Holiday in Bangkok

Hello again, dear readers! This coming Monday marks Queen Sirikit's birthday and, subsequently, Mother's Day, so I will be enjoying a long weekend. Tomorrow morning, I embark on a trip to Pattaya with my neighbors who were kind enough to invite me along. The husband was invited to speak at one of the local churches, so we get to go. Yay for invitations!

As a missionary, I am supposed to be a witness to others here. However, I tend to get sidetracked because I have so much free time on my hands. I don't suppose it's all that terrible. It gives me more time to focus on the reason I'm here, more time to be intentional about the things I'm doing. One of the things that I need to work on, and I think will help me, is going outside my little box and talking to people. For those of you who know me, you know that I am not the most extroverted person out there. I can be quite shy and timid if I don't feel comfortable in my environment. Still, I must try. I'd like to think that God wants me to be a stronger, bolder person, not a little mouse who runs away all the time.  This is really something that I have to pray about because I cannot do it on my own will or strength. On the bright side, I look at it as part of the refining process. Think positive, think positive.

So we have a problem readers--there is a boy. His name is Thay. Thay is Thai and he is a pastoral student, or his occupation involves pastoring, ministry...something of the sort. I first met him during my first week or so here and didn't seem him that often, with the occasional bumping into each other during lunch at the local vegetarian shop. Well, I saw him this past Wednesday, three times--once at lunch, another during work, and yet another time during prayer meeting. Oh yeah, he's also looking for a single Filipina. :/ It seems that a little love interest has been developing and he's been a distraction for me. After all, missionaries are not supposed to date. Grrh. Boys. I've been praying about it and I have decided to surrender that part of my life to God. If Thay ends up being the person God's brought into my life, then great. I can wait. If he's not the person, I'll be okay too. In the meantime, what I can do is develop a "strong platonic relationship with him" as my neighbor has suggested, and if any further feelings develop afterwards then perhaps I can move forward with that.

To wrap things up, I want to talk about my dearest mumumsy. I don't want to belabor the details about her surgery because you all know about that, but this past year there had been concern that one of the tumors from the surgery was growing. The doctor said there's a lot of scar tissue, but the good news is that for now it's stable. My mom says that as long as it's not growing she won't do anything, and I think that's the right decision. Her body went through so much from chemo and radiation; she couldn't handle seconds. I have felt this added stress since I came here, and to have that burden lifted is a huge blessing. In all honesty, I'm not ready to lose my mom, but I also have to trust that God knows what He's doing.  Worrying won't do much for me, but He has a plan. I need to let go and just let God be God.

In closing, may the good Lord keep you well and happy. I hope you are savoring the lazy summer days. Enjoy it, because school is going to come by fast. ;) Much love to you all. A bientot!