So this is my first blog for my time in Thailand. Here's a quick rundown of what Im doing over here...
First and foremost, I'm here because God told me to, and followed through by providing EVERYTHING I needed to go. I'm here with a missionary named Jonathan Hawk, and he is starting a house for college aged girls to get out of poverty (and before they get into the sex trade or prostitution) and putting them through either Bible school or college (whichever they choose) and giving room and board while his co-leader in the ministry, Sangla, whom is Thai, will look over the girls and disciple them. Its really amazing what they are doing.
For Jonathan, this is one of the last trips he will be taking to Thailand in about a year or so. Given that, he is here with me for 3 weeks to do a lot of relational and business stuff for the ministry. We are also meeting up with the girls (actually tonight) and learning their stories (for the first time for me, most of them he already knows really well). Which also means we will be doing a lot of fun things that he wants to do or take me to do.
For me, I will be filming and photographing the girls (interview style) and taking several other shots for a short film/movie for him to take to several churches and whatnot to raise funds for the building as well as supporting the girls. Its really something I love to do (the filming and photographing aspect in general) and Im excited for the next few days when we start it all up.
So anyways, a rundown of what the last 6 days have been like...
I left America on the 8th around 6:45 am and got to California around 10am, met up with Jonathan and Sangla (she was in the states to visit and talk and several places about Hannah House, this ministry they are starting) there, then flew for around 14 hours to finally get into Bangkok. Yes, we were only flying for about 20 hours total, but due to time changes, I left on a monday and arrived early early wednesday morning in Thailand (I wonder where Tuesday went... haha!). So we slept at a pastor's house in Bangkok, and the next day we took a 10 hour bus ride from Bankok (Southern Thailand) to Shiang Mai (Northern Thailand). It was long, but got some sleep and watched some insanely colorful (literally and figuratively) Thai movies and some Thai music videos. All I gotta say is... yeaaaaaaah. Anyways. So we got to another missionaries house, which is where we are staying most of the time to sleep. So that covers about 3 days.
So day 4, we got up still jetlagged, and we had breakfast and went to meet up with Sangla's family, where we are going with them to the jungle to have a sort of family vacation; camping, fishing, hunting, hanging out. It was a lot of fun and Jonathan is slowly teaching me Thai and helping me translate the rest. I sure do wish I knew more Thai. Anyways, so we traveled for about 2 hours and set up camp across the river (yes we had to cross the river to get to our "campsite", and we went fishing and ate dinner. The Thai guys shot some birds, a few squirrels and some other stuff. It was bad fishing, not a whole lot of catches other than some small ones. Soooo we went to bed in under the stars... and the bug net in our sleeping bags.
Day 5 consisted of us going to another part of the river downstream and trying to find some fish. Me and Jonathan tried to do so too, and floated a bit too far downstream into some really light rapids, but trying to get to shore was a struggle; that river was pushing really strong. I got cut up a bit by the rocks but its all good. I also found out that Thai people love white skin, especially the ladies... haha. Not kidding actually. They do joke about that a bit, due to my blinding white skin (hey, its cold in oklahoma right now, and I don't fake bake, baby!). They want to trade skin, is what they say. Haha. Okay that was a bit off subject... so we didn't find much fish out there either, so we headed back to camp and ate lunch, then packed up everything and headed back to town. Me and Jonathan went to Sangla's cousins house after picking up some groceries at a Cosco/Sam's type of store (it was suprising for me too when I went in the first time) and had showers there after the girls did and went to have dinner with her fam again. By the way, all the food? Deliteful! Sooo good, and its pretty spicy too. We traveled back afterwards in the dark on the motorcyle carrying groceries and our bags for the day (we got creative fitting it all on, including two 1 gallon containers of orange juice and milk on my lap, which got painful when going over the humps) for a 30 minute trip home. We got in and basically fell right asleep from exhaustion.
So Day 6 (today, Im writing at 2:30 pm here), We got up and had a few hours to spend with Jesus and read and pray, good stuff, then left to go fishing at a lake in town. I caught two fish (basically because Jonathan wanted me to reel them in, so it was a group effort really) that were about 20 to 30 pounds each. AWESOME! After that we headed home at about 1pm and have been having a little while of downtime before picking up a few of the girls from school and then meeting the rest to go to dinner for tonight. They are about to be on break from school so its one of the last time to do this sort of thing before a few of them go back home to their villages. Then... the night bizaar to pick up some clothes that I didn't pack to last me for this trip and see all the really cheap merch. Yeah baby! Who said being a missionary wasn't fun?! Haha. Anyways, so I have internet access here at the house, so Ill try to update a lot more often. Thanks for all the prayer back home and I hope all is well. Love you all!
In Him,
Matt Murnan
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