This has been an exciting, sad, happy, and miserable week! On Sunday Ben and I headed to Bangkok to do some last minute shopping before he was to head back to America. We had a lot of errands to do, and we ran all over Bangkok, which is not my idea of fun. But, then we got hungry! So, we headed to a mall that has all kinds of neat American food…no rice in sight! Ben can’t eat rice without getting really sick, so he was really happy about all the choices. So, we had an incredibly wonderful lunch. Then, we went on with our shopping.

The only problem was that I had almost forgotten than yes, Ben is allergic to rice, but I am allergic to wheat! So, after a few hours, I was dragging myself around feeling rather miserable! But, we did accomplish what we set out to do, so we headed back to Jon and Natalie’s appartment for the night. I spent the most miserable night I have spent since having dengue fever! I didn’t sleep a wink, which was good since I needed to wake Ben up at 2:00 a.m. so that he could head for the airport. Then after our fond farewells, it occured to me that it was daytime in America, so I called my Mom and talked for hours! That part was great! Ben successfully made his flight, so I turned to the business at hand…trying to feel well enough to catch a bus before the holidays began.

You see, here in Thailand they have this huge event that was to start the very next day. They call it soncron or something like that, but it is a water festival…more like a national water fight! People are out on the streets enmass with water guns, cups, buckets, anything they can put water in, and they throw it at you if they see you! Not only that, but they like to take powder and add it to the water, or some kind of dye and add that to the powder. Then, they throw it at cars, trucks and buses and people as they drive by. Since this is the hottest time of the year,  we enjoy it a lot…except that I have seen too many wrecked vehicles due to dye on the windshields, or wrecked motor bikes because they throw the powder in people’s faces.  There is such a party atmosphere that it is really hard to go anywhere during the water festival, so I was pretty anxious to get home before this all started.

Because of the water festival, the bus station was crazy, and the buses were almost all completely full, but I did manage to get home on a dye covered bus, late last night. It would have been nice to sleep for a week, but early this morning, we were summoned to our animist neighbors house for a worship service. They invited our church to come to their house to have worship for them. This seems to be quite a popular thing to do this time of year. It was a really nice service, then they serve a really good vegetarian feast. Food still didn’t have the least appeal for me, but it would not be polite to refuse. At least it was rice!

I just got word from my brother that Ben landed safely in Tulsa, and was having his first American meal…which consisted of cinnamon rolls and ketchup! Now, before you think that they are totally strange and in need of a doctor…Ben had been craving these things. Hey, he lived on millet and not much else for a couple of years, so he has the right to have cravings! I am not totally sure that he wanted to eat the two together though….I can see that my family has not lost their sense of humor! But, the important part is knowing that he is now safely on American soil, enjoying the companionship of family. That sounds blissful to me. He plans to be in America for about a month before heading back to the jungles.

But, back to the water festival…this afternoon, several of our family members got hot and bored, and so they decided to go and join the neighbors who were dousing each other, and every car and motor bike that went by, with water. After Hannah got up from her nap, I took her out to watch the fun. Pretty soon, a sly looking child came right up to me and dumped water down my skirt! Once I was wet, I seemed to be fair game, so it didn’t take long to be wet to the skin. Now, I may be a missionary, but I could not just stand by and let them do this to me. So, I looked around, grabbed a water dipper, and joined the fun. The neighbor kids thought that this was the greatest thing that ever happened to them. Imagine getting to dump water down a foreigners back? At first, the children’s mothers watched anxiously from a distance to see what my reaction would be to the insulting behavior of their wayward children, but after 30 minutes or so of watching their kids get wet right back, they slyly walked over to me and started dumping a bit of water themselves, not to mention smearing my face with powder! We had so much fun! It was the first time that these ladies acted like they were not terrified of me.

After a while, I decided to go back to the house to grab another dipper, and low and behold…Maria was laying in the yard, in a hammock, talking on the phone. She sure looked hot too. I started feeling rather guilty for feeling so cool and happy, while poor Maria swung miserably in the hot sun, that I felt that it was my Christian duty to relieve her of her not so obvious distress. So, I quietly walked over to the creek, filled my dipper with cold creek water, and then sauntered over to the distracted Maria and calmly poured my cold water all over her, being careful to avoid the phone. She let out a satifying scream while I dashed up the path to the road. My appologies to whoever was talking with her on the phone…your ears should be OK eventually.

But, my story is not over yet! This evening, after I had changed out of my soaking wet clothing, and was sitting at the table enjoying the last of my rice….that scamp Maria… snuck up behind me and dumped a whole glass of cold water down my back! The injustice of it all was shocking! Maria appears to be so calm and quiet and saintly that I can hardly believe that she would do such a thing! But, the incessant giggles told me that indeed, she had. (not to mention my cold, wet back!)

So, what does all this have to do with missions? A lot actually! When we take the time to play with our kids (possibly our neighbors too), they learn to love and trust us, and they are a lot more willing to hear what we have to say. We can teach them more about honesty, fairness, and the love of God by demonstration than we will ever teach them by exhortation. Someone once told me that if I am having trouble with my kids, I should take the time to play with them more. I must say that it seems to have worked for today. Hannah had the best day that she has had in a long time. To God be the glory!