Udon

so I finally have a few minutes to update.

My time in Udon has been absolutely fabulous!! I don't want to leave.

We took a bus from Bangkok... it took us about 9 hours to get here. When we finally arrived Stacy and Jim picked us up. Stacy is doing a 2 year internship here and Jim and his wife Kathy and 3 kids have been here for several years. We got in and got all settled. We have been staying in a really nice house... across the street from Stacy and Jim and Kathy even. The house has been empty for a few weeks because the owners just left for home assignments in the states. Stacy has kept us quite busy, she is with us all the time and occassionally we go to Jim and Kathy's or another missionary family Jon and Joy's who have 2 young boys for dinner and maybe some games.

The first day we were here Kathy and Stacy took Kristina and I with them to the prison. They meet with the women there about once a week and have a bible study. This particular week the girls were encouraged to bring friends and we just had a fun day of games and teaching English. We sung "head and shoulders knees and toes" and believe it or not there are 3 verses! You can learn a lot of body parts :) We also taught fruit and some action words. It was a blast. There were about 15-20 women. You would never know that it was a prison. The women were so nice and kind and fun. Most of them seemed to be in their late 20's perhaps. I wish we could have stayed longer. They are having a service on Sunday to baptize all the new believers but unfortunately we will not be here anymore. These men and women in the prisons are being trained to be church planters when they get out and they are trying to put together a half-way house where they can live and get back on their feet and get reconciled with their families.

We also did a short English lesson for the children of the guards at the prison. It was a lot of fun and we played tons of games and taught some songs. The kids are so precious! It is a great ministry to reach out to the guards and their families.

Stacy also took us on a prayer drive. We drove all over this area and she showed us places that they had ministries and different churches in the area. We got to stop and meet with some people that work with Compassion International. We also stopped at some Buddhist temples and things like that. Here there is a lot of spiritual darkness. They mix parts of buddhism, hinduism, and even animism. It is so sad. They burn incense and give food and money to the "spirits" and have spirit houses everywhere where they can live to keep them away from their houses.

On Sunday we went to a small house church, there were maybe 8 people. It was in Thai but that was okay, it was neat to hear all the passion in their voice. Then we ate lunch and spent several hours teaching English. We taught prepositions and then played some games using those words. They also taught us a song in Thai and we taught it to them in English.

Sunday night we went to an International church that spoke English. The next day we helped them move into a new building. We carried 250 boxes of books up 4 stories!! It was quite a work out, but it was such a joy to get to be a part of their work. They have a wonderful ministry and now will be in a place where the church is very visible and their light can shine and be seen.

Today was our day off. We decided to drive to a waterfall. It is a few hours away. We were almost there when the brakes on Stacy's car decided to stop working. This made for an interesting day. We spent some time on the side of the road. Some nice Thai men stopped to help us and got us to a mechanic and we spent some time hanging out there and ate some lunch. Jim ended up driving out to get us and we went on to the waterfall. Unfortunately the car part was not available so Jim drove us back and we will take a bus tomorrow to go pick it up.

Tomorrow us girls are hanging out with the MK's (missionary kids) to babysit and play while Daniel and the parents go to the prison. I am very exicted, they are so precious!

Thursday we leave to run an English camp in a smaller village and then Saturday we will take a bus to Kohn Kaen.

I don't want to leave Udon. Stacy and the families here are amazing and their ministry is so neat. I have loved my time here. But I am also excited to see what God has for us in Kohn Kaen.

Thanks for the prayers! Love you all!!