Darkest Night

Due to motorbike problems we couldn’t finish the trip before it got dark… 

Which means we finished after dark… After traveling for more than 2 hours over muddy roads (raining much of the time) we finished the first part of the trip. 

We then set off into the inky darkness to hike the last portion of the trip home. 

It was raining pretty hard…

I was very thankful for my tall rubber boots, because most of the trail had water running down it… And all of it was very muddy. 

The batteries were almost dead in the flashlight I was using… 

I stumbled on a root but managed to not fall down… 

The trail got steeper, the light got dimmer… 

Then a vine caught my foot and I almost went tumbling… 

I was soaked to the bone, and pretty miserable… 

Then I did fall down… 

“I wonder what could be worse than this darkness.” I mused… 

Then I realized what’s worse… 

The darkest night is one without Jesus… 

“I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12 

I want to walk with the Jesus, so I can be with the Light of the world… 

What about you? 

Jungle Adventures

I got to the jungle a little over two weeks ago and I’ve had many adventures since then. 

When I first saw the boat I knew I was going to have an adventure on my hands. It’s a long tail boat! Basically the propellor is out on a 6ft pole that you have to push into the water to propel the boat forward. This is no ordinary outboard motor! Jason taught me how to drive the boat in about 3 days. The actual driving the boat isn’t very hard, (although it is a 45 minute continuous upper body workout!) the hardest part is remembering where all the logs and rocks and other obstacles are. But 6 roundtrip times up and down the river in 6 days have me pretty comfortable with it now. 

Living in the jungle without any link to the outside world has been different for me. But it’s really quite peaceful! One of the Karen students taught me how to split bamboo to make flooring and wall material. It requires good aim to split it just right, but I enjoy it. 

I’ve started teaching here in the Thai school. It went quite well as far as I can tell, the students and teachers liked it. Each grade has between 7 and 16 students. Please pray that I’ll have wisdom to know how best to teach. 

Here are some pictures of what it's like over here. 

 There's the boat

 The prop and rudder.

 The long tail.

 The handle that steers the boat. 

Yep, just wind that cord around there like so and pull! 

 "Mango Hall" This is the building that the mango tree fell on. 

 That's like the best shower ever! High water pressure! 

The Sharon's House.