carryboys and the such

well, here is my first post from thailand. as i write this i am sitting on our "front porch" where we actually have wireless internet. angie, thailand has come a long way since we were here. we even found a coffee shop close to us. kku has turned into a thriving metropolis. 7/11/s on every corner where you can find all kind of tasty treats. that may be my downfall this summer. so far we are adjusting fine here. everyone on the team has had a great attitude and we are in the process of meeting many new thai friends. it's amazing to see not only economic change but spiritual change as well here. there are more thai christians now, that are growing and wanting to give their faith away. it's doing my heart good to be here. today we talked about the motivation for ministry -it was so good to hear their staff say that it is not about gutting it out for the lord but about walking in freedom and the fact that knowing we are free makes us want to fight. over here the fight is to want to hang in there in a conversation past the first 5 minutes and to chose to love others more than myself. but isn't the fight the same at home. selfishness is there no matter what side of the earth you are on. it's just magnified here because nothing is familiar and every conversation is draining

on our first trip to the thai version of wal-mart..lotus. kara's car started smoking from around the back tires. one of the staff guys thought it was because the emergency break was not pushed in all the way. so we got back in the death trap loaded down with all of our purchases to come home. we didn't get very far until we noticed that the car would not accelerate. now, for those of you who have not been to thailand...trafic rules are more of a suggestion. we were stopped at a red light at a major intersection and the car would not move. all was well until a 2 story bus came at us at a breakneck speed showing no sign of stopping or moving. all of us were paralyzed with fear the bus swerved at just the right time though. right after that one of the staff wives pulled up beside us we quickly transported ourselves and our goods into her car and sped off. leaving the car to pushed away by the guys on the team. all is well now.