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Sky Tower

Minus 5 pub

Inside the Sky Tower

Hi all,

Whoa! the last one was about my new semester. Well, I didn't get to write at all during last semester because my schedule was so tight. Now, it's another new semester here...i only go to class on Thursday (2 classes). I don't know if that's good or bad. not going to class makes me feel lazier. A couple weeks ago, my friends and I drove up to Auckland. It was quite fun for our girls trip. We went to Minus 5 (pub made of ice) and, of caouse, ate a lot!! Unfortunately, we were fined for speeding on the way back. :(

Weather: still in winter and it's all cold and wet...i can stand the coldness but i can't stand the wind, the rain and the earthworms. There are too many in front of my hostel...disgusting coz they are so looonggg and huge.

Food: i cook a lot now. u wouldn't believe it but yes i can cook a lot of Thai food. not original taste but many people like it. :) so gain weight by my own food better than eating greesy unhealthy food from dining hall.

Fire Alarm: In our hostel, we all have a fire alarm in our individual rooms. It is for a safety reason, i know that...yet, we've never practiced the fire evacuation. We had a few false alarms. It was funny because many people were still sleeping then we had to leave to stand outside the hall in our pjs and sleepy look. Everybody was like "oh, false alarm again!! man..." Last week, one of the girls, tried to remove the fire alarm in her room (weird huh). Then the alarm rang so loud and i was sleeping on the bunked bed and it was like right into my ears. I tried to ignore it coz I thought it was a false alarm again so i asked my friends if there was smoke. Anyway, everyone was walking out, so I went out too. We had a fire engine came up. That means 1 truck, you pay NZ $ 1,000. All the girls were still in their pjs and looked sleepy as usual coz not many people like to get up early, only a few Japanese. After they checked that there was no smoke, we all went back to bed. The machanics and firemen said 'morning, ladies'...we replied, 'g'night.'

Spiritual Life:

My friends and I have our praise time called "IPC CF (International Pacific College Christian Fellowship)". The first semester i came here, we started this fellowship once with just 4 of us (3 Indonesians and me). We sang and prayed together for a few times then we were kinda stopped. I don't want to say an excuse that 3 of us who are doing Postgraduate Diploma or Masters were really caught up with assignments all the time. During the 3 weeks break, we started to go back to chuch again. Our church is called "Christ Sanctuary Church". I like the family here so much...it's small, warm, family-like.

IPC CF, we now have 8 members. 7 are Indonesians and me who is the only Thai. I play guitar. One of them helps choose songs. 1 of them is actually a Catholic but she said she loves to praise with us. We are from different (church) backgrounds, so I'm asking for your prayers that Satan wouldn't use the differences in perspectives as a tool to create conflicts among ourselves. All I want is to worship the Lord with people who love God and do not judge other Christians. Also,we are praying that God will guide us to see our goals for our fellowship. we don't know which way we are going. We need guidiance. If we want to invite non-Christians, we need to really organize this fellowship. Another thing is that one of the 'on-fire' person is graduating in December, so I'm hoping that we can figure it out how the group will handle changes. As for myself, I'm hoping to go back to Thailand by the end of March. That means they have to figure it out to do for the worship time. I actually want the one who is graduating in Dec. to help connect the group with the community here. She does a lot of activities with the school, so maybe we could really make the fellowship become more like other offical clubs. At the moment, we use her room because she's a hall leader so she has a bigger room than ours. We might need to find another place, adjust to a new way of worship and patterns of each setion. Anyway, I'm thankful for our group and the great amazing time we just had together on last Wednesday night.

Shalom to all,

Back to school

I've been back in NZ for about 3 weeks now. On the way back to Palmerston North where my school is, we stopped in Rotorua and Taupo. The towns are on the way here, so Eddie, me and another friend stopped there and went to some cool places. We play what they call "The Luge" and "skyswing" at the place called "Skyline Sky rides". It was a good day because the weather was so nice. We bought a combo ticket for 1 gondola and 5 rides of the luge plus 1 skyswing. The luge has 3 tracks starts from scenic track, intermediate track and advanced track. Of course! I did them all and I did the advanced one twice. Actually, if u buy a small combo set, it's enough. You'd get 2 rides of the luge though the rest is the same. I did 5 rides, so it turned out kinda boring. Then we stopped to look at the gorgeous Huka Fall in Taupo and then here I am back to school in Palmy. (See the road trip pictures on facebook-album 'CM-NZ').

First week of school was quite crazy for me. not that I have many classes, but I had to contact many people for general stuff like room check-in, putting my luggage in the luggage room, too many pillows and blanket on my bed, my new student ID...etc. I went to class just once coz the lecturers were not ready. Then why did they start on April 14!!!? I should have extended my ticket more and stayed for Songkran festival in Chiang Mai :(

Anyway, at the moment it's week 2 here. I handed in my assignment on time after I had forgotten about it during the 4 months break.This semester is gonna be a lot more challenging for me because some of the lecturers have been replaced. So, the styles of teaching are different. I have 4 lecturers...1 is a young Japanese female( i had her last semester as well)...2 old, kiwis, male, monotone and soft voice and another one is old, British, anti-American. I just had class with this last one yesterday and he made my friends and I speak "proper English". He asked "what do u call those in between sentences?" I said "Transition words", he said "right, but that's what Americans say...We English say "Linking words"!!?? Another time, the word 'management' which he asked each of us to say it. So, usually...i shouldn't have any problems saying that word as 'mae-nage-ment' but he said "no no u say 'ma-nij-ment' -_-" sigh.........

