Future Plans

Since first coming to Thailand, I have been surprised at how many times I have randomly heard people talk about Thailand.  Whether it be movies, books, or conversations.  It is such a beautiful country filled with genuinely caring people.

With both sadness and excitement Ben and I must tell you that we are moving back to the States in July.  Ben's sister, Lauren, is getting married in mid July.  In August Ben will start grad school at UT (Aggie friends don't hate us).  Kara is looking for a teaching job in the Austin area.  We are going to miss our new friends so much, and don't know how we are going to manage without Thai food.

We have learned so much about ourselves and our strengths and weaknesses in ministry. We feel that we can use this new knowledge to be a light in the Austin area.  The transition from Thailand to the states will be hard, please continue to keep us in your prayers.

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Angkor of Faith 8- Cambodia

Since our last post lots has happened.  I hope that you checked out our posts on the intern blog.  If you didn't, you can still check them out here.

We just got back from Cambodia.  In Cambodia we were able to join Angkor of Faith 8. Angkor of Faith is an event that brings Christians together from all over Asia to serve street children in Cambodia. We were so excited to attend because we have heard so many great things about it.

Our plan landed a day early and were able to do some sight seeing.  We got to see many temples including Angkor Wat! It was such a cool experience.

During the week we were able to hang out and serve with people from all over the world.  At noon we would meet at a nearby residence and cook for the kids, play games, and sing songs.  On Thursday we had hygiene day and we taught the kids how to brush their teeth, properly wash their hands, and wash their hair.  Most of the kids had lice so we set up a hair washing station.  It was humbling to see others washing these kid's hair. I wonder how often these kids have someone around to do a simple act like brushing their hair.

Here is Kara washing the lice out of her friend's hair.

The Filipino team did a great job or rinsing the kids' hair.

Ben is combing this dashing gentleman's hair.

Pop is teaching her friend how to correctly brush her teeth.

We met so many wonderful kids and friends from all over Asia.  God is doing great things in Cambodia!

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Guest blogging

Hey Friends and Family,

We have some interns here for the next month and we will be writing on a blog with them.  Follow us over there at cminternship.blogspot.com.

-B&K

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Phayao

We are on the way back from our border run to maesai.  Our visa allows us to stay for one year provided that we leave the country every 90 days.  This was our second border run.  To meet the requirement, we went to the border, walked across into Burma, got a stamp from the Burmese side, and walked back to Thailand.  After the visa stuff was taken care of, we went to Phayao.  We went to Phayao to visit some friends and fellow missionaries who are working in Phayao.  The team in Phayao has also started a pizza shop as part of their ministry.  The fact that there was good pizza definitely influenced our decision to visit!!!  We ate at the restaurant Friday night, visited a waterfall in Chiang Rai on Saturday, and worshiped together on Sunday on the second floor of the shop.  Now we are on our way back to Chiang Mai, feeling renewed and ready to take on the week.  We want to thank the whole team in Phayao for their hospitality and for letting us play with the kids.  (All 9 of them)

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Friends in Christ

Sorry for the absence.  We have been VERY busy lately.  To make up for our absence we have some good news! Sunday was full of happy tears as three of our friends decided to give their life to Jesus.  We are so excited to have three new sisters in Christ.

But wait, we have more exciting news!  We are working with a new orphanage!  On New Year's Eve we attended a Christmas party where we met Tutu.  Tutu is involved in many projects around Thailand.  She was able to get us in touch with an orphanage that doesn't have many visitors, and really needs English teachers. We have been there twice now and we love the kids so much!  When we first drove up, we were met with an endless supply of hugs. One girl grabbed my arm and didn't let it go until we left.  Currently, our plan is to go there on Tuesdays and teach English and hang out with the students and then spend the night and send the kids off to school the next morning.  Kara is really excited to use her Education major to help improve the students English reading and oral language skills.



We have re-designed our English program at the church and it has been very successful.  This new program has been great at pulling in committed students that are willing to be involved at the church.  Sorry for the scarcity of posts. We will do our best to keep up with our posts.

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We put together this online magazine to inform friends and family of our life in Chiang Mai.  Click on the link below to view the online publication. We hope that you enjoy it and it helps you see what we have been doing.

ISSUU Wildes in Thailand

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Wijit's Baptism

Sorry that there has been a long break since the last post.  We have been busy teaching and enjoying the holiday season.  Kara's sister, Carissa, came to visit.  The last weeks have been spent showing her a glimpse of our life in Chiang Mai.  We are back with some exciting news.  Our friend, Wijit, decided to dedicate his life to Christ!  We could write a long post about his life, but I think you would rather hear it from him.  Here is a video we filmed of Wijit talking about his life and his decision to follow Christ.  The I hope y'all enjoy the video and are encouraged by his story.

wijits movie for the blog from Ben Wilde on Vimeo.

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Thanksgiving number 2

We are lucky enough to celebrate Thanksgiving four times.  Our second Thanksgiving celebration was at the church with the children from Gethsemene home.  We ate chicken, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie.  After we were finished eating, Ben gave a talk about the first Thanksgiving and customs Americans partake in on Thanksgiving.  Next, the students helped us put on a skit to further explain the first Thanksgiving. I read a script and the students acted out what I said. They were so creative and so funny.  Our hearts are happy and our stomachs are full.

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Thanksgiving-Thai style

This morning we woke up early and went to a Lahu village Thanksgiving with our friends from Gethsemane home.  When Americans say Thanksgiving, they think of the holiday celebrating their first successful harvest with the Indians.  This "Thanksgiving" is to thank God for the crops they have collected.  They also use it as a way to tell the other people in the village about God.  We drove about two hours outside of Chiang Mai to a beautiful village in the hills.  The road was quite bumpy, and we weren't sure if the truck would make it over some of the bridges.  Once we got there, we walked up a huge hill and arrived at the village.  We went to the church and listened to a sermon and songs sang by different groups.  Afterwards, we walked down the hill to about 30 tables set up for a feast.  On every table there were drinks, rice rolled in bannana leaves and fresh vegetables.  As soon as we sat down people started carrying huge trays of food over and placed them on the table.  We ate so fast because the food was so delicious.  It was a feast like we have never seen before. We are having 3 more Thanksgiving celebrations this week.  Bring on the holiday season!

The church was beautifully decorated for Thanksgiving.

A view of our table before the food was placed on it.  We used the bannana leaves as plates- easy cleanup and environmentally friendly!

Some of the delicious food.

Lahu clothing is so beautiful and bright.

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Mae Caem

This past week was full of teaching English.  English is such a funny language.  I find myself learning new rules as I teach.  We also traveled to our friend Na's village.  Na's family made us Karen (Karen is a hill tribe of Thailand) food, and we made them tortillas.  We ate lots of sticky rice that was grown on their farm.  Na's family showered us with mountain delicacies.  We ate grilled corn, grilled bananas, and sticky rice with sesame for snacks.

This is Na

Here is Ben pounding the sticky rice to make it into a paste.

Here is one of Na's pigs.

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Salsa and Tortillas

I have been in a video making mood today and decided to cut together some footage from the first time that we made tortillas.  One thing that's hard to come by here is Mexican food, so we decided to make it ourselves.  Since this video was recorded, we have probably made tortillas and salsa about 10 times. It's comfort food and its easy.  Enjoy.... We sure did.

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Doi Inthanon

On Sunday, we visited a Thai National Park called Doi Inthanon.  We went to the highest point in Thailand and saw some pretty cool waterfalls.  Please enjoy this video I made to remember our trip.

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