"Umm, Lord?"

Today was one of those times when I prayed that missionary prayer:

"Umm, Lord? I'll put it down if You keep it down!"

Normally on a Sunday, we all traipse off to a store/restaurant called "Food Land" to have lunch and to do the grocery shopping. But today Pookie and I stayed at church the whole day because Pastor Jeseda asked me to speak to the ladies about how I got saved and how the Lord directed me into missions.

Staying the whole day at church meant eating lunch there... my first time at this church. It actually wasn't too bad; white rice was the foundational layer. It was what was put on top that kinda concerned me! I recognized the chicken and some beans (I think!), but the rest of it was undefinable. After that plate was handed to me, someone handed me a heaping bowl of soup (I think they wanted to impress me!). Now if you know me very well, then you'll know that I am not a soup fan. At all.

So I just smiled weakly and took the plate and bowl to the table and dug in. The rice mixture really wasn't bad, but I should have been warned when after the first bite Pookie asked, "Is it hot?" It wasn't with that bite, but about 5 minutes later, my mouth was on fire and I could feel the little moisture drops pooling out of my eyes. I ate as much as I could, until I was full. Notice how I got full before the bowl of soup was even touched?!?:o)

While the choir was practicing (and let me just insert in here how lovely it was to practice English songs with the choir for 2 hours!), some ladies were making a Thai appetizer... I have no idea what. As I exited the choir room, this very sweet Thai lady rushed up to me with a huge smile on her face and shoved into my hand a ball (for lack of a better term!) of steamed something or other with some green stuff and made the hand motion for "eat! eat!" This is the part where that prayer came in:o). Down it went, and it has stayed down the whole day!

As if that wasn't exciting enough, we returned home tonight from church by way of taxi. There were 4 of us squished in the backseat, while Berm got to sit up front with the driver. Any thoughts of jealousy flew out the window as I observed from my position behind the driver several near accidents we almost had - all of them would have been our driver's fault. Most people slow down when a car cuts in front of them; this guy sped up and just narrowly missed the car's rear bumper as we scooted into the other lane. To make matters *worse* (is that possible at this point???), the driver asks if he was a fast driver - is that question even necessary?!? Then he told Berm that he had broken his leg. Berm stared at him before asking, "Is it still broken?!?!" Apparently this guy was just starting to walk on it again, and chose that moment to share with Berm that he had had 5 accidents in the past. Pookie was translating all this for me, and at that point I asked her not to share anything else until we got out of the car:o). WOW! No worries Mom... we made it home safely:o).

Just another typical day on the mission field!