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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Birthday Party!

     Last night we attended a four year old's birthday party.  The lucky girl was Champoo, the daughter of the cleaning lady here at the Zone.  The party was at her house which happens to be in a Habitat for Humanity neighborhood.  We have worked with Habitat for Humanity in America, and it was so cool to see how the work they are doing in Thailand is benefiting people we love here.  We drove to the party after Gethsemane Home and proceeded to worship, eat (they made spaghetti for everyone because they knew we liked it- Thais are so generous and thoughtful), and then shower her with presents.  Kara bought her a full set of princess gear.  Then, they cut down a full stock of sugarcane, chopped it into take home lengths, and sent us on our way with a snack for later.  We are so exited that we got to attend, and admire her parents for including worship and prayer over her as part of her party.

Here is Champoo with her family and friends from the neighborhood.

Princess Champoo

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We found the cutest cake at Big C. 

All the kids playing with bubbles that Champoo received for her Birthday.  The kid in the Spider-man costume is hilarious.  You know a kid has personality when he shows up to a party wearing a Spider-man costume.  

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What not to eat

Kara and I spent yesterday in bed recovering from food poisoning.  Luckily, Monday was our day off.  The story behind our poisoning is pretty exciting.  We were on our way to 7-11 when we ran into a guy named Riit.  Riit was a student at Payap and graduated about 5 years ago.  He then moved to San Antonio to attend San Antonio College and then graduate school at UTSA.  Since we had the connection of living in San Antonio, we talked for about an hour and got to know him better.  We found out that he has a sister named New who is going to attend Payap next year.  We invited them both to cell group. After cell group, New signed up for a weekly English lesson. We all talked about going out to eat diner one night that weekend.  We ended up going to watch the soccer game at a restaurant.  We sat outside and hung out and watched the game and ate some pretty good tasting food.  Little did we know, but that cashew chicken was TOXIC! And that leads us to yesterday, one of the sickest days I have ever had.  At least we know that our sickness was the result of our efforts to bring people into The Zone.  Here is a picture of New and her friends that she brought to her lesson.

Ben Wilde

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The last 2 weeks

First of all, sorry for our absence.  We have been super busy these last two weeks since we got back from Pai.  I will attempt to catch you up on our lives in this post.  We have past the one month mark here in Thailand and things just keep getting better.  Here are some photos that we took during our first two weeks in Thailand.

Kara at the waterfall on Doi Suthep

Under an umbrella canopy

Ben at Payap University

At the Big C ( walmart)

Birthday party for Wi

Pai was a lovely town.  We spent Sep 10-16 there.  Our main purpose for going to Pai was to teach English to the court staff of about 15 people.  We taught in the evenings from about 4-8.  We also stayed in a resort with them so that we could hang out and talk after hours.  We toured the beautiful mountain town during the mornings on the motorcycle furnished by the court.  Here are some pictures of our time in Pai.

The container viewpoint

Ben in a container

Mor pang waterfall

Mor pang waterfall

A geyser.... They sell eggs at roadside stands nearby and people stick them into the water in baskets connected to sticks to hard boil them.  Try that at Yellowstone!

After we returned from Pai, we came back to Chiang Mai on the most curvy road I have ever traveled.  We settled into our routine of teaching English, Visiting the Gethsemane Children Home and hanging out with students.  

There was major development that occurred shortly after we returned to Pai.  We learned to make tortillas!  It's really not hard.... just some flour, salt, garlic, and oil.  We are having a great time eating some true Mexican food.  

This is chaampoo helping us make tortillas.  She is the daughter of the cleaning lady at the zone.

This week, we went to Gethsemane on Monday to help them pour some concrete for an entrance gate that they are going to install.  

I hope to visit Gethsemane more often to help out with construction and maintenance projects.  

Until next time,

Ben Wilde 

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