However, i think it's gonna be such an interesting term for me here. I'm willing to pick up a bit of each accent :) Coming back here this time is not as hard as the first time because I have friends now. Alright, just wanna drop a note about the first weeks here before I get too 'bi-zee' again.

Beginning April

In front of Annie's house
We are proud to be born in the land of smile!
They cooked for me, of course! and their house is very nice.

I'm now back to NZ on April 6. My flight ws long and tiring so i didn't even care to take a good shot of sunrise in Sydney. I've been staying with Annie in Tauranga for a couple days already and I will be heading down to Palmerston North on the 11th because my school starts on Monday 14. aww....I miss Songkran in Chiamg Mai, will be there next year! Anyway, I just found out that I have homework to hand in on April18!!! Dang it!! how did i forget about this!? I texted my friends in school, they also forgot about it..-_-'

Let's not think about it now, I want to finish this update before things get crazy again. Well, I went to sit in a class at South Pacific Bible College taught by David Nelson. It was quite hard to follow but it seemed interesting to me. It was good to see Annie, Eddie, Joshua and P'Neung, the guy from Soi4. They and their friends in Tauranga make me feel comfortable because they are the family in Christ.

Flashback of March

Ron's making Gahn a tattoo!
Amp & I at Starbucks
P'Pui & I at the airport
My farewell at cell group; Wah was in charge of "One Another Time", she told everyone to put make up on me because that'd make me look older and people wouldn't think I'm under 18. So, evryone got do one thing on my face, my nails or my hair. This is how I looked after all with Ohng and Wah.

Me & Ron

This entry is a flashback for what has happened in March. I wanted to update the blog at least once a month but things got crazy and time has gone by so fast (ตดยังไม่ทันหายเหม็นเลย 555).

Nothing much going on in the beginning of the month. I tried to stay home as much as I could because I knew I would be gone for 10 days for Cambodia trip. I guess Cambodia was probably the highlight of the month, so I suggest you to go see http://www.payapchristianzone.com/ for more picture and information. The reason is because I'm the one who gathered pictures from my camera and from other people like P'Pui, Gahn, Julie, and Titan. I also write the description for events, so it takes a lot of thinking and energy for me to write in English. Hope you don't mind to go see good pictures and read some good stories. :)

Other than the things I've written on the Payap website. I'd like to share something. Here, there's a picture of me and another boy in the black t-shirt. A friend of mine gave me that t-shirt but the day i met this boy...he was wearing a sweater. Gahn and I asked him if he feels hot and why didn't he wear a t-shirt. He said he didn't have one. He would probably grab that sweater from where people donate stuff or maybe from his siblings. So, I took him to the guest house I was staying and gave him the shirt. He is a quiet, shy but seems mature than his age to me. While Gahn, Ron (his name), and I were walking back to the place we had activities for the kids, he stopped walking and softly said "thank you". I knew that it could have been hard for him to say it out loud for whatever reason. Then we asked him if we could record his voice because we wanted to learn a bit of Khmer language. So, me and Gahn would say things in English and he would say it in Khmer. We showed him the handbook we got for the camp. It contains simple Khmer in phonetics but we were not sure how to pronounce, that is why we recorded his voice. So, we asked him to read the Khmer hoping that we'd the right pronunciation...he looked at us and said "I can't read." I was stunned...not feeling amazed but feeling so stupid. How did I not know that he doesn't go to school or he might but studies in Khmer not learning any written stuff in English. So, we stopped and we took him to play games with other kids.

That was one of the things that has been stuck in my mind for the rest of the month till now. I shared with the Payap group during the "home group sharing time" while we were in Cambodia that Cambodia was not in my plan...I didn't have money to come...but God has taken care of this problem. I told the group that the next problem was I had been so dried since I was in NZ, so I felt like I didn't have anything to pour out to other people, especially these street kids but God has been faithful to me. I didn't have to try hard to go to the kids, they came to me, hugged me and played with me. Moreover, I've witnessed the love i received from brothers and sisters from other countries, so I'd count that those are the ones to pour out their "cups of cold water" for me.

I've been blessed by joining this "Angkor of Faith2" camp.

