Caving and tigers

hope there are still acouple poeple following this! i haven't had time to update the blog in over a week it looks like! lots has happened. soo i'll try and not go into a great deal of detail.

The trip started out with alot of travelling. We started in Phuket at one of the missionaries houses and then headed south towards Bangkok. A 5 hr bus ride followed by 6 hrs of sitting in the train station and then a 10 hr over night train. Long day but we finally made it to a small city just outside of Bangkok. From there we got on a connecting train which was supposed to take us west towards Kanchaniburi. After about 3 hrs on this train (had to stand because it was so crammed) we realized we where heading bak to phuket where we had just came from. haha it was bound to happen. Spent the next 2 nights in Hua hin a popular tourist town. while we were there we spent one of the days hiking and then going through this amazing cave! it was amazing! the size of the cavern was unbelievable! Our transportation there... motorcycle taxi. now try and imagine the Driver, Adam, and myself on one motorcyle. the half an hour ride we thought it was going to be turned into an hour and a half literally... lets just say it'll never happen again.

Today we went to the tiger Temple. They have about 10 adult tigers and 6 young cubs. We got to take pics with the adults and the cub right after we signed the waivers haha. It was amazing and slightly unsettling. I have a picture of this massive tiger with its head in my lap! Definately something Adam and myself will never forget. After that we walked around the rest of the "zoo".. well it was a zoo in there. the animals run free. no cages. water buffalo, hogs, peacocks, cows, dear and more. they said over a 1000 animals just roam free. Something i don't think they would get away with in Canada.

Sorry i do not have my computer with my anymore soo i won't be able to upload pictures. If you would like to see pictures feel free to contact me when i get home and i can get them to you.

Carnival with the kids.

The last week we have been in the province of  phang-nga and haven’t had internet access so we are sorry that the blog has not been updated in about a week.

Last Saturday we had our final wrap-up carnival for all the kids that attended our English camp throughout the week. Back in Canada we were told to expect 20-30 kids for this camp and throughout the week we had over 80 kids! This was both extremely exciting, and a little bit frazzling at times. But praise God we got through it and all went relatively smoothly! At our carnival we had different stations that the kids were able to go to.  I don’t know if ill be able to remember all of them but ill try. Hockey shot, badminton, skipping, water balloon toss, water and sponge relay, crafts and a cookie walk. We split the kids into groups and did a rotation through all of these stations. I was at the water balloon toss and water sponge relay station so I don’t really know how the others went, but from my perspective the kids all had an amazing time! After stations, we sang some songs  (with a lot of help from Amanda & Amber Griffeon (one of the local missionaries)). Then we did a skit called “the sticky chair skit.” Its pretty much a camp skit where there is a guy that walks up to a chair (sin), and checks it out, then gets one hand stuck. Then more and more of their  body gets stuck. Someone else comes along and tries to help them to get free from the chair but they get stuck too, then someone prays and jesus comes and sets the two ppl free form being stuck to sin (the chair) I was the first guy to get stuck then Carson tried to pry me off with a stick and even dumped a big basin of water on me (the kids loved that) then jenaya came along and prayed and john came (john was jesus) and set us free. It was really good. Needless to say though I was extremely wet and dirty after it. Then I believe it was Jacquie that shared her testimony. Some of the kids responded well to it and amber griffeon was able to share more about jesus with them afterwards.  Then it was snack time. We had chips, cookies, juice and of course the drink of the week: water!  The kids were then set free to do whatevr station they wanted. The kids gravitated to crafts or to the water balloon water fight. It was great to see so many smiling kid’s faces! I cant speak for everyone, but I know I was touched by the kids during this camp.

-Adam

 

 

Final day in Phuket

I am typing this email outside of the Griffeons house on the sidewalk. (borrowing their Wi-Fi) The night life here is amazing.. and i don't mean the party scene.  As i've been sitting here i've watched 2 cochroches crawl by my toes acouple geckos scurry by and then i heard some ruffling some dead leaves beneath my feet and a massive milliped crawled out! i almost mistaken it for a snake! it was pushing 10 inches. 

well the final day of the English camp went awesome! we ended things with a party/carnival.  We spent the day prior filling up about 300 water balloons and preparing different stations.  Its amazing how an hour of filling up water balloons can turn into about 10 minutes of enjoyment! i think its fare to say we all had a blast.  John ran the hockey station, Jacquie did games, Sharon ran the badminton, Jenaya did crafts and Adam and Carson ran the Water games. As well Jacquie shared her testimony and then adam and Carson did a skit.  It was a great time to build relationships with these kids and to open up doors for the long term missionaries.

