Chiang Rai trip up North
Hi there all,
Go and get a coffee or a sneaky glass of el vino cos I fear that this will be a slightly longer read than normal. On account of our extreme lifestyle we have neglected rather to keep full account of our movements…That and the fact that we never seem to be able to get on the computer as there always seems to be at least one child who we have apparently promised can play games or write emails.
Several things have been particularly significant lately, chronologically first being our trip to Chiang Rai. This is a city about 4 hours North of us here, fairly near the Burmese and Laos borders. We went with another family who live close to us, Russell and Liz and their 3 children. Liz teaches music at the school and Russell has a role supporting new churches among the Lao people who live on the Thailand/Laos border along the Mekong river.
We travelled up on Saturday 9th October, visiting a lovely pie shop on the way (full of particularly fine tarts etc) and checked into a Christian guesthouse on the banks of the Mekong river (pictures in gallery) in a town called Changkong, used as a border crossing into Laos. Beautiful place, lovely breakfast. The boys all slept together in a wooden hut room on a mattress on the floor.
In the morning we drove a little way to the first church we were visiting. They had started their meeting so the 11 of us sneaked in the back to increase the number to about 25 in all. The church was a classic bamboo hut with a raised bamboo floor and straw thatch roof. It was strange to see electrical wiring leading to a guitar amp at one end. It was so unneccessary. We loved the meeting. It was a real privilege to be so welcomed. We were able to sing some of the songs as they were translations of songs we knew. We just sang them in English of course. We had practised singing one song in Thai which we performed to them. It was ‘Come, now is the time to Worship’. It went down well we think.
I had to speak briefly (translated by Russell which makes it twice as bad) and Russell gave a talk. He is fluent in Thai and lao.
As that meeting was finishing we were delayed by a guy who had just caught the boat from laos and arrived to see Russell for advice. He leads a small church in laos and one of his congregation had died. The trouble was that none of them had been to a Christian funeral so did not know what to do. Russell was able to advise and we chipped in the cash to buy the guy a coffin.
We left there and rushed to another church where Russell was due to speak. we made it - they waited for us - we did our song again and Russell spoke. Bigger group this time, in a proper concrete building.
We were so encouraged to be included in part of what God is doing there among the Lao people. It was great to be there to encourage Russell and wonderful to be worshipping in such a church. Their lives are so different from ours and it was a humbling experience for us all. We can only hope that we gave as much blessing as we received.
We were invited to eat at the pastor’s house which we duly did, squatting on the floor etc. The children enjoyed playing around the village and then we departed to Chiang Rai to a Hotel. We picked up Bonnie (Esther’s sister) from the airport and settled back into the Hotel for the night.
In the morning we went up to the Golden Triangle. As the photo suggests, dirty brown triangle would be more precise. There was not much to see there but we had an exciting boat ride on these conoe like things with car engines strapped to the back. We went to a Laos island for half an hour where I worried about our non-reentry visas and about being on communist soil without papers etc. I was pleased to get back to Thailand without the KGB finding me I must say.
Back to Chiang Rai for another night and then home again. It was good to get back to Chiang Mai - sort of familiar and friendly (it is amazing what 3 months can do to how you feel about a place!)
We spent last week with Jez, Kirsty, Josiah and Jessie which was wonderful. They have photo on their blog so see http://wong.blogdns.org.
We have included photos of our time in Chiang Rai on our blog gallery.
It was sad to say goodbye to them on Saturday night and to Bonnie on Sunday night. It was great to have a brief but very enjoyable time with Jamie and Tracy, Claire and Emma on Sunday. They met us at our church and we went from there to have lunch together and then back to the school to relax in the pool before they had to go. We shall miss them and wish they could have stayed a few days with us.
Anyway - I am getting backache now and have some bread to put in the oven so will stop now. Bye for now and much love from us both,
Andrew & Esther XXX