beach.

I know that the life of the missionary should be "rough". After all, serving the Lord means living a life of dying to self, suffering for the sake of the Gospel, and the abdication of all earthly possessions, right? It almost makes me feel guilty at times to be doing missions in a country where I have electricity,  a western toilet, and a real bed with A/C. (Does this even count as "missions?")

Regardless, one of the things I have learned, under Pastor Doug and Pastor David (LifePoint) is that God loves blessing His children. God loves seeing us enjoy His gifts, His goodness, His creation, and having that enjoyment reflect back in worship to Him.

All that pre-amble to say... God gave us a really neat opportunity to go to south Thailand (Phuket) for a 4-day beach trip with two of our Thai friends, Noo & Aom. We were able to have some time to decompress, relax, recharge, and wonder at what our God has made!

Noo & Aom planned a fabulous trip on a shoe-string budget, and took wonderful care of us as we travelled the country! Here are a few pictures from our time in Phuket...

[Off to Phuket! Claire, Noo, Aom, Laura, Dani]

[Beautiful water!]

[Aom and I before our first snorkeling excursion]

[Phi Phi Island... idyllic]

[Egg Island, another marine rich snorkeling spot!]

[Sunset on Kata Beach on our last day]

But lest you think the whole trip was honky-dory, (or get too jealous), I want to share with you a little mishap from our first day at Karon Beach. When selecting our hotels, we found that Karon Beach was rated the "nicest" and also was the least seedy spot for tourists, so our first day we were quite eager to hit the sand and soak up some sun. After a couple minutes in the water, however, our fellow missionary, Dani, started twitching. And scratching. We asked her what was wrong and she said that there were sea lice... Sea. Lice.

If you're like me, you're imagining all kinds of terrible things (and opening another tab to WebMD it). Being infested, sheet washings, special shampoo and body soaps, bite marks... But Dani assured us that all they did was bite ("All they did"). Well, we stayed in the water for a grand total of 10 minutes before our entire bodies were assaulted by their tiny mouths (and teeth!). They are invisible, hurt like the dickens, and were everywhere. So we proceeded to return to shore and spend the remainder of the day sweating it out under umbrellas... braving the water only for brief interludes to splash off. 

I have to think that these bugs are seasonal, else I can't imagine anyone going to or recommending this beach. But Dani assured us that the other beaches would be fine, & thankfully, they were! Here are the beautiful, but infested waters from Day 1:

Thailand prides itself in being a "free country." And indeed, there are hardly the precautions and restrictions that we are so fond of in America. While boating, lifejackets (and really everything) was optional. As the Thais say, "Up to you, na!" So, when the boat stopped and they said we could jump off the boat, Laura and I did. No waivers, no warnings, just "jump!". So, from the top of our double decker boat we leaped. And again. And again.

We also had the opportunity to canoe and walk through some caves (which involved wading through knee-high water at parts...). This was one of my highlights. The caves were absolutely beautiful, and crawling through them to emerge in a little enclave of greenery and bright skies was incredible.

Having time to reflect, think and get some space was a welcome relief. As extroverted as I am, it is nice from time to time to simply lay on the beach and listen to the water with only the company of my own thoughts. I also was able to swim some laps in the ocean, have an afternoon run on the beach, and eat my body weight in pineapple and watermelon!

It was also really valuable time to be able to spend time with Noo & Aom and get to know them better, and have late night chats with my lovely room-mate, Laura.

[Laura & I at "The Beach" Beach]

[Aom, Noo & I at the place where they filmed part of James Bond: Man with the Golden Gun!]

For those of you who have donated specifically to the "do something fun while you're in Thailand" cause... thank you! The past four days were a huge blessing and encouragement and you were a part of that. I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the photos from our trip!