Phuket

This is a photo of our English camp.. the numbers keep growing as the days go by. last i heard it was at 75 kids.

It was great arriving in Phuket. We had a beautiful view of the ocean just before landing. There is more of a tropical look, bigger trees and vines hanging down. The team, along with Cindy met up with Becky Ouelette at the airport and then traveled to their “ muuban “ were we will spend close to a week. Four days of kids camps plus on day of a carnival await us. That first evening we spent with Kevin and Karlene Klassen for our Thai Thanksgiving Dinner. (just a regular meal) haha thai's don't celebrate thanksgiving. I (carson) am now sitting at the Klassens house after just finishing our third day of the english camp! It has been a great time.  Please pray for renewed energy as the heat is wearing most of us out. We have our last day of the camp tomorrow and then the carnival on saturday!  We apologize for not updating the blog as diligently as we had hoped, but a lack of internet connection has stalled things. Feel free to email carsonvogt@shaw.ca with any questions and myself or one of the other team members will get back to you.

Chon Buri

After arriving in the province of Chon Buri, we quickly got settled in and then Dave Sinclaire-Peters picked us up from our hotel.  He took us to the church in Angsila.  Definitely was a spirit filled place where God was doing some amazing things!  Heard a story about a man whose leg was healed and he liternally threw away his cane and walked! This had just occurred about 3 weeks before we came.

That evening we went on a prayer walk through the village.  A Thai lady from the church took us around the town and into people’s homes where we gave them a gift and then prayed for them. It was definitely a memory I will never forget. When we returned it was time for church.  John Esau shared his testimony and we sang Happy Birthday to Adam Braun in Thai. I’d say definitely a birthday he’ll never forget.  Happy belated birthday to Adam!

 The next day we took a sun tao to the Waterbuffalo races. It is a once in a year festival where they ride the waterbuffalo through the streets. You don’t want to be near the finish line because the buffalo are intoxicated with alcohol ( crazed 1000 pound creature hurtling its way down the road ). Unfortunately, due to threat of rain they cancelled the day. Of coarse it never did rain, but we decided to go back the next day. We went back but never did get to see any races. We walked through some exhibits and did a little shopping and had to leave to catch our flight to Phuket.

Grand Palace in Bangkok

In the morning of our second day in the beautiful city of bangkok, Cynthia took us on the popular boat taxi-ish-sorta-thing... we got off at the stop where we got onto the long tail boat tour the day before. instead this time we walked through a market (where we did indeed see chestnuts roasting on an open fire thai-style) Anyways, the point of all this travel was to get to the grand palace. All i can think to say is "WOW!" it was absolutely breath=taking. The whole place what an architectural work of art.  But the sad part about this palace is the that there is a temple made for "the jade buddha" and so many thais come to worship a piece of rock. So as breath-taking as the sights are, there is still this ominous feeling all around.  well im sure that all of the pictures that we collectively took will help to illustrate the scenery.  but after we got back to the hotel, we left of chon buri. when we got here we settled into our hotel and went on a tour with dave sinclair-peters. he even took us to momnkey mountain where we were able to feed and photograph the monkeys. then we went to Angsila church and had dinner and went on a prayer walk. had church (where i was lucky enough to have happy birthday sung to me by the kids in both english and thai) came back and i believe we just crashed. well i know at least for myself i did! but it seems to be time again for me to crash. i need my sleep for the water-buffalo races and then flying to phuket tomorrow. 

 -Adam

Long Tail Boat with Cyndy

when we arrived we got settled into our hotel and then got right into things.  Purchased some amazing fruit from the market and then saw the city by a long tail boat.  It wasn't hard to see the contrast from poor to rich. 

"Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame."

Psalm 34:5

Arrival in Bangkok

Team arrives in Bangkok, welcomed by cyndy.  Though wiped out by almost 24hrs of travelling time, we still managed to put on a smile.

Just before we leave for YVR

Well this would be the group of us. from left to right: Jacquie Dick, Carson Vogt, John Esau,  Sharon Snider, Jenaya Block, Adam Braun. This is hte group of people that we will spending the next 2 weeks with . well we have just been called to board here at the airport. So this is us leaving behind the cold western world, for the hot and so utterly humid east. 

-Adam

p.s. just want to say thank you to all and hoepfully we can post soon.

p.p.s. well im tkaing too long to type so we're the last oens on the plane!