitting next to another of the young ladies. Her English was very good and she helped me pick out what to eat. The people here are so gracious and hospitable.

After supper we went back to Rose's to watch a big football game (that's soccer for you American types). They are big Manchester United fans though it seemed that half the kids watching got pretty excited when Manchester City scored it's only goal.

Rose is sitting on the couch. Like us, she didn't know a whole lot about soccer until she moved overseas. Now she is a huge fan and it is a big connecting link with her kids.

Here are a couple of videos from church this morning in the Chiang Rai Full Gospel Church. The first one is a choral group accompanied by old, native Thai musical instruments. The second video is a familiar worship song for those of us in Guatemala and perhaps it is in English, too.