Fun with the new S110

After my poor S95 was fatefully dropped into the toilet, it's been a frustrating few weeks having only the camera on my mobile phone to use. But praise God I've now got a new toy to play with. Really appreciated it on my recent trip up to Doi Internon with the Timothy cell group. Photos aside, it was also great couple days away getting to know a few friends from church better, whilst also getting to appreciate and wonder at God's amazing creation even more. Here are a few pics from the trip.

Happy Birthday Denise

One of the great things about being over here is being with family and being able to celebrate 'milestones' with them. This week was a big birthday for Denise as she starts another decade. I figured a big birthday meant a special celebration, so the plan was for a surprise party for her with some of her close friends. Plan was for everyone to get there between 6.30-6.45 with Denise arriving at 7pm. Well, the big surprise ended up being that Denise arrived smack on 7, with only 5 of us (3 adults and 2 kids) to 'surprise' her! Funniest part was that everyone else literally arrived within 3 mins of Denise arriving, so it ended up being a nice surprise after all. Here are a few pics of the night, including the attempted croquembouche that really didn't work, although it didn't taste too bad :)

the attempted 'croquembouche'

Denise with Mimi & Charis

Happy Birthday Denise!

presents included lots of gardening and kitchen equipment

and finally one present that wasn't

Feb highlights

Despite good intentions to be posting more regularly, time just keeps on disappearing. The past month has been a great time of getting into God's word as I am prepping studies on 1 Peter, the Sermon on the Mount and Acts. There have been a couple weeks where I've had to not only prep 4 studies in one week, but I also had the chance to meet up with Boom to help train her in how to read the Bible and write a bible study from scratch, as well as Maggie to help her prep studies for her cell group. I was just thinking back 6 months when I first came over. It would take me the better part of 2 weeks to write a study and then prep it to be able to teach in Thai. Not that my Thai is anywhere close to being fully down pat, but it's nice to sometimes see how language has progressed and that I am starting to get somewhere so that I can be writing, prepping and teaching multiple studies in a week. Needless to say, it's kept me busy and generally out of mischief.

Even in the busyness of prepping studies,  I also had a chance to get a taste of what it's like to be a single parent as I looked after my friend's 2 kids for a week while they were in Singapore for work. It was actually a really fun week, despite being pretty tired by the end. I do have a whole new appreciation for all you parents out there who work full time, raise kids, help them with their homework, cook dinner, clean the house, do the ironing, plus manage a social life. How people manage to keep on FB in the midst of all that, I have no idea, but you guys really are amazing!! After my week of babysitting, I did get to go away up the mountains with my cell group for a night. Was awesome to check out the Sakura trees and go strawberry picking!!! Sweetest strawberries I've ever had!! Only 200bht  (approx $6.50) per kg of strawberries!! Oh yeah!!! Was a great weekend away, great fellowship, bonding time, I got to do some 4WD, and got to lead a study in Acts. Here are a few happy snaps from the trip.

Trip to Khun Chang Kian

Sakura trees in full bloom

Boom, Kim and Daa

1/2 the strawberries I picked

1 box = 2 kgs!! not to mention all the strawbs we ate in the field

Cell group on the mountain

Breakky of instant noodles

with Mary, Kim and P'Fon

imaginary playing the kim (a thai instrument) while trying to grill 'balls'

hanging with the girls

awesome views

course some jump shots were needed

and other crazy shots

the gals