Always an Adventure

A lot has happened since our last blog. After spending 3 days visiting the amazing Angkor ruins we all headed back to Poi Pet, Cambodia for an afternoon of visiting the good works of C.H.O. (Cambodia Hope Organization). The work they are doing to help better the lives of others, especially children is really something to behold. Dealing with child trafficking and extreme poverty is no easy task, so to see 65 dedicated Christian Cambodians changing their part of the world one life at a time gives us hope in a very dark corner of the world.
Chomno, the founder and director of C.H.O., was our host for the evening and surprised us by taking us to his son’s pre-marriage ceremony, which was an elaborate picture taking affair. Before we knew it we were having our picture taken with the bride and groom, who were decked out in their elaborate outfits while we were dressed in all too casual travel dudes. I would find it hard to believe those pictures will ever end up on their mantle.
The next day we left Cambodia through the hustle of one the busiest border towns we had yet to experience and took our taxi van 4 hours back to Bangkok where Jessica and I stopped by World Concern’s Asia office to say our hello’s before taking another taxi with the family to the train station which turned out to be a fun ride due to the fact our taxi driver performed magic tricks that had us laughing the entire ride.
That night we boarded the night train where we all slept in our little bunk beds and arrived 14 hours later in Chaing Mai. We then checked into our hotel and after sending a few fast emails we were off to our next big adventure up in the mountains to do some zip lining.

Now this zip lining thing is not for the faint of heart and all of us were a little worried that Cari’s six titanium back screws might not take kindly to jumping off 100ft tree platforms as if we were monkeys, but eighteen zip lines later we were all smiling. The only accident of the day was me hitting a sawed off tree limb in the middle of one of the zip lines which took a little skin off the old leg and reminded us all that these kind of adventures do not fall within Disney safety guidelines.
After a great night sleep and a small walk into town we rode out of Chaing Mai in a bus and arrived in Chaing Rai three hours later where we were greeted by our friend Rusty who immediately took us grocery shopping to help us stock up on food. Our day was capped off by dinner and games with our hosts Luka and Ghan.
Here are a few things to mention:
• Two days ago Harley our 11 year old dog was put to sleep, which as you can imagine has been hard on the family, but we have decided to celebrate those years instead of dwell on our loss.
• The weather in Cambodia and our few days in Thailand were actually perfect weather wise and had us all very happy to not be sweating by 9 AM everyday, which is typical for this time of the year. Unfortunately starting yesterday the heat is back on.
• Currently we are staying in our own house next to our host family who runs a ministry for Akha hill tribe children and the local churches. The plan is to spend the rest of our time in Thailand here helping with various work projects.
We are blessed beyond belief and thankful for our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world.
-Kurt