I got back to Thailand and I realized that I should be more thankful for what I have here in the beautiful country...the easy life style, smiles from strangers, the hot weather (not too bad), good food, easy transportation...etc. I spent a bit more time with my family and friends. I went to get massage, eat some more good food, to Chiang Rai...just to hang out with Ae, one of my bffs, oh...oil massage...weird but i guess i'd do it again! ;p

I had a great time at the farewell at cell group, girls night out and photo night out on the bridge. My last night in CM...I packed and went to bed at 3 a.m. and woke up at 5 a.m. My parents picked me up at the zone and went to the airport. My flight was the first flight from CM-BKK...I didn't want people to wake up early and send me off but they came anyway. It was a very short good-bye because I heard the announcement about changing the gate or something, so I said bye to the aggies, P'Ying, P'Julie and my parents. I was sitting there waiting and then P'Pui called and told me to go back out to say good bye to her. So, i went and took a picture with her. It was funny because she came late but I got to take a picture with her and I didn't get to take one with my parents and those who came earlier. I arrived BKK at 8 a.m. and walked around, sat, went on the internet...for a couple hours...then Amp came to have lunch with me. I had a great time talking and we played nintendo games on my laptop inside Starbucks!! ha ha ha! My plane left BKK-SYD at 6 p.m. I thanked Amp for coming all the way from her place to the airport..just to be with me. The journey after the plane left BKK, I'd leave it in the air and you can follow me up on the next entry. Have a good day reading! ;)

Flying Febuary

Small eyes VS Big eyes
from a Thai movie
climbing the waterfall

Women's Retreat
Alvin and the Chipmunks!!!
Thai movie: King Naresuan
Julie and I in the amazing natural shower
At the waterfall

wow...it's again almost the end of the month. I've been home for about 3 months now since December. At the end of January, Eddie went back to NZ and the interns (Mit, Adelina and Han) from Malaysia and Singapore also went back to their countries. The first weekend of Feb. we had Women's Retreat up in the mountain. The third (Feb.16) weekend we had our Valentine's Party with the theme 'Cupid goes see the movies'. Last week of Feb., we went to Buatong Waterfall. As I always ask you to do "see more pictures and details" on

www.payapchristianzone.com.

Basically, my life here is all about spending time with my family in Christ. I only spend a few nights with my biological family in my hometown and I come to Cell Group on Thursday and stay here till Sunday after church or even Monday. So, some people may think like I don't have a really good balance here. I do feel that way sometimes. Thinking about i still financially depend on my biological family, and of course they love me...I should spend the most of my time with them. hmm...i don't know how to describe my feelings now. I want them to accept Jesus as their Savior, so they might be able to understand reasons I choose to do or not to do things.

My spiritual life has been a lot better than when I was in NZ by myself. I'm a part of this family. However, I've learned so many things about relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ and also relationship between me and God our Father. "Relationship" helps us know that we are not alone...we have supports and that means we are loved. It is meaningful, powerful...yet fragile. What do we do when you get hurt? I've experienced the answer from my personal conversation between me and God. Forgiving is the key to heal the deep cut. The Lord knows the pain we have inside of our hearts and He will pour out His amazing love to fill in the hole. Not only I've learned things through my own experiences, but through others' as well.

hmm...nothing to say much here. I really like hanging out with this girl, Julie, an apprentice from Texas A&M. She laughs a lot...i mean seriously a lot. She's sincere, fun, energetic and outgoing. I can temporarily leave things that I don't wanna think about while i'm around her. So, all I wanna say here is that it's a blessing for me to get to be friends with Julie. When I look at her, i think of the verse from Philippians4: 4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"

Events in Januaray

Breakfast @Bake&Bite

Our group for English on Tours


on the boat
House Boat
House Boat
with the judges and lawyers from Lampang


Cheung Doi Church moved to P'David's old house
The Birthday Suite band
Fellowship Night @ the Reagans'
Fellowship Night

After we had a count down party at the Reagans' house. We have had a lot of fun activities. As you can see from the pictures. We have 2 interns from Malaysia, 1 from Singpore and 3 from Texas A&M and also Mitch, one of our former interns came to visit us. So, we had a fellowship night at the Reagans' again.

Let me introduce "The Birthday Suite"!! June 2007, we had a chance to get to know a few of them and invited them to come learn English at the church. Right now, they also brought their friends to hang out with us. They all are musically talented and it's a blessing for us to have them around when we have parties. One of the members is studying the Bible. This group of guys is very funny...I have hope for all of them to come and know God.

Cheung Doi Church of Christ is now relocated to P'David's old house. We helped them move all the stuff.

Well, the pix are kinda mess up a bit. We went to play BB guns and then house boat. At the house boat, the interns had their own equipping time. So, the rest of us, P'Pui, P'Ying, P'Gift, Jenny and I just brainstormed for the English Camp in Mae Hong Son. (Please, go to http://www.payapchristianzon.com/ for more pictures.)

English on Tours!! It's a program organized for the judges, lawyers and court officers in Lampang. It is because a couple years ago, a few of our interns had a chance to serve the judges in Chiang Mai by teaching them English. So, they were impressed with our group. This year they invited us again. The purpose is to help them get rid of the fear of speaking English to foreigners. We played games and spent the whole day with them. They took us to a really fancy restaurant for dinner and gave us souvenirs. We had a blast! and we feel so honored.