God In This House

Brandon arrived home safe and sound yesterday, yet his bag remains in Paris along with all of the cool Thai souvenirs.  He's eaten the Mexican food, he's wrestled with the boys, and he has shown me the pictures.  All 400+ of the pictures.  He is almost over the jet lag after falling asleep in the Mexican restaurant and going to bed at 8:15 last night.  He had a fork in his hand, and almost face planted into his tamale.  Good times.

No worries.  I will only be showing 327 of those pictures on my blog.  Because other people's travel pictures are oh so interesting to look at, no?

This picture was taken the last night the group spent in Bangkok, in some really tall tower (Brandon - "The Biaoke Tower, the world's tallest when it was built.").  The group spent some time praying over the city up here before heading home.  I apologize for showing you a bunch of pictures I know nothing about.  Brandon has adamantly refused to blog about his trip for me.  Some lame excuse about being "tired".

This is the group right before they left on the trip.  Don't they look so rested and clean?  They did not look like this when they got back yesterday, even though they were wearing the same shirts.  The man on the far right side is Steve Allen.  The Allen family served as missionaries in Thailand for 17 years, and recently returned to the US.  He organized the trip and graciously led the group all over the country.  That's his son Michael next to him.  I have a really cool picture of Michael coming up in the next post or two.

Brandon is standing over the city of Pattaya here.  About 50,000 prostitutes call Pattaya home.  Walking Street (Brandon, "The part of the city most famous for debauchery and perversion.") can be found as that illuminated street running along the waterfront.

While in Pattaya, the group served at an AIDS hospice.  They painted the floor in one part of the building and prayed over the house.  One of the Thai people from the local church there wrote this on the floor as they were painting:
Tamar House in Pattaya was started by a group of missionaries to help get women off the street.  Food and housing is provided, and they share the gospel through English lessons.  The women are given job training, and many learn baking, jewelry making, and other trades.  They run a coffee shop and bakery, and others work in a salon run by Tamar House.  Brandon brought home a stack of handmade cards made by the women there.  Here's some of our group with some of the occupants of Tamar House.  So cool.

More pictures to come from Brandon's trip.  Thank you all for your prayers.  Steve Allen said it was almost unheard of for a group to spend 17 days in Thailand without anyone getting sick.  And no one got sick.  Praise God for good health and sturdy digestive systems!